Oil companies tighten grip on Iraq
03 July 2008
Attempts to pass an oil law which would hand over control of Iraq's oil to multinationals for a generation have so far failed. However, the current US administration still sees it as a crucial goal in Iraq before George W Bush leaves office. There have been two alarming developments which make opposition to the oil law all the more urgent.
The Iraqi federal government is about to sign oil development contracts with BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Total on established Iraqi oil fields. The sort of technical contracts being proposed are not problematic in themselves, but in the case of Iraq they are a stepping stone towards the sell-off of Iraq's oil.
On 30 June 2008 the Iraqi government invited international companies to bid for longer-term contracts on the same oil fields. Until now the Iraqi government was committed to keeping fields already in production in Iraqi hands. If these contracts are signed, foreign companies would gain control of about half of Iraq's known oil reserves.
Click here to find out more about these developments and to join the Hands Off Iraqi Oil campaign which War on Want has launched with other groups.
Iraqi government crackdown on trade unions
War on Want has been supporting the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU) since 2005 to improve labour laws and ensure Iraq's natural resources are kept in the hands of Iraqi people. The union represent as many as 26,000 workers throughout Iraq.
The IFOU, based in Basra, operates in an extremely difficult environment, where trade unions are still not recognised by law and freedom of association and expression continues to be curtailed.
Only recently, Iraq's oil minister decreed that eight prominent trade union activists from the IFOU, plus four senior managers from the Southern oil Company in Basra, be transferred from their workplaces in Basra to Baghdad and Nassiriyah. Occupation forces and private military security companies are active in these areas, which are thought to be far more dangerous and violent than Basra. The IFOU fears the transfers are a way of silencing trade unionists who are opposing the oil law and oil privatisation.
For the IFOU, incidents like these represent an attack on the trade unions' efforts to defend workers' rights. Hassan Juma’a, the IFOU President, said: "We condemn this action and believe it is a violation of human rights. We will try to prevent this kind of action against the Union by having a meeting with the Prime Minister in Iraq and those parliamentarians who support our efforts."
War on Want continues to support the IFOU's attempts to ensure that workers have a say in the future of their country's resources, and that their rights are fully recognised and protected.
War plc: The Rise of the New Corporate Mercenary
As the UK government maintains its deafening silence on the need for regulation of private military and security companies, War on Want features in a new book on these private armies. War plc: The Rise of the New Corporate Mercenary by Stephen Armstrong exposes, through first hand accounts, the violent role of British companies in the occupation of Iraq.
Watch the video below to hear author Stephen Armstrong discussing his new book with Ruth Tanner, Senior Campaigns Officer at War on Want.
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