Big Oil Going Back into Iraq

Commentary by David Hungerford

It’s in the news that four big oil companies that once formed the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) are back in Iraq. Up until 1972, Iraq did not ‘own’ its own oil. - Iraqi oil belonged the to IPC.
The four have been back in Iraq for a number of months. They are about to sign ‘service contracts’ for reconstruction of the country’s oil production infrastructure. The contracts do not require approval by the occupation puppet Green Zone ‘government.’

The big oil cartel is arguably the most powerful corporate combine in the world. It has its foot in the door and that’s all it needs to regain dominance. It’s far more than just another ‘war for oil’ story, however. Rather, it raises two other, essential questions about the war: Why war? Why Iraq?

There are many ways to get oil. War is the worst. So why war? There are many countries that have oil. Saudi Arabia has oil but we are not fighting them. So why Iraq?

These are absolutely critical questions but rarely asked. Now Big Oil has raised them in spite of itself.

The IPC was a cartel of four giant oil companies. Today the companies are known as Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell and Total. At one time they had been in Iraq for many years. Then in 1958 the Iraqi Revolution put an end to British domination of Iraq. The IPC retained control of the oil, however.

When Iraq achieved a stable government under the Baath Party in 1968 it set about claiming its own oil. Many problems had to be solved.

Iraq needed oil extraction technology of its own and capital. It needed to avoid overthrow by the imperialist countries, as had happened in Iran in 1952 when the government of Mohammed Mossadeq was overthrown in a CIA-instigated coup. Iraq needed to overcome the ability of the oil giants to embargo sales of its oil, something that had also happened to Iran.

The person Iraq turned to for answers to hard questions was Saddam Hussein. Time and again Saddam’s solutions worked. By 1972 the Iraqis were able to tell the IPC that the ‘party was over,’ the oil now belonged to them. As Lee Raymond, a former chairman of Exxon Mobil told Newsweek, “Saddam Hussein threw us out.” (Sept. 15, 2007)

Although he was not yet formally head of state, from that point on Saddam Hussein was the key person in Iraq. He came to power not because he killed or terrorized anyone but because he was the one who figured out how to nationalize the oil. That’s why the U.S. demonized him. That’s why they hanged him.

After the 1973 war with Israel and the use of the ‘oil weapon’ by the Arab countries, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a previously insignificant force, was able to take control of oil pricing away from the big oil cartel. It was a great step forward for all of the OPEC countries not just economically, but also in sovereignty.

Now we have the answer to the question of why there is a war for oil: It is due to the conflict between imperialist domination and national sovereignty

But why Iraq and not the others? Among Arab countries in OPEC Iraq alone had full control of its oil from production through sale. It was the only fully sovereign Arab country in the Persian Gulf. By 1990 the conflict had become so intense that the imperialists could think of nothing better than to rig up the Kuwait crisis and commit aggression against Iraq.

The IPC could get back into Iraq only at gunpoint, by invasion and occupation. That’s the only way it can stay. That’s what John McCain meant when he said he is willing to stay in Iraq for “maybe 100” years. It can’t be done. As long as the occupation stays the Iraqi people will fight. The war has its ups and downs but the people will always fight. Their cause is just. In the end they are certain to win.

[article from Fight Back! News; cartoon from Workers World]

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Victory to the Iraqi Resistance!

The contradiction between imperialism and the peoples of the oppressed nations is the principal contradiction on a world scale. The main front of this contradiction is in Iraq, where the Iraqi national resistance is in the process of defeating U.S. imperialism. Below you will find some articles about the resistance in Iraq and why they need and deserve the support of the antiwar movement. The Iraqi Resistance is a national liberation movement struggling against occupation for justice, peace, and self-determination. While "TROOPS OUT NOW" must remain the central and unifying slogan of the antiwar movement, raising political support for the Iraqi national resistance as the sole legitimate representative of the Iraqi people is one of the main tasks of Marxist-Leninists and of all genuine anti-imperialists in the movement today. This is true solidarity with the Iraqi people.

Voices of the Iraqi Resistance:
Leaders of the Iraqi National Resistance Speak at an International Solidarity Conference

By Kosta Harlan

Chianciano, Italy - An historic conference with leaders of the Iraqi national resistance was held here last week. It was the first time that representatives of the Iraqi resistance have been able to speak in the West. Organizers had previously attempted to hold the conference in the fall of 2005, only to have the Italian government withhold visas from the Iraqi participants after intense pressure from the United States government. The scope of the conference extended beyond Iraq to include the resistance movements in Palestine and Lebanon, as well as representatives from the antiwar and liberation movements in countries from around the world.

(read the rest: http://www.fightbacknews.org/2007/03/voices.htm)

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U.S. anti-war activist on speaking tour, tells of meeting with Iraqi resistance

By staff

In March, U.S. antiwar activist and Freedom Road Socialist Organization member Kosta Harlan attended a historic international solidarity conference in Italy with leaders of the Iraqi resistance ( see “Voices of the Iraqi Resistance,” Fight Back!, March 2007). Since returning to the United States, Harlan has traveled to college campuses and cities across the South, speaking to hundreds of students and antiwar activists about the Iraqi resistance. He spoke at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Chapel Hill, and Charlotte; at Winthrop University in South Carolina; at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and at community centers in Winston-Salem and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

(read the rest: http://www.fightbacknews.org/2007/06/antiwartour.htm)

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Petraeus, Bush vow to continue war

Movement to end war grows

By Josh Sykes and Staff

Reporting to Congress Sept. 11, General David Petraeus confirmed what most in the anti-war movement have long been saying: The U.S. has no intention of getting out of Iraq anytime soon - unless it is forced to.

In the course of the testimony and questioning before congress there was talk of the occupation continuing another five years or more. Figures in the Bush administration have compared the occupation of Iraq with the U.S. military presence in south Korea, an occupation that has extended more than half a century. In a speech two days later, Bush endorsed Petraeus’s recommendations, including a plan to ‘draw down’ U.S. troops to pre-surge levels. Practically, this means that the current number of U.S. troops, about 168,000, may be reduced to about 130,000 to 140,000 by next summer. The key phrase here is ‘may be.’ What’s certain is that the Bush administration and the Pentagon are planning an indefinite occupation of Iraq and that Bush is delivering on his promised ‘war without end.’

(read the rest: http://www.fightbacknews.org/2007/09/petraeus.htm)

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The Iraqi Resistance is Just and Should be Supported:
A Reply to Phyllis Bennis

Kosta Harlan
August 11, 2007

In the four years of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, public debate within the U.S. antiwar movement on whether to support the Iraqi resistance has rarely taken place. Consequently the recent polemic between Alexander Cockburn and Phyllis Bennis (a leader in the United for Peace and Justice Coalition) is an extremely positive development and should be welcomed. It is an important debate that needs to take place at all levels within the U.S. antiwar movement.

Some weeks ago Alexander Cockburn wrote of the need for the U.S. antiwar movement to openly support the resistance ("Support their troops?," CounterPunch). In her reply, "Why the Anti — War Movement Doesn't Embrace the Iraqi Resistance", Bennis correctly argues that the basis of unity in the movement should not be "Victory to the resistance", but the demand "Troops out now". But Bennis goes further and argues that anti — imperialists have no responsibility to raise support for the Iraqi resistance. Bennis says that the Iraqi resistance is illegitimate (with some arrogance, she refers to the Iraqi resistance in quotation marks) and is therefore undeserving of support. This conclusions rests on a number of erroneous arguments, concentrated here in one paragraph of her article:

(read the rest: http://www.mltoday.com/Pages/IraqWar/Harlan-ReplytoBennis.html)

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Interview in Madrid with Abu Muhammad, spokesman of the patriotic and nationalist Iraqi Resistance

“The Iraqi Resistance is the legitimate and sole representative of Iraq”

CEOSI, Madrid, 8 October 2007

IraqSolidaridad (www.iraqsolidaridad.org),

10 December 2007

Translated from Spanish for IraqSolidaridad by Sabah Assir, revised by Ian Douglas

“The Iraqi Resistance has no relation with Al-Qaeda, which has its own vision, strategy, purposes and resources. One part of the assassinations that are now taking place in Iraq are executed by Al-Qaeda and another part by the militias and death squads linked to the political parties [invested in the US-imposed political process and] related to the occupation, but which also count on the assistance of Iran through its intervention in Iraq. […] The objective of the Iraqi Resistance is to achieve a total liberation. When the occupiers leave Iraq we will establish a national democratic, multiparty system, based on free elections; a regime in which all Iraqis that believe in collective rights will participate.”

(read the rest: http://iraqsolidaridad.org/2007/docs/10-12-07-Entrevista_Abu_Mohamad_ingles.html)

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Iraqi Resistance Demands U.S. Withdrawl and Recognition

Published Oct 20, 2007 7:16 AM

Workers World managing editor John Catalinotto participated in interviews in Madrid on Oct. 10 with Abu Muhammed, a spokesperson for both the post-invasion Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party in Iraq and for the Supreme Command of the Front for Struggle [Jihad] and Liberation in Iraq (FSL), whose formation was announced Oct. 2. This front is one of the major coalitions or fronts of organizations that participate in the Iraqi National Resistance (INR) to the U.S. occupation.

This was the first set of interviews by an official representative of a major coalition of the Iraqi resistance outside the Middle East. He came to Spain at the invitation of the group CEOSI (iraqsolidaridad.org) and held media, political and institutional meetings.

(read the rest: http://www.workers.org/2007/world/iraq-1025/)

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'US is the main irritant in Iraq'

By Ahmed Janabi

Sheikh Harith al-Dhari, head of the Association of Muslim Scholars, is arguably one of the most influential Iraqi Sunni leaders today. His unequivocal opposition to the US-led occupation and criticism of the Nouri al-Maliki government attracted threats against his life and forced him into exile.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, al-Dhari says the slight improvement in the security situation in Iraq "is due to a decision by the Iraqi government to reign in its death squads".

(read the rest: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/358F4592-A9B6-4BBC-8C3A-4FBC700C0BBC.htm)

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Iraq - Eye to Eye with the Occupation • Chapter III: The Historical Roots of Resistance

First published in French and Dutch in May 2004, Iraq: Eye to Eye with the Occupation by Mohamed Hassan, former Ethiopian diplomat and Middle East specialist, and David Pestieau, Belgian journalist (www.solidaire.org) has now been translated into German, Italian and Turkish.One of the first books on the occupation of Iraq, it gives facts and analysis on the historical, political and social roots of the Iraqi resistance against the US army and its allies.

(read the rest: http://www.solidaire.org/scripts/article.phtml?section=A3AAABBSBA&obid=26821)

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FRSO Fifth Congress Resolution:
Victory to the Iraqi Resistance

As the U.S. occupation of Iraq enters its fifth year, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization salutes the Iraqi resistance in its heroic struggle to liberate Iraq from imperialism and colonialism. We join with progressive forces around the world in recognizing that the victory of the Iraqi resistance is the only possible path towards a just peace in Iraq.

FRSO condemns the U.S. occupation of Iraq as a crime against humanity. Millions of people are suffering daily under the boot of military dictatorship. Hundreds of thousands have died in the four years of occupation. Millions live as refugees, both in and outside of Iraq. The U.S. has established a sectarian puppet "government," bound hand-and-foot to Washington, and calls it "democracy." FRSO calls on the antiwar movement to refuse any support to this puppet regime and recognize the national resistance as the sole legitimate representative of the Iraqi people.

(read the rest: http://www.frso.org/about/5congress/resolutioniraq.htm)

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The Movement Against War in Iraq:
A New Period and Our Tasks

By Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Lessons From 17 Years of Aggression and Resistance

Iraq has been under attack by the United States government and military for the past 17 years. The current war and occupation has lasted for four years, and the U.S. faces military defeat by the Iraqi resistance. The American people do not support the war and want the troops brought home. It is an important time to look back at the movement against the war, try to learn some of the lessons that are available and look ahead to the tasks for the U.S. anti-war movement.

(read the rest: http://www.frso.org/about/statements/2007/antiwartasks2007.htm)

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FRSO Fifth Congress:
Main Political Report 2007
International Situation

Introduction

Since 2004, the international situation has continued to develop in a way that is extremely favorable for the world’s peoples to make gains. In fact, the imperialist centers have been dealt heavy setbacks. On a general level we can say that the four basic contradictions are sharpening–between imperialism and the peoples of the oppressed nations, between the imperialist powers, between the working class and the capitalists, and between socialism and capitalism–and that this intensification of the basic contradictions exists in the context of the long-term decline of U.S. imperialism. (1)

The principal contradiction in the world today is between the peoples of the third world (2) and imperialism. The U.S. is the preeminent imperialist power in the world today and as such it is the main danger to the world’s peoples.

(read the rest: http://frso.org/about/5congress/mpr2007.pdf)

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Meeting Resistance: A Documentary Film about the Resistance in Iraq

What would you do if America was invaded?

(check it out: http://www.meetingresistance.com/)

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For more see also: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/resistance.htm

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Explaining the new ML blog header

Left Spot suggested I explain the content of the new header graphic here on this blog, because maybe some of it is pretty obscure, or unfamiliar to some readers. So I'll do that briefly here, then folks can comment and I'll clarify if need be. I hope that maybe this will spark some good discussion. I tried to stylize and symbolize a balanced depiction of Marxism-Leninism and national liberation, both in the United States, where I live and work, and around the world. I would just want to add that the presense of any of this material does indicate my support and solidarity, it should not, however, be considered a total ideological endorsement.

Going clockwise from the left, the Little Red Book (Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong) is first. This book was the textbook for the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, and serves as an excellent manual on how to conduct a revolutionary struggle (here is a neat site about the red book). It is a symbol of Mao Zedong Thought.

Next is Paul Robeson, one of the greatest mass leaders in American history. He was an actor, a singer, and an athlete, awarded the Stalin Peace Prize (the Soviet version of the Nobel Peace Prize) in 1952 for his leading role in the formative years of the Civil Rights Movement and his devotion to the defense of peace and opposition to imperialism throughout the world.

Beneath and to the right of Robeson is Frantz Fanon's great book, The Wretched of the Earth. This book, written by a Black psychologist, trained in France and heavily influenced by Marxism, not to mention an active participant in the Algerian Revolution, is essential for understanding the relationship between oppressor and oppressed and structures of colonial dominance and resistance. This is a book that a lot of influence upon me in my formative period when I was first studying the theory and practice of the Black Panther Party, who were heavily influenced by this book (along with the works of Kwame Nkrumah and Maoism) because of its insistanc that the lumpenproletariat should be the leading force in national liberation struggles. (See the wikipedia article on Fanon's major book.)

Next is Harry Haywood, the great African American Communist. He was a leading theorist in the CPUSA regarding the national question in the United States. His most important contribution is the development of the theory of an African American national territory in the Black Belt South based on the understanding of the Marxist line on the national question developed by Lenin and Stalin (see the section on Haywood in my article on the National Question for more this). He wrote several important theoretical works, the most important of which is Negro Liberation. His autobiography, Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist is a very important critical and self-critical look at the CPUSA from its foundations to beyond WWII. He is also important as a founding figure of the antirevisionist movement in the United States as he struggled against rising revisionist currents in the CPUSA, with whom he eventually broke to join with the young Maoist groups of the New Communist Movement (see also the wikipedia article on Harry Haywood).

Following the picture of Haywood is a painting of Mao Zedong, leader of the Chinese Revolution and the most important Marxist-Leninist theorist following Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin. He is particularly important for developing the theory and practice of national-democratic revolution as a step toward socialist revolution, for developing the Marxist theory of People's War, and for developing and leading the struggle against modern revisionism. He enriched the Leninist theory of proletarian revolution in his formulations of the mass line, the united front, and the continuation of class struggle under socialism. His philosophical contributions, namely his work on dialectical materialism, are an incredible weapon in the hands of Marxist-Leninist organizations struggling to build a revolutionary movement to fight for socialism. He continues to be a great inspiration for poor and oppressed people all over the world.

After Mao, we see someone inspired by Maoism to fight people's war - a female People's Liberation Army soldier in Nepal, where today the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is leading the New Democratic revolution. I always thought that was such a beautiful and inspiring picture, the way the traditional blanket she is wrapped in to protect her from the early morning cold as she keeps watch contrasts to the sleek, black M-16 that has been liberated from the enemy. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) are one of the most important and challenging forces in the Communist Movement today.

Che Guevara is next. Che, in my opinion, embodied the proletarian internationalist spirit. Born in Argentina, Che met the remarkable revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in Mexico and set out with him and handful of others to fight a victorious guerrilla war on U.S. imperialism's doorstep. After serving for a time as chief economist for Socialist Cuba, he set out to the Congo and then Bolivia to help other countries kick imperialism off of their soil. He was summarily executed by a FBI agent when he was captured while fighting with guerrillas in Bolivia. He continues to inspire the revolutionary and radical youth all over the world (check out the Che Guevara Archive).

Next we see a map of the Southern United States, highlighting the Black Belt. Not only is this where I live and where I grew up, but this is also the historically constituted territory of the African American Nation in the U.S., forged through the lengthy process of slavery, the betrayl of the national-democratic revolution of Reconstruction, and frozen in place by the rise of monopoly capitalism. It is the area of the greatest concentration of African American's in the U.S. The demand for self-determination for African Americans in the Black Belt is perhaps the most important demand for the proletarian revolution in the United States, as it is the source of genuine equality for African Americans, which in turn is the basis for real Black/white working class unity. Read the Comintern resolutions of 1928 and 1930 on the Black Belt Nation.

Next is the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the strongest Marxist-Leninist group in the Middle East, Ahmed Sadaat. Long a prisoner under the supervision of British and U.S. guards in a Jericho prison, he was recently kidnapped in an Israeli raid on the prison after his election to the Palestinian parliament. Here is a great interview with Sadaat just before his kidnapping by Israel.

Next up is Huey P. Newton, co-founder and ideological leader of the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in 1966 in the wake of the Watts Riots, which revealed that many of the victories won in the Civil Rights Act were, in fact, formal rights, but rights with little meaning for poor African Americans living in the ghettos. Heavily influenced both by Marxism-Leninism and Maoist Thought, as well as by the national liberation struggles forging ahead throughout the underdeveloped world, the BPP took up arms against the police and put forward a 10 point program for the self-defense and self-determination of the Black community. Despite their problems and errors, their impact in develping a militant, anti-imperialist alternative pole to the bankruptcy of the reformism of the national bourgeoisie cannot be overlooked. Huey Newton should always be understood to have been a tremendous guiding light during an important formative period for Communist revolution in the United States.

We see, following Huey, a book - Stalin's Marxism and the National and Colonial Question, which is the most important collection of texts on the national question by the leading theorist of the national question within the Marxist-Leninist movement. This book, along with his study with the Comintern and five years in the Soviet Union as a member of the CPSU, had a great influence on African American Communist, Harry Haywood. Here is a link to the central text in that book, Marxism and the National Question. I think understanding this is essential to understanding Marxism-Leninism.

Next is a picture of your's truly, Comrade Zero, at an anti-NED (National Endowment for Democracy) demo in Washington D.C following the conference that founded the Venezuela Solidarity Network. The sign I'm holding reads, "Self-determination: endow this".

Below the anti-NED picture is a picture of William Z. Foster. Foster was a leader of the CPUSA who struggled for a correct line in the Party until his retirement. As a powerful trade-unionist, Foster probably did more for our class than anyone else in the history of this country. He also wrote two very important books, History of the Three Internationals, and History of the Communist Party of the United States.

To Foster's left we see a photo of Malcolm X holding a M-1 carbine - he was, like me, not a pacifist, and believed in getting freedom "by any means necessary". Arguably the most important figure in the Black Nationalist movement in the U.S., Malcolm was a leader in the Nation of Islam, until his pilgramage to Mecca. Then he broke with the NOI's founder, Elija Muhammed, over what he saw as the NOI's racism and bourgeois seperatism. He remained a firm Black Nationalist and a militant pole in the Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties. He was outspoken in his demands for revolution, armed resistance, self-determination, and, in his later years, socialism. You can listen to his important speech, "Message to the Grassroots", here. His autobiography was a tremendous inspiration for me when I was in high school and just beginning to develp a little class consciousness.

On the other side of the Nepalese Maoist woman (discussed above), we see Vladamir Illych Lenin. And why is Lenin here? Though I would think that would be self-explanatory, I'll just give this little quote from his great pupil, Stalin:

Leninism is Marxism of the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. To be more exact, Leninism is the theory and tactics of the proletarian revolution in general, the theory and tactics of the dictatorship of the proletariat in particular (Foundations of Leninism).

To be a Marxist today is to be a Leninist.

Next to Lenin, we see another female Guerrilla fighter. This time a member of Colombia's largest Marxist-Leninist group, the FARC-EP. The FARC, in the face of the most brutal dictatorship (which just so happens to be a recipient of tremendous amounts of U.S. military aid under the auspices of Plan Colombia), and the paramilitaries linked to it, is in the vanguard of the struggle for national liberation and socialism in Latin America, and they have been fighting a protracted guerrilla war since the late 60s. She is marching with her comrades in a military drill. They are all carrying AK-47s.

After the FARC, there is the famous photo of a Red Army soldier raising the red flag over the Reichstag in Berlin at the close of WWII. The Soviet Union, under the leadership of Stalin and with the heroic effort of the people of the USSR, was the leading force in the united front that defeated Hitlerite Fascism. The victory of the people of the world over fascism was one of the great moments of the 2oth century and has a tremendous impact on where we are today.

Last, but certainly not least, is a picture of members of the heroic Iraqi Resistance carrying Automatic Kaloshnikov assault rifles. The Iraqi Resistance is currently leading the national liberation struggle of the Arab people against U.S. imperialism and is on the leading edge of the struggle in the region. I believe Iraq will the Stalingrad of U.S. Imperialism.

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