The exchange revealed by this blog post encapsulates the sheer inhuman malice of the capitalist system. Michael Laws is calling another person ‘monstrous’ for giving kindness and love to a child with Down Syndrome. He talks about abortion law in terms of how great it is that we can weed out what he sees as ‘unproductive’ members of society. The level of callous, despicable dung that Laws passes as debate and opinion should make any empathetic person feel sick. There is no problem for the capitalist system with killing those who don’t fit in, and the ideology that Laws promotes should be opposed at every possible level.
By couching his argument in terms of abortion, Laws is attempting, in a cowardly way, to pretend that he is in favour of a woman’s right to choose. Being pro choice means just that – the right to choose, and to not have your choices picked over and approved by old white men. Laws says that he “Thanks god” and is ‘proud’ that women in Whanganui can get abortions ‘With Downs Positives’. In fact he should be ashamed of the fact that women can’t get abortions in Whanganui without having to prove some kind of ‘reason’. He should be ashamed of arguing that “Only women can get pregnant, so only women should have to worry about contraception.” And he should be ashamed of attacking a mother who made the choice to have a child and insinuating that her child should be dead. It isn’t Laws’ job to tell women when and why they should have an abortion, simply put it is none of his fucking business.
Laws’ attitude may be unpolished next to Government and Business’ sleek PR, but the underlying thinking is the same. If you can’t work and make money for the ruling class, you deserve to be eliminated. The comparison with Cybermen from Doctor Who is below the mark. When it comes to ‘Non-conformers’, the capitalist class is far more like Daleks, screeching ‘Exterminate!’ While Laws calls for immediate abortion whenever a Down Syndrome test is positive, the British government has put into place draconian assessment schemes for people with disabilities to get the support they need. This has resulted in thousands of deaths, strongly linked to the stress and inhumanity of these assessments.
Capitalism cannot tolerate people with disabilities – it impacts too much on profits. But for those of us in the majority who aren’t obsessed with money and power, the ways society disables, whether it is those with physical impairments, or neurodiversity, is an ugly, destructive, and entirely artificial division in society. The interests of the bosses is to exclude people with disabilities from the workplace and from society, to give the rest of us someone to ‘pity’. The interests of the workers are to fight alongside disabled workers and beneficiaries for the basic respect and capabilities that everyone deserves.
