Millions of people across Britain are seeing the NHS left in tatters, benefits slashed and energy bills skyrocketing. They face a cost of living crisis while the billionaires keep getting richer.
That’s why a coalition of groups are marching through London this Saturday under the banner “Make Them Pay”.
The Labour government is set to impose even harsher austerity policies in this autumn’s budget. Instead, the coalition is calling for a tax on the super-rich, investment in well-paid, unionised jobs and action to tackle climate breakdown.
Far right groups like Reform UK want to blame environmental policies for high energy bills and job cuts in steel and manufacturing. At the same time the likes of BP laugh all the way to the bank as they report profits in the billions and pour money into oil and gas to please their shareholders.
Izzie McIntosh, Campaigns and Policy Manager at Global Justice Now and Make Them Pay organiser told Socialist Worker, “Saturday’s demonstrations will unite people from across climate, workers’ rights and social justice movements in a demonstration of our shared struggles.
“With far-right protesters taking over our capital last weekend, it’s more important than ever that we stand united as communities, and highlight that the only minority destroying our country is the super-rich.
“As our government fails to take action to improve people’s lives or persuade people not to turn to the far right, we will make ourselves heard and demand a society that protects the people who keep it running, not the rich and powerful.”
Saturday’s march is supported by dozens of organisations including the PCS, FBU and NEU unions, the Green Party, the Peace and Justice Project, environmental groups and many other charities and campaigns.
The Campaign Against Climate Change (CACC) is one of the groups supporting the march.
Claire from CACC told Socialist Worker, “There is a backlash against climate action from the right. Ordinary working people are described as oppressed by ‘net zero’ policies.
“This misleading narrative helps the fossil fuel companies twice over. It distracts attention from their own vast profits, pocketed from high energy bills as prices rose. It also delays climate action and the inevitable competition they face from cheap renewable energy and a clean energy system.
“The ‘Make Them Pay’ demo aims to put the focus back on the billionaires and polluting corporations who are destroying our planet, and also to present a positive vision for a fairer future, which is essential if we are to successfully confront the far right.”
At the TUC union federation congress earlier this month, unions reaffirmed their support for a concerted year of climate action among workers. The motion demands a just transition away from fossil fuels.
It called for days of action on 14 November 2025 and global day of solidarity on 15 November 2025, during the Cop30 international climate talks in Brazil.
An amendment said that “a future fossil fuel production can only be ended when and where a fully funded workers’ plan for jobs has been agreed and delivered in full”.
Sarah Woolley from the BFAWU union, moving the original motion, criticised this for giving “too much wriggle room to the fossil fuel lobby and to governments that have already dragged their feet for too long”. She argued we can’t delay taking action while we wait for a plan to be delivered. However, the motion was carried including the amendment.
Claire added, “In this mobilisation and in the year of trade union climate action coming up we need to see trade unionists alongside climate activists, making it clear that the climate crisis is a working class issue that affects us all, and demanding action.”
Join the demo on Saturday 20 September, 12 noon, Portland Place, London