As another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic swells, too many people are stuck in a recurring nightmare. The world faces multiple existential crises–a global state-capitalist system shot through with racism, xenophobia, sexism, heterosexism, ableism and authoritarianism. That calls for the confluence of labor and liberation struggles through a unifying philosophy based in the dialectic of liberation in those movements.
Staggering COVID-19 death toll in New York nursing homes and nationwide in nursing homes housing the disabled; impact of school closures on special needs students; Team Brit allows people with disabilities to participate in motorsports.
Residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities–0.6% of the population–have made up an estimated 43% of U.S. deaths from COVID-19. In any other situation these numbers would raise the specter of genocide.
April Dunn, advocate for alternative ways for students with disabilities to get a diploma; workers and disabled adults in group homes don’t get medical equipment they need to avoid COVID-19 and to care for those who have it; the fear that the disabled have that they are disposable in the COVID-19 pandemic; and how pediatricians are considering denying organ transplants to kids with disabilities.
Nursing home resident tells of feeling like a prisoner in her home, and overcrowding, malpractice and mistreatment of residents caused by underfunding and understaffing in for-profit nursing homes.
How a Black woman in Chicago with several handicaps became a disabilities rights activist.
When Deborah Cunningham, an ADAPT activist and Executive Director of the Memphis Center for Independent Living, died on May 7, the movement lost a tireless, creative, committed activist, feminist and thinker.
In Chicago, thousands march for a living wage, while in Los Angeles, protesters of all races marched downtown on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s 1968 assassination. They included low-wage workers campaigning to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, uniting with the movement against police killing of unarmed Black and Brown youth.
Rauner’s $1.5 billion Medicaid cuts will have a devastating impact on those who depend on this program for their healthcare. “Some people will die from these cuts,” a woman at the rally said.
Illinois Governor Rauner has made his living out of exploiting the disabled and elderly in his many nursing homes.
Three years ago, state officials vowed to shut the troubled Alden Village North nursing facility in Chicago down after more than a dozen deaths of children and young adults with severe disabilities. But it remains open today. A protester reports on a demonstration there.
For 14 years, Doris Freyre cared for her profoundly disabled daughter in their Tampa, Fla., home. Marie was fed through a feeding tube, and Doris pureed fresh fruits and vegetables for her and made sure her other needs were met. She surrounded Marie with family photos and pictures of angels.
Despite this excellent and loving care, [=>]
Washington, D.C—Fourteen of 74 ADAPT activists arrested in April for protesting Chair of the House Budget Committee Representative Ryan’s proposal to cut Medicaid funding by $800 billion were sentenced in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
During the court proceedings, Mike Oxford, an ADAPT organizer from Kansas, made a statement on behalf of the [=>]
