The Plan:
Date: 27th January
Time: 10AM
Location: To be disclosed, meet outside Leeds City Museum
What? Responding to a national call to action by Fuel Poverty Action to warm ourselves up this winter!
It’s January. It’s freezing. Christmas emptied the coffers and now the bills are starting to bite. As the Big Six energy companies rake in profits of 700% and the government freezes the fuel allowance, it’s time to tell the Big Six and the government that we’ve had enough!
Fuel poverty is a public issue, not a private pain. One in four families in the UK is shivering, out of sight, behind closed doors. The government and energy companies may want to keep it this way, but we say this can’t go on.
In the UK, six companies are deciding how 99% of our energy is sourced, produced and priced. Under this monopoly, we have no say in these decisions, despite them having a major effect on our health and our climate.
From 27th to 29th January Leeds Fuel Poverty Action is joining up with other groups all over the country to heat things up!
We’re calling for people to come out of their cold homes and into the warm offices of the Big Six: E.ON, EDF, Scottish Power, Scottish and Southern, Centrica (British Gas), and Npower.
We can also warm-up at the town halls and housing associations, which are putting profit and cuts before people’s welfare.
Bearing flasks of tea and our own experiences of landlords that won’t listen, unaffordable bills, tuition fees, and debts, as well as cuts in services, benefits and working conditions, our winter warm-ups will be taking place wherever cuts are biting and warm spaces look inviting.
This is a call to anti-cuts groups, local youth and pensioner organisations, and anyone suffering in the cold this winter because they can’t afford the heating.
We can find ways forward, collectively, by making ourselves heard by the government and the energy companies. But what do we demand? Some things are clear: Decent shelter and warmth are a right, not a privilege. We should all have well insulated, warm homes and affordable bills that don’t make us choose between eating and heating. But how do we achieve this? What alternatives are there to a corporate controlled energy industry? How do we shift to sustainable, renewable energy? As we Warm-up we’ll be discussing these important questions and forming a plan to achieve it, come and join us!
Stop shivering in silence, let’s warm-up together!
For more information, get in touch with Jon at jon.owen[at]leedstidal.org
Fuel Poverty Action marching to the 'die-in' 22nd November 2011
