First of all I'd like to make this completely explicit; I am only representing my views, and not representing the views of others or any group.
It is widely perceived that Universities are one of the most liberal minded institutions around; that academics because of the size of their book shelf are not prejudiced or ignorant of the continuing strife of those who seek liberation from oppression within society. Unfortunately this is not the case on our campus. Over the year as part of my role as the Disabled Students Officer for the Students Union I have encountered, not isolated cases of discrimination, but wide scale cases of disablism. From the Business school, to Philosophy, and the Politics department, there have been instances where academics have upset, bullied and degraded disabled students. But it doesn't stop there; even in halls of residence disabled students aren't safe from disablist remarks and actions. One student had been ridiculed for "not being disabled" because her peers could not see her disability and when she complained to her wardens, they were in favour of moving her out of her residence as she was the problem, not those who were making disablist comments.
In terms of addressing the issues, the University have done little to rectify them. I want to make it clear when I am talking about the University, I am referring to academic departments, not disability services who do a fantastic job and don't receive the praise that they should do. Back to the point though, the University do very little to try to rectify the issue, they make excuses why individuals treat disabled students as second class students, and then they go on the "we work closely with disability services" line, when in fact they dismiss them as "PC hippies getting in the way". Disability services can't head the fight against the institutional disablism, it has to come from students.
"So what has this got to do with HUU?" I hear you all ask. Well it has everything to do with HUU; the union should be fighting this institutional disablism within the University; and the Union itself (I'll raise this point later). Furthermore the students union should be fighting any discrimination on all fronts. The Liberation campaign has been attacked this year from conservative forces within the Union and more surprisingly, from those who hold high positions within the union. We should champion the work of the Liberation campaigns so all students, not jut the few that have never been persecuted for who they are, are equal; and yes that does mean being confrontational when it has to be and yes that does mean getting rid of the men's officer. However we should not be misguided in what the Liberation campaigns should be about, they should NOT be about raising money for charities, they should be about raising awareness and changing attitudes of those on the ground, students, staff and academics.
More to follow soon...
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7 comments:
We would like to point out that we completely support the fight against disablism, and have in fact fought hard this year to increase disabled access, especially during exams and at Scarborough campus, even bringing a motion to referendum.
Keep up the good fight
CSA
good work toby... but i fail to see how this fits in with the global working class intafada being promoted else where on this blog!!! you deserve a blog of your own mate!
To commonsensealliance, I appreciate the solidarity and I have not accused common sense alliance at any point for being disablist. Unfortunately not much has happened regarding disabled access at borough unless you call the 18 month wait for better access as a victory considering the DDA came into effect in 2005.
To the second comment. I'm flattered for the kind comments and I'm quite happy on this blog. Next, I am a socialist, liberation is a key theme within what Ralph Miliband called the New Left. Also if we want to go down the marxist route, disbaled people are lumpen proliteriat. Catch my drift? If not I'm happy to discuss this further.
As one of the Richest men in Britain, I don't think Sir Richard Branson would be considered to be a member of the proletariat, and he is severely dyslexic. I think the link between disablism and marxism is a tenuous one.
Would you consider yourself to be more 'New Left' or 'Marxist'?
1 out of 60 million, not bad is it?
Well well well, Marxism and disability, disabled people aren't efficient workers are they now, they need all these special needs that make them less cost effective compared to a "normal" worker therefore are discriminated against by the ruling classes. Something along those lines? Although Marx did not write anything specific on disability, he didn't write much on crime either, but there is radical criminology. So Marxism and disability are synonymous.
In response to your witty pseudo-intellectual critique and questions, I'm a socialist and you can find many socialist writings in the Library if you are interested?
Socialist is much like 'Conservative' in that it covers many different points of view. You could say that George Bush is a conservative, but I wouldn't compare his political beliefs to those of, for example, Ronald Reagan. I was hoping for a little more definition.
I still think your link is tenuous. You don't need to be a Marxist to support disabled rights- social democrats are a vehement as marxists in this. Also in terms of your argument that disabled people are poorer workers, I think that this is a misconception. In the same way as intelligence to a certain degree determines efficiency in different roles, so does disability. so although a person who requires a wheelchair may be a less efficient miner, they would have no restrictions in website design, for example. Similarly someone who is less intelligent may have trouble assessing tax forms but no trouble working as a landscape gardener.
The nature of a capitalist or mixed state system is that there will be some who are richer, and some who are poorer- often the disabled, like other minorities, get the nasty end of the stick, and that's why we have liberation campaigns: to liberate them.
However Marxist rhetoric about ruling classes has nothing to do with this struggle. There are a fairly large number of disabled people in the 'ruling class' as defined by Marx. Marx would not have differentiated between a disabled member of the ruling class oppressing the proletariat and a 'normal' (although the term normal is ridiculous) member of the ruling class.
Marx and Marxism has nothing to do with this topic...and to claim that the terms Marxism and Disability are synonymous...in other words interchangeable... isn't logical.
Who exactly are we liberating them from? And from where? Are they imprisoned somewhere?
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