DPAC Finish Week of Protest Towards Atos: In August 2012 Disabled Folks Towards the Cuts and UK Uncut organised the week of motion as a protest in opposition to the sick spectacle of Atos, the corporate who pressures its workers to unfairly declare disabled individuals ‘match for work’ in order to extend its earnings and meet authorities targets, bathing within the glory of sponsoring the Paralympic video games. The week ended with two protests on Friday thirty first August.
Closing Atos Ceremony – Triton Sq.
Protests earlier within the week had included a spoof Paralympic opening ceremony subsequent to Tower Bridge, then embellished with a large paralympic image hanging from its higher degree, a vigil at Westminster and a memorial service outdoors the Atos head workplace to recollect the individuals who have misplaced their lives by the hands of Atos Healthcare. There had been protests too in different cities – with 40 protesters as corpses within the street stopping visitors, and on the precise Paralympic opening lots of the contestants coated up the Atos identify on their lanyards as a protest in opposition to their involvement as sponsors.
Amongst these protesting earlier within the week was Tara Flood, a former Paralympian who represented GB at three Paralympic video games and whose gold-medal successful time on the 1992 Barcelona video games stays a world document. She mirrored the sensation of many disabled individuals when she acknowledged: “It’s a stunning irony that Atos is a fundamental sponsor of London 2012 while destroying disabled individuals’s lives on behalf of the federal government.”
Over 500 got here to Atos’s places of work in Triton Sq. for a peaceable protest on the finish of the week on Friday thirty first August 2012. It had a competition ambiance, with music and dancing, poppers, brightly colored plastic water pistols and a few fancy costume alongside the the standard banners and placards, however there was no mistaking the anger in opposition to Atos, evident within the slogans on the placards and chants of ‘Atos Kills!’
The target-driven computer-based work functionality assessments delivered by Atos trigger excessive hardship and distress to many disabled – and dying to some. Final 12 months 1,100 claimants died after Atos checks positioned them on obligatory work-related exercise to achieve advantages, and others discovered ‘match for work’ and so left with out revenue have dedicated or tried suicide.
Amongst situations that Atos checks have discovered to haven’t any bearing on health for work have been deadly coronary heart situations, terminal breast and kidney most cancers and extreme MS.
In a single lengthy avenue theatre efficiency disabled individuals who actually wished to be freed of their disabilities had been urged by ‘Atos’s personal Reverend’ to return ahead and undergo the ‘Atos Miracle Treatment’ archway, and several other, primarily in wheelchairs, did so. Nothing appeared to occur to them, they usually had been upset, even after the ‘Rev’ had blessed them and patted them on the pinnacle, however then an ‘Atos physician’ in a white coat got here to evaluate them, and lo! she gave them every a certificates that they had been now match to work, and, much more miraculous, a job. But it surely was all a con!
By the point the ceremony ended I had left and was making my technique to the Division of Work and Pensions places of work, Caxton Home, in Westminster, having been tipped off that disabled activists had entered and occupied them.
Extra at Closing Atos Ceremony.
DPAC Occupy Dept of Work & Pensions – Westminster
Visitors was heavy in London – I ought to have taken the tube. By the point I arrived there have been round 20 or so protesters outdoors with banners in entrance of the doorway. Behind them had been a block of round a dozen police in a number of rows within the pretty slim outer foyer, and behind them I may see extra police and some protesters.
Shortly after me extra arrived from the occasion outdoors the Atos places of work, together with fairly just a few in wheelchairs and shaped a pretty big crowd, spilling out into the road.
Adam Lotun and spoke briefly concerning the causes for the week of actions in opposition to Atos and saying the battle would proceed and as part of that he can be standing within the Corby by-election.
Just a few late arrivals tried to push previous the police to hitch these already within the constructing, however in addition to police there have been individuals in wheelchairs and the media of their means they usually had little probability of success. The state of affairs turned fairly confused, however quickly police reinforcements arrived and pushed the group again just a few yards away from the doorway.
Tags: 2021, Adam Lotun, ATOS, Atos Miracle Treatment, deaths, Division of Work and Pensions, match to work, health for work, Friday thirty first August, coronary heart situations, kidney most cancers, London, occupation, peter Marshall, police, protest, extreme MS, suicide, terminal breast most cancers, Triton Sq.
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