Cost of Living Crisis: Enough is Enough Campaign

[Smokeandsteam]

Sign up here:

Enough is Enough!

Enough is Enough is a campaign to end the cost of living crisis. It's time to turn anger into action.

wesayenough.co.uk

Watch the video here:



The 5 demands are:

​

1. A Real Pay Rise​

2. Slash Energy Bills.
3. End Food Poverty.
4. Decent Homes for All.
5. Tax the Rich.​

 

[SpookyFrank]

I'd prefer 'kill the rich' but it's a start.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Now watch Sultana get kicked out of the labour party for talking about workers' rights.

 

[Pickman's model]

it's really strange that despite the use of mick lynch and eddie dempsey to front this no mention is made on the website of backing from them personally or from the rmt

 

[Smokeandsteam]

it's really strange that despite the use of mick lynch and eddie dempsey to front this no mention is made on the website of backing from them personally or from the rmt

Understand the RMT and Unite are likely to formally endorse the campaign once their NEC's meet.

 

[steeplejack]

It’s a great initiative.

 

[LDC]

Hopefully it won't just get channeled into vote Labour and repeated London demos though?

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Hopefully it won't just get channeled into vote Labour and repeated London demos though?

It’s largely what we make of it as networks will be formed locally.

I don’t doubt many will want to see London A to B marches, that’s up to them. I want to see support for RMT, CWU, Unite and other union picket lines. I want to discuss community action projects in Birmingham and I want to see how this can link into the ‘Don’t Pay’ campaign. The conditions are ripe for a poll tax 2 campaign.

It won’t be a ‘vote Labour’ exercise as the unions involved have become involved precisely on the recognition that Labour won’t do anything in opposition or in government to address the issues raised.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Hopefully it won't just get channeled into vote Labour and repeated London demos though?

Well a key demand is taxing the rich which is not labour policy. Nor come to think of it is housing reform. Or public sector pay rises meeting the rate of inflation.

 

[LDC]

No, but it wouldn't have to be Labour policy at all, nor Labour member dominated for it to slide into a "Vote Labour" thing the nearer it gets to the election. These things get launched every so often and do tend to drift into that, and/or get fucked on a local level by SWP and similar dominating and putting off sensible people. Not saying this will, and I think it's a great initiative, but it needs to not get dragged into the mess of Labour, and to some extent the unions as well (not all, but most). Or the other obvious direction is it tries to form a parliamentary party after a bit.

 

[dessiato]

We need a political party that will actively support and defend the working man. You know, something like the Labout party is supposed to be, not Tory lite as it is.

 

[steeplejack]

It seems to me as an embyonic workers’ organisation to fight a general strike rather than a vote labour 2.0 thing

In any case the basic demands listed- which shockingly read like a list from 1922 instead of 2022- are far too radical for the parliamentary Labour leadership & their corporate chums.

 

[hitmouse]

Understand the RMT and Unite are likely to formally endorse the campaign once their NEC's meet.

Official RMT pages seem to be boosting it already:

 

[oryx]

'Your need or their greed'.

I like it.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Their website's been crashing from too much traffic apparently.

 

[Zabo]

Joined today in the hope there will be a strong response and showing in Greater Manchester.

As for Labour...Pft..!

 

[hitmouse]

On looking around a bit more, am kind of encouraged to see that Fans Supporting Foodbanks are listed as one of the sponsors, since they genuinely do seem to be an actual grassroots group focused on doing practical stuff (as far as I can tell, if they're actually a front for the Spartacist League or something they keep it well hidden).
Also, was kind of curious as to who Chris Webb was, looks like it's this guy:

Chris Webb

Articles by Chris Webb.

tribunemag.co.uk

 

[The39thStep]

it's really strange that despite the use of mick lynch and eddie dempsey to front this no mention is made on the website of backing from them personally or from the rmt

the RMT have tweeted it out

 

[The39thStep]

We need a political party that will actively support and defend the working man. You know, something like the Labout party is supposed to be, not Tory lite as it is.

Tony Blair has a point about Labour’s link with the trade unions | John Rentoul

The former prime minister was more blunt about breaking the link between Labour and the unions than ever before, writes John Rentoul

www.independent.co.uk

 

[The39thStep]

No, but it wouldn't have to be Labour policy at all, nor Labour member dominated for it to slide into a "Vote Labour" thing the nearer it gets to the election. These things get launched every so often and do tend to drift into that, and/or get fucked on a local level by SWP and similar dominating and putting off sensible people. Not saying this will, and I think it's a great initiative, but it needs to not get dragged into the mess of Labour, and to some extent the unions as well (not all, but most). Or the other obvious direction is it tries to form a parliamentary party after a bit.

The poll tax unions managed to have Militant , SWP, Communist Party, and even anarchists involved along with and outnumbered by tens ( perhaps hundreds) of thousands of normal people without drifting into any of what you say.

 

[The39thStep]

100000 joined so far in the first 24 hours

 

[kabbes]

Well a key demand is taxing the rich which is not labour policy. Nor come to think of it is housing reform. Or public sector pay rises meeting the rate of inflation.

Funny enough, the rich also tend to think they should pay more tax. In general, the idea of more tax is popular across the board (eg see this). It’s those with access to the political levers of power that have ideological opposition to tax, not those necessarily with access to wealth

 

[platinumsage]

Funny enough, the rich also tend to think they should pay more tax.

Nothing is stopping them:

Voluntary payments / donations to government

Find out how to make a voluntary contribution to government.

www.gov.uk

It feels like the sort of thing rich people feel they ought to say in response to surveys TBH.

 

[8ball]

It feels like the sort of thing rich people feel they ought to say in response to surveys TBH.

Much more workable to just donate directly to the Party in power.

Just so they remember, like.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Funny enough, the rich also tend to think they should pay more tax. In general, the idea of more tax is popular across the board (eg see this). It’s those with access to the political levers of power that have ideological opposition to tax, not those necessarily with access to wealth

Your more old-school capitalist will likely see the value in there being a functioning society for them to continue to sponge off indefinitely. These will be the type of people who actually invest in things for the long term, who actually do something to prop up the myth of 'wealth creation' that's used to justify capitalism in general. Then you have this (relatively) new strain of capitalist who doesn't have a sector that they work in, doesn't have an industry they're part off, doesn't know or care about anything but money and so will speculate, asset-strip, deliberately create bubbles for short-term gain, and hide every penny they can from the taxman. The closest they get to long term thinking is trying to keep a tame government in power. But even then, if the democratic scales start to tip, they'll just bribe the next lot of politicians instead.

I generally describe the second lot as 'degenerate capital' and you can see it working against what seem to be the long-term interests of capitalism in general; particularly with brexit, backing obviously incompetent politicians rather than technocrats etc. Before anyone thinks I'm letting the old-style capitalist off the hook, degenerate capital is a direct product of the greed, the ruthlessness, the political and cultural meddling of postwar industrial capitalists. They're now just being beaten at their own game.

You see the same thing with viruses. A highly successful virus can be pushed to extinction by a novel strain which is more virulent, but which kills its victims too fast for its own good.

 

[kabbes]

Nothing is stopping them:

Voluntary payments / donations to government

Find out how to make a voluntary contribution to government.

www.gov.uk

It feels like the sort of thing rich people feel they ought to say in response to surveys TBH.

Nobody wants to be the one mug pointlessly adding 0.0001% to the government’s income. Doesn’t mean they don’t support being part of everybody doing it to add 10% though.

 

[hitmouse]

The poll tax unions managed to have Militant , SWP, Communist Party, and even anarchists involved along with and outnumbered by tens ( perhaps hundreds) of thousands of normal people without drifting into any of what you say.

Tbf, the fact that you need to go back a bit over 30 years to find a good example isn't entirely reassuring, the British left's ratio of poll tax unions to People's Assemblies, Coalitions of Resistance, Left Unitys, Socialist Alliances, etc etc etc is not great.

Anyway, Sheffield launch event will be on Saturday 20th:


Given the apparent RMT backing for this, would expect for them to be holding joint RMT strike rallies/EIE launches all over the country then, tying it into the ongoing strikes is a good way of making it more than just another A-B march/standing around outside the town hall for the sake of it event.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

It is hard not to agree with much of what hitmouse has written above. Anyone who went near any of the fronts/alliances/campaigns mentioned will recognise the point made.

But, active involvement and good ideas raised locally is the best way to prevent the groups behind the failed vehicles listed above destroying this one as well with their approach.

Obviously agree on linking it to the strikes and getting people down to RMT/CWU/Other TU pickets. I think that’s a given and eie has already announced CWU picket line activity.

Given the sponsorship by food bank campaigns and Acorn other tie ups potentially exist there at a hyper local community level.

However, the big thinking needs to be done around the ‘Don’t Pay’ campaign in my opinion.

Personally, I’ll be leaving it to others to stand around outside town halls, to sit in stuffy meetings and rallies with Owen Jones types and trade union tops droning on and to walk pointlessly around London.

The number of sign ups already indicates that the potential here extends far wider than the cobweb left. Be good to discuss on here how it’s going in our various locations

 

[hitmouse]

Yeah, to be clear I wasn't trying to be a total buzzkill wet blanket, things are definitely very different this year and there is certainly potential for something there. Just trying to be clear-headed about the possibility for things to fizzle out as well.

 

[The39thStep]

Tbf, the fact that you need to go back a bit over 30 years to find a good example isn't entirely reassuring, the British left's ratio of poll tax unions to People's Assemblies, Coalitions of Resistance, Left Unitys, Socialist Alliances, etc etc etc is not great.

Anyway, Sheffield launch event will be on Saturday 20th:


Given the apparent RMT backing for this, would expect for them to be holding joint RMT strike rallies/EIE launches all over the country then, tying it into the ongoing strikes is a good way of making it more than just another A-B march/standing around outside the town hall for the sake of it event.

I'm all for “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will” however don't we normally start with an example of what works ( even if it was 30 years ago) and aim for that rather than immediately start looking at recently what hasn't worked or is that just a socialism v anarchist schism?