Disabled activism, a historically problematic relationship with charity
Peter F Wheeler, Warwick University
Co-author(s): Francis W Salt, Manchester Metropolitan University
Abstract
The activism displayed by the members of UPIAS some 30 years ago had as one of its central targets the relationship between disabled people and traditional charities. For the members of UPIAS the battle ground over which their fight for emancipation was to be undertaken could be regarded as who controlled the social and economic destiny of the members., the principally non disabled charity workers or the disabled residents of their home. In many respects this represents a simplistic relationship between disabled people and charity, the individual is either for or against it. This polar oppositional positioning has caused much debate and controversy in the disability movement. For example, in recent years the Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People (GMCDP) has held an internal debate over whether to apply for charitable status. On the one hand, one powerful argument held that accepting charitable status would be a surrender to reactionary forces of oppression, a reinforcement of historical negative representations of disabled people; whereas on the other, pragmatists rallied claiming accepting charitable status had financial and tax benefits, which could more easily allow the organisation to continue and perhaps illustrate how a charity guided by the principals of the social model of disability could provide an emancipatory model. Intern this model could provide a template in which disabled people and disability politics could hold a central and powerful position. However, this problematic relationship between disabled people and charity is not new. In 1918 after many years of often hostile debate, a senior member of the National League of the Blind (NLB), the first trade union of disabled people, forcibly argued that members of the league should hold positions on the boards of charities running workshops for their members. In essence this stance argued that governance of charities concerned with disabled people should be in the control of disabled people, a cause which some 60 years later may have had resonance with UPIAS members. However, the NLB also held contradictory views over its own charitable status. In 1922 two members of the union were prosecuted in London for begging from the public for funds to support the union's fight for economic emancipation and social justice for blind workers. The NLB refused to register as a charity and hence under the war charities act was not permitted to publicly ask for donations in its support. Again this resembles the dilemma faced by GMCDP; the organisation required all the financial assistance it could find to continue its emancipatory struggle, although the most financially expedient i.e. applying for charitable status was politically and philosophically extremely unpalatable. This paper recovers the histories of the struggles both politically and ideologically undertaken by the NLB and considers how their battles and resolutions compare to present day issues and whether these can be informed from an empirical analysis of the past.