To think it’s time for a general strike

[Mountainatmygates]

I am old enough to remember the poll tax riots which did eventually bring about a shift in policy.

The country is on its knees - I read yesterday that energy bills could hit 6k a year in the spring and put 45 million into fuel poverty.

it’s completely nuts and the current government are wholly to blame after 12 years in power. I have just been in France where bills have risen 4% because the energy companies are nationalised.

I think it’s genuinely time for some collective action.

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen i disagree. It’s the same principle. I am sure that many more people would resign their roles if they could afford to. MPs had the luxury and security of keeping their well paid constituency positions which most normal working people don’t.

@RoseAndRose i think we have been quite clear on here about the purpose of a general strike. The current government don’t care or acknowledge the severity of the current economic crisis for working people and collective action is one way to make them listen. Nationalisation is one option to reduce bills and reduce corporate piss take profits and reinvest. But generally taking a stand against the most corrupt lazy useless government in living memory.

I'm a member of the RMT. My husband is a member of the CWU. I'm in the public sector, just, TfL. DH is in Royal Mail, a postal worker. We both have disputes with our employers.

It really is a race to the bottom out there. I stand to lose 600 colleagues. So if you need help, either with your travel costs, with finding a step-free route, with needing an arm to take you to the platform...you will be out of luck in the future. In the outlying stations, there's rumours of putting one member of staff mobile between 2-3 stations. If you are disabled, or a victim of crime, how are you going to get the help you need?

DH has had a 2% pay offer imposed on him. If the union agree to a whole load of unpalatable conditions he might get 5.5%. But inflation is running at 9-11% so even though my wage has increased with RPI, his hasn't, so overall our income combined will reduce in real terms, regardless. Meanwhile Royal Mail paid its CEO £140k in bonuses and handed out the majority of it profits to its shareholders.

It's not just our jobs. It's everywhere. Telecommunications, Courier services, Amazon, education, cleaning services, barristers, Deliveroo, council services, shipping...people are losing money, they can't pay the bills, the burden on food banks grow, the companies make redundancies to cut costs...yet the corporations are taking it in, to the tune of billions. Look at British Gas's recent profits. It's obscene.

There are general unions out there...try the GMB as a start. But yes, go to the link OP posted at the TUC site, and join a union. Also, look up the Enough is Enough campaign on Twitter led by the unions to try and change things for the better. It won't solve all the problems but it's a start.

Great idea. That's just what our fragile economy needs! Stop people being able to get to work! Yeah...and reduce their capacity to earn and produce. Brilliant. Maybe we could drop a few bombs on ourselves as well.

How is a general strike going to solve the energy crisis, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Britain's poor productivity, and the long-term aftershocks of the Covid lockdown?

Amazing really how many on here think that the same "shit show" of a government will suddenly run all of the newly renationalised industries perfectly.

I also dread to think just how much renationalisation would cost in both the short and longer term as suddenly the UK becomes a far less attractive proposition for investors.

@Suetwo yea cos the energy crisis has nothing to do with the tories does it?

You haven’t defined who you want to nationalise.

We’ve already established that British Gas - who sell gas extracted by other businesses - has a market capitalisation of £5 Bn.

BP’s market capitalisation is £85 Bn. Shell’s is £164 Bn.

Where’s that coming from? Are we printing more money? That will help inflation, eh?

How will the government compel the shareholders to sell their shares?

How will acquiring these businesses help to reduce the wholesale price of gas?

The majority of the shares in FTSE 100 businesses are held by pension funds. Are they ‘pisstaking’? How do you think that those pension funds should be compensated for losing a big chunk of their assets under management?

That may well be. But my dental practice can still just turn round and tell me not to come back. I have no rights. I'm not like a plumber or builder who takes jobs from the public and can keep working. I work in a practice (2 actually on different days). They can tell me not to bother coming back if I go on strike and there's nothing I can do about it.

The posters defending the utility companies should take the time to research the utility companies' share dividends programmes and benefits given to their boards and their top-level staff.

Posters who are in unions and posters who are activists and campaigners are simply raising awareness on this thread. It would be foolish to list more details when certain other posters have made their loyalties and priorities clear (over very many threads on here).

This isn't where the real organising takes place. It happens in RL, in communities, through networks - the way it always has done.

The anti-strike posters aren't helping their parties. Perhaps they should consider a little Road to Wigan Pier exercise to reacquaint themselves with the priorities and values of all the electorate. Or a quick read of Marx or John Stuart Mill to remind them of the means of production and the role of the government.

There won't be a "general strike" or mass protests/riots - even people harking back to the poll tax forget that, percentage wise it was small amounts who didn't pay and even smaller amounts who went to the London protest in march 1990. For all that supposed "anger" who was elected in 1992? The conservatives.

The "replacement" for the poll tax (Council tax) had/has issues too.

Will there be moaning on social media and places like MN - yes, people "taking to the streets"? No.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I read about bus drivers in Japan striking. They still went to work, drove their routes, and picked up passengers, but refused to take fares. This type of action damages the company but benefits the customer giving them public support.

Our laws make this type of strike questionable, as I understand it could be seen as illegal here, but it hasn't actually been challenged.

We need to be more inventive in how we fight back. We need to show big businesses and the government how much they depend on the people they are currently ignoring. If a person cannot afford the necessities they aren't going to do anything extra and that will damage the economy.

Poverty costs the country. In the short term crime goes up, scams are everywhere and long term you have a proportion of the population who cannot access decent education, you can't learn while hungry, you can't do your homework while shivering, by candlelight and expect it to be as good as you could do in a warm, well-lit room. Millions are going to fail to reach their potential and that harms us as a society and as a country.

There won’t be a “general” strike but it is going to be a long hard winter of discontent, the government will have to do more to help the low paid and pensioners.
Im sure they will but until we get a new PM confirmed we won’t know, it’s likely to be Truss who gives me no confidence at all, so I see the economy slowly sinking into recession.

I Predict A Riot Sustained Period of Tutting.....

Show us two posts ‘defending the utility companies’.

What do you mean by ‘utility companies’? Those selling the gas? Or those extracting the gas? Because users buy from the former, not the latter, and they are affected by wholesale prices. What do you think they should do?

Businesses will close. Disposable income will disappear. Ironically those who complained most about lockdown affecting certain sectors will see those sectors and more decimated.

People have always taken to the streets. The media choosing not to cover those marches and protests didn't mean they didn't happen and didn't mean they didn't have an impact. Motions at union conferences and at party autumn conferences will be interesting this year.

The poll tax was ended because of a few bad defeats in by-elections and a general election due only less than a year later.

Just make sure that in 2024 you turn out to vote and get rid of your Tory MP if you have one.

"Great idea. That's just what our fragile economy needs!"

I think it's easy to talk about disruption and shellfish behaviour when it comes to strikes etc.

The fact remains that since the 80's government policy has been to stimulate business growth on the assumption that this is good for everyone in the long run. We have encouraged high value individuals to settle in the UK through taxation policies because the wealth tickles downwards as a result.

I think it is obvious to most people that this has only resulted in wealth and health inequalities etc getting wider and wider. It was particularly galling that the financial bail outs of the investment side of banks ( as opposed to deposit business) were bailed out by imposing austerity on the low paid and public services.

Most people are tired of getting gradually poorer in real terms over the last 10 to 15 years, putting their health at risk during the pandemic etc then bring told their reward is a real terms pay cut of around 7 to 10%.

Many people probably feel it is worth some short term pain if it results in some change especially when they are facing being unable to heat their homes and or feed their families in the next 6 months.

And that you vote for MPs who support workers' rights and strike action.
MN is hardly a bed of left-wing activisits yet it's shown more support for the rail strike than Starmer has.

Posters who don't understand the structure of utility companies and sister companies can find easy primers on the internet. I worked in the industry for a long time. I appreciate I know more than most but I'm not here to educate posters who feel having no knowledge and no research skills equips them to sealion all over threads about workers' rights.

@Iamthewombat i think the TUC predicted it would cost 2.5 billion to renationalise the energy companies

heres one of many articles about nationalising and the cost of doing so amp.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/17/green-party-calls-for-nationalisation-of-big-five-energy-firms

There's a movement called enough is enough and they are doing rallies.

I'm coming round to that view, OP. Mainly because the government are not governing and we are in a national crisis. They cannot be allowed to just sit on their hands. I've joined Enough is Enough.

You do realise that it's us the tax payers and shoppers who will fund all the pay rises, then having funded all the pay rises everyone's pay and pensions will have to be put up as they won't be able to pay their bills, and then there will be a general strike etc etc ad nauseum.

Poll tax riots achieved FA, apart from a name change to council tax