Campaigning

@RGPLizCrow I’ve given up contacting my MP because I feel I can use my other resources more practically.

@RGPLizCrow There is no party that represents the true facts of disabled people which is why activism becomes so important.

@RGPLizCrow Floor: Labour only offers a half-hearted opposition to the government.

@TenPercent Every MP in the country has heard stories in their surgeries and read letters, so they are aware.

@onmybiketoo I’ve been very disappointed at the half-hearted front bench support for campaigns against bedroom tax and other attacks on disabled people.

@WOWpetitionchat Because of the bedroom tax, the awareness and perception of it has reached outside disabled people’s groups.

@RGPLizCrow There are good people out there helping others to go through a broken system. We need to stay strong and united.

@RGPLizCrow Amnesty has recognised the human rights abuses taking place against disabled people in the UK as a result of the benefits onslaught.

@mmaher70 If we fight or question the changes to disability support we are called ‘extremists’ as demonstrated by Paul Maynard MP recently.

@pocketstapler Benefits do not ever take away our Right to Speak! We all need to make our voices heard now more than ever.

@RGPLizCrow @soniapoulton says: The world is not made up of Iain Duncan Smiths. Change is happening.

@RGPLizCrow Floor: “It’s about re-politicising people, questioning, voting, empowering people.”

@RGPLizCrow It’s about using the appeals process. We get used to accentuating the positive, but for assessment it must be the negative We must use the appeals process. To appeal is to protest.

@RGPLizCrow My greatest fears? Personally: that I lose DLA. How do I manage my home, parenting? Too big to comprehend, so putting my energies into fighting. Politically: that we don’t come together to fight this en masse, because the collective fight is the key hope! Each of our voices is especially important in saying “not in my name.” Please keep speaking out.

@RGPLizCrow We need people to understand that we are already working. It is work to manage impairment, to manage other people’s discomfort, to manage an abusive system, to manage hate talk. We need to credit ourselves with the strengths we so clearly have, and keep looking after each other in the toughest times.

@tippyscarecrow Right now you can write counter stories. You can write about the things coming across from this twitter feed.

@RGPLizCrow I hate to say this, but I think it is very useful that each of the diabolical cases gives us ammunition, but at terrible cost to individuals at the sharp end.

@RGPLizCrow What’s the most important thing we need to do to halt the harm done by benefits changes?

@jeshyr So rarely bedridden people can get together in any way. Can anything be done to keep this community together/communicate in future?

@tippyscarecrow I feel so disempowered.Can’t think about anything else. Anxiety over reforms all-consuming. I want to make a difference. How?

@RGPLizCrow Disabled people are fighting for our lives, and that makes us, united, the most formidable of oppositions.

@PenPep We find strength together, and knowing we are not alone is crucial. Don’t believe Con-Dem rhetoric!

@RGPLizCrow If we say ‘nothing we say makes any difference ‘ we’ve lost the battle. We must fight propaganda ‘collectively’ with true facts.

@allbigideas If we don’t even try to change what’s happening, it will become hopeless.

@RGPLizCrow People who don’t have history of activism are now coming out and starting to campaign.

@DabDab111 …and I am one of them… I always did it from the settee 🙂

@SadPolitics I was never political or active in anyway until I got too ill to work and realised the benefit system was making me sicker.

@Mylegalforum We must keep countering the propaganda with true facts as often as we can to as many people as possible.

@RGPLizCrow @soniapoulton says: Blatant lies from DWP can be countered in so many ways, social media, radio. A real potential to change this!

@RGPLizCrow We talked about ‘countering the misinformation’ but in conversations with people, who aren’t ‘bad’ just fooled by propaganda.

@RGPLizCrow We need to reach out to the ‘good, kind and compassionate’ people who would be horrified if they knew reality, the true stories.

@RGPLizCrow I’d love everyone to find three people who’ve been taken in by misconceptions, and counter them to create huge opposition to cuts.

@Onlyfluffyone So preaching to the unconverted… Sharing the truth about the reality living with disability.

@shudisability @RGPLizCrow wants us to speak to three more people in reveal the damaging lies told thru rhetoric of welfare cuts – who will you tell?

@RGPLizCrow Ask yourself who do I ‘personally’ know who sometimes buys into propaganda around benefits claimants, and then counter with some true facts.

@RGPLizCrow We must communicate the true stories in conversations with people who believe the misinformation with true facts.

@RGPLizCrow #beddingout has generated passion and it’s astounding to see you all taking the baton and running with true facts – thank you!

@RGPLizCrow People are telling us true facts are not *only* about setting the record straight, but realising we have the courage to answer back.

@RGPLizCrow We need to identify who in the press are doing the sustained investigative reporting and supply them with our true stories.

@tiggerbumble Excluding a proportion of the population is fundamentally unsound. How to shift from exclusion to inclusion?

@RGPLizCrow When public opinion is so central to winning the argument, then it is essential that we become the ones to shape it.

@redfoxcountry @RGPLizCrow Do you believe in direct action? Peaceful civil disobedience as a way of fighting back?

@RGPLizCrow Oh yes. Can be hugely effective. #beddingout is direct action just as much as road blockades, etc. One of a whole range of strategies.

@tippyscarecrow I want to march!

@missdennisqueen I’m looking forward to DPAC’s week of action coming up soon. Hope some of you can come – with or without your beds!

@RGPLizCrow When faced with an Atos assessment, what’s proved the best source of real help and advice? Can we share some knowledge?

@VoiceofT_Reason Legal challenges and expert witnesses cost money, but are one possible route.

@opinion8ed_dyke I’m fairly up to date on regulations 29/35 that many fail to know about, let alone use. (Idea is they cover Human Rights Act.)

@RGPLizCrow Amnesty resolution on human rights of disabled people in UK: http://t.co/YVdeBMe39N Star work Rick and Nancy @WOWpetition

@tippyscarecrow I also wrote to @AmnestyUK offered again be their paralympic ambassador 4 human rights, this time against welfare reform.

@bluehook Can we start something from #beddingout? How about a pass-it-on form buddy system? #formbuds – so much easier to do forms for someone else. Getting the forms right can avoid assessment in some cases and having someone to help you through it is invaluable too. #formbuds

@RGPLizCrow Working with idea of a ‘Peer Support’ network on issues such as tribunal help, form filling etc. If interested DM me.

@redfoxcountry We are real and I would like to see a Twitter network where we are all linked and can keep each other company.

@Onlyfluffyone Something to work on maybe…

@whoismatthew Under Thatcher we had no social media to vent our rage, protests in the street were a weekly event. Does Twitter diffuse energy?

@allbigideas Twitter enables inclusive activism and campaigning.

@allbigideas Is Twitter just linking like minded people or can it reach out to more people?

@Peckitt Surprising number of disabled people don’t use at all. Of course there could also apps made to make it easier.

@k_runswick_cole Only 25% of people with LD have access to the internet, many are excluded from social media. A united voice must include all.

@harriet3241 Social media has allowed people to connect and become part of a larger resistance.

@RGPLizCrow We need to get informed on how to use social media.

@allbigideas We don’t realise how big Twitter can be to increase our sphere of influence.

@RGPLizCrow People might say that we preach to the converted, but all of us have followers, connections and friends.

@RGPLizCrow Media have an agenda; social media have not. This scares the government, who would like to control it.

@TweetByDiane Yes, I agree, social media is a great leveller.

@Mylegalforum Are people using social media measuring for trends and analysis? Seeing what works?

@allbigideas Twitter enlarges the debate, makes more people aware.

@RGPLizCrow There are so few true facts out there. Twitter can be used to get them out.

@jeshyr Discussing the complexity of anything on twitter is hard!

@CllrPaul4Cowick The subtle nuances of a live conversation often lost when you try and precis it into 140 characters.

@allbigideas Twitter is a conversation starter.

@bluehook #beddingout really got me thinking, and @AtosStories and I want to find a way to create change, to pass it onward.

@tippyscarecrow I want to see direct action. I don’t want to be a victim in order to fit in.

@bluehook So annoyed I have to go out now, but I’ll catch up with remaining #beddingout conversation later… hope it carries on beyond the performance.

@tippyscarecrow Think it has to really!

@Onlyfluffyone #beddingout has inspired me to push on and fight… I’m sick and need help… so do many more. There is power in numbers

@ambir I think #beddingout will also connect people. There is a lot to do, but if we stay united we will achieve a lot.

@fibro_girl Totally. It’s about understanding and sharing. The more we see the similarities, the less we focus on the divisions.

@BeresfordPeter How can we all keep going as disabled people until all the government programmes fall to pieces and have to be reversed?

@RGPLizCrow Through collective action – both to push those changes through and because of the strength we can give each other. Through solidarity in connecting all the anti-cuts campaigners through @peoplesassembly, and by surrounding ourselves with people who get it: @blacktriangle1, @Dis_PPL_Protest, #Spartacus.

@Ability_PTR Disabled people fighting for our lives, together united in solidarity = knowledgeable and formidable opponents.

@Ushka02 ‘First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.’ Mahatma Gandhi

@lisapeacefrench I do hope we can keep the empowerment and momentum going:-) x

@bluehook Hope so, I’d be up for making a mass performance somehow – could we get someone in bed in every art centre in UK.

@tippyscarecrow Every furniture shop could be quite funny. Would reach the average person on the street.

@bluehook Yes I want to do that, maybe a Flashmob type thing #beddingout  (and about) too, and who knows what else.

@CC_Me_AND_ME ‘Flash Bedding Out’

@CC_Me_AND_ME Co-ordinated #beddingout nationwide.

@tippyscarecrow Yes! I find sofa better than bed though http://kristinamichelleveasey.tumblr.com/

@tippyscarecrow Having people onboard means they will help spread the word and will seem like a positive action rather than stroppy disabled.

@bluehook I like that idea. Do we do it as a guerrilla style campaign or try to get a big furniture co involved? We need something that lots of people can join in with. In shops some won’t feel brave enough to actively bed in, but may feel okay to occupy sofa, alternatives including shopping centre, occupy benches with cushions/duvets, bring own bed or sofa or just your wheelchair and a foot rest, etc. Point being just to occupy space and do nothing at all. Unlike usual flashmobs which are very active things. Liz did 48hrs, this could be 48 mins. End.

@tippyscarecrow Yes, I like the benches in malls and high streets idea! Would be good to get big groups involved too.

@bluehook Yes, as many as possible and high profile people. Paralympians + disability artists = powerful combo.

@Spoonydoc A lot counting on Independent Living Fund (ILF) judicial review. In case fails, we need to be thinking/planning mass action, generating ideas…

@redfoxcountry @tippyscarecrow I want to see direct action. I don’t want to be a victim in order to fit in.

@long2be I’m with you. I have chains. Find me railings

@RGPLizCrow We were talking today about how we can collaborate as a disabled people’s movement as a whole…less fragmentation? Your views?

@FreeBesieged @RGPLizCrow Protest rarely works, but when it does it can be spectacular – #suffragettes #chartists #civilRights

@long2b: Timely writing: Finding a voice: controlling our lives. Disability Nowhttp://disabilitynow.org.uk/article/finding-voice-controlling-our-lives

@Abilty_PTR Speak Out, Speak Out (in whatever way possible) everyone who CAN, that’s where our power is.

@RGPLizCrow If we are saying ‘nothing we do changes anything’ we’ve lost the battle. Let’s fight propaganda collectively with true facts

@RGPLizCrow @pplsassembly People’s Assembly: count me in. Assembling from my bed. #beddingout https://roaring-girl.dev/

@Corrupt_Bstard We all have the power to change anything. Everything starts with us.

@DavidK123123 If everyone appealed it could bring the system down.

@marionpfallon mentioned “@RGPLizCrow We need to think of more ways to protest/draw attention to new realities/how we’re being penalised”

@RGPLizCrow Is it time for a national Bedding Out guerrilla action? http://beddingout.roaring-girl.co.uk/is-it-time-for-a-national-bedding-out-guerrilla-action-beddingout/

@long2be Yes. I’m in combat gear and ready, bring it on.

@RGPLizCrow There have been repeated calls for a national #beddingout guerrilla action, people are working on this, DM for more info and contacts

@RGPLizCrow There is room for blockading traffic, petitions and for art in activism. We can be part of the solution.

@redfoxcountry Yes! Have long history in direct action, but essential to combine widest range of tactics to reach widest range of people.

@RGPLizCrow Pledge to get at least two more friends signing the WOW Petition. We must continue to fightback. http://wowpetition.com/

@RGPLizCrow So many ‘calls to action’, so many ‘petitions’, so many great ‘campaigners’ on disability matters. We need collective resource.

@MyalgicEncephal How about a disability party. Take over and fix this? Yeah, a dream.

@RGPLizCrow Don’t forget that we can be ‘The most formidable of oppositions’: http://www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk/liz-crow?item=1797

@Onlyfluffyone From my bed I have witnessed a small revolution begin.  @RGPLizCrow has started it. We need to carry it on. Time for more #beddingout.

Download PDF