Chapter 3 - continued

In an article about the history of the BDRG published in the newsletter of the Birmingham Coalition of Disabled People in 2006, Katherine summarised the early years of the group:

“BDRG had been set up by a quartet of people and some radical views. Of particular importance was the use of language. Among the members were the more Left-wing oriented members of Social Services department, some trade unionists and others from around the city.

“Bob Findlay was, at that time, Development Worker and, later, Co-ordinator and Alun Davies was the Disability Awareness Trainer. The organisation was funded via Social Services and from equality training.

“The organisation met monthly, often at BVSC in Digbeth, but chose to move meetings around to give as many disabled people as possible the chance to participate in lively debate.

“The choice of terms was people with disabilities as opposed to the prevailing usage of disabled people and there were some particularly acrimonious disputes around this. Because of this Birmingham remained isolated from the rest of the Disability Movement until the early 1990s when BDRG became a member of BCODP (then known as the British Council of Organisations of Disabled People).

“BDRG was, from the beginning, a campaigning organisation and the local media bore the brunt of this. A regular monthly newsletter, written in columnar fashion like a newspaper, called Building Bridges was important to the wider membership in a city where transport posed an enormous problem in getting to meetings.

“Patronising images of disability in the newspapers and on the television were challenged and the use of appropriate terminology was also introduced. In this case, in line with the policy of BDRG, the term people with disabilities was introduced into the media. The STOMP campaign (Stop Their Offensive Media Propaganda) was one such campaign.

“Following the precedent set with the International Marxist Group, the organisation kept to a draft constitution and did not register as a company limited by guarantee. There was much interesting academic discussion that followed at other day conferences and this is an area that is non-existent in Birmingham at the moment. The lack of theoretical debate is greatly missed.

“A long-term aim of BDRG had been to set up a disability resource centre following a model already in existence in Waltham Forest, East London. Some of us visited this centre and some of the city councillors were also treated to a day trip there during the campaign to get a resource centre both revenue and capital funded.”

In 1987, having left the sheltered employment at the Scope factory in Garretts Green and now working at the BDRG, Maria Mleczko was asked to produce a business plan for the proposed Birmingham Disability Resource Centre project. The document contains a draft constitution, proposals around funding and other recommendations.

Shown the document in 2009, Maria said:

“I recall being the author of this because this was the six-month project that I was in. I never thought about how substantial it was at the time. It was wonderful – I just know that it was wonderful. You don’t think about it at the time. You are just busy working at it.

“I had mentoring support from the Birmingham Voluntary Services Council, but not much. A few people came in and I spoke to one of the two teachers who were on this course. I remember getting angry with this poor woman and she would say ‘Maria you shouldn’t be telling me this, you know you should be taking it to your Group’.

“When our monthly meeting was in the same building as this project I would leave home at 8 o’clock in the morning and I wouldn’t return until 10 at night. I thought ‘why come home?’ I did go out after I had done my day’s work for an hour or something, but why come all the way home and then back into town for the meeting? I am glad that somebody has still got some of the work that I did because that, in itself, makes me feel proud.”