WORKING class people are fed up with constant attacks on their living standards. They are fed up with a rigged economy that sees big business making record profits, bosses' pay soaring and billions being paid out in shareholder dividends. They know working people pay for it through a relentless attack on their wages and working longer hours, living in cold homes and struggling to feed themselves and their children, not to mention rising bills and the continual squeeze on their public services.

That’s why tens of thousands of Scots have said Enough is Enough.

A capacity crowd at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow brought in the official launch rally of the Enough is Enough campaign in Scotland last week. Speakers from trade unions, tenants’ union Living Rent and grassroots campaigns Power to the People Glasgow and Fans Supporting Foodbanks Scotland sent the audience home with a clear message – the working class is getting organised, it is fighting back, and there is a new mood of resistance and we can win again for working people.

Workers are no longer willing to accept that their pay packet must be held down whilst the wealth that their labour creates enriches others. They refuse to countenance companies making huge profits and paying out hundreds of millions of pounds to shareholders on the one hand, who then on the other hand turn seamlessly to attack their terms and conditions and threaten them with compulsory redundancies or the draconian practice of ‘fire and rehire’.

This summer has seen thousands of Scots (across a broad range of workplaces and sectors) withdraw their labour to protect their living standards in the face of the cost of living crisis. Critically, despite the best efforts of some to discredit workers, the public is overwhelmingly on their side. TV vox pox of the public are struggling to find any member of the public willing to criticise striking rail workers, postal workers and refuge workers.

Why not? Because the public at large recognise the struggles of workers in dispute and that the fight of striking workers is their fight too. A Survation poll for the Enough is Enough campaign showed that 76% of the public support a pay rise in line with inflation.

People are showing solidarity with striking workers on picket lines across the country, organised by groups such as Glasgow Strike Solidarity. The collective strength of striking workers and public solidarity is making the bosses sit up and notice, and it is delivering wins for working people.

Local Government workers in waste services withdrawing their labour saw the rubbish pile high in Scotland’s cities but the majority of the public didn’t complain about the mess, they supported the workers and piled pressure on the Government and COSLA to negotiate with the unions.

But the wins are not just being won in industrial disputes. Working class people, organising in their communities, are delivering the solutions that we need to the cost of living. This week's partial and temporary rent freeze from the Scottish Government is a case in point. Just a few weeks ago, an emergency rent freeze was voted down by the very same government. But, tenants, organised through their union Living Rent, have won a U-turn, protecting thousands of tenants from sky-high rent increases and evictions this winter.

That’s the power of working-class people, resisting, organising and no longer accepting the status quo. Working people are not willing to accept inaction from politicians, but organising collective power means inaction is no longer an option for the political establishment and the big corporations.

It’s what happened in the Wyndford in Maryhill. Residents there are locked into a District Heating Scheme with SSE. It’s a scheme that was meant to tackle fuel poverty but instead has locked residents into a contract where their energy bills have been increasing with no option to switch suppliers. But the Wyndford Residents Union organised. They fought back against SSE. Their demonstrations got them a seat at the table to negotiate with SSE and not only did they win an energy price freeze until March 2023 for themselves, but they also won an energy price freeze for all 18 SSE District Heating Schemes in Scotland. That’s working-class power right there.

For months it's been working class people that have been in the driving seat fighting against the cost of living crisis whilst our government went on holiday. Whilst Ofgem was announcing the eye-watering increase in the energy price cap, there was no one at the wheel for the government. Instead, it was people coming together through the Power to the People campaign that stood shoulder to shoulder to demand action on energy bills. And campaigns like that, with mounting pressure from the general public, have secured temporary action on bills this winter.

The growth in working-class solidarity even brought Celtic and Rangers fans last Saturday to collect food for local food banks. Working together, under the umbrella of the recently launched Fans Supporting Food Banks Scotland group, fans from both sides of the city’s football divide put their colours to one side to fight rising hunger in the city.

THESE examples show the importance of working-class people coming together to demand a better deal. But we need to build more of it. The Enough is Enough campaign is going to do that up and down Scotland.

Whether you have a rotten landlord, are in need of a pay rise, are having to use a food bank, are struggling to pay your energy bills or need decent housing – it’s time we all stood together and said; Enough is Enough.

The solutions to our problems will be won in our workplaces and in our communities. Politicians may be giving us temporary action on the cost of living crisis just now, but the cost of living crisis is just the latest crisis caused by our economic system. Unless we stand together to argue for transformational economic change, the next crisis will come along soon and we will once again be asked to pay the price of others' greed.

Join the tens of thousands of working class Scots who have already signed up to be part of the Enough is Enough campaign. Help build solidarity in our communities and let’s demand a fair deal for us all.

https://wesayenough.co.uk/

Joe Cullinane is Enough is Enough Scotland Co-ordinator, a leading Community Wealth Building campaigner and former leader of North Ayrshire Council