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From The Socialist newspaper, 23 September 2009
Energy rip-off
ONCE AGAIN the 'big six' UK energy companies have stuck two fingers up to demands that they reduce the prices charged to consumers.
Ofgem, the toothless energy market regulator, pitifully asked the big six to reduce tariffs in the light of dramatic falls in wholesale energy costs.
Ofgem calculates that lower energy costs will ramp up the big six's profits on each duel-fuel customer by £60 this year.
This is on top of similar profiteering by the energy supply companies over the last few years.
As usual, the energy giants say they are 'victims of market conditions' - despite themselves having sizeable stakes in energy production.
Ofgem bleats that it lacks powers to cap prices but the pro-big business Labour government refuses to give them these powers, or to contemplate a windfall tax on company profits, let alone nationalise the big six.
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Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 23 September 2009:
Prepare political challenge to cuts agenda
Education
Higher education - cuts cuts cuts!
Universities in crisis - Join Socialist Students
Defend education - stop the £2 billion cuts in spending
TUC
TUC congress: Anger on the fringes, inaction at the top
War and occupation
Afghanistan: An unwinnable war
Postal workers strike
Postal workers strike as national ballot continues
Vestas
Vestas workers determined to continue fight for jobs
Youth fight for jobs
Youth unemployment hits record level
Future Jobs Fund - massaging the figures
Socialist Party news and analysis
Campaign for a Salford workers' MP
International socialist news
Socialist Party MEP denounces "campaign of fear" on Lisbon Treaty
Workers' fightback grows in Italy
Socialist Party workplace news
Engineering construction: Stewards' forum recommends bosses' offer Workers should reject!
Portsmouth shipbuilders vote for strike
Bosses ask JCB workers for sacrifice
Battle over pensions means strike threat at Corus
Liverpool bin workers score victory
Socialist Party reviews
Listening to Grasshoppers by Arundhati Roy
The Dirty Thirty - Heroes of the Miners' Strike
The Anti-Flag album 'The People or the Gun'
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