------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 18, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
EDITORIAL: NO BLOOD FOR OIL PROFITS Many working people in this country, still reeling from the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, are deeply questioning why the U.S. has arrayed all the king's horses and all the king's men against such an impoverished and isolated country as Afghanistan. Warnings from the Party of War--a united front of Republicans and Democrats--that this military attack may expand to a broad assault on much of the Middle East leads many to wonder if this show of might is about oil. They are on the right track. The media mouthpieces for Wall Street and the brass of course put their own spin on this, implying that war is necessary so people here can have the oil to heat their homes and drive their cars to work. Whenever the oil companies have tried to gouge even greater profits from working people in the U.S., the media have collaborated by deflecting mass anger against the Arab countries, claiming they are "holding the West hostage" and want to deny them oil. But this is false. The exchange of goods on a world basis is not dependent on domination, oppression and super- exploitation. The countries of the Middle East are glad to sell their oil, their main exportable resource, to countries that need it. They don't have to be beaten up for that. This is not a war simply about oil. It is about oil profits. OPEC or no OPEC, from the pumping of the oil out of the ground to its marketing at gas station pumps, the lucrative profits have been controlled by a cartel that used to be called the "Seven Sisters," or more accurately the Seven Brothers--Exxon, Shell, Gulf, Texaco, Mobil, Chevron and British Petroleum--before a number of mergers. Yes, the oil produces great wealth, and a small part of it goes to governments that collaborate with the imperialists, like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. But the imperialist banks ultimately control the petrodollars in their own vaults. The Middle East, now so impoverished, was not always that way. It was the cradle of Mediterranean civilization. Ironically, its people have become poorer even as fabulous wealth in the form of oil has fueled the development of imperialism. The poor of the Middle East are poor because U.S. and British oil magnates and bankers are rolling in petrol- profits. Imperialism isn't just a policy of greedy belligerence, or military aggression by big states against small ones. Britain is small compared to India, but it controlled the economy of the Indian subcontinent for two centuries. Imperialism is the end result of capitalist development in those few countries of the world where huge banks and transnational corporations grew to dominate the economy at home and abroad. It's a far-flung economic empire--that by its own internal laws of development must continuously expand or die. It's a social relationship between exploiters and exploited that started with class exploitation at home and grew into oppression of whole nations. The Middle East is in the imperialist crosshairs because a superabundance of profits can be derived from the oil that lies beneath its surface. To maintain an iron grip on those lucrative profits, U.S. and British imperialism need force, violence and terror-- they need war. That's why the downtrodden billions around the world, particularly throughout the Middle East, hate these imperialist Goliaths. Neither imperialist diplomacy nor the gunboats that back it up can assuage their righteous fury. What history requires now is not a Democrat in the Oval office or a "kinder, gentler" imperialist policy but a struggle to win a new economic and social system based on justice for all the peoples of the world. The resources of the planet are not limitless, but with planning they can be shared equitably. The vast expenditures on destruction, like the hundreds of billions now demanded for war, can be redirected to solve humanity's most pressing problems--health, food, housing, education, the environment. All of humanity will profit from overturning the profit system. Let's hurry the day. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
