"Nichts mehr davon, ich bitt euch. Zu essen gebt ihm, zu wohnen.
Habt ihr die Blöße bedeckt, gibt sich die Würde von selbst."
Friedrich Schiller
  May 2008 FOOD
for PEACE

Truckers, Farmers, Fisherman Protest Fuel Price Hyperinflation Throughout Europe

inaction of governments against the unabated, speculative rise of gasoline and diesel prices has provoked a wave of protests in Europe, notably among truckers fishermen, farmers, and individual drivers in several countries of Europe.

In Britain, 1,000 truckers descended upon central London today, protesting against high fuel prices and demanding a 25 pence per liter rebate, because the current price of 120 pence is driving companies and independents out of business. "If the government does not help us, hundreds and hundreds of U.K. family firms will go to the wall, and that work will be done by continental haulers who pay nothing to the U.K. exchequer," protest organizer Peter Carroll told the {Daily Telegraph}. The organizers expect the general driving public to support the protest as well. The trucks entered London in convoy making their way to Marbel Arch, in the heart of London, and then delivered a letter of protest to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street.

In Austria, the national car drivers association has begun collecting signatures on a petition calling for government intervention against gasoline price hyperinflation. The call also goes out to motorists in neighboring Germany and Switzerland. In Germany, unrest about the fuel prices is voiced among farmers, whose operating costs are rising to an extent that farming profitability is threatened for many. Related to the rise of the crude oil prices, is also the new round of price increases for household gas, which in Germany will be 25% or more, as announced by more than 100 gas companies. The price will be up before the heating season, and add several hundred euros to the average household heating and cooking bill. For about 50 years, the prices of crude oil and natural gas have been coupled--a practice by tacit private-sector agreement that has come under public attack again and again in recent years. The broad public discontent with the situation has compelled German Economics Minister Michael Glos to threaten legal action against gas companies, for violating anti-cartel regulations..