The Big Society Sucks! / 21 April 2011
The Big Society Sucks! - a poem by Ann Young
I will not go quietly
Or rebuild bridges burnt
I'll make my own way now
With many lessons learnt
Hard work needs reward
It's the only way
A good day's work
For a decent pay!
We fought so hard
For our equality
Don't throw all that away
By wanting work for free
I'll not work for nothing
It seems so wrong to ask
I'm a disabled woman
Reclaiming my working class
I was offered voluntary work but rejected it. I have worked so hard to get where I am and giving away my hard earned knowledge for free goes against everything I believe in as a disabled women with strong working class values. I do believe there is still a mainstream view that we have nothing of value to offer, so I just wanted to voice my own thoughts regarding Cameron's Big Society rhetoric.
Ann Young April 2010
Keywords: corporate funding,disability professionals,disability representation,disabled peoples movement,disabled peoples protest,invisible disabled people,money,not working for free,poetry,wheelchair users
Comments
linda Burnip
/Reminds me of all the consultations I've been to, in exchange for lunches of variable quality. Department of Health got very weird when I said they could pay me as I don't get any benefits too.
Marco
/Good job Ann. Totally agree of course.
Ann Young
/Thanks Crippen. Justice has been done & I'm smiling like a Cheshire cat.
Ann Young
/Thanks Crippen. Justice has been done & I'm smiling like a Cheshire cat.
ArtyFarty
/Says it all Ann.
We all need to stop providing our expertise for free, especially to those disability pimps who then use the information against us. Only by charging for our time and experience will we start to be taken seriousely.
I propose that from now on, anyone who provides chargeable work for free to anyone outside of our movement should be cured and no longer able to say that they're a disabled person! ;-)
Joe Mc
/Bliar, Cameron and Clegg
among the first to blame
please stop making war
saying its in our name
Crippen
/I hope that I've done your poem justice Ann?
:-)