Iraqi Workers Strike to Keep Their Oil

Posted by Mary Mancini on June 19, 2007 under Uncategorized |

Did you know that Iraq’s oil workers had unions? And that they are very opposed to the privatization of Irag’s oil? And that their main objective is the renegotiation of the new oil law so that their oil remains in public hands? Did you know that President Bush has his fingers in his ears and is saying, “Nah nah nah nah, I’m not listening to you people”?

The Bush administration won’t leave Iraq, in part, because that economic agenda is still insecure. Under Washington’s guidance, the Iraqi government wrote a new oil law in secret.

That law is touted in the U.S. press as ensuring an equitable division of oil wealth. Iraqi unions say it will ensure that foreign corporations control future exploration and development in one of the world’s largest reserves.

Hassan Juma’a Awad, president of the Iraqi oil federation, wrote a letter to the U.S. Congress on May 13 in which he said:

Everyone knows the oil law doesn’t serve the Iraqi people.

The union was banned from the secret negotiations. According to Juma’a, the result

serves Bush, his supporters and foreign companies at the expense of the Iraqi people.

Like all Iraqi unionists, Juma’a says the occupation should end without demanding Iraq’s oil as a price. “The USA claimed that it came here as a liberator, not to control our resources,” he reminded Congress.

When President Bush says we’re not leaving Iraq, I think he means it.