Vol. 72/No. 33      August 25, 2008

While working people around the world struggle to make ends meet, Exxon Mobil announced July 31 the biggest quarterly profit of any corporation in U.S. history: $11.68 billion. Not to mention the company’s $39 billion in cash reserves.

Capitalist politicians like Barack Obama and John McCain argue that gas prices can be brought down by increasing offshore oil drilling, regulating “abuse” by speculators in the oil markets, and ending “our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.”

But the high price of energy is caused by the normal workings of capitalism, not by a small group of greedy speculators, foreign owners, or a so-called oil shortage. In fact, according to some reports, capitalist investors have stockpiled via the futures market the equivalent of 1.1 billon barrels of petroleum—55 percent more than the entire U.S. strategic reserve.

All of this is why Róger Calero, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. president, calls for nationalizing the energy industry and placing it under workers’ control.

“The owners of the oil and coal monopolies have once against shown they are incompetent to run the industry and provide the most basic needs of the majority of society,” Calero says. His campaign calls for taking the energy industry out of private hands and opening the books so we can see where the profits are really going. Along with this, Calero explains, the labor movement needs to fight for cost-of-living increases in wages and benefits to keep up with inflation.

Placing the mines, refineries, and power plants under workers control is also the only way to guarantee safety on the job and halt the poisoning of the air, water and soil.  
 
 
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