Welsh disabled people against Atos

This video from Wales is called DPAC Atos demo – Cardiff.

By a Morning Star reporter in Cardiff, Wales:

‘Is this country worth dying for?’

Thursday 30 August 2012

How can disabled people find jobs when millions are out of work? Why should anyone die for a country that won’t look after its most vulnerable?

Those were the questions asked by disability protesters who blocked a road and staged a die-in at the foot of NHS founder Aneurin Bevan‘s statue in Cardiff city centre on Wednesday.

Ex-soldier Jonathan Williams joined the action against Paralympic sponsor Atos, which is conducting tests aimed at throwing disabled people off benefits.

Mr Williams fears he will lose his own benefits and told the Star: “I wanted to highlight the plight of disabled ex-service personnel – and to ask whether a country that cannot look after its most vulnerable people is worth fighting and dying for.”

Hundreds of people stopped to support the protest. They heard partially sighted Olwen Leavold ask angrily: “Millions of people cannot find work and they have two arms, two legs and 20-20 vision. So how many jobs are out there that are suitable for people with disabilities?”

Atos’s testing standards are increasingly being called into question.

Protester Rob March said he had been passed fit after 10 years of failing tests. “Atos refused to look at my medical records and their rude, abrupt nurse took no notice of anything said by me or my carer,” he said.

Disabled People Against Cuts founder Tina Hogg vowed that the campaign would continue.

“Why should we be scapegoated and demonised for the financial woes that have been caused by the world’s banks and governments?” she asked.

Wheelchair access ramps installed in London Underground stations during the Paralympics should remain there permanently, disability campaigners said today: here.