BP – swimming in oil profits

OIL GIANT BP sparked widespread anger when it announced a record profit of £6.4 billion for the third quarter of 2008. Its profits, which averaged about £70 million a day, were a whopping 148% above the corresponding period in 2007.

BP was making huge money and paying out massive dividends (60% up in Britain) on the basis of huge prices for crude oil in the summer period. The prices have since tumbled due to the recession.

Tony Woodley, joint leader of the union Unite, called for a windfall tax on the oil giants, pointing out that this would help six million people heat their homes this winter.

Such a windfall tax should be supported but an even better way to use the wealth of these firms for the public good would be for the oil giants to be taken into public ownership and run under the democratic control of working-class people.