cesare
shady's dreams ♥
So true
Cost of living- what’s going to happen?
- Thread starter Edie
- Start date
Mr.Bishie
pickled egg
We’ve had over 10 years of Tory austerity & no one’s got angry. Everyone is treading water at a ‘grassroots’ level - as said earlier, the students can’t even kick off, they’re struggling too, & if there’s to be any disorder then we need the younguns.
I was having a rant in my own head today whilst driving home - why can’t the working class unions be more militant like the Spanish & the French? I mean, proper kick the fuck off, but we can’t & the cunts in power know it.
I suppose what I meant would be one of those people in particular cutting through - wasn’t the events in Tunisia which kickstarted the Arab spring someone self-immolating?
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
ska invita
back on the other side
economic background:
Over a third of UK households are one paycheck from financial ruin... :: Drewberry
Over a third of UK households are one paycheck from financial ruin...
www.drewberryinsurance.co.uk
The survey found that 37% of respondents would be unable to cover their housing costs for more than a month with almost a quarter of those surveyed saying that they would be unable to pay them at all if they lost their job.
UK consumer borrowing doubles as cost of living bites
UK consumer borrowing doubles as cost of living bites
‘Significant increase’ from May to June comes as inflation heads towards double digits
" The amount of extra debt taken on by UK consumers doubled last month, according to data from the Bank of England on Friday, raising fears that people are resorting to credit cards and other forms of borrowing to fund increases in the cost of living. The BoE data found that UK consumers borrowed a net £1.8bn in June, up from £0.9bn in May, most of which was on credit cards. The annual growth rate for consumer credit hit 6.5 per cent, the highest level since before the coronavirus pandemic."
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cesare
shady's dreams ♥
My theory is that the French government knows that the people won't put up with it and they regularly don't put up with it. The Spanish were under the jackboot of fascism and won't let that happen again easily. The Brits however need sudden flashpoints to rise up.
Mr.Bishie
pickled egg
Hopefully the passing of that draconian bill is the catalyst to kick it off.
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Was thinking about that - like, the stuff the PCSC bill criminalised was mostly low-level stuff that had been previously legal (well, obv the only things it criminalised were stuff that had previously been legal, but you know what I mean). But like actual rioting had been illegal in March 1990 and August 2011, and that didn't seem to stop people then. So how much of a difference will it make? Dunno.
bimble
floofy
kick what off? A load of arrests are likely, more than there'd have been before the act passed, but that doesnt get anywhere does it?
bimble
floofy
I think the difference is in its provisions regarding stopping protests before they happen, by criminalising turning up.
Mr.Bishie
pickled egg
If the peacefully protesting A to B noisy middle classes get an Alfie Meadows, maybe they will kick off?
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
you don't know until it happens. who gets arrested. why. in what circumstances. who'd have thought that the cops shooting dead mark duggan would have kicked off the biggest riots since fuck knows when, when their killing so many other people hadn't? you don't know what will lead to what until it does.
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
No, that bill won't make any difference to it kicking off I think. If we're thinking activists and lefties there might be some demos and even riots, but most people outside those bubbles don't know and even care about that bill I would say. What is going to be critical is a base of strength in areas and workplaces, partly involving the unions where possible but also probably dealing with them trying to re-direct struggles and anger into less confrontational stuff (some unions might be different). The reality is it needs to involve a fuck load of people previously not 'involved' in politics, and if anything much of the left will be an hindrance rather than a help.
I think that strength takes years to build in times of low struggle, but can be built very quickly as how things are now. The Don't Pay thing is an example of how something might start and then hopefully escalate. But I don't think it'll be one thing, if anything grows and has potential I think it'll be on the background of the 'cost of living crisis' (hate that term btw) but then it'll need other stuff; a hard winter maybe, Ukraine/Russia war escalating, crop failures impacting Europe, etc.
I think that strength takes years to build in times of low struggle, but can be built very quickly as how things are now. The Don't Pay thing is an example of how something might start and then hopefully escalate. But I don't think it'll be one thing, if anything grows and has potential I think it'll be on the background of the 'cost of living crisis' (hate that term btw) but then it'll need other stuff; a hard winter maybe, Ukraine/Russia war escalating, crop failures impacting Europe, etc.
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Obviously the situation in Russia is very different from here (to put it mildly), but what seems to have happened there is that protest got criminalised so they don't protest there anymore, but they do molotov recruitment offices and sabotage train lines. With the caveat that there's only a small number of people doing that, but they're quite effective tactics. So who knows?
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
There's a Pat the Bunny song I'm quite fond of called "We'll get arrested, or shot", that's usually about the upper limit of my political hopes tbh.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
On 'the warm day' last week we paid Belgium 5000% more than the usual price for electric so people in Kent could still run their air-con.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
you might be right. but equally you might be very wrong. if you imagine a demonstration to parliament led by maybe vicars, housewives, people who aren't the usual suspects, demanding concessions over fuel prices in the context of hundreds of dead pensioners and some dead children, that march being attacked by the police - utterly legally, of course, they're just enforcing the police & crime act. who'd have thought a loyal march in 1905 could lead to the greatest crisis the romanovs had before 1917? so there's some precedent for demonstrations leading to a great crisis for the state.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
We do. Just couldn't cope last week.
Just like when everyone turns on a kettle at the same time.
Or everyone stops paying at the same time.
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Well exactly, I guess what I mean is I'm not that interested in a demo that 'kicks off' - the State generally has no issues dealing with them. What will be interesting is stuff that happens that's a real challenge to capital/State; mass refusal to pay or work type stuff. Especially if (as has been said) it runs alongside demos across the country with a wider mix of people involved. And alongside our ability to wield power and provide essential services to people to get them over the crisis. Standard stuff, but stuff that takes work.
bimble
floofy
yep i see. It is all so incredibly interconnected and high tech and complicated. Britain hits power imports record
EU electric is cheaper than the homegrown stuff, seems to be the thing mainly, so therefore we make less and buy it.
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
What air con? The vast majority of homes in the UK don't even have it. A tiny minority of air con users are the wrong people to get angry at.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
Chill Winston. It was a throwaway remark for effect, reflecting the extra electricity was indeed for the south east of England.
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
Maybe the the biggest city in the UK being located in the SE has something to do with it. I dunno.
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