Such rises, as the article points out, will not just hit motorists' pockets. They will ripple through the economy, having a 'chain effect' on most consumer items and services. One major increase already in the pipeline is British Rail fares estimated to soar by 20 per cent in the autumn to cover increased diesel fuel costs.
Bearning the brunt of spiralling prices will, of course, be working people. As the profits of Mobil, Esso, BP and Exxon hit an all-time bonanza, it is working people who will have to cut back on petrol, fork out higher fares and do without heating.
SHORTAGE?
And just what is the cause of this "rip-off' at the petrol pumps? According to the oil companies, the problem lies in a 'natural shortage' sparked off by the cutbacks in Iranian crude oil last year and the refusal of other OPEC countries to make good the difference.
Shortages in oil supplies--which US Energy Secretary Schlesinger described as having a "devestating effect on Western economies"apparently not short-term. "It would be absolutely wrong", declared Continental Oil's A. Alan Cope, "to give signals that the worst is over and that consumers can relax".
It is a message widely echoed by Western governments who have raised the ghost of a growing 'oil crisis' since, as the Guardian put "free world consumption of oil is running faster than production". On May 22nd, the International Energy Agency urgently recommended 'energy saving measures' and increasing use of coal, natural gas and nuclear power. As Carter so eloquently put it: "Each of us is going to have to use less oil and pay more for it."
SKEPTICISM But is the 'shortage' argument credible? According the the New "Petrol at fl a gallon" ran the Observer's headline last month. Speculating on future trends, the paper went on to glomily predict the £1.10 or £1.20 gallon towards the end of the year as oil companies jack-up prices still further.
ENERGY CRISIS York Times, over 50% of Ameri-are can people-the hardest hit-are convinced it is a rip-off engineered by the oil monopolies. And there are excellent reasons for this response since, over the past few years, there has been not a shortage but a glut of oil.
Despite attempts by big business media to blame the 'shortage' on OPEC countries, there is not a shred of proof for this claim. Ac. cording to Dr Arnold Saver of the Irving Trust Institute "by the end of the year, OPEC will have an excess capacity of 12 million barrels a day, some 25% of the world's consumption.
To this 'excess' must be added newer discoveries. As the New York Times pointed out early last year: "Today, there is anything but a shortage as the rush of new oil from Alaska, the North Sea and Mexico reaches world markets.
Although experts expect the present glut to end soon, they for the forseeable future." RIP-OFF The answer is, of course, that it hasn't. There is no natural shortage of oil today. There is a highly contrived one-one contrived by the giant oil companies to hold the world to ransom to jack up prices.
few years, despite the 19734 price rises, has been precisely this coupled with a decline in the meant that profit margins have Walter Levy admits: "The present situation is one of oil surplus, stagnating OPEC production and declining real prices for oil." believe that a comfortable margin of production capacity will remain gasoline."
EVIDENCE How is it that a widely-recognised surplus of oil can suddenly become transformed into a world shortage?
One of the major 'problems' facing oil companies over the past from 198% to 398%. oil 'glut'. A plentiful supply of oil, value of the dollar and pound, has been whittled down. As oil expert There is real cause to believe that the oil cut-backs in Iran were merely 'used' by the oil barons to proclaim a 'shortage' which would enable them to jack up prices once again. Certainly, the US Federal Trade Commission was prompted to consider whether ".... the Iranian 'shortfall' was being used... as an excuse for recently decreased allocations of All the evidence points that way. While the oil companies have complained of a downturn in oil production, the facts belie them. In the USA alone, this year, there was an increase in crude oil imports of 4.3% at a time when demand was increasingly by only about 2% (Washington Post).
Moreover, oil company spokesmen have themselves leaked the truth. Robert Baldwin, President of Gulf Oil, admitted in the May Christian Science Monitor that the present crisis "stems from a lack of refining capacity, not a short age of crude oil". Perhaps this explains the reason why existing refineries are operating at only 80 to 85% of their capacity when normal levels are nearer 90% Even the Guardian, which has helped spin this myth of an oil shortage', was forced to admit that it was "... largely the result of the bitter winter, pressure on oil companies. ... to have these stocks rebuilt, and the diversion of crude oil from petrol refining to central heating oil".
LIES AND DISTORTIONS All the facts point to the conclusion that the oil barons are deliberately stock-piling oil-and refusing to run their refineries at normal capacity-until their 'hold-up tactics' work. They have already had considerable success. Exxon's profits so far this year have leapt It would, of course, be utopian to expect the Thatcher government to curb the oil companies' blackmail. The Tories believe in "market forces'. What this means is that, while the oil barons reap in the profits, working people must foot the bill. It is they who will have to queue for petrol and pay escalating prices. It is they Old Moore The TUC may not know it yet, but Old Moore's Almanach is prophecying a terrible year for 1980 Anyone planning a holiday that year would be well advised to choose May. Old Moore says of that month: Britain will be shaken by shock events and a major upheaval that could strike to the very roots of the British way of life'.
It goes on: 'The House of Commons could be in uproar with major government set-backs. There is a danger of great violence, of fires, explosions and even assassination attempts. transport communications and the motor industry could suffer a wave of strikes'.
What with Mrs Thatcher's budget proposals and the cries of doom coming from the Treasury, who said that Astrology was Bunk? TUC take note.
who will have to fork out higher bus and train fares and they who will have to cut down on home heating.
The response of the Labour leaders is equally inadequate. Labour shadow minister Howell has called for the 'rationing' of existing stocks. Such a position accepts the lies and distortions presented by the oil monopolies at face value when even the Wall Street Journal points out that these facts the industry presents ate often "self-serving".
OPEN THE BOOKS!
Far from accepting the cooked. up facts of the oil barons, the main thrust of the labour movement should be to find out what the facts really are. How much oil is really in the ground? What is the real capacity for refineries in operation? What are the real profits the industry is making?
Under the code of capitalist secrecy, working people are expected to take the word of these companies as gospel truth. It is time labour led a campaign to make the books of the energy corporations open to public scrutiny. Let's place every aspect of their operation under a magnifying glass!
To make sure the oil barons don't hold anything back, workers in the energy industries should be called on to secure the records and supervise the functioning of the industry. They are in the best