Disability Rights are Worker Rights! Worker Rights are Disability Rights!

Saturday October 5, 2019 from 2pm-5pm PST

Come learn the history of disability in the U.S. and how it connects fundamentally to the oppression of domestic workers. Jessica Lehman will lead us through an interactive timeline that will lift up important milestones in Disability Rights and Disability Justice organizing, as well as shine light on the intersections of ableism and racism and how that connects to Domestic Worker Rights organizing. (More background below.)

We will also discuss our CA statewide campaign to win a new social insurance program to help all Californians afford long-term care and other Long-term Services and Supports, which we see as being critical to reshaping our Care Economy so that it works well for everyone.

Light refreshments provided- bring something to share if you can! Please RSVP to request childcare, attendant support and other accommodations.

Background:
Ableism, or discrimination and oppression based upon disability, harms not only people with disabilities but also contributes to the devaluation and dehumanization of all of us who are not wealthy, white cis-gender men or who don’t have “normal bodies.”

Home attendants who provide critical personal care assistance to people with disabilities so we may live in our homes and communities are among the lowest paid of all domestic workers. Many homecare workers acquire disabilities in the course of their work, yet few can afford the costs of homecare once they need it themselves. Not surprisingly, domestic worker leaders have been key advocates for universal child care and universal home support policies.

Disability Justice is a growing field of activism and theory that brings clarity to how intersecting oppressions are centered in the body and how all of our liberation depends upon the end of ableism, but also the end of capitalism, racism, heteropatriarchy and the many systems of oppression that mutually reinforce the power structure in this country.

Image description:
During 2014 Disability Capitol Action Day in Sacramento, seniors and people with disabilities from Hand in Hand and Senior and Disability Action hold a sign that reads "No to the Cap on Hours for IHSS Workers! Yes to in-home support and better jobs!"