Trump and Netanyahu’s war on Iran has wreaked havoc on the global economy. From Ireland to the Philippines, working people are paying the price for a war fought over the interests of the billionaire class. Oil prices have surged more than 55% since the beginning of the war. Skyrocketing fuel prices have been passed onto working people and sparked massive protests in several countries, some of which have forced concessions from governments. These protests point towards the potential to broaden into the kind of international anti-war movement that could end the war on the basis of a working-class fightback.
Philippines
In the Philippines, which has seen some of the steepest fuel price hikes in Asia, with 98% of their oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz, waves of protest and strikes have erupted. Transport workers have had their take-home pay fall by as much as 60%, leaving them unable to afford basic necessities. On March 27, the “No to Oil Price Hike Coalition” marched thousands of workers to the presidential palace to demand price controls on oil and diesel, scrapping fuel taxes, regulation of the fuel industry, and higher wages, after weeks of inaction from Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos. Since then, led by transport unions and allied groups, tens of thousands of workers have embarked on a series of multi-day strikes, bringing Manila’s streets to a near standstill.
In response, the government has been forced to grant minor concessions like fuel subsidies and a limited, temporary suspension of excise taxes, but these subsidies have been unevenly distributed and are woefully inadequate.
The war in Iran that caused this crisis is a product of rabid US imperialism. But Marcos has based his geopolitical strategy on building an alliance with that very same US imperialism, which has massively ramped up its military presence in the Philippines due to its strategic location in the Pacific, where the US is facing off against its main rival, China. Marcos refuses to implement price controls on oil, while spending extravagantly on fuel, ammunition, and weapons in the largest-ever Balikatan, the annual US-Philippines joint military exercises. This is a clear message to workers that they are expected to foot the bill for US imperialism. The next round of strikes and protests should link up the fight for price controls with opposition to the war on Iran and all imperialism.
Ireland
In Ireland, farmers and truck drivers have been stretched to their breaking point by massive fuel shortages and swift 25-28% fuel price hikes. Farm and transport workers organized mass protests in the form of “go-slow” convoys which block traffic and shut down business as usual, raising slogans like “fund our futures, not their wars.” The blockades, which began on April 7, shut down major motorways, blocked key infrastructure like ports and oil depots—including Ireland’s only oil refinery—and virtually paralyzed Dublin. By April 11 more than a third of gas stations in Ireland were completely empty due to militant blockades.
The Irish center-right coalition government first granted a measly 3c/L reduction in green diesel, a slap in the face given the depth of the crisis. At the same time, it dug in its heels and deployed the Irish national police and the army to break up blockades—arresting, beating, and pepper-spraying workers. But after more protest escalation, the government was forced to implement a 10% reduction in fuel prices and a 505 million euro ($592 million) relief package.
The far right has attempted, with some success, to hijack these protests to push xenophobic narratives that blame immigrants for the fuel crisis, calling their own protests to demand that money used for immigrant protection centers instead go to farmers, and falsely accusing migrant workers of scabbing.
Unlike in the Philippines, Irish unions and the Irish Farmers Association largely sat out these demonstrations. The unions should be learning the lesson that mass militant direct action gets results, and mobilizing hundreds of thousands of workers into the streets, organizing solidarity action in opposition to the war in Iran, and pushing back against far-right anti-immigrant narratives. Unfortunately, the absence of this created a vacuum that the far right stepped into.
Build An International Anti-War Movement
In Ireland, the Philippines, and anywhere else that protests against the cost of war erupt, workers must go beyond economic demands and strike at the heart of the crisis: imperialist war and the capitalist system underlying it. The enemy isn’t immigrant workers who are jointly suffering from massive fuel hikes—it’s the ultra-wealthy and those profiting from imperialist war. These protests should broaden into an international anti-war movement demanding that the billionaire class pay for the cost-of-living crisis, democratic public ownership of key industries like oil and renewables, and complete opposition to all war and imperialism. It’s only by raising our sights to the system of capitalism that all war, exploitation, and oppression can be ended once and for all.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons – Kej Andrés (1 and 2), Smirkybec (3)
