Farhana Manzoor Camden and Haringey Socialist Party
Every working-class household is being hit by the energy crisis. Local businesses report in my local paper, the Camden New Journal, that large numbers of people are joining gyms and swimming pools with the need to bathe at their facilities because they simply cannot afford the high costs of bills.
Meanwhile, oil-giant Shell has made record profits of £32 billion, the highest in its history. BP’s profits have also risen to £23 billion. And Centrica, owner of British Gas, which ‘fired-and-rehired’ thousands of its workers in 2021, has tripled its profits.
There is no excuse for this sheer extortion!
Prices for working-class households have not fallen, but global prices of gas and petrol have. Why are we being made to foot the bill and line the pockets of super-rich shareholders?
On Budget Day, 15 March, Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt is planning to raise the Energy Price Guarantee to £3,000 per household, for all households except the very vulnerable.
In addition, £400 that was given to help households between October and March will come to a stop. In effect this means a 40% rise in energy costs, at a time when people can least afford it, with record inflation, and pay falling well behind.
We cannot and will not be made to pay the bill, by sacrificing our quality of life, making stark choices between food and heating, all to hold up the profit-driven capitalist system. Privately owned energy companies, run for profit at the expense of all else, cannot give us fair prices or take the measures needed to transition to green energy.
Nationalisation, under democratic workers’ control and management, would mean resources and production could be planned, and ensure prices are affordable. Taking the energy industry into public ownership, with no compensation to the fat cats at the top, is the only way to make sure they don’t run off with the profits.
