Shaking the pillars of the status quo

Erik Cramb writes from Dundee on why we are here.

Sharon Graham, the General Secretary of Unite the Union, claimed that the ‘shame and shambles’ surrounding the government in recent weeks merely confirms that over the past 18 months ideals put forward when the Labour Party was first established have been ‘corrupted, most likely irretrievably’.

Writing in the Financial Times, she notes that Unite was historically the biggest affiliate to Labour and is still its biggest union funder. “But,” she says, “if a Labour agent were to arrive at Unite’s Holborn HQ inviting us to affiliate today, we would say ‘No thanks’.  We would tell the messenger that we need a Labour government that shakes the pillars of the status quo so that everyday people are better off.  Clearly this government doesn’t do that!”

We are in a dark place … as I began to write this, I learned of the death of one of the heroes of my student days, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, one of the giants of the Civil Rights Movement in America.  I can hear his rich voice echoing across the years loud and clear to us in our dark place:  “Keep hope alive, keep hope alive, keep hope alive.”

Responding to the demand of Sharon Graham of Unite for a Labour government that shakes the pillars of the status quo, I found myself remembering (it’s what we old guys do best) when Scottish Churches’ Industrial Mission sent me to an international conference in Naples. 

The only thing I knew about Naples was being taught at school that Glasgow had the worst slums in Europe outside of Naples.  But when I got there, I found I had arrived in a city of celebration. Napoli had just won the Italian football league for the first time in over two decades led by the genius of Diego Maradona. Today every Scottish fan knows well that the footballers Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour are the modern heroes of Napoli,  .

Back then, in the 1990s, more than 90 people from 15 countries in western Europe met with people from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean to address together the issues raised by the completion of the European Single Market in 1992.  They came from local action groups, urban industrial mission teams, base Christian communities, trades unions and others sharing a common commitment to struggle for political and economic justice for the poor and marginalised citizens on earth. Daniel Ntoni-Nzinga from Angola memorably described the Single Market as ‘business declaring itself too big for the nation state.’ 

What Sharon Graham’s desire to shake the pillars of the status quo recalls vividly for me is the memory of a little middle-aged woman from El Salvador, after 3 days of intense debate, storming to the front of the conference. Rolling up her sleeves, shaking with frustration she pointed her finger in accusation.  She said, “You (Europeans) must be intentional about working together with us (the poor of the Third World). You must get clear what you are doing.  Do you not know that the European Community (UK was a full member then) is an all-out war against the poor.  You are out to kill us.  In the stunned and embarrassed silence, she went on, “I need to shake the world to a new reality and if you are not expecting to shake the world, why are you here?  Why are you here?

In the 35 years or so that has elapsed since that conference, Ntoni-Nzinga’s claim has been shown to be true. The systematic and deliberate attempt to turn the world on its head to accommodate the rich and powerful at the lethal expense of the poor and marginalised. The pillars of the resultant status quo seem immovable and indestructible.  We have failed the woman from El Salvador; we have been deaf and blind to her urgency.

Why are we in any party of the left if we are not expecting to shake the world?  Why are we unable to form a coherent alternative to challenge the pillars of the status quo? Why are we members of a trades union or a faith community? Why are we here??

We can only begin to keep hope alive if we can see light in the darkness, and, yes there is light if we have eyes that see and ears that hear.

In 2002 I had the opportunity of spending a month in Minneapolis talking to the churches there about workplace chaplaincy and I still have links with people there. I have heard the accounts of people I know.  How the horrors of the shootings of innocent citizens by the ICE death squads have been met by the bravery of the citizens who took to the streets in their tens of thousands, putting their own lives and safety at risk, have forced at least a partial climb down from Donald Trump. A little crack in one of the pillars, barely detectable, but there.

Nearer to home, there are voices to be heard claiming that the decision of the High Court in London ruling that the proscription of Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist organisation’ was unlawful and disproportionate is an important moment in turning the world on to its correct axis. Hyperbole perhaps, but a precedent was set in legally labelling a movement as terrorist when it clearly was not.  Another little crack in one of the pillars.

Labelled by the media as inept and ill timed, nevertheless Anas Sarwar has broken with the ‘shame and shambles’ of Labour at Westminster. When it comes to May in the Scottish elections, it may well be too little too late to enhance the immediate aspirations of Scottish Labour.  Another little crack perhaps?

Perhaps more than anything was the sight of the thousands making their way through Scotland’s capital city to demonstrate a collective voice on the wide range of everyday people’s concerns.  The Scotland Demands Better campaign, built up over many months in every corner of the land shows that the myriad of concerns which inhibit living a full life in a fair and just nation can be confronted; the pillars of the unjust status quo can be undermined; new pillars constructed.

It was a massive demonstration of the will of the people.  A keeping of hope alive.  But to shake the pillars of the status quo, collectively, working together, we need to find ways to make those whom we elect and whose hands shall hold  the levers of power, serve the will of the people.

As we prepare for those elections, dare we ask, ‘Why are we here?’ Are we striving to shake the pillars of the status quo?

Published 19 February 2026

Photograph: Daniel Ntoni-Nzinga, the Baptist Pastor, peace activist and university professor who has served as Executive Secretary of the Evangelical Baptist church in Angola and as Secretary General of the Angolan Council of Churches