Glasgow Against ATOS, 1st Anniversary Picket.
Friday 28 June, 12:30 - 14:30
Corunna House,
Cadogan Street,
Glasgow.
Another article by Glasgow Activist J. C. highlighting the vicious attack by this government on the ordinary people, in particular the brutal assault on the disabled and vulnerable in our society.
ATOS:
Government approved Contract Killers!
ATOS is a French multi-national
company who have been employed by the Department of Works and
Pensions to assess claimant’s fitness for work. In Glasgow their work capability
assessment centre is based at Corunna House in Cadogan Street in the
City centre.
ATOS use a points based computer
system to assess people. The majority of people who go through the
ATOS process end up with no points or very few points; even severely
disabled people or people with chronic illnesses or serious mental
health problems have been declared fit for work by ATOS. We call the
ATOS assessment centre at Corunna House “Lourdes” - because of
its miraculous ability to cure people.
Doctors who work for ATOS receive
only eight days training in disability, and have found patients with
severe M.S. and terminal cancer to be fit for work!
ATOS’s brutal and insensitive
treatment of the disabled has attracted widespread criticism from
many sources. The General Medical Council are investigating
allegations of improper conduct against twelve ATOS doctors, and two
ATOS employees are under investigation after referring to patients as
“parasites” and “down and outs”.
The British Medical Association has
condemned the ATOS assessment procedure as being not fit for purpose.
Many M.P.’s have criticised ATOS’s brutally insensitive treatment
of the disabled. Michael Meacher M.P. led a commons debate on this
matter on the 17th of January this year and criticised
almost every aspect of its operations including the thousands of
people who have died after ATOS have decided they were fit for
work. You can see his speech on YouTube.
A lady called Joyce Drummond recently quit her job at ATOS. Joyce
worked as a nurse there but had to leave when she could no longer
carry out what she was supposed to do. Joyce has gone on record and
given many newspaper interviews about how ATOS assessments really
work. She has explained
that these are not genuine assessments but just
an excuse to deprive people of their entitled benefit.
The assessment starts well before you reach the assessment room. In
fact, patient’s behaviour and abilities are observed from the
moment you enter the building. When people go from the waiting room
to the assessment room it is noted whether or not they are well
presented, are they tidy, have they done their hair and make-up? And
so on.
Seemingly innocent questions are asked by the assessors:
Do
you have any pets – this can be linked with ability to bend to
feed and walk.
Do
you look after someone else – parent or carer- if you do this will
be taken as evidence of functioning
Any
training, voluntary work, socialising will be used as evidence of
functioning.
Can
you use phone, computer, or washing machine?
Can
you manage bills?
A whole range of dirty tricks is used against
patients, because the ATOS assessments have nothing to do with
fairness or compassion, or reorganising the benefits system, - it is
all about taking money from the poorest and neediest in society.
Joyce Drummond says that in her opinion the
money given to Atos and spent on tribunals should be given to NHS
GPs. They are best placed to make assessments regarding patients work
capability. They have access to all medical reports, past history,
specialist input and know their patients.
How do ATOS decisions affect individuals and families?
Well, everyday there are stories in the papers describing the
devastating effects of the decisions reached by ATOS.
There are stories of people who are unable to work being left without
any means of financial support.
There are stories of people dying while awaiting results of their
appeals after an ATOS assessment.
There are stories of people committing suicide after appearing before
ATOS.
Nick Barker a farm labourer who had a brain haemorrhage which
paralysed him down his left side and left him struggling to walk
killed himself just before he was due to go up on his appeal. The
coroner said the benefits assessment was the key to the tragedy.
A lady called Linda Wootton, who had a heart and lung transplant was
declared fit for work by Atos; her husband received the letter as she
was dying in Hospital.
I don’t intend to go through case after case, or pile on statistics
and facts and figures; you can check all these things out online.
Instead let me tell you what we are doing about ATOS.
Glasgow against ATOS is committed to getting rid of ATOS and having
them replaced by a compassionate and humane assessment procedure. In
order to do this we campaign in every way we can.
We believe one of the most effective ways to campaign is through
direct action. It is our experience that you can talk to politicians
and officials till you are blue in the face and they will ignore you,
but if you occupy their offices and invade their space they might
actually have to do something.
Over the past year, Glasgow against ATOS in conjunction with Citizens
United and disability rights campaign group Black Triangle have
carried out occupations of the Commonwealth Games office (who are
sponsored by ATOS), and various banks and building societies who have
dodged paying income tax,- If big business paid their taxes there
would be no need for cuts of any kind. We have also confronted
politicians face to face and at their offices and homes.
On the last Friday of every month we have a picket outside ATOS at
Corunna House starting around 12.00 a.m. Some of us stay there and
leaflet and talk to people coming and going to their assessments,
while the rest go on what we call a rolling picket. We go through the
city centre with banners and a megaphone and hand out leaflets and
bring the scandal of ATOS to public attention. Recently two of our
group were arrested during one of our pickets for using the megaphone
and will appear in court in June and July. We hope that activists and
groups will support our demonstrations outside the court on these
days.
We produce tons of leaflets, posters, banners and stuff like t-shirts
to help raise public awareness of the immoral activities of ATOS and
the plight of ATOS victims.
We raise funds to pay for all of this; - we recently had a fantastic
fundraising night which raised almost a thousand pounds. In addition to this we have had discussions with the trade unions at
ATOS although we think that they are a bit unhappy with us after we occupied their offices at Corunna House a couple of weeks ago.
Our fight ties in with the bedroom tax campaign because the majority
of families affected by the bedroom tax will have a disabled member
who has probably suffered at the hands of ATOS at some point.
What is really going on?
There is a war going on in society, a war between the
people at the top - the ruling elite and big business, and the people
at the bottom. A war between rich and poor, a war between the needy
and the greedy!
This is a Class War!
This is no exaggeration, working class people are the
victims of this war and thousands of working class people die every
year as a result of the war on the sick, disabled and unemployed.
What can we do? - Join the
Fightback!
How do we do it? - Get
together, come up with ideas, produce leaflets, talk to each other
and involve others, Take an interest – become involved in Glasgow
Against ATOS or other campaigning groups.
Don’t Moan, - Organise! Don’t get Angry – Get
Even!
Visit us on Facebook at Glasgow Against ATOS.
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