“What might seem now like a brief spate of protests has the potential to turn into a massive round of class struggle.”
Image: Protest against the cost of living protest, London, Saturday 12th February, by Steve Eason
Like thousands across the country, I spent Saturday afternoon listening to speeches in the pouring rain. The occasion was a last-minute local call-out to stand with demonstrations across Britain protesting the cost-of-living crisis. Despite the fact that only 100 or so people turned out where I live in Leeds, this shouldn’t be cause for despair. The government’s announcement that it is imposing a 54% increase in the price of gas on British households, an additional £700 on top of usual annual household energy bills, is yet to be felt by many.
As well as Leeds, this weekend saw mobilisations in Manchester, London, Glasgow, Stoke-on-Trent, Bangor, Liverpool and more. These were organised by various groups, including Disabled People Against Cuts, The People’s Assembly, RS21, local trade union councils, Unite Community and many others. (Cardiff’s protest is due to take place this Saturday, 19th Feb)
Whilst none of the protests on the weekend just gone can claim to be huge mobilisations, they represent the first tremors of opposition to a huge class assault sharpened by the fact that a Tory government tentatively committed to ‘levelling up’ has only managed to offer a paltry £200 loan to cover the cost, along with £150 extra for those in the right council tax band.
The demonstrations on the weekend, which also received large-scale coverage in the media, were an important first step in bringing the movement together and providing a sense of leadership against the offensive. And what might seem now like a brief spate of protests has the potential to turn into a massive round of class struggle.
Unlike David Cameron and George Osbourne’s austerity regime, which limited its most severe effects to the poorest, public sector workers and students, this latest act of class war is incredibly widespread in its impact. Affecting up to 22 million households, from owner-occupiers to both social and private renters, the scope for cohering a mass class movement against this generalised offensive is enormous. The socialist movement needs to recognise this.
Whilst it has often been absolutely right that the Left has stressed the need to shed light on and fight the horrific social conditions imposed on the most marginalised, from disabled people and women, to racialised citizens and welfare recipients, if we are to build a movement to fight this particular offensive we have to stress the common nature of the onslaught.
We do not want the broadest coalition of the left, we want the broadest coalition of society. If the 99% vs 1% antagonism became the articulation upon which successive social movements operated under in the early 2010s, interrupting the story capitalism had told of itself for decades, we need to create the conditions for this slogan to develop some social content in the here and now. This raises three considerations going forward.
Firstly, rather than simply relying on social media or our traditional left-wing networks as key mobilisational tools, we need to go back-to-basics and revitalise our capacity to conduct everyday, outward-facing communication and agitation. This doesn’t negate the need for precise and consistent social media work, but we drastically need to prioritise getting out into communities postering, flyering, stalling and talking to people.
Secondly, we need the heavyweight institutions of the movement to put resources into building an effective social movement, meaning considerable backing and funding from trade unions.
If the resources and energy that Sharon Graham’s Unite has absolutely correctly thrown into trying to revitalise the industrial landscape could be even half-replicated over the cost-of-living crisis, this incipient movement would be emerging on sure footing. The signs so far are positive, with Graham loudly backing the protests. This needs to continue of course, and other unions must throw their weight behind actions and demonstrations over the crisis facing working people. In this respect, it’s very welcome news that the TUC have just announced a mobilisation for the whole movement in Blackpool on 19th March, outside the Tory spring conference.
And thirdly, whilst we need a broad-based multi-national campaign spanning England, Wales, Scotland and the North of Ireland, it can only be sustained through strong local infrastructure, actively involving masses of individuals. The pandemic can complicate matters of course, but where possible we should be combining open-air public meetings seeking to involve as many as possible with nationally coordinated actions and forums hashing out strategies and ways forward.
It’s early days, and in many respects, the tenure of this article might seem incredibly pre-emptive and presumptive. If there is a mass social explosion over this attack, who knows what pathways the social fury might unblock. Street protest was the name of the game last weekend, but we might find that boycotts provide the most conducive way for a social movement to develop leverage and victories. For example, ‘Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay’ – the defining slogan of the anti-Poll Tax campaign – has already featured in movement literature and discussion.
Whatever the form the struggle takes however, socialists should remain flexible, attentive to the mood and determined to grasp the tactics which break the government most effectively. There is no reason, for example, that street protests and community boycotts should be counterposed to more militant direct action such as occupying the premises of state institutions and energy company buildings. Nor should we write-off the possibility for a confluence between this potential movement and the increasing spate of workplace struggles over pay claims.
British capitalism is in the midst of an organic crisis characterised by the breakdown of political consent and a growing rupture between those who represent and those who are represented. The populist interregnum, best dated from the vote to leave the European Union, through to the rise of Corbyn and his eventual defeat at the hands of Boris Johnson, has not gone away.
Whilst the current Prime Minister was able to resolve the popular conduits of the Brexit crisis, the feeling of national unity which once characterised the public’s patient approach to the pandemic has disintegrated in the face of ‘partygate’ and the reality that the Prime Minister popped bottles of champagne and partied it up whilst the vast majority of the population locked down, isolated, suffered and in far too many instances, died.
There’s nothing permanent about this organic crisis, but right now there awaits an opportunity to transform a brutal class assault into a blow on this Tory government, their capitalist friends in the polluting, money-raking energy industry, and the Andrew Bailey’s of the world who insist workers curtail demands for wage rises whilst his sort get paid through the nose. The task now is to open up, raise demands, build and facilitate the birth of a social movement.
*Jonas Marvin is an independent activist and researcher
