Of course, the world capstalist crisis has its real cause in the nature of capitalism as an economic system. But there can be no doubt that the appearance of oil shortages in the advanced capitalist countries and the rapid rise in world oil prices has served to fan the flames. Certainly a big part of this country s mounting trade deficit and rising rate of intlation over the next few years will be due to the rising cost of energyWhat lies at the root of this sudden upheaval? In Red Weekly 41 we showed that the international oil monopolies have both feet planted firmly in the toil crisis pie. We looked at some of the activities of these firms in the United States, and demonstrated that there they were the architects of a phony 'energy crisis designed to boost their profits, extract increased Government handouts, and remove Government restrictions on their operations.
But the energy crisis in the US goes back eighteen months. It only broke over Britain's shores last October, in the wake of the Middle Fast war and the decision of the Arab oil producers to cut back on oil production and unpose a boycott on nations supporting Israel. Was our oil crisis the legitimate offspring of these diplomatic manoeuvres? Or was it another bastard of the oil monopolies?