On fuel protests in Europe - Britain

[L.WILLMS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Luko Willms)]

   May I contribute the article from the latest "The Militant" on the
fuel protests in Britain:

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The Militant - September 25, 2000 -- Fuel prices spark protests in
Britain

   Vol.64/No.36          September 25, 2000


Fuel prices spark protests in Britain
{back page}

BY PAT SHAW
LONDON--Farmers, truck drivers, and others are organizing blockades of
the main oil refineries across the United Kingdom to demand a cut in
tax-driven skyrocketing fuel prices. As gas stations around the
country closed down, the government invoked emergency powers against
the protests, using police to escort oil trucks from refineries.

The price of red diesel, used by farmers for tractors, has risen from
15 pence a liter in May to 24 pence a liter today (1 gallon=3.8
liters. 1 pence=1.4 cents). And the price of gasoline (petrol) has
risen to the equivalent of about US$4.35 a gallon, hitting workers and
small businesses especially hard. World oil prices remain at a 10-year
high.

The government has increased taxes on fuel 6 percent above the rate of
inflation. Today, almost 80 percent of the price of gasoline for
motorists in the United Kingdom is an onerous consumption tax.

The blockades come in the midst of a crisis in agriculture in this
country that has sharpened over the past few years. Prices for fuel,
fertilizer, animal feed, and other costs have escalated, while the
prices many farmers receive for their produce have declined steeply.
This squeeze has hit working farmers particularly hard.

"Fuel prices are like the final nail in the coffin for farmers," said
Brynie Williams, a farmer from Cilcain, in north Wales, who took part
in the blockade of the Shell oil refinery at Stanlow, Ellesmere Port.

Blockades have been set up at oil refineries in South Wales, Bristol,
Shropshire, Jarrow, on the Humber estuary, and elsewhere. There have
been actions at an oil distribution center in Manchester. Farmers from
Scotland and England have joined forces to block the main road between
Newcastle and Edinburgh.

A variety of class forces have taken part, including farmers, truck
drivers, taxi drivers, and some road company bosses.


Inspired by French protests

The actions follow blockades in France and similar actions in other
European countries affected by high fuel prices. Fishermen in Italy
occupied wharves and warned they would blockade ports if fuel taxes
were not reduced. In Germany, truck drivers blockaded roads going into
the town of Hildersheim.

"We looked at the French and were heartened by the fact that their
protests are having an effect. We have to make sure ours do too," said
Paul Ashley, from Farmers for Action in the UK, referring to the fact
that Paris backed down and agreed to lower fuel taxes.

Some in the actions here distanced themselves from the French
protests.  Clive Mullen, a road haulage boss in Essex who took part in
a picket at the Coryton refinery, said, "We don't want to see a
confrontation--we're not French. We're British, but we want our prime
minister to listen to us."

The main refinery for the southeast of England, Coryton in Essex, was
picketed by about 15 people, including farmers and bosses from road
haulage companies. Like many of the protests this action had a
nationalist tinge. Signs with Union Jacks read, "UK diesel at Euro
prices." Drivers who carry fuel for British Petroleum at the refinery
refused to take trucks out of the refinery.

Exploited family farmers were among the pickets at the Askew Farm Lane
fuel distribution center in Essex, where pickets talked to drivers
leaving the depot and convinced them to turn their trucks back.


Blair invokes emergency powers

By September 12 most gas stations across Britain had closed from lack
of gas. The same day Prime Minister Anthony Blair invoked emergency
power to compel oil companies to supply fuel from blockaded
refineries. Within hours, cops began escorting oil trucks from
refineries at Essex, Hamble, Manchester, and Grangemouth.

At the Avonmouth refinery drivers defied the emergency decree,
refusing to take out trucks. There and elsewhere pickets have forged
links with oil company drivers and won support for their fight. In a
phone interview Hopkin Smith, a small farmer from South Wales,
described support from drivers inside the Texaco oil terminal in
Cardiff. Drivers had told him that they had been threatened with
dismissal for refusing to move the oil.

Pickets had already reported a growing police presence before Blair's
announcement. At Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port the cops used
cameras to videotape the cars of those who came to take part in the
action.  When Shell refinery bosses threatened to sack 60 fuel
delivery drivers if they did not cross the picket line, farmers
prepared to block the refinery with 16 tons of hay bales.

Blair's government has refused any cut in fuel taxes. Chancellor
Gordon Brown tried to pit the protesters against other working people
by claiming the government could cut fuel taxes only at the expense of
cutting government spending on health care and education.

Brown attempted to divert attention from the government's
responsibility for fuel taxation by insisting that the solution to the
high prices lay with an increase in oil production--blaming
governments belonging to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries.

The opposition Conservative Party transport secretary, Archibald
Norman, criticized the government and courted the protesters. He
called on the government to "think again about its strategy of taxing
the motorist and exploiting the oil price increase as a source of
revenue."

The main bosses' organization in Britain, the Confederation of British
Industry, backed demands for businesses to be compensated for the rise
in fuel taxes. In an editorial entitled "'Non' to civil disobedience,"
the right-wing Daily Telegraph also called for a fuel tax cut.
Reflecting the hostility to the blockades among capitalists here, the
paper's editors added, "Every child in France is brought up at school
to admire the heroes of the [French] Revolution. It is a national
tradition in France that civil disobedience is the way to get things
done.... The sad thing is that in Britain where the rule of law has
traditionally commanded much more respect, the French way of doing
things is increasingly catching on."

The Road Haulage Association and the Freight Transport Association,
representing the interests of capitalists in the road transportation
business, have called for a cut in diesel taxes for their businesses.
They have expressed opposition to the blockades.


Pat Shaw is a member of the Transport and General Workers' Union in
London. Caroline Bellamy in London contributed to this article.


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Yours,
Lueko Willms
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