HUNDREDS of people gathered in Glasgow on Wednesday night to demand urgent action on the cost-of-living event.
The city’s Old Fruitmarket was at capacity for the Scottish launch of the campaign group Enough is Enough.
Spectators queued from around the block in anticipation of the rally, which heard from the Scottish Trade Union Congress leader Roz Foyer, tenants' union Living Rent and leading criminal defence lawyer Aamer Anwar.
The crowd cheered inside the historic Glasgow venue as speakers demanded higher wages and a cap on energy bills.
Stuc boss Foyer said Enough is Enough was about more than pay rise. She said it was about reshaping society as a whole.
She said recent wins for local government workers seeing an inflation-matching pay rise showed the value of collective action – but added more people need a pay rise.
Look at this queue for our Glasgow rally tonight 👀 And with plenty more to come! Scotland says #EnoughlsEnough pic.twitter.com/q3ddIGquew
— Enough is Enough (@eiecampaign) September 7, 2022
“My message to every single worker in Scotland is this: your fight is our fight, your struggle is our struggle. Wherever workers are fighting back we will be there to support you and help you win,” she told the Glasgow crowd.
Foyer welcomed the Scottish Government’s recent announcements on rent freezes and a rise in the Scottish Child Payment but said they did not go far enough.
She said: “In the absence of a Westminster government that even pretends to care about the poor we need the Scottish Government to go much further to protect people from what lies ahead.
“We need a radical budget because these are radical times we are facing.
“The Scottish Government must do everything they can within their existing powers to deal with this emergency because the new Tory government is going to provide more problems than solutions.”
The crowd booed as Foyer mentioned the new Prime Minister.
“Under this new Liz Truss government we’re going to have to realise that we are having the fight of our lives and if you had any doubts about their intentions you just have to look at the fact she put Jacob Rees-Mogg in charge of trade union and workers right. God help us.”
Attendees Eleanor and Niamh, both 26, said they felt the rally was the start of a much-needed grassroots movement to battle against the cost-of-living crisis.
Niamh told The National: “It feels like some source of hope in a landscape for people that’s just absolutely hellish and has been for a long time.
“It feels like there’s a kernel and something brewing and it’s giving me hope.”
Eleanor said: “People are totally fed up. People feel like they’re in despair about the future. I feel like that. I think a lot of people do.”
Asked if they are worried about their own energy bills, they both agreed.
“I don’t think anyone isn’t,” Eleanor said. “People from across different walks of life are worried and people realise how important it is to worry about people that aren’t the same as you.”
Asked if they had any hope in fledgling Prime Minister Truss would help with the cost-of-living, they laughed, before saying: No, I don’t trust the Tories to change anything.”
Enough is Enough, which has seen rapid growth in the few short weeks since its creation, describes itself as a "campaign to fight the cost-of-living crisis" and has listed five demands to the UK Government.
They are:
1. A real pay rise
2. Slash energy bills
3. End food poverty
4. Decent homes for all
5. Tax the rich
Speaking before the event, Anwar said: "We cannot wait until the desperate & poor are negated as human beings - power rests with the people, it’s time our movement united and brought this inhumane Tory government to its knees.
"This winter people are going to die, others will lose their homes, face making choices between food and heating or both, we don’t have the luxury of waiting for politicians to get their act together, so trade unions and the working class will just have to do it for them.”
