2.15 euros a liter of gasoline, 2.40 euros for diesel, and they're preparing us for prices to climb as high as 3 euros for diesel! The rising fuel prices are strangling us all, including fishermen, farmers, home health nurses and caregivers. How many of us are already forced to forgo a weekend outing and to choose between filling the gas tank or the fridge?
The money we leave at the pump doesn't just vanish into thin air. It's a new tax we pay to Total, Shell and the like. Even with price freezes at its stations, TotalEnergies is breaking profit records, posting 10 billion euros in profit in the first half of 2026.
And for good reason! In the Middle East, oil’s very cheap to produce. In Saudi Arabia, the average extraction cost is less than 5 dollars a barrel. Today, it sells for 102 dollars on the international market. The companies that control the entire chain, from extraction to distribution, including transportation and refining, are making enormous profits.
We are told that this price explosion is the result of wars. Does that mean that oil companies don’t have anything to do with it? They certainly didn't order the bombing of Iran, but they’re profiting from this war like never before, and they’re definitely the ones jacking up prices. By manipulating the law of supply and demand, they sell to the highest bidder and thus inflate their prices. And workers around the world are supposed to bow down to the dictatorship of these large corporations!
A succession of attacks
On top of that, there are other price increases: fuel oil, gas, electricity, food, rent… It's simple, everything’s going up, except wages, pensions and benefits!
And that's not all. Prime Minister Lecornu wants savings of 54 billion in the next budget. Is he looking for them in the super-profits, in the great fortunes that have doubled in ten years, among the new millionaires? No, he's targeting the sick, the workers, the tenants and the retirees.
He wants to freeze civil servants’ salaries and reduce reimbursements for medications. He also wants to freeze housing benefits and suppress them altogether for foreigners who haven't resided in France for several years. Foreign workers would therefore have the right to break their back on construction sites and carry bags of cement to build housing, but not to receive any assistance whatsoever for accommodation!
And once again, he’s targeting pensioners. For weeks, they’ve been accused of costing too much, of being a burden on public finances, even of being wealthy individuals who are making young people pay for their lifestyle. This campaign is an insult to all workers. Once we stop generating profits for employers, this is how we are being treated!
For decades, these women and men worked and moved society forward. We live off what they built. And even in retirement, they aren't inactive. Many of them are forced to supplement their meager pension with working. And how many working-class families, associations, and neighborhood clubs depend on the role they play? They’re a thousand times more valuable and committed to keeping society running than all those who call them privileged.
Time to show our anger
Lowering taxes, as suggested by several presidential candidates, is a deceptive solution. When taxes are reduced, the bill always comes back to bite us — cuts to schools, hospitals and other public services, or even a new tax.
The only solution is to take the money from the major beneficiaries of the system. The exploiters are operating openly. TotalEnergies, Shell and the like must pay back, one way or another, what they’ve stolen from us.
And to protect us from widespread inflation, wages, benefits and pensions must increase and catch up with rising prices.
Calls for mobilization are circulating for the coming weeks. Initially, September 29 was planned as a day of strikes in the public sector. Unions from private companies are now joining them. Other dates are being suggested. We must seize these opportunities and direct our mobilization against those who are taking advantage of the situation to enrich themselves like never before.
Expressing our anger collectively, breaking free from the isolation and divisions into which bosses and politicians are plunging us, is the first step towards mobilizing for battle. One thing is certain: only those who fight can earn respect!
Nathalie Arthaud