27th March 2025
Kirstie Stage: Bridging the gap between Trade Unionism and the Disabled People’s Movement
Deaf and disabled organisers have long been part of and contributed to the efforts of the British Labour Movement, notably through organisations such as the National League of the Blind (f. 1894) and later the National Union of the Deaf (f. 1976). On these works, campaigns and efforts have largely focused on impairment-specific issues. Drawing on sources from the Disabled People’s Archive, and memoirs of disabled trade unionists such as Bob Williams-Findlay, this talk focuses on the work of Trade Union Disability Alliance (TUDA). This will build on previous discussions, exploring the ways in which pan-impairment disabled people’s organising sought to bridge the gap between trade unionism and the Disabled People’s Movement as well as through various channels such as the British Deaf community, Disability Arts Movement and self-advocacy initiatives.
In this talk, I set out some of the ways in which Deaf and disabled people campaigned on work conditions, trade union representation, and challenged trade unions to actively consider matters associated with disablement. TUDA created a space for Deaf and disabled trade unionists to debate national policies, share issues, highlight opportunities for work, build on tactics, strategize and build a critical mass of support amongst different channels. Moreover, I argue that Deaf and disabled people’s organising posed an alternative to the approaches undertaken by disability charities and state initiatives during the late twentieth-century. Trade unionism, I argue, was therefore a mechanism for sharing knowledge and information but also was impeded by forces of ableism within trade unions as well as the differing priorities and strategies amongst the broader British Labour Movement.
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