Hands Off Iraqi Oil!

WHEREAS, in the opening days of the 2003 Iraq invasion, US soldiers were ordered to protect the Oil Ministry, oil fields and refineries while wholesale looting of Iraq’s antiquities unfolded. The message to Iraqis was clear: “We’ve come for the oil.” There were no weapons of mass destruction. Rather than democracy, the US brought massive destruction and civil war to Iraq; and

WHEREAS, giving credence to Iraqi fears, the oil cartel has prepared a new Oil Law which, if enacted by the parliament, will put effective control of Iraq’s vast oil resources in the hands of foreign companies. Nationalized since 1975, Iraq’s oil was, before the years of US sanctions and invasions, the foundation for a relatively high standard of living, producing more PhD’s per capita than the U.S. and a health care system prized as the best in the region; and

WHEREAS, President Bush says the war is not about oil but his actions belie that claim. Before the 2003 invasion, the State Dep’t “Oil & Energy Working Group” met to plan how to open Iraq to foreign oil companies. The proposed new Oil Law is virtually a photocopy of the “Options” plan first conceived in Texas long before the US occupied Iraq. The law would create an Oil & Gas Council, on which would sit representatives of Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, Shell, BP, etc., whose tasks include approving their own contracts; and

WHEREAS, the practice in Iraq – as in other countries with giant oil reserves – has been that control of oil production, development and sale rests with the public sector. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran run their industries this way. Yet the proposed Oil Law calls for long-term contracts, handing to foreign companies effective control of Iraq’s oil industry for up to 30 years, and as much as 70% of the profits; and

WHEREAS, the Iraqi people will not take this looting of their national treasure lying down. The Oil Law has been unanimously and strongly condemned by all of Iraq’s major labor federations, including the Federation of Oil Unions. The law would make a mockery of Iraqi sovereignty and deprive Iraqis of the resources they need to rebuild their shattered country; and

WHEREAS, the leadership of the Democratic Party has embraced the draft Oil Law and put it into the supplemental funding bill as one of the “benchmarks” by which the Iraqi government will be measured. By doing so, the Democratic leadership becomes complicit in a backdoor effort to privatize Iraq’s publicly owned oil resources – second largest in the world; therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the San Francisco Labor Council join in solidarity with the Oil Workers and Trade Unions of Iraq in opposing the proposed new Oil Law, which is nothing less than a hijack of Iraq’s oil by the international oil cartel; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the Council urge Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressional Democrats to clearly oppose this shameful raid on Iraqi oil, and remove passage of the Oil Law from their list of “benchmarks.” The Bush Administration and IMF are pressing Iraq to adopt this law. It is unconscionable for the Congress to become partners in trying to shove this law, which will benefit only the rapacious oil companies, down the throats of the Iraqi people.

Adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council May 14, 2007 by unanimous vote.