On Friday afternoon Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland and Óige Réabhlóideach took direct action against those causing the rise in energy prices, occupying the headquarters of Bord Gáis, taking the struggle to their doors.
Bord Gáis have increased their energy prices for consumers several times this year. At the same time their profits have massively increased – up by 74% in the first half of 2022.
Centrica plc is the British energy firm which owns Bord Gáis since 2014. These price hikes which are crushing Irish people are being taken from the country to enrich British imperialists. Their profits are soaring while we feel the sting.
A number of activists occupied the front lobby, chanting ‘Centrica Out’, demonstrating the Irish people’s opposition to imperialist exploitation and our dependency to foreign powers. Over a hundred leaflets were distributed to the workers there and to the people outside. There was a universally positive response, ordinary people recognising that the crisis is only getting worse. They were glad to see that serious action is being taken to oppose it.
British imperialism’s exploitation of the Irish people has not disappeared, and Centrica’s vampire-like profiteering is proof of that. In England fuel poverty is also skyrocketing under the greedy hand of Centrica and their ilk. Centrica have threatened to take action against the government there if they put price freezes on energy prices, as well as pushing for pro-fracking laws. In Ireland they exploit our continued subservience and dependence to imperialism, and the Free State invites them in to do so with a smile. It’s clear that one struggle exists against the handful of monopoly capitalists exploiting the people of the world. As the Fenian Proclamation declared in 1867: ‘we intend no war against the people of England — our war is against… the aristocratic leeches who drain alike our blood and theirs.’ Centrica are just such leeches, and their presence in Ireland must be actively opposed.
People are dying in our streets; families are choosing between heating or eating; the elderly and vulnerable are freezing and struggling to get by. Rents and repayments are unaffordable, with the threat of eviction ever-present. Meanwhile imperialist multinationals are let build data centres in Ireland that suck up our energy supply and leave us with high costs and black-outs – and these energy vultures hike up their prices, laughing all the way to the bank.
The only solution to the present crisis is a free Ireland – with the people in charge, not the monopoly capitalists. We must fight for an independent Ireland where the people control the energy infrastructure and supply. The Proclamation of 1916 asserted the ‘right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland.’ It is time to claim that right. The current crisis of the imperialist system demands Irish freedom as a practical and immediate necessity.
Capitalism is the Crisis – Revolution the Solution!
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