Enough is Enough: This is a Class War

“This is a class war. It is being done to us by Etonians and people from Winchester. Our fellow workers are lying about in the road. Others are going to foodbanks. Starmer has got to start saying this word: redistribution.” 

Correct me if I am wrong, but this sounds like fighting talk from the indomitable RMT Union Secretary General, Mick Lynch. 

You won’t find many politicians using the term “class war”, because they are the class that is raging this war of state-inflicted poverty on the poor and working classes in Britain. 

And this is why, in my very humble opinion, the Enough is Enough campaign, a movement that was created on a shoestring budget, and is currently supported by more than 400,000 people, is in a prime position to reignite the left movement. 

Just think, 400,000 supporters. That’s more than the entire Labour Party membership and it is more than the Tory and Lib Dem memberships, combined. 

Let’s get the inevitable comparisons with the rise of ‘Corbynism’ out of the way. 

Sure, the big crowds and the enthusiasm are certainly reminiscent of 2016/17. I witnessed it close up, and the fantastic inaugural Enough is Enough rally held in London on Wednesday could quite easily have been Jeremy Corbyn addressing a packed theatre with our message of hope and unity. 

But the expectations are very different, aren’t they?

The Enough is Enough campaign has just 5 simple demands that would happily sit comfortably in any broader left-wing manifesto. 

1. A real pay rise 

2. Slash energy bills

3. End food poverty

4. Decent homes for all

5. Tax the rich 

Of course, so much can be added to this, but give them a chance, it’s barely even been 2 weeks. 

Now let me get my concerns out of the way. 

I love the enthusiasm for the Enough is Campaign. I love hope because it is the one thing that has the ability to get us through the darkest of times, and I absolutely believe this campaign has massive potential. 

But I know people, well-known activists, that want to know more about Enough is Enough before putting all of their eggs into one basket - and I absolutely understand that. 

If it’s a campaign to try and poke the anti-Union, anti-socialist Keir Starmer slightly leftwards then that’s fine, but let’s be honest and upfront about that, because I know much of the support for the Enough is Enough campaign detests the entire political class, including Starmer, and their unforgivable inability to propose the changes that are needed to deliver real pay rises for workers, better public services, and for the love of god, publicly owned utilities. 

Say it out loud folks, nationalisation isn’t a throwback to the days of flares, same-day doctor appointments, affordable homes, and that now-deceased socialist creation, the welfare state, but it is a popular necessity for the challenges that we face today. 

Privatise the profits and nationalise the debts no longer. If we cannot afford to protect Britain’s low paid workers from the cost of corporate greed crisis we most certainly cannot afford bung after bung to sustain the privatisation of our ESSENTIAL services. 

CWU boss, Dave Ward - another key figure fronting the campaign - said they were staggered by the response. 

But is this response enough to take the Enough is Enough campaign to the next level? And what would that even begin to look like when many of the organisers - and the faces leading the campaign - remain emotionally and in some cases financially committed to the Labour Party? 

Lynch’s language towards Keir Starmer and the Labour Party has toughened in recent weeks, and rightly so, but does Lynch *still* want Labour to win the next General Election? 

When asked on LBC on Friday, Lynch did make clear Keir Starmer wouldn’t be his preferred Labour leader, although he did stop short of saying who would be.

The fabulous Zarah Sultana, a popular left-wing MP who I admire, said Keir Starmer was doing a “good job”, on Thursday. I think this is the first time I fundamentally disagree with her, because Starmer’s abysmal record speaks for itself. On the flip side, Sultana is unlikely to rip into Starmer live on breakfast TV.

The CWU, a great Union, still funds Lisa Nandy. 

Essentially, all roads lead back to the Labour Party - Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. I detest the Labour Party for what they have become, and I know I’m not the only one. 

It goes without saying, I fully support the stated objectives of the Enough is Enough campaign. We are going through the worst cost of greed crisis in living memory, and the best the mainstream political party’s come up with is even more corporate welfare, hidden behind a price freeze for consumers. 

Energy bills increased by 54% in April of this year, plunging 8 million households into immediate fuel poverty. A 6 month price freeze isn’t going to lift them out of poverty, is it? 

Big problems need bigger solutions. 

The second demand from Enough is Enough is to “slash energy bills”. Sounds good. 

In 2017 Jeremy Corbyn committed to a price cap of £1,000 for dual fuel energy bills. How’s that for a bigger solution to a big problem? 

In fact, Jeremy had a fully costed plan that would’ve saved the average household more than £6,000 a year on their bills… but enough of this dangerous ‘Marxist’ talk. 

I’m happy to support pretty much anything and anyone pushing for a future that embraces common sense socialism. It’s not a word we should ever be scared of saying - it’s a belief that we should be proud to believe in. 

And this includes supporting the Enough is Enough campaign and the 5 demands that accompany them, because let’s be absolutely honest, Mick Lynch is about as near as we’ve got to an opposition leader right now. 

I say with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever, Keir Starmer is a fraud, a liar and a Tory, and if you’re thick enough to think that makes me a “Tory enabler” - when you are literally advocating further neoliberalism under Starmer the Tory - there’s really not a great deal I can do to help you.

So I say in good faith, support Enough is Enough, support Mick, Zarah, Dave and all of the other first class speakers you will see across the country at a number of packed rallies. 

In an ideal world, Enough is Enough would bring the cream of the left and the various left-leaning organisations under one large umbrella - Corbyn, Pidcock, Sultana, Lynch, Dempsey, Beckett, to name but just a few - and field candidates at the next General Election, because the cost of greed crisis is the biggest show in town right now, and tragically, it will be for the foreseeable future.

“But it would split the left vote”, I hear you say, and I absolutely hear you, but in reality, Enough is Enough *would be* the left vote, because Starmer’s Labour Party has nothing to offer the left whatsoever. 

Although I say this from a hypothetical point of view because I haven’t seen anything to indicate any desire to go any further than campaign rallies and media rounds. 

Lynch said at the London rally that Enough is Enough didn’t start out as a political movement, but the people have made it into a political movement. 

Perhaps the future for Enough is Enough is in your hands? Perhaps they are quite happy waving placards and demanding change, rather than considering a challenge to the political elite where it matters the most, at the ballot box? 

It’s good to have a bit of hope again, even if we aren’t entirely sure where it will take us, but what have we got to lose? 

Centrist catfishers are already coming up with their own bizarre theories, less than 2 weeks after the launch of the campaign. One even went as far as criticising Jeremy Corbyn’s involvement, despite Jeremy Corbyn not actually being involved in the launch. 

Absolutely rent free. 

Another one thinks it’s a huge covert operation to damage Keir Starmer’s chances at the next election, which has absolutely nothing to do with one poll after another putting the wretched hategoblin Liz Truss ahead of the beige bauble Starmer. 

That’s the thing, if you know your flop of a leader is likely to lose an election to a hard-right cheese whisperer you’d have a rethink, right? 

I wish Enough is Enough the very best of luck with their campaign, because it is our campaign too. 

We need them to be successful, we want them to be successful, and with unity, this is achievable. 

Until next time, 

Rachael 

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts, if you want to chip in towards improving my ongoing campaign, and it would cause you *no hardship*, you can do so here: