Summer of Discontent

Beginning in June 2022, The Summer of Discontent was a period of civil and industrial unrest that occurred throughout the UK, lasting some 3 months and punctuated by demonstrations, General Strikes, as well as the occupations across the UK. During the unrest, which has since become known as The Summer of Discontent, the economy of the UK came to a halt. The unrest was caused by widespred anger over record high infaltion, public sector job cuts and a large decline in living standards in the UK. At the height of the strikes, some 16% of the workforce was on strike, with a further 29% unable to work due to disruption.

The unrest began with a series of Protests and Strikes against the Cost of Living Crisis, Austerity, job cuts and rising inequality. Heavy police repression of protesters during a June the 18th TUC-led protest, led Trade Unions in the UK to call for wildcat, solidarity action (sympathy strikes). As sympathy strikes were illegal at the time, the government filed for an injucion against involved unions, which was granted by the Supreme Court on the 23rd of June 2022, which was ignored by the RMT, Unite, IWGB, UVW, UCU, NUS and more. In response to quickly spreading occupations of Universites in support of the strikes and on-going protests, on the 25th of June, the government ordered the dissolution of RMT, NUS and UCU, claiming that their leadership was in defiance of the law, and had supported 'militant occupations'.

This move was escalated the situation dramatically, with a swelling in protest attendance, and further strike action by the TUC; culminating in a 3 day General Strike in the first week of July alongside previously planned industrial action from RMT, the NEU and Unison, which spread far more quickly than expected to involve 8 million workers, more than 16% of the total UK workforce at the time. . The movement was characterized by large, organised Strike action and public rallies, which continued to be prevelant until the October Snap Election.

The discontent and action led to a rapid change in the UK social contract, with a resurgance of trade union membership, an increase in sectoral barganing and the 2022 Snap Election which saw the incumbent Conservative Government defeated. Anger at the reponse of Labour leader Keir Starmer - who condemned the General strike and occupations as 'reckless', 'illegal' and 'irresponsible' - amongst the trade union movement led some unions, including Unite, RMT, ASLEF, NASWUT, UCU, NEU and others to dissaffiliate from the Labour Party, with some backing the newly created Left-Wing Social Movement led by former Labour MP Ian Byrne and in alliance with the Green Party of England and Wales.

The common naming of the movement as the Summer of Discontent, arised after a headline from the Sun Newspaper claiming "BoJo leads us into a new Summer of Discontent", although the movement was also known as the Scorching Summer, or the Jun18 Movement - which references the large TUC-Led Rally on June the 18th, which was violently crushed by Police and is credited with starting the unrest.