Scottish Power and Npower, the last two of the ‘big 6’ energy companies have announced another round of massive increases in the price of gas and electricity. Sinead Daly from Solidarity Dundee argues it’s time to organise and fight back. 

Scottish Power will hike their gas prices for their 5 million customers by 34% and 9% for electricity from October. Npower is to increase their gas prices by 26% for gas and 14% for electricity for their 6.6 million customers.   

These announcements will come as a massive blow for working class people who are already struggling to get by.  For many it will mean having to make decisions on whether to buy food or heat their homes.  For some these decisions can literally mean the decision between life and death.   Let’s not forget that last year, before these price rises, 23,000 people in Scotland died from ‘cold related deaths’.  Most of these people were pensioners.   

Age Concern now predicts that 1 in 3 pensioner households will be living in fuel poverty by the end of this year. 6 million of us will be living in fuel poverty by Christmas. Centrica’s boss (the parent company of Scottish gas) had the gall, on his £1 million salary, to tell us to wear a second jumper! What’s all the more shocking  about the price rises is that they came within days of some of the energy companies profits being announced.

Centrica have raked in over £1billion in profits in the first six months of this year – that’s a £5m-per-day!  And Scottish Power made a profit of £600 million  - £3 million a day.

Solidarity members campaigning against fuel poverty

Neither the New Labour Westminster nor the SNP?led Scottish governments have any real solutions to this corporate greed. These were once publicly owned - before the days of the Thatcherism and New Labour with their mania for privatisation.  Between them  they have allowed these key industries to be sold off and allowed big business to make a killing – at our expense. The greed of these extremely profitable companies makes the argument for the re-nationalisation of the energy companies very clear. 

Yes, let’s introduce a windfall tax now but let’s also renationalise these companies immediately under democratic working class control. This would allow for the provision of more affordable and environmentally friendly energy and also for free fuel for the elderly. 

If the government could nationalise northern rock to protect the interests of the banks and big business, why can’t we renationalise these companies, who are making a fortune while the rest of us face the prospect of a very cold winter!  Socialists and trade union activists in East Kilbride have set up a Campaign Against Fuel  Poverty.

They  intend to hold street stalls, organise demonstrations and marches and apply pressure on those energy companies, and all those directly or indirectly responsible for the present and growing crisis.

Organise a campaign in your area and don’t allow this scandalous robbery to go on any longer.