Dawn Sanders

What It’s Worth to Feel Self Worth

By Dawn M. Sanders

Just as we stand on the threshold of the labyrinth of life, our position and place in society is mostly cemented – albeit with a little help from external factors, such as breaking glass ceilings or barrier gates.

I have written extensively on this stuff, such as the Right to Self-Fulfillment or the importance of agency and emancipation, so won’t repeat myself, yet it simply can’t be said enough…

I recently participated in a debating workshop where the issue was how class influences climate change and how it affects the working-class the most and a guy made the point how ‘dis-abled people are still treated as the under-class.

He’s right, but I made my habitual point when he, like so many, placed the label before people. later emphasising ‘people’ with disabilities are in fact entrepreneurs, homeowners and parents so are people first – as more than one person in the room spoke of how ‘dis-abled people are on benefits by default, so come from fixed incomes and are inherently downtrodden.

I read this story the other day with interest and took to Facebook – pointing out the condescending nature of the headline, “Disabled Man is Left Heartbroken…” Okay, so a lot of people prefer or don’t mind the social model of identity language, but it’s the way the media pushes for the all-encompassing label before the person or pity – adding to an unlevel playing field.

Yet, within the article Bryan is given his agency with his name and desire to become something from the age of 2 and despite his obvious experience of discrimination by a local authority, he didn’t just want to sit around and do nothing.

On a personal note, a week ago today, I guess I hit a kind of plateau – my last year of my 5^th decade, where next year will see my descend.

At the risk of my own middle-aged musings, the above story just kind of wrote the answer to my latest agonising and pondering on what the actual hell am I going to do with the rest of my time here?

While raising my son who has complex additional needs, getting him into a specialist school/college; then watching helplessly while he lost the formative years of his adulthood in decline, stagnation and isolation. I engaged with not one, but two degrees at university and several in-between qualifications. Okay, so I spent years with my head stuck in academia to gain my own since of agency and confidence in a fast-moving world, but my very first experiences of looking for work with a 6-month work visa on an American exchange programme here in the UK, were not good and fraught with the slightest reason to discriminate when I had gone from one job to a better job three-fold in the US – my country of origin.

A couple of failed businesses, a lot of political activism in staying the course as a lifelong tryer, I could well empathise with Bryan.

So, when I read his story and how his mother has advocated for him and complained of how he has been treated, I just thought, so if he gets that kind of treatment as a young man, who’s going to want me, out of the job market for decades, aging and oh, let’s not forget with a severe visual impairment?

As I have to stand and fight, fight, fight because, the hearings have continued after ten agonising years defending my family’s human rights and autonomy in court. Grovelling with the trail of pain it has caused my tiny family – the sadness, losing myself to my son’s needs, worries and of course my own need to literally do something for myself, the community and my political conscious – I have had to do this Eeny-meeny-miny-mo thing of:

Maybe do some volunteering but, would I be valued? Maybe try to relaunch Barriers to Bridges, the online platform I founded which formerly provided some of the most marginalised in society, a voice, but it needs to be sustained and monetised.

Get more involved politically, locally – well, I’ve tried and the cliquey nature of Exeter and the southwest often looks like no entry signs with a superficial or fickle veneer – different from the north where it’s more working-class and warmer, despite the cooler temperatures…

I know, I know it all sounds like a lot of excuses and self-built barriers, but I need to be pragmatic with lived experience and wariness of all the new challenges within journalism itself – AI, the danger in being left-wing or just outspoken, but I’ve started with writing this, got the bright red fire back in my hair and nearly under my ass. Yet, with a never-ending battle comes exhaustion, black clouds and the deafening isolation and depression – whether I’m sitting in a crowded pub or within the sanctuary of my home, not to mention the sheer lack of motivation and lost confidence.

Like Bryan in the above story, I’m all too aware of the need for self-worth, my son’s need for self-worth and the burning desire to contribute to the world – use my skills, intelligence and lived experiences.

From the sounds of how Bryan describes his feeling of self-doubt after such a calloused rejection – I bet he wouldn’t mind being described as Bryan the binman – A Young man with his determination intact. Not “dis-abled man Rejected Twice after working for free.” Okay, it rightfully highlights the injustice is routinely faced by people with disabilities who often have to work harder to prove themselves and for that it has to be commended.

Nobody can put a price on self-worth and the confidence or since of wellbeing it brings us.

Open Farewell to the Transform Party

By Dawn M. Sanders

I can easily see how the likes of Zarah Sultana could be shunned and shut out of manoeuvres and organising plans from the clandestine characters “at the top” of the formulating Your Party project before its founding at the conference last month in Liverpool.

A week and a half ago, I joined what would be the Transform party’s final zoom meeting to discuss financial matters and logistics of dissolving the party.

I have always been proud to play my part within a small but significant effort on the left to bring together different strains of Socialism.

For those of you who don’t know – the Transform Party was founded in November of 2023 and was a merging of Left Unity, Breakthrough and Liverpool Community Independence.

Despite a strong executive core and diverse council, Transform struggled to maintain the enthusiasm it started with, as people had unrealistic expectations and members steadily dropped away.

That said, the determination and steady drive forward meant we supported independent candidates in the general election, were proactive on the left and even gained recognition from the European left within an international framework.

I was elected Diversity Equality and Inclusion (DEI) officer and later a principal speaker, which were roles I was passionate about. With my public speaking experience; political debating and activism background and advocacy for marginalized people/communities via other political parties and founding an online magazine – along with my own lived experience of life as a woman with a visual impairment and single mum status to a son with complex additional needs I had a lot to contribute.

Toward the end of the meeting when we were discussing Your Party and the upcoming elections to the Central Executive Committee (CEC) the chair of the meeting asked if anyone was thinking of putting themselves forward and I immediately piped up ‘I was’ and would I get any backing?

One of the co-founders of Transform spoke up and said, ‘highly unlikely’ and then went on in an almost fatherly tone of giving his opinion or more accurately, unsolicited advice to the affect of, ‘you have to be a prominent campaigner and well-known on the left for some time for ‘that kind of role’ to be considered.

So, I was being spoken to like a simple, bubble-headed child which started my blood temperature rising.

A couple of comrades put in the chat, ‘they would back me because I always asked the awkward questions’ and he would spread the word if I were to stand.

Another agreed. This made me feel better, but then the chair of the meeting added, ‘it’s not as simple as just running for the CEC – there will be hustings, debates and loads to get through.

So, the trajectory of talking down to me as if I had no political experience or knowledge what-so-ever continued and I left the meeting fuming!

Okay, so not everyone will always say what I want to hear or lend their support, but for someone to talk to me like I’m some stupid female without a clue of anything is both disrespectful and presumptive.

Do either of those self-promoting men know of my long experience of running awareness-raising workshops, proactive experience within the Occupy movement (which involved organizing a full-blown rally) in front of Sheffield city hall?

Do either of them know I played a part in the women’s coalition within my local Labour branch under Jeremy Corbyn, where I spoke at the women’s conference in 2019? Did either of them know I spent a day going to Parliament petitioning David Blunkett (my MP at the time) during The Hardest Hit campaign in 2011?

Do either of these men know of the proactive part I played within the Socialist party up in Sheffield? Or the impact of Barriers to Bridges magazine had in providing a platform for some of the most marginalized and stigmatized people in society? No, they don’t know my long-running background neither one of them and I’m not one to blow my own trumpet, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to stand by and be shunned or belittled by a couple of men who think only prominent ‘movers and shakers’ get elected to top positions – not to mention the fact they both take themselves far too seriously.

The co-founder said he thought our hard-working secretary should run within Your Party, as she’s such a hard worker and yes, she would get my vote, as she has been committed and a steady hand within Transform.

For anyone who thinks only well-known, prominent personalities get awarded the glittering prize, they haven’t got a clue about what Your Party is about, the collective voice of “ordinary people” and the impact of marginalization or being told ‘no’ as I have all my life.

One of these men was a part of the smug and secretive Collective that met behind closed doors for over a year before Your Party was announced and where the secrecy probably resonated ‘to the top’ of Your Party’s inner circles – whether aligning with Corbyn or Sultana.

As it happens, I’m not interested in taking sides or aligning with either camp – they both have attributes to form the ideally transparent approaches to influence but not lead.

For the record, I’ve decided not to run for CEC this time around, because not only am I in the throws of moving and fighting against the same demented vultures hellbent on attacking mine and my son’s basic human rights, but I’m also waiting and watching how YP pans out for YP.

I don’t agree with everything they represent, such as staying out of the European Union or using sortition as a means of selecting delegates or representative bodies within the party.

I will always point out things exactly for what they are in my forthright American spirit – like this author who wrote a piece more intent on over-emphasising the F-word than putting out a telling and credible piece of journalism.

However, Antifabot pulled off a telling and credible piece all round. It was told from a forthright and doggedly truthful perspective of someone who observed the shitshow shenanigans at YP’s founding conference in Liverpool, yet how the members prevailed over ‘those at the top’ making behind-the-scenes decisions.

Suffice to say I won’t be present at any final farewell meeting with Transform. I’ve stuck with it ‘til the end and I now have better things to do than sit there listening to people who hardly know me or my background talk to me like a little kid.

No, I didn’t have my fingers in 20 campaign pies during my time with Transform. In fact, I had to take a 6-month hiatus for family and personal reasons and I was conscientious of witnessing so many people burnout and drop away.

Supposedly, Transform was always meant to be a catalyst for what has become YP and I think we played that part well, but I’ll just wait and see how much the underdog or grassroots get listened to as YP forms and make up my mind to either contribute my skills or go elsewhere.

The left in the UK is synonymous for in-fighting and factionalism, but is it also synonymous for big egos who further marginalize someone either because of being a young woman of Muslim background or woman with a visual impairment, with enough vision to see through the fog of exclusion and marginalisation – you decide …

It’s the Genocide, Stupid: Change Will Come from Below

By Dawn M. Sanders

Content Warning: One mention of drug use.

Despite the fact there are more candidates standing in this general election than ever, 459 of which are independents, shedding light on a movement directly speaking to the broken two-party monotony which has gripped the likes of the UK and other western democracies, there are still those who will ask – if not the Tories or Labour, then who?
Not only is the answer in the writing on the wall, with smaller parties becoming more ambitious and vehicles for alternatives, the mainstream media, simply by-pass the true extent of viable alternatives, as not to upset the status quo.
According to Democracy Club, who collates candidate data and supplies data to the Electoral Commission, there is in fact, more choice than ever, so the lesser-of-two-evils syndrome, need not be an excuse for honouring pendulum politics.

“Palestine, although horrifying, is the perfect example of and lightning rod for, mobilisation of the public and public opinion.”
As mainstream media gives no airtime to independents, this piece will not only counter that trend, but expose what official polls just will not reveal.
Many independent candidates are ex-Labour left-wing councillors or members, purged for their political persuasion; many are standing on the single issue of the genocide taking place in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank against Palestinians and some are pitching themselves at the heart of their communities, making a stand for marginalised and disenfranchised groups.

In the whirlwind of the final two weeks of campaigning, I caught up with one such candidate, motivated by community assemblies. The Umbrella framework has emerged to support various movements, such as Just Stop Oil and other initiatives, as the assembly movement is taking off.
In Exeter, a Labour stronghold, William Poulter (Willy) is challenging the Labour candidate, Steve Race.

Photo of Willy Poulter — Photo of William Poulter

Studying environmental science, Poulter realised the driver behind climate breakdown, was political breakdown itself. Joining the climate justice movement, he was arrested, where he first ‘cut his teeth’ in campaigning.
He worked as a community organiser, then became a support worker.
“Being a support worker was a difficult role – the people were amazing. However, one of the problems I had was seeing people struggling with no real affective safety net. That was hard to witness, and people were being left to die and that’s not putting it too bluntly.”
In his twenties, he had been a domiciliary carer and things had become so much worse.
He was made redundant as a support worker: “It was ‘so devastating’ because people were already struggling and now, they were losing their support worker as well.”
He describes supporting people who, for whatever reason were isolated, whether from bereavement, poor mental health, or mobility problems and were losing one of their few lifelines.
“A Labour party candidate came to my door and told me, even though he supported a wealth tax to put more money into the community, they would not advocate for it strongly and urgently, because it was not part of the Labour manifesto. Something in me snapped, maybe cracked and I was angry! I was angry with this person, how things were set up and how things had been allowed to be set up.” He emphasises, when Rishi Sunak announced he would cut national insurance, starting with community projects: “Something ‘really snapped…”
He was so upset he committed an act of civil disobedience – painting “Stop punishing the poor” “Tax the rich” on Exeter’s city council building and sat down to wait for arrest.
“The reason I did it, was because I was desperate. It might not have been the most sensible thing to do, but I was desperate to show people, to give people a voice.”
He told how when people resigned themselves to, ‘this is how it is’ struggling on with no support, it was hard to handle. So, when the Assemble campaign was formed, he jumped on it, as it was exactly what he wanted, being angry and desperate for change.

Not having a fixed manifesto, as part of a network of independents, what they are pushing for is fundamental change in British politics. A more inclusive, deliberate democracy, siting the current system not working for most people and more for a small affluent minority. Assemblies would be set up finding out what people wanted, what affected their lives and build a manifesto based on this principle, from the bottom up. He stresses how the campaign introduces something new – modelling what an MP or candidate should look like. When asked how the needs of people might be actioned, such as marginalised communities, Poulter acknowledged the challenge of assemblies was getting represented groups to the forums, such as community leaders.
For example, in one recent assembly for housing, homelessness and poverty, a couple of homeless people came, a few workers from Gabriel House (temporary placement) attended and he describes some results as, ‘amazing’ with members of Acorn (renter’s union) and the people of no fixed abode, expressing the need for safe spaces to drink and use needles.

Beyond the election, the growing network of assemblies would forge ahead locally and nationally – pushing for a House of the People to replace the House of Lords, sitting alongside the House of Commons, holding them to account.
Poulter explained how Exeter University student guild held a hustings, yet he and his team were not invited, as the Guild were not obliged to include candidates unlikely to get a considerable proportion of the vote. So, in defiance and to demonstrate true democracy, he leafleted and spoke to people outside going into the hustings.
He touched on how inaccessible it was to stand as a candidate if one did not have an entourage of support or sufficient funds.

On the plight of the Palestinian people and some independent candidates standing on that single issue, he said:
“Palestine should be on everyone’s agenda, and I can fully understand why some are doing that, but what I would say as a candidate is, it is not something I would take to parliament. I would trust the people to advocate on the things that are important and when you look at polling, people of the UK are supporting independents who support Palestinian rights.” He points out how Palestine is making clear just how corrupt politics is and how the establishment haven’t stood up to weapons manufacturers or the big money tied up in maintaining the genocide.
He cites how in the assemblies, when people come together: “There is magic, I’ve seen it.”
“Palestine, although horrifying, is the perfect example of and lightning rod for, mobilisation of the public and public opinion.”
So, it is no wonder independent candidates tend to not get recognition unless of course they are prominent and pitted as outsiders by the mainstream media.

At Exeter Transform, a left-wing forum and day of networking, within a discussion panel exploring beyond the genocide, it was pointed out how the establishment were simply waiting for people to get tired and give up the demand for a ceasefire. Sadly, this is proving true, as most mainstream media has dropped Palestine from the headlines.

Looking beyond the election, Poulter says: “We need ideas from people and to listen to people who traditionally don’t have a voice and we’re using this candidacy as a platform to do that.”
Acknowledging he will probably not win, as a candidate: “If people started to show compassion, feel hope and gain solidarity, which would be incredible and a massive win for this campaign.”

This is a rare effort by the mainstream to not only ask, “If indeed Keir Starmer becomes the next Prime Minister” or “If Labour wins” as the establishment’s multiple mouthpieces all but conclude the general election is a done deal in obsessing over poll predictions, but goes that one step further in acknowledging the important and unique position held by independent MPs. While a coalition of smaller parties might form an opposition, at least part of any such coalition will be composed of independence reaching beyond party politics.

Seemingly, it is only small left-wing publications, alternative outlets or social media fully grasping the seismic independent movement at grassroots level. Often overlooked, due to perceived vulnerability without party backing, perks or constrains of affiliation, independents are gaining widespread support, simply ignored by the old guard – the mass rallies happening in real time in contrast to tired televised debates are amplifying ordinary or marginalised voices in this election.
The advantage of independents, particularly with a cost-of-living crisis, widespread poverty among children and a raging genocide, are their communities. This may be the get-the-Tories-out election, handing Labour a win but alas, the mainstream media have taken notice of the undemocratic tactics flying around and how Keir Starmer’s party treats its members, potentially replicating such distain toward the electorate, as any win will be short-lived and fragmented.
Rishi Sunak, on his way out, has gifted us with the perfectly timed opportunity – when mass protests are ignored against the worst miscarriage of humanity since the 2^nd World War, the next step is simply the ballot box.

This article has been updated with some factual and grammatical corrections.

Review and Reflection: Oh Jeremy Corbyn, the Big Lie

By Dawn M. Sanders

Narrated by Alexei Sayle, this Platform Films timely documentary, emerges on the cusp of local elections and a general election scheduled for next year, as Labour leader Keir Starmer has said nothing of his vision or manifesto for wins in either local council seats or a general election – preferring to fixate on a combative campaign against his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn won an overwhelming majority for Labour leader in 2015, where the chronicle of this former leader’s tenure unfolds with staunch hostility, not from the governing Tory party, but within Labour itself. After his mandate for Labour leader, Corbyn made his way to party HQ, receiving a Lukewarm, less-than-welcoming reception, as he was the furthest left, most Socialist of any Labour leader and the trouble began.

Jeremy Corbyn standing giving his final speech at the Labour Conference in Brighton in 2019. — Photo by Celeste Pearce taken at Labour party conference, Brighton, 2019.
This was the last speech before the devastating loss in Dec. 2019, who’d of thought…

A chorus of prominent voices, from Andrew Murray, Corbyn’s political adviser from 2017 to 2020, Jackie Walker formerly of Momentum (a grassroots campaign group within Labour) and Chris Williamson, former MP for Derby North, spoke of Corbyn reviving Labour. People who had never been bothered by politics, were inspired by his people-centred policies and advocacy for disenfranchised communities. With Corbyn as leader, Labour membership grew from 190,000 to 515,000 – an influx of 325,000 within the first year and a half of his leadership. However, by 2016 with Brexit as our steady diet from mainstream media every day and government obsession preceding the referendum, a prominent figure within Labour’s shadow cabinet emerged – Keir Starmer. As Corbyn appointed Starmer as Shadow Brexit Secretary, the film snapshots him riding the wave of the Remain Movement. Yet, Brexit wasn’t the only thing Starmer and Corbyn clashed on, as Starmer’s team comprised Labour right-wingers. At this time, there were leadership challenges and a vote of no confidence against Corbyn, but nothing worked to oust him as the establishment so desired. ‘Nothing had gone to plan. Everything had gone into overdrive’ someone mused within the documentary. As the 2017 election brought Corbyn close to winning, it would prove too close for comfort for the right of the party, shocked and dismayed, who were countering Corbyn’s leadership with every step. As Theresa May’s snap election presented Corbyn’s Labour with the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the popularity of his policies and manifesto, it also presented the perfect opportunity for forces within the party to stop Corbyn in his tracks, as the issue of antisemitism within Labour, hatched as the golden egg of scapegoating a Palestine-supporting Socialist leader. There had been complaints of antisemitism and Jews who felt ‘pushed out’ by Corbyn’s political position, but this was the trigger for the right within the party to snowball the situation. Dawn Butler stressed, it was the only important racism, as MPs of colour came under attack. Corbyn’s, who has stood against racism all his life, only defence was ‘sorry’ for offending, but didn’t change his convictions and was upset at the issue of antisemitism. However, the harder he tried to rectify the problem, the more hostile actors within the party exaggerated the issue – providing the mainstream media with the means to vilify Corbyn unscrupulously. From the BBC’s Panorama programme, the Guardian, Channel 4 and tabloids, personal/political attacks flew at Corbyn from all directions.

Despite his unwavering integrity and steadfast resilience, Corbyn’s biggest political blunder was riding the fence on Brexit – this, along with too many pledges to please everyone, dealt him the devastating loss of 2019’s general election. By 2020 with Keir Starmer taking over as leader of Labour, he not only suspended Corbyn for saying the truth of how antisemitism was exaggerated, Starmer and his new right-of-centre cabinet and party officials ruthlessly removed anyone left-wing for little or nothing at all. In a strategic bid to block Corbyn from standing for his long-held seat for Islington North, Starmer recently tabled a motion based on Corbyn losing in 2019 – the National Executive Committee (NEC) a power base within Labour, secured the vote in a done deal. Starting with Rebecca Long-bailey’s sacking, Mike Cowley’s blocked effort to run as an Edinburgh counsellor or Christine Tongue’s suspension simply for wishing Chris Williamson well on Facebook – the examples of exterminating the left are endless and undemocratic. In this article, Andrew Murray points out a depressing and dismal truth – particularly of how the left have failed to challenge Starmer’s ire within the party or mobilised beyond pinning all hopes and aspirations on one man – Corbyn standing as an independent. The Socialist Campaign Group (SCG) – a group of left-wing MPs within the party have delivered eloquent, impassioned speeches on Youtube at conference fringe, but where’s the revolt against the ‘hostile environment’ Starmer has created? Where are the lawsuits for preventing left-wing members from standing for council seats? If left-wing members haven’t been purged, thousands like me have left in disgust at Starmer’s visionless, uninspiring, absence of principle, Tory attributes or willingness to stoop to gutter level to prove himself. From the EHRC’s findings to the Forde report out in July of 2022, Starmer, together with the establishment, has bypassed revealing findings which prove the sabotaging of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

Reflecting on this travesty of one of the few decent politicians left, this story is one of the worst political injustices of our time. Corbyn has withstood multiple character assassinations and all but been exiled from the party he has represented since his teens, if these reports are anything to go by, as Labour implodes – the left might not have to do much, as Labour self-destructs before our eyes – inside the party and outside with the wider electorate. Voters might acquiesce to voting Labour in the locals or GE next year, simply to get the Tories out; other alternatives might be sought, such as the LibDems, Greens or smaller parties, as Labour could lose in their current trajectory – who can predict. As for the film, a collage of interviews and vox pops strung together at a jaunty pace, it was impossible to capture key quotes, not knowing who was speaking. As I sat taking notes and my tablet died, I wished I had someone next to me pointing out who was who. That said, the truths spoken were indisputable! This documentary, like every other hidden truth about Jeremy Corbyn, should be ‘out there’ – not shown to a room full of lefties in a preaching-to-the-converted exercise. Shown in alternative/independent cinemas for a modest ticket price, proceeds could go to homeless projects, food banks or other initiatives Corbyn cares passionately about as he is not yet to be consigned to the dustbin of history.

★★★★☆

Editor’s note: thanks go out to Norman Thomas for helping with background info and filling in the gaps.

Being Me First

By Dawn M. Sanders

When I sat down to read this article – I figured I would disagree with it, because I often do with people who write about disability and how it defines them. I mean, of course I didn’t know she would go on to write several paragraphs on it, as luckily, she wrote on what she does as a person and activist too, but of course her riding accident changed her life.

I get the stuff about having her needs met and filling up valued space – I feel the same and I too have done many demos where I publicly spoke against the austerity cuts or degradation to the environment – the fact I needed a guide with my obvious severe visual impairment wasn’t an issue. So, maybe that’s why I’m on the opposite side of the fence to her and many when it comes to my identity or the way I describe myself – that said, many with visible additional needs will still define themselves as ‘dis-abled first. I’m passionate and vehemently, a person, woman, mother or journalist first – end of story and my visual impairment is of course an integral part of me, but absolutely ‘never’ first among equals. There are people who feel the way I do, so it’s not exactly me against the rest of the world with an identity crisis. That said, my identity wasn’t thrown into question until I immigrated to the UK, then all the sudden I had this huge label on my forehead, which is why being appreciated or recognised as a ‘person first’ is so important. What that has to do with capitalism makes no sense to me. For one thing, I’m Socialist and damn proud of it! Claiming to be Socialist/left-wing is problematic in itself in a capitalist society. The fact I don’t define myself as ‘dis-abled’ because society inherently labels me as such, along with all the connotations that come with it – pity, vulnerable, needy is my prerogative and has nothing to do with denial – especially as I was born with my visual impairment, so I’m more than comfortable and used to it. So when other people with additional needs start banging on about how they define themselves and how ‘dis-abled has been the preferred term for decades, to describe ‘people’ with disabilities or additional needs in the UK or anywhere else for that matter, a line taken by a guy I had a brief connection a few weeks ago – my response was, ‘if people of colour can be respected as ‘people first’ then why can’t I? Not everyone appreciates or subscribes to wearing the same uniform and when I wrote that in an e-mail I got no response. He had flagged the “social model of ‘dis-ability” as if it was some sort of prescription everyone had to adhere to, but when I responded with ‘yes of course I know of it and despise it’ – that’s where the connection went cold, as it was seemingly ‘un-heard of’ to despise the uniform and any preference challenging it was wrong. I once asked if someone could meet me off the train at Bristol to get to a demo, as I don’t know the place and wanted to try and avoid the expense of a taxi, the lass organising it, when I told her I’m visually impaired, said ‘how would you like to be identified’ and I thought ‘how cool and what a blast of fresh air, because there can be no ‘be-all-and-end-all for describing or identifying someone and what works for one person, won’t work for another.

To demand being appreciated as a ‘person first’ is anything but ablest, it’s simple self-respect and ensuring others respect me for who I am, not who or what their preconception or assumption dictates the second they set eyes on me. As I have a ‘very visible’ difference – I get the opposite to what someone with invisible additional needs has to contend with. I can’t count how many times I’ve been just about to open a door – whether to my local shop or walking through halls at my university and someone tried to step in front of me or nearly hits me in the face, trying to open the door. Or, walking down the aisle on a train, halfway to the toilet and what do I hear? – ‘can you manage’ – I could write volumes on the patronising things people say upon clapping eyes on me. Not only do a lot of people still think, if you’re visually impaired you can’t possibly know how to dial a phone, manage a home or enjoy a social/sexual life, the second someone sets eyes on the likes of me or other people with visible differences – they think they need to do something, say something derogatory, patronising or help. After nearly fifty-six years living in this body, doing things in the different way I do them, whether walking down the street with a rainbow coloured stick or cooking completely by touch alone, the steady diet of bullshit I have to endure the minute I step outside my door, doesn’t get any easier. Sometimes, I don’t get the bullshit and I can get to where I’m going or go about my business out in public without a single patronising word or statement, but that’s only sometimes, because I’m sure things are getting worse.

When I push someone off or tell someone off, as I often do while out, if someone is trying to physically ‘handle or grab’ me – I become a person, not an object of need who has no say in ‘being helped’ and yes, it’s forever to the tune of ‘just trying to help’ irrespective of whether or not I asked which, most of the time I haven’t. For those who ask ‘how can I help’ or would I like it in the first place, as I’m a ‘person’ with some additional needs and I respect them for asking first and not assuming anything. I’ve written extensively, on people with additional needs being acknowledged as sexual/social beings or liberating language and so have others, but the difference between someone describing/defining themselves as ‘dis-able ‘in my view’ and others have agreed with me, they’re placing a barrier in front of themselves and not doing any of us any favours. If people with visible or invisible additional needs want to join the conversation, gain access on protests or in employment – how the hell is that achieved by placing a label or barrier first. I’ve been to rallies with ‘dis-Abled People Against the Cuts and all they did is speak in victim terms of having benefits cut, not gaining ‘equal access to employment or even certain fields where it would be perfectly possible to contribute, such as politics, where it all starts and policies of inequality or stifling one’s agency are written by those making decisions who don’t get how it is to have say a degree or two, loads of skills, yet no chance of employment, because if one discloses a visual, hearing, walking impairment – let alone, a learning difficulty or autism – most employers would just a soon take on someone without the necessary skills, then a potential employee with additional needs. Point is, campaign groups like ‘Dis-abled People Against the Cuts perpetuate the whole assumption that, if you have additional needs or a disability – your life design will automatically be assigned to relying on benefits (and yes of course many people with additional needs have no choice) but why not flag up what/how people can contribute – even in a modest capacity – especially if they want to.

Because I define myself as who I am, Dawn first, a mum, a journalist, American – makes it crystal clear I’m a person who should be valued (not admired) for my contribution, faults and human-ness first, but the additional needs that come with me; a guide in walking in unfamiliar places, help with certain aspects of the internet which aren’t access-friendly or crossing a tricky, busy road, are part-and-parcel. So, I’m equally fed up with those who want to be defined as ‘dis-abled accusing a ‘person first’ approach as being in denial or ablest. Ablism comes in many forms, in denying someone access to other things many take for granted – from employment right down to going for a walk along the beach; ablism is asking me if ‘can I manage’ walking down a train aisle to the bog, when I’ve just walked halfway there. Ablism is ‘not’ demanding to be appreciated for the person I am first and foremost – it’s not even anything to do with capitalism or individualism in fact, if it has to be an ism at all, call it egalitarianism. I tend to hesitate to even call out what is termed ablism, because it implies a stark contrast between perceptions of can do vs can not do; or the cringeworthy ‘able-bodied’ vs unabled. I question even the term ablism, because within the whole power dynamic of social structure, especially the pecking order here in the UK, it reinforced the whole ‘dis-abled discourse – hinging on what people can or can’t do, so I just tend to call it discrimination or, the other racism, the poor cousin and last bastion which warrants worthy attention.

Yeah, I’m many things: Dawn, a founding editor, visually impaired, bi-sexual and an egalitarian – so what if my visual impairment isn’t first among equals within my identity – who the hell said it should be? If the world views me as needy, with pity or inherently vulnerable, why cloak myself in how the world views or preconceives me. To passively take that uniform and wear it, because someone or society hands it to me is, not only counter-productive in being treated/viewed as equal but different – it’s simply not my style. I don’t follow the herd, as there are many other things about me to trumpet.

Just Trying to help: The Famous last Words No One Needs to hear

By Dawn M. Sanders

I’ve been debating on whether to write this blog/rant all week – it’s not the first time I’ve ranted about people’s reaction to me on first site – a woman with a visual impairment… In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised at all, if there’s another blog of the same title floating around out there – someone else sick and tired of exactly the same thing and I know there is, because I’ve read them. To hell with it, it’s bugging me, so here goes.

The other day it was a gorgeous sunny, slightly breezy autumn day and I needed to get out for fresh air and walk to my local One Stop shop. It was before the kids got out from the nearby primary school on the road down from where I live, so the shop wouldn’t be taken over by greedy young ones, buying sweets.

So, I got to the bottom of the hill and was about to cross the little side road that runs off the main road before I get to the shop and it started: “Are you going to the shop?” a guy asked and of course I knew what he meant, to say was, can you get there. “Yes, I’m going to the shop, I just walked down the road, so don’t you think I know where I’m going?” Oh of course, he mumbled, but that wasn’t going to be the end of it. Walking along, a guy was getting into his car or maybe getting out: “There’s a phone box in front of you.” “I know, that’s why I have a stick.” I said immediately back and then mumbled, idiot half under my breath! “Just trying to be helpful.” “helpful is when I need it/ask for it and I haven’t.” I went in, got what I went to the shop for and walked out, down the road up the gentle climb and crossed over to climb the steep hill where I live at the top. Just at the top of the hill from the car park of the flats where I live a guy next to a van said: “do you want me to walk you to your door?” “No, I walked out my front door, don’t you think I can get to it?” Now I was fully pissed off and thought to myself, for fuck sake! “I didn’t mean to upset you.” he said dimly. “Well, that’s a bit patronising, don’t you think?” he of course didn’t answer. I saw one more person doing some work of some kind, just before I got close to my flat. “It’s all cleared up and there’s no obstructions in your way.” That was fine. “Lovely day.” I said. It’s beautiful, Peter the site manager remarked and with that, I got to my front door, let myself in and closed the door on the many obstructive, patronising piss-offs I had just encountered three in fact – just walking to the shop, nothing complicated, nothing difficult or even mildly taxing. Yet, people still think, the second they set eyes on a lone female with a visual impairment it’s need, need, need, help help, pitty-pitty patronise. Of course men with a visual impairment get it, but not nearly as much, as society generously awards them, just that little bit more agency. I had a conversation with a past fellow entrepreneur some years ago about it and he said his partner was the one who always got the grabbing hand, when getting on a bus. Well, I am not one of those people who’ll just let it wash over them and ignore it, then complain about it later – just allowing it to happen without challenge or forthrightly making people think before they open their mouths whether they want to or not! People still view a visually impaired person as needy or clueless – forgetting or more-to-the-point, absent-mindedly, not realising the obvious – I just walked down a road, got up that morning, got dressed, spent years raising a kid (ooh uh, all on my own…) Oh of course they don’t know that, but if people actually talked to someone with a visible challenge, they actually might find out something like, I live, eat and function as they do, just with a rainbow coloured stick and without the all-prevailing, over-rated eye contact.

I once took the advice of a mate and when sitting at a table outside a favourite music joint and a guy said to me, I’m just over here if you need anything. “Why do I have to need something – what if I need a line of coke.” He laughed good humouredly and alas, got it – no I don’t even do the stuff, but he got it and high fisted me for putting him right.

Thing is, if you’re reading this and are thinking, ‘but people just wonna help’ then, ahum, you don’t ‘get it’ either – there’s more to anyone, visible challenges or not, then needing, needing, help. If anyone, especially of the opposite sex, catches me in the wrong mood o or, maybe the right one, depending on his presentation – I might just, as the gutsy gab I am, let him know I ‘need some, cuz I haven’t had any in three years… Then again, being British and of a mostly conservative-minded persuasion, his jaw would drop, as he’d probably think, ‘but your ‘um visually impaired – do you even know how? Oh, my days, and yes, the day will come and, the reason so many still think people with a visible challenge of any kind are objects of need, care or pity, is because there’s not enough people correcting them, putting them in their place or getting them to shut up and think first. Yeah, it puts me right off even going out sometimes and I know the same goes for other people with additional challenges, I’ve read hundreds of accounts, but do I need to get angry? Hell yes, it’s not my job to have endless buckets of patience or a resilience of steel. In fact, the older I get, the more I feel the right to demand respect – the same respect we all deserve as equal citizens and, as an egalitarian, not a pacifist, that’s not going to change and no apologies for the sarcasm when I’m accosted or obstructed… Rant over, for now.

Why I stay Unaligned

By Dawn M. Sanders

The thing right at the top of my to-do list for the week as I kicked myself into Monday morning motivation, was to cancel my membership direct debit payment to the Resist Movement and I’ve now done it. As far as I’m concerned it was an overdue obligation to myself and lingering dissatisfaction and disgruntlement of yet another fizzled left-wing effort.

Chris Williamson, after being suspended from Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party, fought back against resuspension when accused of antisemitism and forged ahead as an independent MP for the Derby North constituency. He launched the Resist Movement in response to Labour’s lurch to the right under Keir Starmer and with last October’s conference debating on whether or not to become a political party – it had all the beginnings and potential for gathering the momentum that had faltered when Jeremy Corbyn so badly lost the 2019 election.

The conference saw speeches from national and international figures which I wrote of in Barriers to Bridges Magazine last December, but of course it wasn’t without the usual friction that mushrooms with differences of opinion. In the months following the conference and into the new year, it seemed Resist was on strong footing, asking membership for a suitable name and setting up regional branches which one would expect and seemingly focusing on a manifesto aligning with other small left efforts to come under the umbrella of TUSC (Trade Union Socialist Coalition) in building an alliance.

According to the UK Social Democratic Facebook page at the time, there were a few hundred fielded candidates running for councillor in the May local elections, but to date I haven’t heard of any successes.

After the elections, all Williamson said in a post to Resist members was, to the tune of, ‘Labour didn’t make significant gains outside London’ -yeah, okay and so your point was??? Instead of analysing the obvious or inevitable, why not focus on how TUSC candidates could have been more prominent or higher profile in the overwhelming dominance of the 2 main parties, the protest votes of the LibDems, the Green gains etc, but apart from one notable example of how a small left-wing group succeeded in East London – there seemed little else to speak of for the left and any aligned efforts- I could be wrong, but it seems one has to be within specific circles to find out otherwise.

Since then, what has come out of the perverse mess of the Tory party and the exiting of what could easily be defined as, the most corrupt leader the UK has seen in recent times – at the risk of sounding cliché or parroting the various incarnations of analysis by the broadsheets. So, Bozo will be replaced by yet another unelected, damaging, and disconnected leader – it’s not the first time and it won’t be the last… Zara Sultana and this one nailed it, in pointing out how the left should and could take this opportunity to galvanise and get it together, but no sound bites from movements themselves, no plan or no credible ‘we told you so’ from the left well, apart from the unions themselves who, are rightfully taking matters into their own hands. Who the hell can blame them? Centrist Starmer isn’t going to fight for workers in what has become the lighter shade of a tory party. More to this point, where’s the alternative to the lack of alternative – as I said, Labour isn’t necessarily wooing disgruntled tory voters into a watered-down version – the LibDems are proving only to be a tactical protest vote, as with the bi-elections. The political arena in the 21^st century is a toxic snake pit and if one is too soft, honest sincere or a threat to the established nasty capitalist game, they will get eaten alive

Thing is, I’ve since got an e-mail from Resist asking for people to support a Rabbi Dovid Weiss – for a tour Resist has set aside 7 grant to fund. Of course, that is peanuts to any established political entity, but for a growing movement to not invest what small yet significant financial resources into either growing its membership or setting out on a tour to promote a left-wing manifesto – taking full advantage of the utter debauchery playing out before us is nothing short of stupid and squandering away yet another opportunity to fill a void. No, they’re hammering it into a tour of a rabbi speaking on something so divisive as, whether Israel has a right to exist, according to religious interpretations? What? So, I’ve made my feelings known in response to the appeal for accommodation being made available to the rabbi on his tour of the country. It would of course, be interesting to hear what he and his Palestinian colleague who will be joining him have to say, but against decades-long apartheid and brutality toward Palestinians – blatantly ignored by the West and Arab states – how is Weis’s tour going to make even a dent of an impact on the run up to the Labour conference – as the message suggests. Never mind the fact, Resist membership haven’t been consulted on whether we should support it – it’s already been decided by the steering committee, so I’m out. Whether or not the movement should be putting financial resources into this tour, should be a democratic decision – otherwise what are the membership, just the sideshow that funds the movement while a small exclusive committee make all the important decisions? What is the ‘actual point’ in a lingering will to pull at Labour’s apron strings?

Ironically and unbelievably, just as I typed up my response for the appeal for support of the rabbi’s tour and sent it – another message popped into my in-box. Apparently, Williamson has authored a book entitled “Ten Years Hard Labour” – well I commend him for his efforts, but the comment accompanying the promotion of the book was something like: “It’s time to analyse how and why things went so wrong under Miliband and Corbyn.” Oh, my days! The tedium! Really? Hasn’t it been nearly three miserable years of doing just that? Wasn’t the fallout of the 2019 election and the months of grief that followed, coupled with the revelations of Labour’s in-house destruction and obstruction of Jeremy Corbyn enough? So, when does the funeral pyre of left Labour (whether exiled or still within) just get a grip, find its phoenix and reignite? I’m beginning to think it just doesn’t.

In the last 12 years, I’ve watched in horror and utter frustration, the left squander opportunity after opportunity, the in-fighting, the factionalism and of course how, unless you’re a part of a certain demographic, Socialism, and all it represents, just doesn’t come into the psyche of most.

People protest and then dutifully go home or suss out which pub they’re going to after the rally – I’ve done it myself, but then the kneejerk is a clamp down on our right to protest, so people get tired, intimidated or too apathetic to give a shit anymore – opting for armchair activism or just whingeing on social media – apologies I’m losing the plot

All this said, I don’t think Socialism is dead – many would profess to Socialist principles in one form or another, but when it comes to real organisation, mobilising and challenging the choking grip of a capitalist and increasing freakshow of demagoguery, the left just disintegrates.

Join a new political movement? Form a new alliance? Hahaha no! I’ll stay unaligned and do what I can, when I can. Solidarity and comradeship are of course important and what makes for a strong movement in the first place, but if efforts like Resist and others don’t get their act together and prioritise raising their voice above the noise, rising out of the ashes of defeat and stop the navel gazing – they’ll end up losing more members like me.

Chris Williamson I’m sure has all the right intentions and is one of the few politicians trying to make a difference in being a flawed human like the rest of us, but sadly as I have further learned since writing this, Resist is losing members, with a second resignation on the steering committee, as that all-too-familiar internal factionalism and quickly becoming disengaged with democratic processes or protocols – I can foresee a premature end to a great beginning.

As a marginalised woman, I’ll remain Socialist ‘til I die – following one’s convictions, especially as an individual, is hard and often incredibly lonely, but I’ll be damned if I join something that is just dithering – wasting precious time and opportunity, when time is of the essence for people, planet, and the next generation.

No Picket Line or Paupers

By Dawn M. Sanders

When I decided to go down and join the picket line of RMT strikers, I wondered about the demographics and the level of actual enthusiasm that would, or maybe wouldn’t resonate here in Exeter, for striking union members and their demand for better pay or conditions. I’ve been down here for nearly 5 years and of course knew before I moved here, upon recommendation for the vocational opportunities for my son (who is hearing impaired/partially sighted) how middle-class it is and the element of snobbery too present to ignore – yet, until now I’ve stuck it out. I’ve had few opportunities since I’ve been here, to get involved in the things I care about – apart from when I was in the Labour party, but after Corbyn’s demise and the take over of an establishment stooge, I jumped ship like so many others and of course, nothing’s been the same. So, the more I read within alternative or social media, the more I knew I just had to be ‘out there.’ I’m not one who’s content with just armchair activism, signing online petitions or bemoaning the life circumstances we’ve been saddled with – at least when I lived in Sheffield, socialism was/is alive and well. Maybe stupidly, maybe naively, I just assumed most major stations up and down the country would have a picket line outside – after all, I did ring cross country rail network the day before I planned to join the last day of scheduled strikes and the chirpy lady I spoke to on the phone said, ‘oh, Exeter is a major station – they’ve been gathering outside, that’s where they’ll be. So, in anticipation, I needed a few things from the shop the night before, so bought several packs of croissants, doughnuts and bananas for the strikers I was planning to meet and show my solidarity for. I’ve been to so many demos and rallies of solidarity for workers, it just felt like first nature. Still, I kept waking up during the night – 4-something, 5-something, 6-ish – sod it, just get up…

It was a beautiful morning, but when I got off the bus at the train station – all was quiet and usual, just the same swish swish of the flow of traffic, but no crowds, whistles, or people around. I meandered into the train station and tried to ask a guy there with little English, where the picket line was, but he just kept trying the usual physically nudging me this way/that way, so I walked away telling him to keep his hands to himself, my patience being tested. I asked a woman at the window, ‘where’s the picket line, I’ve come to join it’. “There isn’t one” she said, walking to the door and glancing outside. “There not out there today, they have been the other day, but there’s no one there yet – they tend to get here for around 9.” I would have thought they’d be out there for early – didn’t pickets generally start early morning? – I felt bemused. So, I asked another guy, ‘are you staff’ “yes” ‘aren’t you striking? “No” ‘Is anyone at this station striking? “no” he said again curtly. ‘So, isn’t anyone from St David’s RMT? “no” He, like the first woman I spoke to, said they ‘had been there in previous days and could still turn up, so I told him I’d wait a while and, if he saw them to point someone in my direction, as I was there to support. He said he would, as I stood waiting with my bag full of breakfast snacks, I felt like a bit of a dope. I stood around for about half an hour, nothing but the usual passers-by. Unlike a lot of train stations, Exeter doesn’t have the poor odd sod hanging around asking for spare change I could have just given the bag to. Sod this, I thought and heard the bus start up from its starting point, which was the right one for me to get home, but by the time I got near-ish, it pulled away. Luckily, I got on another in about 20 minutes. I thought, right, so what do I do with this bag of food? I knew roughly where the food bank in town was, but it wasn’t that near, and I didn’t know it well enough to get there and really just wanted rid of it. So, I thought, I’ll go up to Sidwell Street, synonymous for a lot of homeless people – I wasn’t going to see it go to waste.

Getting off at Sidwell Street, I walked toward the top of the street, where a lot of doorways often are home to someone with a sleeping bag or just sitting. It was all pretty clear and before I knew it, I was in front of the community centre – a lovely old church. So, I walked back finding someone sitting down and I offered her the bag: “no, not for me” she said decisively. So, I walked back up the direction of the church and the same lady was standing there who had spoken to me. She turned out to be a Jehovah’s witness, so I explained about needing to get rid of the bag of fresh croissants and stuff and thankfully she took it from me. Sigh.

Getting to the right bus stop on Sidwell Street to get home, I started talking to a friendly-sounding lass and told her of my conclusion – this place is just too middle-class and another sign I’m in the wrong town! There was no picket line on a Saturday morning on the last day of the biggest rail strikes for decades – she just laughed, agreeing, ‘Exeter is toryland’(even though, technically a Labour strong hold) and I told her how I had been in Labour with Jeremy Corbyn as leader, but how I resigned when this idiot took over. We chatted, seemingly making a cool connection and her bus came.

Finally marching up to my front door, the fiasco was finished. I made a cup of tea, opened the one plastic box of croissants I had kept from the bag I handed the Jehovah’s witness in Sidwell Street, tucking in – I reclaimed the karma, if there is such a thing, and reclaimed the morning.

Signs

By Dawn M. Sanders

At the time of writing, it’s just another Sunday, while a lot of people are doing Easter and family things, I’m sitting solo – as I did yesterday on the beach, like when I sit in the same damn pub I have frequented for a good few years and in fact in most places where I venture.

Feeling alone and melancholy, got out my goddess cards, gave them a shuffle and chose Lakshmi, which says: BRIGHT FUTURE. Stop worrying. Everything is going to be fine.

Well, at a time when I’m feeling stuck, stagnant, unwelcome where I live, upset over my family situation and trying to relocate, it’s ironic and possibly synchronistic that, that card came up. These cards just have a magic and wisdom all their own and at the time of year representing hope and renewal – they couldn’t be more spot on and one of the emerging signs I have requested from the universe and all those looking out for me. Not saying I’m feeling positive or especially optimistic, not with my own microcosm uncivil war grinding on, not with worsening arthritis and yet another damn war raging out there – one which could take the world and humanity to the brink, but the cards have been speaking to me.

It’s a slightly cooler day than yesterday, but the sun is shining as I do today on my own terms – filling a couple of bags for the charity shop, trying to plan half-heartedly but a clear out of this place and minimalise on possessions. I’m doing the domestics when I get around to them but keeping more on top of it to minimalise on the cleaning when I leave here. I want to sell a few things – my massage table which, for the last 23 years or so has mainly just taken up space apart from the odd carting it to a festival or gathering to use my massage or Rei Ki skills. I want to just get rid of crap I’ve been toting along with me, in all the many moves, I’ve kept my bulky braille pages of massage syllabus, unwanted braille volumes of outdated computer programmes – just sitting atop my wardrobe taking up space and energy. I don’t know much about the whole feng shui thing but I’m sure there’s some truth in too much clutter stopping up a free flow of energy in someone’s home and headspace.

Back to the signs, I mean the signs I asked for about moving from Exeter back up to Chesterfield near my only son and family member in the whole of this country – a no-brainer, right? Well not entirely, not when I’m more in love with this place than the people here – the snobbery, the aloofness, the something I just can’t put a finger on that says, ‘you just don’t fucking belong here… Well, okay, it’s a hard pill to swallow – mainly because I came for a better quality of life – for both Jasper and me, but every effort I’ve made for his transition down here, the vultures clucking over him, wrecking our family life and making my life hell from afar, have prevailed in their power. None of that will make sense if you don’t know me or my little family – just my son and I, but it doesn’t need to.

I had a mystery caller the other day who left a message I couldn’t work out – to hell with mobile phones. I kept trying to guess and on one hand thought, awe never mind maybe they’ll get in touch again after I responded with a message to whoever it was but sitting in the sunshine in the park the other day, solo of course on my walk back from the canal – I tried again, the saved message. The phone rang and, after a couple of minutes of her explaining how we had met, the penny dropped, because I just couldn’t place her voice, it was Liz from Sheffield. Wow! Liz, who I had gotten to know from her kid and Jasper going to the youth club all those years ago. Her and I would eat dinner with our boys and other families, as the club would lay on curry buffets after the Saturday club. I discovered she too had been singled out and picked on by the vultures – just for no other reason than having additional needs as a single mum, as both her and her son have autism, as I’m visually impaired and Jasper is partially sighted and hearing impaired.

So, sitting there in the park chatting away to her, we reconnected, and I told her of my plans to move back up, just not to Sheffield, because I hate the place, nothing has worked out here and I need to be close to my son. She is the second person I’ve reconnected with in as many weeks. I finally got hold of Gina, another old friend from Sheffield, now living half an hour away from Chesterfield. She’s having some health problems but said I could stay for a few days next month to try and find a place to just get moved – now that I’ve finally decided to go, but with a little help from the universe and some unseen but crucial friends, ancestors, and wise ones. Yep, all the signs are neon and couldn’t be more crystal…

Editor’s note: Names of friends have been changed in line with journalistic integrity.

MAY DAY, MAY DAY:Tyranny Is Here, But So Is the Voice of Descent

By Dawn M. Sanders

Picture showing a crowd of people protesting. — This is what democracy looks like.

“Absolutely we need the right to protest more than ever. It’s good to see so many different activist groups out together sharing something in common and that is the freedom to express our voices in evermore challenging times.”
Stuart Walker
Yes, I was there – we were all there in our thousands…

The KILL THE BILL demonstration on 1^st May was about challenging the policing bill which the Tory party has tried to rush through parliament, but so much more.

It was right on and amazing to see people have awakened to the encroaching control we are living under, often under the catalyst of covid for a tightening noose.

Of all the dozens of demos I’ve been to, I was simply compelled to get to this one, as my family’s human rights has been violated for several years now, as the judicial system and other powers-that-prevail, have grossly misused their powers, but I won’t go there for now.

With the onslaught of Brexit and our NHS over-stretched, yet under-funded and under-valued – whichever side of the fence you are on, there’s no denying the unprecedented, precarious atmosphere we are faced with.
At the demo all the usual groups and unions were out in force, as May day coincided as one rally to the call for worker’s rights, human rights, and the right to protest as we have done in the last couple of millennia, from the first suffragettes to the uprisings of the 1890s.
There were new unions that have cropped up in answer to the watering down of worker’s rights, such as the Independent Worker’s Union – I also met a woman with the Yoga Teachers Union.

This Tribune article treats us to an historical tapestry of the struggle for worker’s rights, celebratory religious and pagan commemorations of the changing season, but the added fight for our right to protest embodied in the worker’s movement was intrinsic to the day.

As my guide and marching partner and I along with his daughter, made our way toward Downing Street the air was permeated with the usual passions of mass demonstration, incense and unmistakable anger, as someone from behind us shouted into a megaphone: “Priti Patel, go to hell, Priti Patel, go to hell!” undoubtedly in response to the Home Secretary’s draconian approach to immigration and asylum seekers.

When those from non-western countries, such as Syria in the Arab spring of 2011protest for the basic right to democracy, what has resulted is a ten-year-war, further ravaging the already volatile Middle East. However, for us, it seems the war on our freedoms, freedoms we have fought for, is underway in earnest. In discussing our right to protest, Rammy, a youngish man in the crowd said: “Without the freedom to protest, there is no other freedom to fight for.” He said of the Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill: “I think it’s a response to a couple of things – the Extinction Rebellion stuff, Black Lives Matter, were on such a massive scale and didn’t really cooperate with the police in the way they would have liked, so they’re trying to criminalise the activity where people don’t pander to them and say, can we please do this.”
Stuart said:” It is really important to be down here at the moment specifically to stop Patel’s bill. Absolutely we need the right to protest more than ever. It’s good to see so many different activist groups out together sharing something in common and that is the freedom to express our voices in evermore challenging times.”

With May local, mayoral, and Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd elections upon the UK; facing economic uncertainty and an environmental tipping point, the craziness of the political arena is a definitive test to the human spirit and societal resilience, as life on earth changes as we know it.