Bush wants to crush OPEC

NO BLOOD FOR OIL

This was the great chant in 1991, as hundreds of thousands across the world demonstrated against the slaughter in Iraq.

Bush Sr. claimed that war was in defence of little Kuwait, occupied by Iraqi troops. But former US assistant defence secretary, let the cat out of the bag, when he said, "If Kuwait grew carrots, we wouldn’t give a damn."

Kuwait doesn’t grow carrots. It grows oil, as does Iraq. Oil is the world’s most important commodity, and it is the only reason Bush wants war in Iraq.

Since the emergence of oil as a major commodity in the mid 19^th century, Major western oil companies have controlled it as a virtual monopoly. For most of the 20^th century, seven massive corporations — one British, one Dutch-British and five US — controlled virtually all of the world’s oils. These "seven sisters" were the biggest and most powerful corporations in the world, more powerful than most states.

And when oil was discovered in the Middle East after World War One, they became even more powerful.

Middle Eastern oil is the purest in the world. Producing a barrel of oil in Saudi Arabia, Iraq or Kuwait costs just pennies. It is many times cheaper than anywhere else in the world.

The seven sisters — backed by British and US imperialism — moved in and bribed their way into positions where they controlled this oil. The people of the region saw nothing from this wealth, a handful of rulers were bought off, and billions of dollars flowed into the coffers of western corporations.

This began to change in 1959. That year, the producing states — Venezuela, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq — together formed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to try and wrest some of this wealth from the seven sisters.

They were partially successful. Some of the seven sisters operations were nationalized. With others, Middle Eastern regimes became partners. And after the Yom Kippur war of 1973-74, the price of oil skyrocketed.

Some portrayed OPEC as an evil monster that was robbing the west blind.

This was not true. First, if more money did stay in the Middle East, this did not begin to compensate for the decades of outright robbery that had happened earlier in the century.

Second, the oil companies essentially became partners with Middle Eastern regimes, sharing in the booty. Their profits remained unbelievably high. Exxon is still the world’s biggest corporation.

The only people who did not benefit were the people of the Middle East who remained mired in poverty.

But this working arrangement is breaking down.

The US has a bottomless appetite for oil. Fully one quarter of the world’s oil is consumed in the US, a country with just three per cent of the world’s population. And from being self-sufficient in oil 100 years ago, it now relies on imports for more than half of its consumption.

The US ruling class lives in fear of the emergence of a unified Middle East dictating the terms on which it can get this oil. Much of US foreign policy over the last ten years has been predicated on this, ensuring "security of supply" for this most precious of all commodities.

Last year’s war in Afghanistan was a huge step. It resulted in a large, permanent US military presence in Central Asia, in countries which only 15 years ago were part of the Russian empire. The way is now clear for the US to assert its control over the oil and gas in Central Asia’s Caspian sea area, the second biggest concentration of petroleum in the world.

If it can follow this with "regime change" in Iraq, and install a US-friendly government in the region, it is conceivable that it could wrest Iraq from OPEC, and gain access to oil and gas without recourse to what it sees as an enemy cartel. Iraq is second only to Saudi Arabia in Middle Eastern oil reserves. It is a huge prize.

So behind the madness of George Bush’s war drive, there is a terrible logic — risk young soldier’s lives, risk thousands of civilian casualties, risk a wider Middle Eastern war which could involve Israeli nuclear weapons — risk it all to control oil.

Our response is crystal clear.

No blood for oil.