Editor’s Notes

Iraq war is now, and always has been, about oil

Reports by United Press International and other sources about a strike by Iraq oil workers cross our desk as we go to press. We haven’t got time to give it the attention it deserves so I’ll deal briefly with it here and prepare a more comprehensive report for Monday.

Since the first hostile rumblings of George W. Bush it always has been clear that the assault on that country was and is all about oil. Little bully boys in Washington playing with big guns were certain they could just go in and grab it,

The Saudi Arabians who hammered New York gave the Bushites the excuse they needed. Well practiced in character assassination they set their sights on their old friend Saddam Hussein. With that and an armful of lies that cowed the mainstream media and convinced the American public they marched in.

Now with 3,50l American dead, more than 10,000 Americans wounded and an as yet totaled number of tens of thousands of Iraqi children, women and men dead and wounded the bullies are stalemated by a groundswell resistance to the invaders.

The degree of opposition to the oil grab is made evident by the fact that courageous oil workers who suffered under Saddam Hussein are fighting for their country and their self respect against Big Oil that has the support by design of Washington and London. One would have thought that in the 21 st century we would be able to look back in wonder at naked 18 th and 19 th century style imperialism

The greed and cruelty that darkens the hearts of modern day Robber Barons seems to have no bounds. Anyway, I’ll stop here and let UPI and others do the talking.

First this excerpt:

Analysis: Oil Strikers Met by Iraqi Troops

By Ben Lando
United Press International

WASHINGTON — On the third day of an oil strike in southern Iraq, the Iraqi military surrounded oil workers and the prime minister issued arrest warrants for the union leaders, sparking an outcry from supporters and international unions.

"This will not stop us because we are defending people's rights," said Hassan Jumaa Awad, president of IFOU. As of Wednesday morning, when United Press International spoke to Awad via mobile phone in Basra at the site of one of the strikes, no arrests had been made, "but regardless, the arrest warrant is still active." He said that the "Iraqi Security Forces," who were present at the strike scenes, told him of the warrants and said that they would be making any arrests.

The U.S.-backed government has proposed a new law in Iraq that would permit what the oil industry calls "production-sharing agreements" that could put 70 percent of the profits from oil sales in the hands of rich oil companies and leave the Iraqi people with little to run their country.

The plan, which was supported by the U.S. State Department as early as 2003, also has the backing of the International Monetary Fund and some powerful Iraqi political leaders. In fact, the rapid opening up of Iraqi oil for "private investment" is one of the benchmarks in the Iraq funding bill, which Congress passed and President Bush signed recently.
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Meanwhile, Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, president of the Electrical Utility Workers Union, General Federation of Iraqi Workers, who is touring the United States, made it clear workers are fighting the law.

“The oil law is a bad for the Iraqi people. It is not fair or equitable. It's just another name for privatization.”

Muhsin Hussein, the only female union president in Iraq, is on a 26-day, 12-city tour of the United States sponsored by U.S. Labor Against the War ( USLAW). Thursday, she joined a rally in Washington, D.C., to protest the oil law outside the offices of BearingPoint.

BearingPoint is the contractor hired to promote the oil law, which was written by a committee of technocrats who talked with the Big Oil companies but ignored the state-run national oil company and the workers, Hussein says. It's part of an overall effort to privatize state-owned industries.
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That’s all we have time for now. Needless to say we’ll stay on top of this story as with others and keep you informed.

Enjoy your weekend, keeping in mind that there can be no life without laughter.

Looking forward

Carl Dow
True North
Editor and Publisher

PS > Don’t forget that today is True North’s first NO GAS FRIDAY.