A MAJOR global gas crisis has brought the crisis of the EU and the NATO military alliance to a head.
The wholesale cost of gas has gone up by an extraordinary 600% across the EU. France’s gas prices soared 48% in September. Household electricity bills in Italy rose by 29.8% and gas prices by as much as 14.4%.
Gas, petrol, electricity cannot be guaranteed. In country after country, workers and their families face a future of not being able to wash in hot water, clean their clothes, heat their food, their homes or keep the lights on – and the crisis has just begun.
This world capitalist crisis has hit epic proportions. It is a historic crisis and is busting apart both the European Union, and the NATO military alliance, setting capitalist nation against capitalist nation, and making threats to gas and oil-rich Russia that it must help capitalism out, or else.
New military alliances have been formed between Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) targeting China, and between Greece and France ganging up against fellow NATO member Turkey. These separate alliances threaten the very existence of NATO, while Poland is defying the authority of the European Court of Justice and intensifying the crisis of the European Union.
Meanwhile, the US Senate has just temporarily raised the federal government’s $28.4 trillion debt ceiling by $480bn to avoid a historic default this month, putting it off until early December. The debt ceiling is now $29tn. However, US national debt is already above £28.5tn and it is going up by the second.
The only two countries doing well are the two that have had socialist revolutions. Russia (1917) and China (1949). China’s economic development reached an all time high in the first quarter of 2021 of 18.3% growth!
How the mighty have fallen.
Capitalist nations rely on the state-run nationalised industries of China for the majority of products and now the EU has had to go to Russia, cap in hand, and ask for more gas and oil! When the EU asked Russia to supply more gas to ease its crisis, Russia said it is prepared to do so as long as the EU validates its Nord Stream2 gas pipeline.
The extraordinary pipeline, a tremendous feat of science and technology, stretches underground and underwater all the way from Russia to Germany. It has just been completed but is awaiting EU approval to start pumping nationalised gas from Russia to Europe.
The US national security adviser Jake Sullivan commented that Russia ‘had in the past used energy as a tool of coercion and a political weapon’ warning Russia against attempting to ‘exploit the current gas situation’. In fact, Russia does not have to intervene. The EU and the US are destroying themselves, unaided.
The EU itself is split down the middle, with France saying that the EU must be ‘self sufficient’ and not reliant on Russia. French Finance Minister Le Maire said: ‘It is crucial to diversify energy supply and reduce European dependency on gas-exporting countries as fast as possible. We don’t want to be dependent on the supplies coming from foreign countries.’
Germany is singing the opposite tune, and is desperate for Russian gas and oil!
Meanwhile on Thursday, Greece ratified a military pact with France. There are huge oil and gas reserves under the sea in disputed naval territory between Greece and Turkey. Greece has been busy mapping the seafloor southeast of Crete to plot the course of ‘East Med,’ a natural gas pipeline that Greece, Cyprus and Israel agreed to build in January last year to carry Israeli gas to Europe.
Standing in the way is another NATO member with very close relations to the EU – Turkey. Both groups are desperate to grab the oil and gas.
Greece is already buying up to four French-built Belharra frigates and 24 French Rafale fighter jets for $2.5bn. Greece and Turkey have increasingly clashed over rights to undersea oil and gas. If such a confrontation comes to a gunfight the first casualty will be NATO!
Now Poland has said that it will not accept rulings of the European Court of Justice. The EU is breaking up because European capitalism is on the rocks!
In Britain, the situation is critical. National Energy Action said yesterday that about four million people are already in fuel poverty, and this will rise to 5.5 million. This is while the risk of power cuts to factories and homes this winter has increased, National Grid warned yesterday.
There is only one way out for Europe and that is for the working class to carry out the European socialist revolution to smash capitalism, and bring in a European nationalised and planned economy.
Workers in France, Germany, Italy and right across Europe must now build sections of the Fourth International to lead the European socialist revolution to its victory.A MAJOR global gas crisis has brought the crisis of the EU and the NATO military alliance to a head.
The wholesale cost of gas has gone up by an extraordinary 600% across the EU. France’s gas prices soared 48% in September. Household electricity bills in Italy rose by 29.8% and gas prices by as much as 14.4%.
Gas, petrol, electricity cannot be guaranteed. In country after country, workers and their families face a future of not being able to wash in hot water, clean their clothes, heat their food, their homes or keep the lights on – and the crisis has just begun.
This world capitalist crisis has hit epic proportions. It is a historic crisis and is busting apart both the European Union, and the NATO military alliance, setting capitalist nation against capitalist nation, and making threats to gas and oil-rich Russia that it must help capitalism out, or else.
New military alliances have been formed between Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) targeting China, and between Greece and France ganging up against fellow NATO member Turkey. These separate alliances threaten the very existence of NATO, while Poland is defying the authority of the European Court of Justice and intensifying the crisis of the European Union.
Meanwhile, the US Senate has just temporarily raised the federal government’s $28.4 trillion debt ceiling by $480bn to avoid a historic default this month, putting it off until early December. The debt ceiling is now $29tn. However, US national debt is already above £28.5tn and it is going up by the second.
The only two countries doing well are the two that have had socialist revolutions. Russia (1917) and China (1949). China’s economic development reached an all time high in the first quarter of 2021 of 18.3% growth!
How the mighty have fallen.
Capitalist nations rely on the state-run nationalised industries of China for the majority of products and now the EU has had to go to Russia, cap in hand, and ask for more gas and oil! When the EU asked Russia to supply more gas to ease its crisis, Russia said it is prepared to do so as long as the EU validates its Nord Stream2 gas pipeline.
The extraordinary pipeline, a tremendous feat of science and technology, stretches underground and underwater all the way from Russia to Germany. It has just been completed but is awaiting EU approval to start pumping nationalised gas from Russia to Europe.
The US national security adviser Jake Sullivan commented that Russia ‘had in the past used energy as a tool of coercion and a political weapon’ warning Russia against attempting to ‘exploit the current gas situation’. In fact, Russia does not have to intervene. The EU and the US are destroying themselves, unaided.
The EU itself is split down the middle, with France saying that the EU must be ‘self sufficient’ and not reliant on Russia. French Finance Minister Le Maire said: ‘It is crucial to diversify energy supply and reduce European dependency on gas-exporting countries as fast as possible. We don’t want to be dependent on the supplies coming from foreign countries.’
Germany is singing the opposite tune, and is desperate for Russian gas and oil!
Meanwhile on Thursday, Greece ratified a military pact with France. There are huge oil and gas reserves under the sea in disputed naval territory between Greece and Turkey. Greece has been busy mapping the seafloor southeast of Crete to plot the course of ‘East Med,’ a natural gas pipeline that Greece, Cyprus and Israel agreed to build in January last year to carry Israeli gas to Europe.
Standing in the way is another NATO member with very close relations to the EU – Turkey. Both groups are desperate to grab the oil and gas.
Greece is already buying up to four French-built Belharra frigates and 24 French Rafale fighter jets for $2.5bn. Greece and Turkey have increasingly clashed over rights to undersea oil and gas. If such a confrontation comes to a gunfight the first casualty will be NATO!
Now Poland has said that it will not accept rulings of the European Court of Justice. The EU is breaking up because European capitalism is on the rocks!
In Britain, the situation is critical. National Energy Action said yesterday that about four million people are already in fuel poverty, and this will rise to 5.5 million. This is while the risk of power cuts to factories and homes this winter has increased, National Grid warned yesterday.
There is only one way out for Europe and that is for the working class to carry out the European socialist revolution to smash capitalism, and bring in a European nationalised and planned economy.
Workers in France, Germany, Italy and right across Europe must now build sections of the Fourth International to lead the European socialist revolution to its victory.
