Don’t Pay UK, the campaign calling for mass non-payment of fuel bills, has been organised by hard-Left militants determined to create civil unrest and ‘break the system’, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
So far, Don’t Pay has maintained a cloak of anonymity, stating it was ‘started by a group of us who are friends’.
As a result of rising prices, more than 105,000 have already pledged to use the site to pay their bills starting October 1.
Yet in reality, Don’t Pay is a political project whose organisers have links to a series of direct action campaigns including Extinction Rebellion and what they describe as ‘post-Corbyn projects’.
It all revolves around Alessio Lungghi (44), a veteran anarchist who is well-known to European police for his involvement in anti-capitalist protests.
Alessio Lungi (photo taken at Don’t Pay UK online meeting), 44 is at the center of Don’t Pay UK campaign, calling for mass nonpayment of fuel costs.
The newspaper discovered a YouTube clip in which Lunghi (a university dropout of middle class) speaks to activists during an online meeting.
‘Hi everyone, my name’s Al from Don’t Pay,’ he says. ‘I live in London. It’s been a very intense five weeks since we launched Don’t Pay. I’ll give you as much information as you want.’
Describing the campaign as anonymous for ‘various reasons which I won’t go into’, Lunghi says he is connected to ‘an alliances working group’. ‘It’s the usual,’ he continues.
Lunghi, pictured at the 2002 May Day Parade in London (pictured right), is a university dropout of middle class.
‘We’ve got climate NGOs, Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil, some post-Corbyn projects, some unions, some other kind of social movements as well, housing unions, that want to support us.’
Revealing the campaign’s true nature, he says: ‘We saw energy bills as being a kind of point at which we felt a mass movement could come about.
‘This might be a thing that can be deepened into a very serious political crisis on the scale we haven’t seen for 30 years in the UK.’
Direct action campaigns such as Don’t Pay have caused disquiet among some traditional Left-wing activists, who regard them as counter-productive.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, one activist with close knowledge of Britain’s militant fringe said: ‘The anarchist movement Plan C is at the heart of this. This overarching plot is going on.
As a result of the rising prices, more than 105,000 individuals have already pledged to use Don’t Pay’s website to not pay their electricity bills beginning October 1, in protest.
‘Don’t Pay are looking to build political infrastructure on the left for what happens when the Labour Party destroys itself.’
Among those working with Mr Lunghi is activist Matthew Chessum, who is known to have handed out Don’t Pay leaflets at a trade union march in London on June 18 – the day Don’t Pay was founded.
Former member of Corbynite Momentum, Mr Chessum was a Corbynite Momentum participant. He refused to criticise violence during student protests of 2010, saying: ‘I don’t think I’m going to wade in and condemn violence from protesters.’
He is also linked to the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, a Communist splinter group.
The YouTube video introduces Lunghi to Rob Callender (an Extinction Rebellion vet, yoga teacher, and actor who was in three Game of Thrones episodes).
Camberwell’s native Camberwell is where Mr Lunghi was raised. He said that he dropped his engineering degree from London University when he discovered anarchism.
Last night, another activist said: ‘The problem with these guys is they’re generally well-heeled, they don’t really know what struggling is like. They’ve got no idea.’
For comment, Mr Lunghi or Mr Chessum were not reachable.