Iraqi Oil Unions – Key Opposition

A pair of recent articles from UPI correspondent Ben Lando, here and here, flesh out the details as to the importance of Iraq’s oil unions and their long and storied past.

The unions, which have been cut out of the process of drafting the oil law (while the US and British governments, the International Monetary Fund, and the oil companies have been dealt in), issued an unambiguous statement of opposition to the current oil law. In an interesting historical footnote, the statement says:

The British and American oil companies were the first to obtain the concession to extract and invest Iraqi oil, nearly 80 years ago. After Iraq got rid of this octopus network, these foreign oil companies have again attempted to dominate this important oil wealth, under numerous pretexts and invalid excuses.

The whole statement is very worth reading, and linking to.