ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on resistance oriented towards the UK government and its constituent agencies for implementing welfare policy. It discusses the role of activist conferences in fostering the relationships and thereby strengthening this nascent cross-sectional coalition. One outcome of Bermondsey conferences and jointly organised actions was to consolidate relationships between the diverse campaigning networks and thereby strengthen this informal cross-sectional alliance. In the UK, in the twenty-first century the struggle of survivors and their allies has broadened beyond oppression in the mental health system to coercion into poorly paid work. The latter recognises the importance of social interconnectedness and the consequent necessity of comprehensive, mutual and democratic forms of welfare. One distinctive aspect of the emerging movement against psychocompulsion is its composition as an alliance of survivors, disabled people and mental health workers. This activism within the legal sphere during the early stages of welfare reform was later followed by a turn towards direct action.
