Re: [Re: [Washington Post on the Oil Crisis]]

[Abu Nasr <abu-nasr@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Comrades!

Yes, the article was in Arabic.  Its thrust was that the Arabs have lost
valuable bargaining power in important questions like sovereignty over
Jerusalem and Palestine in general because the Saudis have served US interests
since the 70s and kept a downward pressure on oil prices.  It stressed the
need for the Arabs once again to pick up and wield the oil weapon in the
confrontation with Zionism and the US.

Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx <xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Is the article in Arabic, comrade?

thanks for your very insightful thoughts!

revolutionary cheers,

Xxxx


Abu Nasr wrote:

> Dear all!
>
> According to figures cited an article in the Baghdad daily "al-Thawra" of
13
> Aug 2000 by the veteran Iraqi diplomat and statesman Saadoun Hammadi, the
10
> major industrial countries between 1974 and 1999 saw a total inflation of
350
> percent.  Meanwhile the price of a barrel of oil rose from about $11 in
1974
> to about $17 in 1999, i.e., about 55 percent.
>
> Extrapolating from those figures, if the rise in the price of oil were to
keep
> up with the general increase in prices in the industrialised nations, the
> price of a barrel of oil have to increase to $38.50 -- more even than the
> "dizyying height" $35 where it currently and temporarily sits.
>
> Obviously petroleum prices involve lots more than this sort of facile
> calculation, but it might not hurt to keep these figures in mind.
>
> If and when OPEC overcomes the opposition of the Saudis, Kuwaitis and
others
> who take orders from the USA, and begins to build its policy on its own
> national interests, we will hear a lot more from the western media along
the
> lines of the headline of this article: "Oil prices [i.e., OPEC] fueling
world
> pain."
>
> Revolutionary greetings!
>
> Abu Nasr
>
> "Jay Moore" <research@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Oil Prices Fueling World Pain
>
> By William Drozdiak
> Washington Post Foreign Service
> Wednesday, September 13, 2000 ; A01
>
> VIENNA, Sept. 12 -- For much of the past decade, an extraordinary windfall
> in the form of cheap oil has helped fuel prosperity in the United States,
> subsidized Europe's social welfare programs and helped much of Asia recover
> quickly from financial meltdown.
>
> But as crude oil prices continue their dizzying ascent--at nearly $35 a
> barrel, they have more than tripled in less than two years--many economists
> believe the good times may be ending.
>
> Large areas of Western Europe were disrupted today as truckers, taxi
drivers
> and others protested high fuel prices by blockading oil depots. As panic
> buying in Britain helped drain three-quarters of all gas stations, Prime
> Minister Tony Blair asked Queen Elizabeth II for emergency powers in order
> to ensure fuel is made available for essential services.
> <snip>
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
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--

Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx
PhD Student
Department of Political Science
SUNY at Albany
Nelson A. Rockefeller College
135 Western Ave.; Milne 102
Albany, NY 12222



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