ANTI-AUSTERITY campaigners have called for a co-ordinated struggle against the cost-of-living crisis, privatisation of services and soaring billionaire profits.

A public meeting, organised by the People’s Assembly and Muslim Association of Britain in Holloway, north London, heard from leaders of the movement on Wednesday evening.

RMT president Alex Gordon said it was disgraceful that people were being arrested for protesting against the inauguration of King Charles III as an unelected head of state, who is inheriting billions of pounds without having to pay tax on it.

He praised protesters’ bravery, “given the climate of terrorism against criticism of the monarchy.”

Mr Gordon said: “The right to protest is under massive attack under a Tory government and you can see the fruits of [the new policing laws] — and police have gone beyond these laws.

“The cost-of-living crisis has not gone away as a mark of respect for the Queen.

“We have a responsibility to plan and build protests that will fight the crisis and restore a cost-of-living increase for people.

“We need a co-ordinated fightback. We need a mass movement on the streets.”

Muslim Association of Britain chairwoman Raghad Altikriti spoke of the grassroots organisation’s experience of easing the impact of the crisis on marginalised groups, saying that faith institutions “have been a critical lifeline where the government has failed.”

She said: “This is not just a cost-of-living crisis, it is a survival crisis.

“We are talking about whether people will make it until the end of this winter.

“This crisis is caused by the greed of billionaire bosses, aided by this government.

“Our demand must be for systemic change and nothing else will do. We must remember this as they try to offer us crumbs.”

Stop the War Coalition convener and People’s Assembly member Lindsey German hit out at Liz Truss’s energy plans, accusing the Prime Minister of being  “completely determined to help the tiny minority.”

She said: “This energy crisis deal is a disgrace as it is bailing out energy companies and we will be paying for them later.

“It would be much easier, cheaper and fairer to nationalise companies.”

Noting that the crisis affects the entire working class, Ms German said that the political right, including the Conservatives, are scapegoating migrant and ethnic minority communities to distract from their own role in causing living costs to rise.

“The blame lies in a system which is completely made up of a tiny group of people who control the wealth,” she said.

“We need to know who the enemy is.”

She also called for complete solidarity with striking workers, because “if they win, so will everyone else.

“If we don’t fight back now, they will destroy trade union organisation and all the things that make life possible for working-class people.

“This government is coming for us and we need to be coming for them in return.”

Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn quipped that he must live rent-free in the PM’s head since he was the only one who received a mention in Ms Truss’s acceptance speech and that ex-PM Boris Johnson had given him an energy-saving kettle as a goodbye gift.

On the new energy plans, Mr Corbyn said Ms Truss has “hardwired in that [energy bill] increase by pretending that there is going to be a freeze next year by paying an unspecified but very large sum of money to the energy companies on the basis that they have to protect their profits and invest in their services in the future.”

He said: “What that does is build on the privatisation in the early ’90s, [with services] sold off cheap.

“And the so-called regulation — which seems to be on the basis of a phone call from companies saying: ‘We would like to put up our prices by 60 per cent,’ and regulators saying: ‘Oh, that’s a bit steep. Can you do 50 per cent?’ — seems to be an incredibly cosy relationship between [the two groups].

“[Energy utilities] never should have been privatised. Now is the time to do what France has done and bring electricity back into public ownership.”

Mr Corbyn said that striking workers’ demands were “incredibly reasonable,” calling for Thames Water and Royal Mail to be brought back into public ownership as well.

“We don’t just need a wage rise, we need a redistribution of wealth, income and power within our society,” he said.

“We can be very strong together. That feeling on the marches … shows just what the strength of our traditions and our history is as working-class and progressive movements in this country.

“We cannot let this world, our public services and our living and working conditions be destroyed by the greed of multinational corporations.”

The People’s Assembly will hold a protest outside the Tory Party conference in Birmingham on October 2 and a national demonstration in London on November 5.