Don’t Pay energy bills campaign

At the cowgirls meeting I spoke about the “Don’t Pay” campaign asking us to withhold paying our energy bills en-masse, especially as prices are set to rise again in April: https://dontpay.uk

I would really encourage you all to have a look at the website, especially the FAQ’s, and sign up. They will only ask people to strike when 1 Millon people commit.

I was initially dubious as I have anxiety about debt, missed payments and bad credit. But the FAQ’s really reassured me. Even if you withhold your payment for a few weeks (before it effects your credit) this will still have a huge impact. 

In the past these campaigns have worked. One example would be the resistance to the Poll Tax: more than 17 million people refused to pay and it became impossible for the government to force people to pay. Even then many people were scared to act and not pay the tax. But as confidence grew and local Poll Tax Groups were formed to support each other, it became socially acceptable to not pay. Tens of thousands of liability orders were issued forcing people to pay – but people refused and eventually the Poll Tax was scrapped. 

 A more recent example was the non-payment campaign against Southern Water in Kent in 2020 after they were fined £90 million for dumping raw sewage into the sea. Outraged by those costs being passed onto consumers, a non-payment campaign took off and eventually residents won by getting 50% taken off their bills. 

Take the pledge here: dontpay.uk/pledge-to-strike. You can also download and print posters/stickers etc from the website to help spread the word.

Soooooz.

UPDATE: The strike is currently planned for 1st Dec