[Marxism] Iraqi oil workers fight privatization

[Dbachmozart@xxxxxxx]

Iraq's  other resistance 

Oil workers in  Basra are ready to fight privatization 

Greg  Muttitt

06/03/05 "_The  Guardian_ 
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1498155,00.html) " - - Faced 
with daily reports of car bombs and kidnappings,  
it's difficult to feel optimistic about Iraq. But last week in the south of the 
 
country I heard a very different story. A story of the movement that has 
formed  to rebuild the country's economy and national pride, to create an Iraq 
with  neither the tyranny of Saddam nor the pillage of military  occupation. 

Last week Basra saw its first conference on the threat  of privatisation, 
bringing together oil workers, academics and international  civil-society 
groups. 
The event debated an issue about which Iraqis are  passionate: the ownership 
and control of Iraq's oil reserves. 

The  conference was organised by the General Union of Oil Employees (GUOE), 
which was  established in June 2004 and now has 23,000 members. Focused as much 
on the  broader Iraqi public interest as on members' concerns, its first aim 
was to  organise workers to repair oil facilities and bring them back into 
production  during the chaos of the early months of occupation. 
This effort by the  workers required both courage - often in conflict either 
with coalition troops  or remnants of the Ba'athist regime - and considerable 
ingenuity, putting back  together a working oil industry with minimal 
resources. 

In  maintenance too, the Iraqi workers have outmatched their private-company  
counterparts. Walking round the Basra refinery, I pointed to the creaking and 
 rusty equipment and asked the manager whether there were a lot of accidents, 
 arising from failures of equipment under high pressure. 

The  refinery manager said that accidents were rare, because however old the  
equipment it is constantly checked. "For an Iraqi refinery operator, the  
refinery is part of him," he said. 

Contrast this with the  disastrous safety record of British and American 
refineries. There, the frequent  accidents are caused largely by lack of 
maintenance and inspection - which are  in turn caused by the drastic 
downsizing of the 
workforce. 

The  occupation forces and their allies in the Iraqi government see things  
differently. Plans are now afoot for sweeping changes to Iraq's oil sector, to  
give western oil majors access to its reserves for the first time since  
1972. 

But they will face a challenge. While the workforce has shown  itself to be 
quite capable of running the industry, it has been equally  effective at 
shutting down that industry when threatened by the  authorities. 

In August 2003 oil workers' unions organised a strike  that stopped all 
production in southern Iraq for two days. The resulting  bargaining power has 
been 
impressive, with the unions - which later merged to  become the GUOE - 
successfully pushing for foreign workers to be replaced by  Iraqis; the role of 
US 
companies in the reconstruction to be reduced; and wages  to be raised to 
liveable levels. 

And the GUOE is uncompromising in  its views on oil privatisation. As one oil 
worker told me, he and his colleagues  have rebuilt their industry after its 
destruction in three wars, and in the face  of extreme adversity. As a result 
they have a deep sense of ownership, which  they will not willingly 
relinquish. 

· Greg Muttitt is a researcher  at Platform, an organisation that campaigns 
for social and environmental  justice. 

www.carbonweb.org  
Copyright: The  Guardian. 
_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism