In just 81 days, more than 180,000 of us pledged to strike against outrageous energy price increases. The strength of our campaign — all of us organising and building the strike together in our communities — left new Prime Minister Liz Truss with no option other than to limit the upcoming price hike.
But this crisis is far from over.
The government has been forced to act but we have to be clear: what is being proposed is a bailout of the energy industries to protect their profits. It will not protect us and we are the ones who will pay for it for years to come.
Energy companies, like BP and Shell, get a taxpayer-backed guarantee for the £170 billion in profit they’re set to make in the next two years. We still face a winter of poverty, freezing homes and uncertainty with more price increases expected in January 2023.
The government wants to keep energy bills at an already record-high and unaffordable average of £2,500 a year. Millions of us still won’t be able to pay while more rampant profiteering in all other sectors — rent, food, fuel — pushes prices up and so squeezes our wages even further.
There is clear and overwhelming public support in this country for a radically transformed energy industry that works for people and the planet, not just a system to generate profits to make the already rich even wealthier.
Liz Truss is going to do what the Tories have been doing for over a decade - govern in the interests of their mates and ensure corporations keep making billions. In response to their cruel and dangerous policies, we have to organise to defend our communities.
Our campaign has been clear from the start: we’ll strike when we hit 1 million pledges. The threat of 180,000 of us pledging to strike has already forced the government to act. Whether we reach 1 million on 1st October or beyond, we now know: if we keep building the strike, we keep building our power.
It’s up to all of us to do this together.
As winter starts to set in, we have to protect each other. We need to all link up with our neighbours to support and defend our communities – to make sure none of us go cold or hungry.
It means everyone needs to be out on the streets on 1st October. We will be out in our communities up and down the country to show the government and energy companies we’re not backing down. Whether that’s a stall on your local high street or a protest in your town centre – let’s all get out there to say: freeze profits, not people!
We won’t pay for their profits. We’ll protect each other. We won’t let anyone go cold or hungry this winter. We’ve only just started and we have to keep pushing.
Get in touch with others in your local area and help build the strike: