Fit to Work: Poets Against Atos

Edited by myself and poet-editors Sophie Mayer and Daniel Sluman, Fit to Work: Poets Against Atos is an online database of 'poets and punks, scribes and scroungers' protesting against the co-operation of Atos Healthcare with the Department of Work and Pensions on the Work Capability Assessment. It's free to read online.

'FTW' is a poetic appeal to the government to review the impact of its many attacks on disabled and sick people's lives and livelihoods under the guise of 'welfare reform'. As poets interested in the transformative power of language, we want to explore, challenge and debunk ableist stereotypes and divisive propaganda ('strivers'/'skivers', 'workers'/'shirkers', 'scroungers'), and to facilitate a space for alternative meanings of 'fit to work'. We are demonstrably fit to work, but the government decides, then prioritises, what the public is allowed to see as economically viable.

We represent those with disabilities (visible and hidden) and long-term chronic illness, and their allies, friends and carers. Our project is not party political; it represents a range of political persuasions and none in support of what is primarily an issue of human - thus also, but not exclusively, disabled - rights. We launched the website on 1 April 2013 (the month when a whole raft of government cuts to benefits and services came into force, including the infamous 'Bedroom Tax'). And we soon began building an exciting variety of poems by emerging and established contemporary poets, disability rights activists and campaigners, artists, hobbying voices and more.

We are currently open for submissions, calling for quality 'political'/'protest' poetry, of course, but also strong, life-affirming work about and from within disability, sickness and the non-normative body (since, again, it's been left to us to create an alternative language to counteract the rhetoric). We are human: angered, oppressed, but also creative, resourceful, innovative, alive. Ultimately, we demand that the government protects, promotes and prioritises the arts at which we strive, as well as the safety nets which allow our society-enriching work to get done. Here is a taster of that work so far.

All poems are taken from Fit to Work: Poets Against Atos: ftwpoetsagainstatos.wordpress.com

'Am I Disabled?' - A self-diagnosis questionnaire was also published in Cake magazine.

'Am I disabled?' - A self-diagnosis questionnaire

Be advised: this questionnaire should notbe used instead of a medical diagnosisbut as a companion to it. The medical fieldhas meticulously written your synopsisstep-by-painstaking-step.We have no intention to step on their toes,accidentally or otherwise.The purpose of this questionnaire is to fleshout your narrative, just enough for youto beginto breakthrough - 'come out', if you will.

1. Do you ever feel destabilised, in life and/or limb?

2. Do you have a car you struggle to:(a) pay for yourself(b) dignify with a human name?

3. If you have a car:(a) Do you tend to rely on the car in town?(b) Do you look left and right beforeopening the door, thinking the worstkind of person could be stood there,demanding to see your credentials?

4. Do you miss the days when three-wheeled carscould be seen regularly on the roads?

5. If you no longer haveregular sightings of three-wheelers, do youhave regular sightings of anything?

6. If you answered no to question 5,does this bother you?

7. If you answered yes, does thismake you want to Salsa with somebody?

8. Do you wrestle with what your feet are for?

9. How long has it been since you last lookedbetween your toes and treated the inevitable build-up,whether with concern or even contempt, and flouncedout of the roomleaving the fungal cream completely alone?

10. Does anything on your body uncontrollably:(a) hang low?(b) wobble to and fro?

11. How many names for knots can you identifyin a medical dictionary? (It doesn’t matterwhether you could tie them.)

12. Can you throw over your shoulder:(a) a tennis ball?(b...