Hands Off Iraqi Oil Teach In - Review
The HOIO Teach In last weekend (March 24th) was a success. Dozens of individuals and group representatives pledged to take action through their trade union branches, anti war networks and communities.
Review of teach-in organised by Hands off Iraqi Oil Coalition
By Tahrir Swift, Arab Media Watch adviser and exile from Saddam Hussein's regime
29 March 2007
Dozens of people took part in a teach-in organised by the Hands off Iraqi Oil Coalition on the 24 March 2007 in Union Chapel, London.
A press release the previous month launched a coalition of organisations (*) to campaign against the introduction of an oil law which was approved by the Iraqi Council of Ministers on 26 February 2007 and is currently in front of parliament. The law will basically facilitate the daytime robbery of Iraqi oil, as the speakers at this event stated.
"The Iraqi oil law is the world's best kept secret," said Greg Muttitt of PLATFORM, an activist and expert speaker on the proposed law. Until January this year, the transcript of the law, put together by parties close to the big oil companies, has been kept under wraps. It was only disclosed recently to Iraqi MPs, who are expected to vote on it this spring.
In the book A Game as Old as Empire, Muttitt explained in his chapter on The Hijack of Iraqi Oil Reserves that the sort of contracts this law seeks to introduce, commonly known as Production Sharing Agreements, have been resisted by the Gulf states, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia:
"Iraq, with 10% of the world's oil reserves, seems to be the easiest to turn around. And if Iraq can be re opened to the multinationals, perhaps its neighbours could be pressured to follow suit."
The term PSA was dropped from the final draft of the text of the oil law. This is because of the bad name it got due to the excellent campaign by PLATFORM in exposing the fallacy of fairness implied in the term.
Anti-war and anti-globalisation activists spoke one after the other to condemn the "corporate invasion of Iraq," and cited it as the real motive behind the invasion and occupation.
Becca Fisher of Corporate Watch spoke of the early involvement of experts close to the oil majors, employed as consultants during the first year of occupation under Paul Bremmer in order to do the ground work and establish a way in for them to get their hands on Iraqi oil. "The British government directly and indirectly facilitated the work of lobbies, pushing the granting of companies like BP and Shell long-term contracts in Iraq," said Fisher.
Other activists also expressed their horror that Iraq, a country on its knees and under occupation, should be selected to offer such unfair contracts which will give the multinational companies full control of Iraq's massive oil reserves for 30 or more years to come.
According to Muttitt, the whole plan started in 2002 with the US State Department's 'The Future of Iraq Plan'. Iyad Allawi, then Iraqi interim prime minister, endorsed it in 2004 by producing the first policy promising the foreign oil companies the contracts for exploring and exploiting reserves in Iraq.
A gathering in February 2007 in Amman, Jordan, of 50 Iraqi oil technocrats and former senior civil servants in Iraq's Oil Ministry, issued a statement objecting to the rushing of such a controversial law while the country is in turmoil.
Apart from legalising the theft of Iraqi oil, the law gives a free hand to the Iraqi authorities to negotiate the contracts with the giant foreign oil companies without allowing parliament any say on a matter that will affect Iraqis for generations to come.
"History will not forgive those who play recklessly with the wealth and destiny of a people, and the curse of heaven and the fury of Iraqis will not leave them," warned Hasan Juma'a, president of the General Union of Oil Employees in Basra (GUOE), who has been at the forefront of the campaign of keeping Iraqi oil in the hands of Iraqis. "We believe this law to be more political than economic. It threatens to set governorate against governorate and region against region."
The ranks of the GUOE has more than doubled in recent months, after it opened its membership to all oil workers in Iraq, and because of the popularity of its principled stand on this sacred issue for all Iraqis.
It is thought that the proposed oil law will overturn law number 80, introduced in 1961 in Iraq, which nationalised the land not under the control of the multinational oil companies at the time. It will also overturn the 1972 nationalisation of oil law, introduced by the Baath party.
"Open the way to Iraqis to manage their own oil affairs," said Juma'a. "They are able to rise to the challenge. They have the experience in the field and the technical training. They have overcome hardships and proven to the world that they can provide the best service to Iraqis in the oil industry. The best proof of that is how after the entry of the occupying forces and the destruction of the infrastructure of the oil sector, the engineers, technical staff and workers were able to raise production from zero to 2,100,000 barrels per day without any foreign expertise or foreign capital."
The GUOE is not opposed to employing foreign companies to access technical assistance and modern technology to rehabilitate the oil industry. They do, however, object to allowing these companies a stake in the profit or long-term control of Iraq's wealth.
Many Iraqi technocrats have in the last several weeks written articles in Arabic arguing that the Iraqi oil industry can be modernised and developed without handing over "the property of the future Iraqi generations" to the multinational companies.
Iraqi oil revenues constitute 95% of national income, and are seen as the only hope for Iraq's recovery.
"All Iraqis have suffered from wars, 13 years of genocidal UN siege, and now a brutal occupation that ignores international law," said Malak Hamdan of Solidarity for an Independent and Unified Iraq. "70% of Iraqis are dependent on food rations, children's malnutrition is on the increase, the water and sewerage systems are in ruins, the health and education systems are barely functioning, our people's suffering is unimaginable. Oil revenues are the only hope for us and for the future generations. We simply cannot afford to allow their theft."
According to Fuad Qassim Al Ameer, an Iraqi oil expert, the plan by the occupiers and the multinational companies is to increase the extraction and consumption of Iraqi oil at a time when the whole world recognises climate change as the greatest threat facing humanity today. Ameer argues that such a hike in oil production is not in the interest of the Iraqi oil industry or economy.
He also cited the disastrous policy in Russia, where foreign investments in the oil sector were invited before tackling endemic corruption, costing the nation dearly and prompting a u-turn.
Muttitt also expressed his anxiety over the law's lack of watertight safeguards on pollution. If Shell's record in the Niger Delta is anything to go by, his fears are well-placed.
"Passing this law is the real 'mission' of Bush and Blair," said Hani Lazim of Iraqi Democrats Against the Occupation. " Iraq has for decades managed its own wealth and does not need this law. It is not in the interest of Iraq."
He also emphasised the importance of this solidarity campaign, especially while the US 'surge' and the new security plan provided cover for sneaking this law past the people of Iraq while they live under emergency law, unable to protest or make their voices heard.
Many Iraqis believe the law will amount to the surrendering of sovereignty over Iraq's wealth and hence the future of its economy. All objections to the proposed law have been explained on the Hands off Iraqi Oil website.
The activists at the event agreed to launch a national and international campaign to expose the law and it ramifications. Early Day Motion 1180 has been tabled by Katy Clark MP for members of the British parliament to sign. The EDM calls for allowing Iraqis to hold on to their oil, and demands that British government involvement in pushing this unjust law be made public.
(*) The coalition includes: PLATFORM, WAR ON WANT, Jubilee Iraq, NAFTANA, Voices in the Wilderness -UK , Corporate Watch and Iraq Occupation Focus
This article can be found at: http://www.arabmediawatch.com/amw/Articles/Analysis/tabid/75/newsid395/3779/Review-of-teach-in-organised-by-Hands-off-Iraqi-Oil-Coalition/Default.aspx
