OVER A BARREL

So Gordon Browns has had oil ‘crisis’ talks with OPEC countries, hoping to have persuaded them to invest in nuclear and renewable energy resources, as well as trying to get the price of crude oil reduced and production increased. I wonder what dodgy deals are gonna be struck? and will they involve guns and ammo? Lets face it Brown’s only gone to try and gain popularity by showing the British people that he’s trying to do something for them and that he cares about them, no other world leaders attended the conference. Well sometimes I think that we’ve only got ourselves to blame! I’m using the royal we here, because no matter how hard you try you can’t completely escape the capitalist charade, but some people play their parts a bit too seriously when things don’t have to be this way. We’re told that fuel prices have risen due to increased global demand, by emerging economies such as China. Why are these economies expanding? Because they are producing cheap consumer goods for the export market, and who buys the products? We do!
The oil producers are saying that the West is not only exaggerating the problem, but also to blame for it due to financial speculators and the plunging price of the dollar. Who knows who’s really to blame, greedy people or greedy politicians, what I do know is that no-one is taking any responsibility for their actions, from the families living beyond their means to the country under Labour living beyond its. One thing that does piss me off is people complaining about everything, I don’t want to sound like an MP telling everyone not to be miserable, the cheek of that fucker, but I didn’t hear people complaining when they were stocking up on consumer goods with cheap credit, Buy Now Pay Later! Well people are certainly paying now, and they’re not happy. Take some fucking responsibility please!, yes I know that they were conned, seduced by the wonders of capitalism into playing the game, but we all make our choices. Just as the people need to take responsibility, so do the government, and that don’t happen with pay rises, expenses, sleaze and corruption, and then they have the cheek to tell people that they aren’t that badly off, this may be true, but people aint gonna take it from politicians, no they’re just gonna demand more, just like they’ve seen the politicians get. As I’m typing this the 24hour news report says that public sector workers are planning strikes, they’re saying it could be a “summer of discontent” , now were have I heard that before, aah yes the 70’s, but it was a winter of discontent then, that was 30 years ago, times have changed, the revolution aint just gonna happen on the Picket Line now. In a world were the traditional politics of Left and Right have become increasingly blurred, because the Capitalist system has changed and the governments that protect it and enable it to function have had to change in order to maintain their power. In the old days it was the bosses that profited, now there are so many other links in the production it’s not so black and white, so rather than the workers risking their jobs and putting themselves into the propaganda firing line for accusations of “being greedy” ,“holding the country to ransom” etc by striking over pay, why don’t the Union as well as taking strike action organise and support their members into taking mass action; picket and protest outside the shops that rip not just their members off, but everyone, they’d soon get the country behind them then. That’s the way to go, consumer rights, consumer riots. People need to be encouraged not to buy the shit and if they must, not at the price that’s demanded. Lets start to barter and haggle over the price we think the goods are worth. If everyone questioned the price of things and refused to pay their price, producers and retailers would have to reduce their prices in order not to be left with shelves full of stock, and in the case of food stuffs, going past it’s sell by date. From consumer to retailer then to producers, if everyone in the chain haggled and bartered for a fair and affordable price somewhere the chain would snap and someone would have to take a cut in their financial profits, in order for their bloody system to survive. This sort of action can only happen from the bottom up, as we the consumer are the only ones that don’t profit from the purchase, all we get is satisfaction and gratification, and that aint guaranteed.