Enough is Enough: Union Demo at Station Plaza
By Paul McLaughlin
In a demonstration mirrored simultaneously in towns and cities all over England, more than 200 people gathered at Station Plaza in Hastings last Saturday morning to protest against the national government’s conduct of the economy, in particular the rise in the cost of living, and to support local trade union strike action. Members of the RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) were picketing outside the station itself, closed for the day due to their ongoing industrial action. Round the corner, the main post office depot was also closed due to a two-day strike by the CWU (Communication Workers Union). Speakers from those two unions were joined by many other trade unionists and their supporters, including Hastings Borough Council leader Paul Barnett, who delivered a particularly powerful and well-received speech.
The gathering was promoted as part of a National Day of Action within the growing ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign, organised by trade unions, community groups and tenants’ organisations nationwide. Its aim is to coordinate action to tackle the cost of living crisis which, it says, is causing “misery” to millions of people.
The Hastings & District Trades Union Council, which represents around 2,000 members spread over 11 union branches within the local economy, fully backs the campaign and its five key demands. These include: a real-terms pay rise for all workers; an end to food poverty; decent homes for all; cuts to energy bills; and a tax on the rich.
Speakers cheered
Kevin Crisp, the local branch chair of the RMT, urged the government to do more to help people facing rising energy
and food prices along with job insecurity. He apologised for the inconvenience to the public that his union’s strike was having and thanked the crowd for the strong support Hastings, in particular, had given in its fight to “protect jobs, pensions and cuts to wages against inflation”. To loud cheers, he said the public is “solidly behind us and we will win.”
Right: Council leader Paul Barnett addresses rally
CREDIT: Paul McLaughlin
Jonathan Lee, branch secretary of Unison union at the Conquest Hospital, said that health workers “had put their lives on the line during the Covid crisis only to be thanked with a real-time cut in wages.”
This sentiment was echoed by Jenny Sutton, from the National Education Union, who also claimed kids and teachers across Hastings had already suffered too much over recent years and needed greater support. She hoped ‘Enough is Enough’ would “inspire our children and show them that a better world is possible.”
Mags Capps, from Etchingham, agreed. The government, she said, “wants to turn us all into robots, but we are people, we are all different and we need to look after one another.”
Karen Davies, from GMB Sussex, told the crowd of her disgust at the government’s recent ‘mini-budget’ which she said had scrapped the cap on banker bonuses and cut the taxes of the rich whilst the key workers who had kept the country going through the Covid pandemic were now forgotten. “The revolution may well not be televised”, she said, “so let’s turn up the volume so everyone can hear.”
Cllr Barnett raised a particular cheer when he spoke of his council’s plans for a new programme of public housing and reaffirmed his commitment to take the grounds maintenance contract for the borough back in-house from its current corporate contractors (see above).
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