Why are disabled people oppressed? Is disabled-ism like racism, sexism, homophobia or age-ism? Well, yes and no ...

Racism, in the way we know it, started with the birth of Capitalism. In feudal and even ancient societies, there was doubtless prejudice against people of different colours - but this was caused by the fact that different coloured people were unfamiliar, and was soon broken down as they were integrated into the community.
     Even in the case of white people of different races - eg Jews - the discrimination took a different form. In feudal societies, Jews were discriminated against to a horrific extent. But the persecution would stop if a Jew converted to Christianity. This is unfair, but is still better than in Nazi Germany, where Jews (or "Semites") were persecuted and put to death because of their race - whatever religion they practiced (remember, Jesus was technically a Jew ...)

Sexism, homophobia and age-ism (against young people, at any rate) also developed with Capitalism - particularly, its dependence upon and promotion of the nuclear family (as detailed more in my Anti-Curfew Pages).

Disabled-ism did also develop with Capitalism, but for yet another different reason. Capitalism was the first society to demand the maximum possible output, even if this exceeded demand or even need - so people whose disabilities meant that they could not keep up with the production rate were at a disadvantage. Also, Capitalism was the first society to create "excess production", ie the building of products which could not then be sold. In such circumstances, the less productive workers - often disabled people - were the first to become unemployed.

It was also in capitalism's interest to split tasks of production, into separate parts - a process which aggravated alienation (in Marxist terms) and also, again, put disabled workers at a disadvantage. The development of Capitalism and the further splitting of tasks has led to the creation of "new" disabilities, eg dyslexia for secretaries, colour-blindness for engineers.

It is also true that disabilities could be circumvented, if it was not for Capitalism's need to squeeze every Quark of profitability out of every worker. Colour-blindness prevents people from becoming electronic engineers because of the "colour codes" used for determining the value of resistors or capacitors - yet, using modern technology, the value could easily be printed on said components using numbers. The only thing stopping this is the need to invest in new equipment. There are plenty of workers to re-design or re-program, let alone replace, the existing equipment - many of whom are on the dole - but employing them to do said is contrary to the aims of capitalism, which demand the maximum profit for each competing company.

As Capitalism nears its final collapse, companies are increasingly cutting their staff to the extent that they rely on the "multi-skilling" of their remaining employees. So disabled people who could previously do their specialized task, can no longer do all the tasks which are expected of them - and are discriminated against for it. So the nature of disabled-ism has almost gone full-circle.

The answer is to fight for a society which believes in "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs".

The Socialist Workers Party is fighting for such a, socialist, society.
 

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