The price of red diesel, used by farmers for tractors, has risen from 15 pence a liter in May to 24 pence a liter today (1 gallon=3.8 liters. 1 pence=1.4 cents). And the price of gasoline (petrol) has risen to the equivalent of about US$4.35 a gallon, hitting workers and small businesses especially hard. World oil prices remain at a 10-year high.

The government has increased taxes on fuel 6 percent above the rate of inflation. Today, almost 80 percent of the price of gasoline for motorists in the United Kingdom is an onerous consumption tax.

The blockades come in the midst of a crisis in agriculture in this country that has sharpened over the past few years. Prices for fuel, fertilizer, animal feed, and other costs have escalated, while the prices many farmers receive for their produce have declined steeply. This squeeze has hit working farmers particularly hard.

"Fuel prices are like the final nail in the coffin for farmers," said Brynie Williams, a farmer from Cilcain, in north Wales, who took part in the blockade of the Shell oil refinery at Stanlow, Ellesmere Port.

Blockades have been set up at oil refineries in South Wales, Bristol, Shropshire, Jarrow, on the Humber estuary, and elsewhere. There have been actions at an oil distribution center in Manchester. Farmers from Scotland and England have joined forces to block the main road between Newcastle and Edinburgh.

A variety of class forces have taken part, including farmers, truck drivers, taxi drivers, and some road company bosses.  
 
Inspired by French protests
The actions follow blockades in France and similar actions in other European countries affected by high fuel prices. Fishermen in Italy occupied wharves and warned they would blockade ports if fuel taxes were not reduced. In Germany, truck drivers blockaded roads going into the town of Hildersheim.

"We looked at the French and were heartened by the fact that their protests are having an effect. We have to make sure ours do too," said Paul Ashley, from Farmers for Action in the UK, referring to the fact that Paris backed down and agreed to lower fuel taxes.

Some in the actions here distanced themselves from the French protests. Clive Mullen, a road haulage boss in Essex who took part in a picket at the Coryton refinery, said, "We don't want to see a confrontation--we're not French. We're British, but we want our prime minister to listen to us."

The main refinery for the southeast of England, Coryton in Essex, was picketed by about 15 people, including farmers and bosses from road haulage companies. Like many of the protests this action had a nationalist tinge. Signs with Union Jacks read, "UK diesel at Euro prices." Drivers who carry fuel for British Petroleum at the refinery refused to take trucks out of the refinery.

Exploited family farmers were among the pickets at the Askew Farm Lane fuel distribution center in Essex, where pickets talked to drivers leaving the depot and convinced them to turn their trucks back.  
 
Blair invokes emergency powers
By September 12 most gas stations across Britain had closed from lack of gas. The same day Prime Minister Anthony Blair invoked emergency power to compel oil companies to supply fuel from blockaded refineries. Within hours, cops began escorting oil trucks from refineries at Essex, Hamble, Manchester, and Grangemouth.

At the Avonmouth refinery drivers defied the emergency decree, refusing to take out trucks. There and elsewhere pickets have forged links with oil company drivers and won support for their fight. In a phone interview Hopkin Smith, a small farmer from South Wales, described support from drivers inside the Texaco oil terminal in Cardiff. Drivers had told him that they had been threatened with dismissal for refusing to move the oil.

Pickets had already reported a growing police presence before Blair's announcement. At Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port the cops used cameras to videotape the cars of those who came to take part in the action. When Shell refinery bosses threatened to sack 60 fuel delivery drivers if they did not cross the picket line, farmers prepared to block the refinery with 16 tons of hay bales.

Blair's government has refused any cut in fuel taxes. Chancellor Gordon Brown tried to pit the protesters against other working people by claiming the government could cut fuel taxes only at the expense of cutting government spending on health care and education.

Brown attempted to divert attention from the government's responsibility for fuel taxation by insisting that the solution to the high prices lay with an increase in oil production--blaming governments belonging to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The opposition Conservative Party transport secretary, Archibald Norman, criticized the government and courted the protesters. He called on the government to "think again about its strategy of taxing the motorist and exploiting the oil price increase as a source of revenue."

The main bosses' organization in Britain, the Confederation of British Industry, backed demands for businesses to be compensated for the rise in fuel taxes. In an editorial entitled "'Non' to civil disobedience," the right-wing Daily Telegraph also called for a fuel tax cut. Reflecting the hostility to the blockades among capitalists here, the paper's editors added, "Every child in France is brought up at school to admire the heroes of the [French] Revolution. It is a national tradition in France that civil disobedience is the way to get things done.... The sad thing is that in Britain where the rule of law has traditionally commanded much more respect, the French way of doing things is increasingly catching on."

The Road Haulage Association and the Freight Transport Association, representing the interests of capitalists in the road transportation business, have called for a cut in diesel taxes for their businesses. They have expressed opposition to the blockades.

Pat Shaw is a member of the Transport and General Workers' Union in London. Caroline Bellamy in London contributed to this article.