It’s about leverage.
We can’t wait for them to finally care that millions of us are really struggling to afford to live. We know which side the government and energy companies are on.
Our already unaffordable energy bills will rise another 27% on 1st October. We’ll be paying 96% more to heat our homes this winter than we did last year. Millions of us simply won’t be able to keep our heads above water and many will freeze when the weather turns cold. That is an unacceptable reality when energy companies like Shell and BP are expected to make over £170 billion in excess profit in the next two years.
The government has chosen to keep making the rich even wealthier instead of supporting ordinary people. The new budget literally cuts the tax rate for people earning over £150,000 and lifts the cap on bonuses for bankers. Unless we stop them the government intends to bail out energy companies with taxpayer money to the tune of £150 billion. That means you will be paying for their profiteering twice - first through record-high energy bills and again through government spending.
Asking nicely just won’t do it, we have to build our collective power – and use it.
‘Don’t Pay’ isn’t financial advice and it’s not about never paying bills again. It’s about building real power and showing the government that you are prepared to refuse their extortion and stand in solidarity with those who simply can’t pay these prices. The Don’t Pay campaign brings together those who can’t pay with those who won’t pay. It’s how we demonstrate the power we have together and make it clear we won’t accept this as our new normal.
That’s why we’re saying we’ll only strike when we hit 1 million pledges.
Every single person who pledges builds our power. There is strength in numbers, the government knows this and energy companies know this. We will call a mass payment strike when we reach a million because acting together increases the impact we will have to scrap the April 2022 price hike.
And we’ve now proven the strength of the Don’t Pay campaign. After 180,000 of us pledged to strike, the government was forced to reduce the catastrophic energy price hike scheduled for 1st October. The threat of all of us saying we won’t pay left the government with no other option.
We know there’s massive support for a radically transformed energy market that works for people, not profit. We know that millions of us can’t afford our energy bills and together we can build the strike to one million – and we can win this.
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