Prompts

Below are just a small sample of prompts to consider for contributions to this project.

Our disabled anarchist future

Anarchism encompasses many values and tools. Not all anarchists believe in or practice the below, but these are some of the aims for our disabled anarchist future.

  • What are some ways we, as disabled people, can explore and grow our dedication to the values of anti-establishment thoughts and practices?
  • What are some ways we, as disabled people, can explore and grow our use of tools of anti-establishment practices, such as affinity groups, coalition building, cooperation, direct action, disruption, dissent, DIY, facilitation, harm reduction, organizing, mutual aid, and more?

A better world is possible

  • How, as a disabled person, do you envision yourself living in an anarchist future? What are you doing to get there?
  • What does “a better world is possible” mean for disabled people? How can we include people with varying disabilities in this better world?
  • What will our access needs be in a better world and how can they be met?
  • How can anarchism empower disabled people to not feel like “the weakest link” (regarding the common fear of Social Darwinism)?
  • Everyone benefits from mutual aid. How can we participate when we have limited resources, including energy/ capacity/ bandwidth, or our access needs aren’t met?

Creating a world for disabled people without the state

  • What does it mean for us to not just opt out of the status quo due to disenfranchisement, lack of support, and lack of access — but actively work to build a better world outside the current socio-political climate?
  • How can our needs be fulfilled when we replace the state with an anarchist society? What happens to people who rely on the state for their basic needs? How do we create just alternatives so we can say no to the little the state offers? How will anarchist society meet our needs, especially if we lack social support now? How will our care and access needs be filled?
  • Where do we fit in when so many of us have been so isolated from the rest of society for so long that we don't have access to in-person care webs? If we are not able to leave our homes, how do we access social support among comrades, from day-to-day needs to emergencies?
  • What will seizing the means of production mean for disabled people? How will seizing the means of production ensure people continue getting the care and access to materials we need?
  • When capitalism as we know it disappears, what will motivate people to continue working in roles critical for the survival of disabled people?
  • What roles, including those currently not paid or underpaid, will people with various disabilities fill to be participatory members of society if they wish, or otherwise self-supporting?
  • Prisons and jails aren't the only places that incarcerate or unlawfully detain people — places such as those called alternative schools, civil commitment centers, group homes, hospitals, immigration detention sites, juvenile correctional facilities, nursing homes, psychiatric emergency rooms, psychiatric hospitals and wards/units, residential treatment centers, and residential reentry centers (halfway houses), do so as well. According to Bixby, et al (2022), "disabled people make up around two-thirds of the 2016 state and federal prison population, with 40% reporting a psychiatric disability and 56% reporting a nonpsychiatric disability" and "disabled incarcerated people are more than twice as likely as nondisabled incarcerated people to have previously resided in therapeutic institutions, such as psychiatric hospitals, residential treatment facilities, and group homes (46% vs. 20%)." What would abolition of these facilities mean for the people incarcerated by them, particularly the disabled people?
  • Abolition isn't just about places that hold people, but about abolishing the enforcement of laws and policies such as those by ICE, police, judges, social workers and medical practitioners (mandated reporting), scrutinizing of income and lifestyle for benefits and assistance (including those given by people and entities other than the state), teachers, and others who have authority to punish people under their power. Disabled people are disproportionately affected by these laws, policies, and their enforcers. Using strategies of abolition, harm reduction, peer support, mutual aid, and others, how might the lives of disabled people be affected by these authorities when these authorities no longer exist? What supports will replace these systems of power and how will these supports be maintained?

Embracing intersections and relations

  • Social justice movements: How do they intersect with anarchism and disability?
  • Not everyone with a disability or impairment identifies as disabled, sometimes due to internalized ableism and social stigma. For those who experience internalized ableism, how do we heal it? For those who feel othered by social stigma, how do we end it?
  • Access goes beyond disabled peoples’ needs. If the care and access needs of disabled people were realized, how would that benefit disabled people, as well as non-disabled people?
  • When considering our relationships with caregivers, partners, friends, neighbors, community, and self, what do we value and why? How might these values differ from non-disabled people? How might relationship anarchy fit into this?
  • The sexuality of disabled people is curious, innovative, nonconformist, adaptable: anarchist. How can we include non-disabled people who may not have these experiences? Do we even want to share our sexual selves in relationships with non-disabled people, and if not, why?
  • Kink, or BDSM, is a valid expression of play, whether it be sexual or not. As disabled people, we are often perceived to be submissive in life. What does it mean for disabled anarchists to be dominant participants in kink? What does it mean for disabled anarchists to be versatile, switch, or submissive? How might disabled anarchists’ kinkiness fit into anarchism’s values when much of kink play is about the subversion of values? Consider kink practices like race play, disability fetishism, and others. What does it mean to be a disabled anarchist who consents to participate in these forms of play? As anarchists, should these practices stay “in the bedroom” (or other play space); if not, how best might a disabled anarchist live in a 24/7 TPE (total power exchange), without compromising their anarchist values?