Disabled People's Direct Action Network

The Disabled People's Direct Action Network (DAN) is a disability rights activist organization in England and Wales that campaigned for civil rights with high-profile street demonstrations involving civil disobedience, rallies and protests.

Prior campaigns

In 1989 the ''Derbyshire Direct Action Now Network'' (DDANN) was formed by local disabled people to protest against the pedestrianisation of Chesterfield. These protests resulted in police arrests and court hearings, where disabled people refused to plead guilty, all reading out the same defence to the court. One of the DDANN protesters was Alan Holdsworth, employed by the Derbyshire Coalition of Disabled People (DCDP) as a community link worker, along with many DCDP members including Ken Davis.

Between 1990 and 1993 the London-based ''Campaign for Accessible Transport'' (CAT) held street demonstrations including Oxford Street. Its organisers included Tracey Proudlock, Sue Elsegood, and Alan Sutherland as the press officer. 'source'': GMCDP archive, Manchester
On 8 September 1991 in south Manchester there was a weekend workshop to learn from similar street protests in the USA. The workshop was led by visiting activists Mike Auberger and Babs Johnson from ADAPT, and it finished with the practical learning of going out and blocking three buses on the main road nearby. This was during the 10th annual general meeting of BCODP, held at Owens Park, on Wilmslow Road in Manchester. A photograph of this protest was used on the front cover of a book on images of disabled people.

On 22 November 1991 in Leeds a protest by 150 disabled people and allies outside the BBC studios picketed the '' Children in Need'' live broadcasting under the banner of ''Rights Not Charity Group''. Eight people were arrested, four were disabled people.

On 18 July 1992 in London, over a thousand disabled people held a protest outside the ITV studios (London Weekend TV) picketing the ''Telethon'' live broadcasting under the banner of ''Block Telethon''. ITV later abandoned the ''Telethon'' approach. The main organisers were Barbara Lisicki and Alan Holdsworth, who had organised a smaller, similar protest against the ''Telethon'' broadcast in 1990 and had done further development work preparing for the 1992 protest.

Early years

In early 1993, Barbara Lisicki, Alan Holdsworth, and Sue Elsegood became founders of the Disabled People's Direct Action Network (DAN).

The idea was to build on and sustain the campaigning energy from the Block Telethon protest organised by the ''Campaign to Stop Patronage'', and in spring 1993 a weekend residential conference was held by about 16 interested disabled people using the guest rooms in the grounds of the ''Disabled Drivers Association'' at Ashwellthorpe Hall near Norwich. The debate was essentially between creating a general civil rights campaign or creating a campaign based on specific target issues, starting with inaccessible public transport. The eventual vote was in favour of specific targets, the argument being that it would visibly engage more disabled people. At this weekend DAN was formally created.

The first public action by DAN was in July 1993 in Christchurch after a Parliamentary by-election was called, and the Conservative candidate, tipped to win, had previously in the House of Commons prevented new disability rights legislation from becoming law. DAN organized protests during his campaign, and he lost the election.

Structure and Methods

DAN was a network of individual disabled people and allies. The network maintained coverage across the UK through a team of regional organisers.

A national committee of disabled people existed for most of DAN's active years, including many of the regional organisers. A newsletter was produced, especially in the build-up and winding-down from a major action.

National Actions 1993 - 2002

Over the years DAN organised around 56 actions isted in GMCDP archive, Manchesterof which around 16 were national actions. Typically a local action took place on a single day, whereas national actions developed into three-day long events, usually from Friday to Sunday. Protest locations included the Westminster Bridge, the Nottinghamshire constituency office of Kenneth Clarke, Harrods, and the Tate Gallery.

The Christchurch protest was the first national action, followed by Trafalgar Square, Westminster Central Hall, Leeds (all 1994), Cardiff, Birmingham (1995), Nottingham, Derby (1996), London, Bristol (1997), London, Newcastle, Hull (1998), Bournemouth, London (1999, 2001 and 2002). Disabled_People's_Archive
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has been produced, based on collections of local and national press cuttings, and internal newsletters. Some of these protests are with the Rights Now! campaign. 'sources:'' private collections

Disability Discrimination Act 1995

After many attempts in Parliament to pass a civil rights law for disabled people (also called, anti-discrimination legislation) a law was finally passed in 1995 - the Disability Discrimination Act, or DDA. The official position of DAN was that the DDA had too many loopholes - it was too weak. For example, despite the DDA being strengthened in 2003 to include public transport for the first time, Andy Gill was quoted in a BBC
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