CA, San Francisco: DEMAND CONGRESS DROP THE OIL LAW BENCHMARK

CA

San Francisco

Where: San Francisco Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco, CA 94102

Map to Event

Below is an announcement of a demonstration being called in San Francisco on Monday in solidarity with the oil workers in Iraq on the occasion of their planned strike against privatization of Iraq's oil.

While this is done on short notice, it is important that we generate demonstrable support for their struggle to defend Iraq's publicly owned oil against a backdoor privatization scheme.

Please consider organizing a similar protest. This could be in the form of a picketline, a vigil, a rally, a delegation to a member of Congress -- whatever is possible on short notice. Please let us know what you are planning to do and send digital photos that we can send to our sisters and brothers in Iraq.

The Congress is being sold the idea that Iraq's adoption of the oil law will assure equitable distribution of the oil revenues, but what they are not being told (or refuse to acknowledge) is that the law has one sentence about equitable distribution, but page after page about how foreign oil companies can secure contracts to control the 2/3 of Iraq's oil that is yet to be developed and retain that control for a generation or more. To the extent there is equitable distribution, it will be only of the profits that are left after Big Oil takes their cut.

The Bush administration and IMF are pressing Iraq to adopt this law. It is shameful for the Congress to become partners in shoving a law that was conceived by, drafted for, and will benefit only the rapacious oil corporations down the throats of the Iraqi people.

LET'S SHOW THEM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DO NOT APPROVE OF THE HIJACK OF IRAQI OIL SO THAT THE OIL CARTEL CAN FATTEN THEIR PROFIT MARGINS EVEN MORE THAN THEY ALREADY HAVE.

HANDS OFF IRAQI OIL! CAN THE OIL LAW! BENCH THE BENCHMARKS!

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The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions has put the Iraqi government on notice that it intends to strike on Monday , May 14th to demonstrate the union's strong opposition to the proposed oil (theft) law now pending action by the Iraqi parliament.

The Bush administration and Congress have made adoption of the oil law one of the "benchmarks" of "progress" and Iraqi "cooperation." The law has been unanimously and strongly condemned and rejected by all of Iraqi's major labor federations. If adopted, it would allow foreign oil corporations to obtain contracts to exploit up to 2/3 of Iraqi oil reserves for as long as 30 years and to reap the lion's share of the profits earned on that oil. It makes a mockery of the notion of Iraqi sovereignty and would deprive the Iraqi people of the resources they require to rebuild their shattered nation.

The leadership of the Democratic Party has embraced this oil law and put it into the supplemental funding bill as one of the benchmarks by which the Iraqi government will be measured. In doing so, they have become complicit in a backdoor effort to privatize Iraq's publicly owned oil resources - second largest in the world.

The Federation of Oil Unions in Iraq has given the Oil Ministry a list of demands in addition to their opposition to the oil law relating to wages and working conditions. They delayed their strike from Friday to Monday to give the Oil Ministry time to respond.

PLEASE JOIN THIS DEMONSTRATION TO SHOW OUR SOLIDARITY WITH THE WORKING PEOPLE OF IRAQ IN THEIR EFFORT TO DEFEND THEIR NATIONAL LEGACY AGAINST THE DESIGNS OF THE OIL CARTEL TO SECURE CONTROL OVER THEIR OIL.

TELL SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI TO ABANDON THIS SHAMEFUL RAID ON IRAQI OIL.