A CAMPAIGN promising picket lines and rallies across the UK demanding action on the cost-of-living crisis has won more than 100,000 supporters in less than 24 hours.
A rush to sign up in the opening hours of the Enough is Enough campaign saw the website crash, with organisers urging people to wait for traffic to die down before trying again.
The campaign tweeted on Monday afternoon: “We’re aware that a number of you are having issues signing up – bear with us!
“Tens of thousands of people have signed up already, and the website is struggling with numbers. If you don’t get in now, try in half an hour at http://wesayenough.co.uk.”
Enough is enough. It's time to turn anger into action. Join the campaign to fight the cost-of-living crisis.https://t.co/1SeHcIXdMr pic.twitter.com/sVFpFpXMe1
— Enough is Enough (@eiecampaign) August 8, 2022
Enough is Enough has the backing of prominent trade union leaders – including RMT general secretary Mick Lynch and Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) – and multiple MPs including Labour’s Zarah Sultana and Sam Tarry, the former frontbencher who was fired for joining striking workers on the picket lines.
The campaign says it will be organising rallies and community groups, supporting picket lines and taking action against companies profiteering from the cost-of-living crisis.
Enough is Enough says it has five demands for government: A Real Pay Rise, Slash Energy Bills, End Food Poverty, Decent Homes for All, and Tax the Rich.
Despite calls from Nicola Sturgeon and former prime minister Gordon Brown, outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson has insisted it is not for him to intervene in the crisis.
Downing Street said that "by convention it is not for this prime minister to make major fiscal interventions during this [interim] period".
A new prime minister – either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss – will take over in early September.
Sunak has said he will pressure Whitehall departments to make spending cuts in order to free up funds to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. Truss has promised tax cuts in an attempt to put more money in people’s pockets, but has faced criticism from within her own party that it will do little to help those most in need.
CWU boss Ward said people would have to be "living under a rock" to be surprised at the rapid growth of the Enough is Enough campaign.
He went on: “The depth of desperation that exists in working-class communities across this country has been unrepresented in British politics for far too long. This campaign’s popularity was inevitable.
“Enough is Enough are going to turn today’s war on workers into a conflict against every piss-taking boss, parasite landlord and corrupt politician in this country."
Labour MSP Monica Lennon – who has urged people to get involved with Enough is Enough – told The National the campaign was filling a “vacuum” where political leadership from both the UK and devolved governments should be.
“It’s necessary to have widespread public mobilisation because the cost-of-living crisis is so serious, it looks to be getting worse by the day, and there’s just a lack of political leadership.
“This should be top priority for everyone in government, but it’s the trade unions, workers, charities that are organising. Political leaders are doing not very much, just arguing amongst themselves.”
Lennon (above) added: “There isn’t a lack of money in the system. People are not daft. They look at the reports that come out, there’s more billionaires than ever, they look at the profits of large corporations making record profits, there’s no cost-of-living squeeze on them.”
Amanda Burgauer, the executive director of the Common Weal think tank, which has also backed the campaign, accused the Scottish Government of inaction over the crisis. She said: “Writing 'ease the squeeze' on the side of a bus is no substitute for actually doing something.”
Burgauer went on: “This cost of living crisis may turn out to be the biggest of our lifetimes so far and it has never been so important for the independence movement to be on the right side of an issue. We can back workers, families and communities or corporate lobbyists, big finance and energy suppliers, not both.”
