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2-21-08, 10:08 am
"You've got no fear of the underdog, that's why you will not survive." ("Underdog," Spoon)
Calling for a boycott of the three largest multinational oil companies, ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP, Dallas-area "consumers for peace" are planning a public protest against the role of Big Oil in launching the Iraq war this Saturday, Feb. 23 in Dallas, Texas.
The event is linked to other public demonstrations in several cities in Great Britain, Indiana, and Washington D.C.
In a statement to reporters, Hadi Jawad, of the Dallas Peace Center, which is sponsoring the Dallas demonstration, said, "We are thrilled to act in Dallas, home to ExxonMobil, in solidarity with the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions as they protest in Basra and elsewhere in Iraq against the occupation and the attempt by Big Oil to ram an oil law through the Iraqi parliament that will harm the Iraqi people."
The Iraqi Oil Workers Union has strongly opposed the occupation of Iraq, striking in 2006 and joining speaking tours in the US about the situation of Iraqi workers. Along with the General Federation of Iraqi Workers, the oil workers have protested an oil reform law that would have allowed major multinational oil companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP to control vast quantities of their country's oil resources. Many critics of the Bush administration believe this goal was a key reason for launching the invasion of Iraq in the first place.
Jawad stated, "It is very moving to be part of an action that involves thousands of people who want to see Iraq liberated from the tyranny of military occupation and Big Oil."
The Oil Workers Union opposition to the oil law and the occupation have earned it hostility from Iraq's governing coalition which has refused to recognize the union legally. According to a statement by a coalition of US labor, environmental and peace organizations working to expose and stop the Iraqi Oil Law, "The government [,,,] will not recognize their leadership in the protest against the oil law. Worse, Iraqi union leaders have been killed and threatened with arrest in their fight for labor rights and to keep their oil under their control."
The Dallas/Fort Worth demonstration organizers will rally at an Exxon Mobil station at that location and at stations at Jim Miller Rd and I-30 in East Dallas. The protesters, some dressed as pirates, will offer passers-by boycott cards giving guidance on alternatives to the three boycotted gasoline brands.
Demonstrations in England, organized by Hands Off Iraqi Oil, will be held in London, and 10 other locations, including Birmingham and Manchester, according to a press statement by ConsumersforPeace.org. Demonstrators will also gather on the 23rd at Exxon Mobil, Shell and BP stations in Highland, Indiana.
These protests will be followed by a noon march on the Washington, D.C. office of Exxon Mobil sponsored by Oil Change International, U.S. Labor Against the War, No War No Warming, Code Pink, Voters for Peace, After Downing Street and Grassroots America.
"Oil companies are getting 20-30 percent more for their oil because of decreased Iraqi oil production and the volatility in world oil markets because of the war," said Jawad. "It is unconscionable that they be allowed to laugh all the way to the bank as the blood of thousands colors the desert sands of Iraq."
Trina Zahller of Oil Change International, an organization seeking to get oil money out of politics and end government subsidies to the oil industry, points out, “Foreign oil companies are scrambling to use this opportunity to secure access to massive profits from Iraq’s large, untapped oil reserves at the expense of the Iraqi people. Grabbing access to a finite resource amidst vast regional violence is not a step towards solving our long-term energy issues. Nor is coercing an occupied country to pass a law its people vastly oppose a step towards democracy.”
Nick Mottern, of ConsumersforPeace.org said, "Exxon Mobil, Shell and BP have immense power to stop the war. Their war profits, that we estimate at $80 billion, must be given to those who have suffered most from the war: the families of Iraqi, American and other coalition war dead and wounded."
ConsumersforPeace.org, according to its Web site, encourages gasoline buyers to purchase their fuel from Citgo gas stations rather than the big three. Fuel and oil products made by Citgo originate in Venezuela where the profits are used for social programs in Venezuela as well as for subsidizing low-cost home heating oil distribution in poor communities in the US.
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