Disabled People’s Rights

~ Campaign Clothing ~

from the

Lorraine Gradwell Collection

Manchester, UK

(Draft edition, for updates etc)

Inside Cover

Introduction

Lorraine Gradwell (1953-2017) was a leading disability rights campaigner

with a national profile in Britain.

She helped found two organisations in Manchester, both controlled by

disabled people – GMCDP in 1985 and Breakthrough UK in 1997 – and

was involved in BCODP meetings and in DAN demonstrations.

GMCDP – the Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People

BCODP – the British Council of Organisations of Disabled People

DAN – the disabled people’s Direct Action Network.

Lorraine also supported and followed closely the campaigns in the USA for

disabled people’s rights led by the American group ADAPT, and the work of

DPI – the Disabled People’s International.

She collected a large number of documents from her various campaigns

and roles – she also collected 17 t-shirt designs (one a sweatshirt to be

precise) – from these times.

The reference to Telethon probably needs some explanation. This was an

annual fundraising TV programme in the late 1980s and early 1990s to

raise money for charities, using offensive portrayals of ‘sad and pathetic’

disabled people. A large demonstration by disabled people outside the TV

studios in London in 1992 forced its ending. Comic Relief is one legacy.

Work is underway to organise and catalogue her full collection of records

for formal archiving in Manchester, to provide access to her writings and

involvements for future campaigners, community workers and scholars.

This document is a visual record of one aspect of that emerging collection.

Tony Baldwinson, 8 October 2017

----

NOTE – this is a draft version for comments, updates etc. Ideally the final

version will be ready for the next Disability History Month, which will be

22 November to 22 December 2017.

LG/01/F/01 (1999)

LG/01/F/02

LG/01/F/03

LG/01/F/04

LG/01/F/05

LG/01/F/06

LG/01/F/06 (reverse)

LG/01/F/07

Probably the iconic t-shirt and slogan of the disabled people’s movement,

certainly in the 1990s. There were matching coffee mugs.

LG/01/F/08

LG/01/F/09

LG/01/F/09 (reverse)

LG/02/F/01

LG/02/F/02

Raging against the dying of

the light

Remember our friends still

trapped inside walls; locked

behind doors; lying in halls

Institutions are not solutions!

Support HN 2020

LG/02/F/03

LG/02/F/04

LG/02/F/04 (reverse)

LG/02/F/05

LG/02/F/06 (c.1992)

LG/02/F/07 (1995)

LG/02/F/08 (duplicated as LG/02/F/09)