Food, Fuel and the Escalating Crisis in Capitalist Globalization

[Jacuma]

Food rebellions, strikes illustrate potential longterm problems in both
the developed and developing countries

by Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor
Pan-African News Wire

Over the last several months the world has experienced rapid increases
in the price of both fuel and food. In the United States motorists are
paying in excess of $4 per gallon for gasoline and at the same time they
are spending larger percentages of their household incomes on food
consumption as well as energy needs such as heating and electricity
costs.

The response from the federal government has been to largely avoid any
direct attention to these growing problems and to announce a so-called
economic stimulus package which through some form of "wishful thinking",
they have told working people that a check for several hundred declining
US dollars will have a noticeable positive impact on the nation's ailing
economy.

However, the current spike in fuel and food prices in the United States
is taking place amid other important political and economic
developments. The largest rate of home foreclosures since the Great
Depression, the ever increasing annual military budgets to both finance
the ongoing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as other
adventures in Somalia and Colombia. Other policies implemented by the
Bush administration and the Congress have lead to huge transfers of
wealth from working class and poor families to the rich through tax cuts
and massive trimming in public and social programs in the country.

At the same time further pressure is being placed on workers throughout
broad sectors of the economy. In the auto industry, the crisis in
overproduction and the declining spending power of individual
households, has brought about significant declines in salaries for
production workers, salaried employees and more importantly, the
downsizing of tens of thousands of employees.

A recent strike at American Axle, where UAW members attempted to halt a
50% reduction in their pay scales and the elimination of major elements
of their benefit packages, resulted in a settlement that will further
reduce the living standards of not only those who work for the auto
industry but its impact will be felt across the board.

It has already been announced that 19,000 workers will soon leave
General Motors through buyouts and retirement plans. Despite this
reduction in the workforce at GM, the company wants to eliminate even
more workers in order to cut costs and to create space for the hiring of
new workers at far lower salaries and benefits. Having workers perform
the same tasks at lower wages only benefits the owners in their ever
growing thirst for higher profit margins. These corporate policies,
which have been in effect now for over two decades, further hampers the
ability of working families to survive amid inflationary pressures and
rising health care costs.

Mass Responses to the Crisis in Fuel and Food Pricing

During the months of April and May people in Africa, the Caribbean and
Europe held mass demonstrations and strikes in response to the rising
costs of fuel and food. The most militant of these actions in Europe
have occured in France, Portugal and Spain, where fisherman and lorry
drivers have struck in response to the rising cost of fuel and the price
stagnation in the fishing industry.

In France, with its pro-US administration of Nicolas Sarkozy, workers
have been engaged in actions now for several weeks. Fishermen from
France, Spain and Italy have been meeting in Paris to map out long term
strategies for responding to the current crisis. The fishermen are
calling for direct assistance and subsidies to ease the impact of rising
fuel prices and stagnate prices for their products. The European
Commission has issued a statement saying that it will exercise some
flexibility but has ruled out granted subsidies to the fishermen.

Thousands of fishermen marched in Madrid, Spain to the Agricultural
Ministry demanding governmental intervention. They handed out 20 tonnes
of fish to demonstrate the plight of their industry. Fishermen set off
firecrackers and blew whistles to attract attention from the general
public and government officials.

One banner held by the demonstrators stated that: "Soaring diesel plus
cheap fish equals ruin for fishermen." Another chided Prime Minister
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero: "You are sending us to the cemetery."

In Barcelona one union leader said the entire fishing industry was at a
standstill. Union leaders said that they could follow the lead of French
workers by blockading the ports preventing all goods from coming into
the country.

In France the government offered 100 million euros as an incentive for
fishermen to return to work. On Thursday May 29 French police broke
through the workers blockade and cleared Mediterrean oil depots of
Fos-sur-Mer and Lavera and a Total refinery in the south at La Mede.

According to the BBC: "On the same day police clashed with fishermen who
burned tyres in the Atlantic port of Lorient, while hundreds protested
in Quimper, Brittany. On Friday, protesters blockaded the Channel port
of Le Havre.

The BBC reports also says that: "Hundreds of farmers have also been
blocking oil terminals near the cities of Dijon and Toulouse. In Italy,
at least 5,000 fishermen are expected to strike, the main trade union
Federcoopesca says. The government has already refused emergency aid to
the industry."

In the so-called developing regions of Africa and the Caribbean the
problems of rising fuel and food prices have created growing political
tensions. In Haiti during April their were rebellions in response to the
rising cost of Food.

In Somalia, which is under a US-backed occupation by Ethiopia,
resistance efforts intensified at the beginning of May when women and
youth took to the streets to express their outrage at the worsening
humanitarian situation created by the United States foreign policy
imperiatives in the region.
The local currency in Somalia is virtually worthless leaving people
without the ability to purchase food and other essential goods for their
households.

Demonstrations also took place in Burkina Faso and Senegal in West
Africa. These two former French colonies have suffered under the impact
of globalization and neo-liberal policies. Their currencies are in
decline and the rising debt-service ratios are hampering their ability
to provide services to the population.

FAO Report Predicts Prices Will Remain High

A recent report issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), two
United Nations agencies, has predicted that between 2008-2017 food
prices will stabilize after increases in the short term. Yet this
purported stabilization in food prices will be at a higher level.

According to the report entitled: "OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook
2008-2017": "World reference prices in nominal terms for almost all
agricultural commodities covered in this report are at or above previous
record levels. This will not last and prices will gradually come down
because of the transitory nature of some of the factors that are behind
the recent hikes.

"But there is strong reason to believe that there are now also permanent
factors underpinning prices that will work to keep them both at higher
average levels than in the past and reduce the long-term decline in real
terms. Whether transitory or permanent, appropriate policy action for
agricultural development and for addressing the needs of the hungry and
the poor needs to take account of both these characteristics."

The report takes into consideration some of the changing characteristics
in the global economy and their impact on rising food prices and growing
food insecurity in the developing world. This food insecurity has also
become more acute in the United States with the deepening economic
crisis illustrated through the rise in unemployment and
underunderployment, downsizing, rising fuel and energy prices
and the decline in the real value of the US dollar.

The OECD-FAO Outlook says that the report "has been prepared in an
environment characterized by increased instability in financial markets,
higher food price inflation, signs of weakening global economic growth
and food-security concerns. Although projections for agricultural
commodity markets have always been subject to a number of uncertainties,
these have taken on more importance in this year's edition."

FAO convened an international conference in Rome on June 3 to discuss
the growing international crisis in food security. According to a BBC
report on the conference: "The hosts of the Rome conference - the UN's
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) - has warned the industrialised
countries that unless they increase yields, eliminate barriers and move
food to where it is needed most, a global catastrophe could result."

Can It Happen Here?: Implications for the US Situation

In the United States there has been a significant rise in not only the
price of food and other essential goods and services, but the impact of
these increases have had detrimental effects on working families and the
poor. This is clearly related to the crisis facing truckers and other
tranport workers and networks due to the sharp rise in diesel fuel
prices.

Truckers in the United States have complained and have staged limited
protests against the rising price of fuel. Yet the price of fuel
continues to rise without any relief being proposed or offered to the
general public aimed at lowering gasoline prices. It is obvious that the
Bush administration is not interested in placing any restrictions on the
actions of the multi-national oil companies, who have, amid a growing
economic downturn, reaped record profits over the last year. The only
solution proposed by the pro-Oil policymakers is to open larger sections
of the country to drilling.

These profits are not re-chanelled into the state sector to offset the
negative impact these hikes are having on the working class and the
poor. Consequently, unless there is an intervention on the part of the
people, there will be more of same in the near future.

Activists and organizers in the United States need to give greater
attention to the impact of rising fuel and consequent food prices. With
the growing problems facing truckers in particular, it could seriously
impact the ability of these drivers to get food into the stores across
the country. Prices could soar leading to a run on the supermarkets and
the potential for food shortages would be realized absent of any
effective governmental action.

How could activists organize around such a crisis? Demands could be
raised for the subsidization of the agricultural sector and the trucking
industry. There could be price controls imposed on both the food
industry and the oil industry. The release of millions of barrels of oil
from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) could be implemented by the
federal government to meet the growing demand and bring about a
reduction in prices at the pump.

However, in the long term this problem can only be solved with the
nationalization of the oil industry in the United States under a
socialist economic system. Through nationalization under socialism, the
price of petroleum products would be controlled for domestic usage and
consumption. The use of petroleum products in the areas of agricultural,
commodities manufacturing and transportation would be carried out more
efficiently and the surplus from the sales of these products and
services could be re-invested in alternative sources of energy such as
biofuels.

In addition, a serious national program aimed at developing a
comprehensive public transportation system would not only conserve oil
but also save significant amounts of money for individual households and
at the same time take tremendous pressure off of the environmental
degredations that are the result of outmoded means of energy production
and usage.

These issues and demands must be raised by popular organizations since
the current administration, and even most people in the US Congress, as
well as state and local governments, are beholden to the oil and energy
interests. The fact that people could raise these demands would heighten
the level of contradictions between the multi-national corporations and
various levels of government on the one hand and the interests of the
people on the other and consequently intensify the class struggle inside
the United States.
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Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire.

[Sublimelight]

Asante Brother for the post.

Welcome to the NEW WORLD ORDER!!! They use to say the "revolution" will not be televised. Food and fuel are key to any attempt at sustaining life currently. The global nature of this created "crisis" cannot be ignored, what a way to prepare for the "new" cashless society. What is the breaking point? Gas $10.00 a gallon, food for a week $400 dollars? Whew!!!

It appears that the international bankers and elites are putting the "screws" to the whole hue-man family. We need to each Man/Womb-man Up in the present and for what's to come. Preparation and planning should be in effect for everyone in regards to food, shelter, security, kwk...

Thinking about the scale of hurricane Katrina, the tropical cyclone in Burma, and the earthquake in China, and these tornados, puts a whole new dimension on the earth and the effects of the growing ecological dislocation/re-ordering of earth. Geb got a "virus" (yt) and is running a "fever". Are we going to treat the symtoms or the cause???

Respect,