Disability Labour

Last updated

Disability Labour
Formation1996;27 years ago (1996) [1]
Headquarters London, England
Location
  • United Kingdom
Membership (2021)
1300 (according to email from organisation)
Chair
  • Kathy Bole
Affiliations Labour Party
Website disabilitylabour.org.uk

Disability Labour is a socialist society associated with the UK Labour Party. [1] [2] Disability Labour seeks to represent and support disabled Labour members and supporters. [3] They are an independent policy-making group on disability with further "aims to support and develop disabled party members to serve as policymakers, ministers and elected officials". [4]

Contents

Membership

Group membership is free to disabled Labour members and their carers. [5]

Individual, CLP, and trade union affiliation is offered with Unison an example of a trade union affiliate to Disability Labour. [6]

History

2015

In 2015, Disability Labour was relaunched - announced in the 2015 Labour Party conference. [7]

2018

In 2018 the executive committee of Disability Labour was widely replaced with members from the Disability Equality Act Labour (DEAL) campaign group after tensions over the previous executive committee. [8]

The same year also saw the co-chair Fran Springfield criticising the UK's Department for Work and Pensions endorsement of Purple Tuesday, [9] a day aimed for accessible shopping, that saw massive marketing campaigns from UK brands towards disabled people. [10] Springfield outlined: "this is a disgraceful attempt to 'sell out' disabled people to commercial entities. Every day should be an accessible shopping day! Disability Labour are deeply concerned that the DWP, which harasses and persecutes disabled people on a daily basis, will use video footage to identify if claimants are shopping, what they're purchasing and even how far they are walking". [10]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Labour Leadership: Who Are the Party's Affiliate Groups Backing?". BBC News. 17 February 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  2. "Socialist Societies". Labour Party. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  3. "Trade Unions and Affiliates". Campaign for Socialism. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  4. Waltz, Mitzi; Schippers, Alice (2020). "Politically Disabled: Barriers and Facilitating Factors Affecting People with Disabilities in Political Life Within the European Union". Disability & Society: 16. doi: 10.1080/09687599.2020.1751075 . ISSN   0968-7599.
  5. "Welcome". Disability Labour. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  6. "Breaking Down Barriers: National Disabled Members' Annual Report 2019" (PDF). London: Unison. September 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  7. "The Labour Party Conference: What's Being Said About Disability?". Livability. 23 September 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  8. Pring, John (13 September 2018). "Disability Labour Set for Fresh Start After Angry Scenes at AGM". Disability News Service. ISSN   2398-8924 . Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  9. "Frequently Asked Questions". Purple Tuesday. Purple. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  10. 1 2 Topple, Steve (12 November 2018). "The DWP Is Under Fire for 'Selling Out' Disabled People to Corporations". The Canary. Retrieved 3 November 2020.