A long time ago, after yet another gloomy parade of
statistics, someone (I think it was Martin Coyle? Apologies if it wasn’t you
Martin, or even if it was, for dragging you into this) asked me if I was in any
hopeful about the future, and to write a blog about it. Well, after a long time
and a lot of gloom in the middle, here it is. My grounds for hope are quite
straightforward. It’s seeing and working with people with learning disabilities
who are, in all sorts of different ways, working for freedom, for themselves,
for other people with learning disabilities, and in common cause with others.
People campaigning and people going down the insider route.
People who challenge oppression wherever they see it, persuasively and without
bitterness. People with energy and resilience to keep going in hard times. People
doing the media thing with force, clarity and charm. People who come up with
creative solutions when sclerotic bureaucracies are stuck. People with
persistence and impressive patience in the face of organisations that repeat
the same offensive crap over and over again. People who can transform a
conversation in a room without saying a word. People who are honest, trustworthy and reliable. Incredibly persuasive people who
bring all lots of reluctant organisations with them. People who give a huge amount
of time, commitment and emotional energy while being poorly paid or not paid at
all. And people who have a good time while they’re doing it.
If you want to
find effective organisations working to achieve social change in the face of
sometimes extreme pressure, organisations of people with learning disabilities
are an excellent place to look.
For us professional fellow travellers, and for me
personally, I’ve been very slow to realise what my job should really be – to support
this remarkable coalition of people in ways and on terms not determined by me,
which includes the possibility of being binned if I’m getting in the way.
In the words of Public Enemy, it’s taking a nation of
millions to hold people with learning disabilities back, and you know what? In
the end, it won’t work. People with learning disabilities will move beyond
co-production to controlling the means of production. There’s my hope (believe
the hype).