Heat costs hit the roof! An elderly woman, Mary Calcagno, and her son, Charles Gaudin, were found frozen, wrapped in blankets, in their home in Chicago in mid-December.
Their home had no heat. This is only one of the many outrageous and unnecessary human tragedies that will unfold this winter because of the greed of the energy corporations. The price of natural gas is up 40 to 50 percent. Millions of Americans are going without meals and medicine to pay heat bills, turning their thermostats down to dangerous levels, and many will die. And what about the homeless, who are freezing to death in the streets?
Is this the America we want? Where the big corporations and energy speculators can make billions more in profit by raising prices simply because they want more wealth? They try to justify their actions by saying there are "energy shortages." But everyone knows there are no shortages. And, things can only worsen, given the massive consolidation of the energy industry that will further drive prices up. The situation is inhuman and morally wrong. What can we do?
Nationalize the energy.
Under capitalism, the earth's energy is private property. These vital resources must become public property. The energy industry should be taken over by the government and run in the interests of the nation, like the U.S. mail service.
With technology eliminating so many jobs today, people cannot afford to buy the necessities. We can't count on the government to help because it and the corporations are one and the same. Politicians may talk about "taxing the energy corporations," but that is not a solution. We have to take the energy out of private hands and make the government responsible.
Our first step is to bring the demand for nationalization of the energy into our community organizations. The rising cost of energy is affecting millions of people, and people are demanding change. Campaigns like this are part of building a powerful movement for a new cooperative society based on the interests of the majority, not the profits of the few. Nationalize energy.
Nationalize the energy industry
