Injustice is sustained by many things. One is a sense of inevitability: That it is just one of those ugly, painful things life throws at you. Another is resignation: The mantra of “there is no alternative”, a general lack of hope that things could be different.
And then there is intimidation: That the powerful are too strong to be overcome, that resistance is more likely to end in even more suffering rather than positive change. That life is often busy and stressful enough without attending protests and meetings, with children to raise and bills to pay, similarly complicates attempts to challenge the status quo. But if the past 12 months taught us anything, it is that the otherwise faceless or ignored can organise against power — and win.
Take Britain’s national scandal of poverty pay. Politicians have never been so committed — in rhetoric — to the principle of a living wage, even as they have presided over its disappearance in practice. A child growing up in poverty is more likely to live in a working household than not; and last year, the Resolution Foundation tells us, the ranks of the low-paid swelled by 250,000. A rational government would boost the minimum wage and restore collective bargaining rights for trade unions to lift workers out of poverty.
But in 2014, there were workers who did not wait for enlightened politicians to assert their rights. Workers at Brixton’s Ritzy cinema took strike action, built a broad public coalition, defied threats and forced the management to offer a big pay rise without job cuts. Workers at Curzon cinemas pulled off the same feat. Housing is one of the great crises of modern Britain. Social housing waiting lists, overcrowded homes, insecure tenancies, unaffordable private rents as wages are squeezed, houses treated as assets rather than a basic right: Here are the realities for millions.
A campaign led by working-class mothers in Newham challenged all that: The Focus E15 women occupied flats in protest at evictions and to demand council housing. In the face of opposition from the Labour Mayor, Sir Robin Wales, they won a moral victory in the courts and a commitment from the authorities to house homeless people in the flats.
Suddenly, the housing crisis had a national platform. The same goes for the New Era estate in Hoxton, whose residents faced being taken over by the rapacious Westbrook property developers and seeing their social rents raised to unaffordable levels. Rather than accept the move, they organised. Under concerted pressure, Westbrook sold the estate to the charitable Dolphin Square Foundation, apparently saving the tenants from eviction and extortionate rents.
Although it has been suggested the victory could prove short-lived and rent increases could eventually come, here was a story of a multinational company with wealth and connections being defeated by a grassroots community campaign dominated by working-class women. All of the above show that collective pressure from below can succeed. In the era of Twitter, campaigners who are used to being ignored or demonised by newspapers no longer have to depend on the mainstream media to get their message across.
And after years of progressive campaigns almost becoming accustomed to defeat, these victories could inspire others to take action. When people now enduring injustice see others winning, then resignation, intimidation and all the other factors that help maintain the status quo are eroded or even overcome altogether. Politics is often portrayed — particularly by those at the elite level — as a top-down affair. That is rarely more true than during an election year. In 2015, one of the most venomous election campaigns in Britain in modern times beckons: The passion of the arguments will disguise the fact that the main political parties disagree on all too little.
The key protagonists will be drawn from a narrow social background; professionalised politicians will dominate. I happen to be among those who believe that the vote was a desperately hard-won right and is one key instrument for social change. But democracy is so much more than an occasional trip to a polling booth. Our rights and gains, constantly imperilled as they are by the powerful, were won not only by voting but by organising, striking, demonstrating and, yes, breaking the law. After a year when victorious grassroots campaigning made a defiant comeback, it would be a travesty if the general election allowed top-down politics to reassert itself entirely.
An election year actually provides a potential new opening for grass roots politics, giving campaigners new leverage. The danger is that 2015 will become an almighty Ukipfest, with mainstream politicians focusing on bashing immigrants, benefit claimants, public-sector workers and other favoured Daily Mail targets. If British politics was reasonable or rational, the contest would be about solving the housing crisis, raising wages in a sustained way, creating secure jobs that have dignity and rights, achieving tax justice and at least debating the underlying assumptions behind austerity. If these issues are to be discussed with any seriousness, then it would be utterly naive to imagine politicians will engage of their own accord.
People must surely organise from below. This is how otherwise ignored voices will be heard too. Nobody could claim with any honesty that Westminster is a fair reflection of Britain. Overwhelmingly male, disproportionately privileged, lacking in minority or disabled voices — all of this helps to shape the priorities of our politicians. But grassroots campaigns last year were dominated by working-class women. Surely, few demographics have so little voice in mainstream politics. And yet the unheard forced the powerful to listen. They did not see their fights as isolated but as part of a broader struggle. If the cartel of British politics is to be broken, then these campaigns will have a crucial role. Britain is a country where the strength of your voice depends on the amount of money in your bank account.
But politics should not be a soap opera at the top. So for those of us who still believe in genuine democracy, 2014 was punctuated by hope. The housing crisis and poverty pay were tackled not by Britain’s politicians but by people from below. If democracy is to be reborn, and if politics is not to be kept relentlessly on the terms most favourable to the powerful, other such campaigns must flourish. Working-class women and low-paid cinema workers became leaders last year. Now it is time for the rest of us to follow.
— Guardian News & Media Ltd
Owen Jones is a columnist and the author of Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class.
