Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials, 5 February 2008

There have been unending claims by the government about the "progress" being made in Afghanistan - and in Iraq, to the point where they say troops may even be withdrawn.

But we all know from the regular press reports, the on-going court cases and even the interviews with army top brass, that what this is pure government propaganda, to cover up reality.

We know, for instance, that roadside bombs, shells and bullets are still killing soldiers in Afghanistan; that the western-backed Afghan regime in Kabul still has no authority beyond the limits of the capital's province and that in Iraq the 5,000 troops which remain in Basra are on constant alert, in case the Iraqi army is over-run by local militias. Only last week, the head of the Basra police was shot dead outside his house. Hardly a sign that "law and order" has returned.

Probably those who are best-placed to say what really goes on, on the ground, are the soldiers themselves. And what they feel is eloquently expressed by the fact that one in fourteen amongst them are away from their units, off sick, due to illness or injury.

The latest figures for suicides amongst the US army personnel show that before the Iraq war, one soldier attempted suicide every day. Today this has gone up to 5. Getting comparable figures from the MOD may not be possible, but what we do know is that the British army is dismissing what amounts to a battalion of soldiers a year for taking drugs. Drug use has gone up from 1.4 per 1,000 in 2003, to 5.7 per 1,000 in June 2007 - that is, fourfold. Soldiers are trying every possible channel in order to get themselves out of the army, including even dishonourable discharge due to a positive drugs test. And understandably so.

If the war is hell for the Iraqi and Afghan populations, it is also hell for the soldiers who never chose to go there in the first place. Unlike the Blairs, the Browns and the Bush's of this world, they have no interest in these wars. Troops out!

There are those who do have a direct interest in these wars in Middle East - the wars for oil, markets and strategic control. Exxon, Shell, and all the other oil companies, who today are again announcing record profits. Exxon Mobil said it made an all-time record for a US company of $40.6bn. Royal Dutch Shell made clear profits of £13.9 billion, a record for a British listed company.

The exception seemed to be BP, whose profits fell slightly. But this was no setback: BP, which is Europe's second biggest oil company, announced instead that it was raising its quarterly dividend pay-out to shareholders by 31%!

Indeed, BP predicts a very "robust" future for the oil business. So its shareholders are to get a hefty reward, while 5,000 BP workers have been told they are sacked, because profits were not as high as predicted!

Yet, not only do these companies' workers make all these profits for them, but the whole of the working class is adding to their profits by buying fuel for their cars in order to get to work so as to allow this cycle of capitalist exploitation to continue! Or, alternatively, paying through the neck on public transport where fares keep going up (5-15%) way above annual inflation!

Off course, the oil companies are always quick to reply with the excuse that most of the money we pay at the pump goes to the government in tax.

In fact, the government intends to increase the tax on petrol and diesel by 2 pence per litre on 1 April, so we are due to pay even more!

Yes, while oil companies and their shareholders are raking it in as if there is no tomorrow, ordinary people are asked to pay for it. And how long before the cost of a litre of petrol reaches £2?

Union leaders are calling for a windfall tax to be imposed on the oil companies. Windfall taxes have been imposed before, like in 1997, on the privatised utility companies, by none other than Tony Blair, the best friend of big business.

This could be done. But why just a windfall tax? Surely if the Treasury needs to raise a lot more money - and it does - it could recoup all of this from these super-wealthy companies by making them pay all of the time?

This will not, of course, change the fact that the oil companies, taxed or not, are making a killing - in every sense of this word - on the backs of workers and the poor of this world, with the full support of governments such as this one.