Disabled people have existed for as long as humanity, and have been active parts of every society and liberatory movement. Yet when they are remembered, it is common that they either have their politics or their disability excised from their stories. Even though being disabled by the societies they lived in likely deeply impacted their lives and perspectives.
Perhaps because of the perceived rarity of disabled people, many radical spaces today are not particularly inclusive or accessible when it comes to disability. Even though 15% of people have some kind of disability. Similarly, classical political theories, rooted in productivism, are insufficient for the disability liberation movement. This is unsurprising, as capitalism has defined how the lives of individuals are to be valued, and those who are less productive for the owning class are dehumanised to the point where their suffering and deaths are seen as unavoidable outcomes of a neutral system. However, disability politics is becoming increasingly relevant due to the rapidly increasing numbers of newly disabled people. This is primarily driven by having given up trying to mitigate SARS-COV-2, with permanent impairments becoming more likely with each additional infection.
This project aimed to reclaim the full humanity and celebrate the whole lives of disabled anarchists and communists. To cross-pollinate ideas between silos of ideology and experience. To frame disability not as an individual shameful failure that undermines one's agency, legitimacy and personhood, but as a neutral characteristic within the natural variation of humanity.
Here is a brief biography of some of those revolutionaries.
Composed by Disability Action Research Kollective
22 Pages
Laser Printed
