Living Wage Campaign

This is largely an initiative of London Citizens londoncitizens.org.uk, who originate in socially-engaged Christianity in the US. They first came to prominence here as TELCO telcocitizens.org.uk/ - basically they are an alliance of religious groups, unions and community groups. The full-time organiser is basically a fact in most US campaigns, including quite grass roots ones. Several IWW organising drives over the last 15 years have focused on them. The campaign group train people up on how to relate to people, interview, basic organising skills and then try to build a campaign. It's been successful as far as it goes in a number of US cities. Here, they managed to score a victory against Waltham Cross hospital over the crap pay it was giving its cleaners and has been highly involved in the Canary Wharf cleaners campaign.

I've asked before if any anarchs in E London or Brixton have had any involvement but none has ever come forward. While I think there are problems with the approach, not least the overt religiosity of it and the appeals to a mythic civil society, the work they are doing is certainly worthwhile. The left in the T&G in London are apparently quite enamoured of them, and Lambeth Unison have done joint things with them.

Their presence is patchy (a bit like ours!) and they don't appear to do anything much in Lewisham, for example.

I'd be interested if you dig up anything more - the Solidarity Collective that some on this board are involved in is looking at similar areas of work but with a much more sussed political stance, IMO.

Martin

there's a girl at my college (queen mary's) who is just finishing a PhD about this campaign, and telco (the east london communityorganisation i think) in general. Shes nice, and has gone out to palestine with the solidarity movement, although very much a wiberal i'm afraid.

alas she hasn't got a space on the college website unlike most of the PhD students, but her name's Lina Jamoul. do a google scholar search for her and you might find an article or two about her research

[nb if you do but it won't let you access it, i have ways...]

Mm. I beg to differ. Aufheben are good on the problem with these sort of demands in the current climate :-

http://www.geocities.com/aufheben2/stc_intro.html

I don't disagree that it is vital to support campaigns for higher wages. There is, in my view, the world of difference between that and the sort of campaign which beauracratically decides on some value of a 'living wage' and then campaigns for it on behalf of workers. Very quickly we get drawn into debates like those on this thread - does it fall within the decency threshold set by such-and-such State body?

All of which misses the not minor point that the wage as such is a form of both forced labour and robbery.

Call me old fashioned, but I want to see the abolition of the wage system. Solidarity with real concrete struggles, issuing from workers, for higher wages are both good in themselves and a means of building the confidence of the only force in capitalist society capable of doing away with the wage system, the working class. Initiatives such as the 'Living Wage' campaign, by contrast, are at best a waste of time, and at worst a misleading distraction.