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Corporate Invasion of Iraq Resource Page
Details of the economic occupation and neoliberal interests in Iraq.

SpOILs of War: The neo-liberal carve up of Iraq

By Yasmin Khan, May 2005

For Iraqis, decisions of life and death are not just made in the battlefields. They are also made here in UK, in secret, behind closed doors where government ministers and corporate executives execute murky deals to privatise Iraq’s economy, and with a pen stroke set the living standard for generations of Iraqis to come. The atrocious images of massacred populations, destroyed cities, maimed children and soldiers coming back in coffins only tell part of the horror story that has been unleashed in Iraq. Whilst the world’s attention has been ensnared by the immediacy of daily murder and destruction being waged on Iraqis by occupation forces, there has been another deeply insidious war taking place. A secret war of neo-liberal conquest where Iraq’s economy has been wrenched open with brutal and violent economic reforms, the effects of which will be felt long after the last bomb has dropped.

The occupation of Iraq has been characterised by the most rapid, radical neo-liberal reconstruction of a country seen in modern times but these changes have been met with deafening silence by UK activists. The cost of such an omission is clear. By failing to address the root cause of the war on Iraq (the expansion of neo-liberalism), our anti-war “movement” is ill equipped to bring true justice for the people of Iraq and prevent future wars in oil rich countries such as Iran or Venezuela. Unless neo-liberalism is challenged as the key cause of instability in the world - and specifically in Iraq - it will continue to spread social conflict, violence, poverty and more wars in its unsustainable grapple for resources.

Corporate Piracy

During the first few months of the occupation of Iraq in 2003, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) under the leadership of US appointed Paul Bremer imposed a series of Orders on Iraq which dramatically restructured Iraq’s economy. Amongst other things these Orders included reducing corporation tax from 40% to15%; laying off 500,000 public sector workers; practically abolishing trade tariffs; altering agricultural patenting; de-regulating the remaining workforce; and opening up 100% of Iraq’s resources (excluding oil) to foreign ownership with companies being allowed to take 100% of all profits earned out of the country.

The beneficiaries of these Orders are the (mainly US) corporations who have won deals for restructuring, privatising and rebuilding Iraq, and awarded millions of dollars worth of contracts to establish businesses in Iraq. It’s corporate piracy for the 21st century as the occupying powers plunder Iraq’s resources and potential profits while the Iraqi people languish in ever-increasing poverty.

The Orders embed social inequality and insecurity into Iraqi society and are just as violent as the military invasion that preceded them. An economic system has been imposed on Iraq which restricts women and children’s access to clean water, electricity, pharmaceuticals and sanitation through shoddy privatisation deals. It has created mass unemployment (estimated as being anywhere between 40-60%) and has entrenched mass poverty. The deadly nature of this can be seen through the recent UN report that showed child malnourishment to have increased during the occupation.

This is what demockery looks like

These key economic decisions were made 18 months before any elections were held in Iraq and amount to a clear democratic deficit, making a mockery of the idea that ‘power’ has somehow been handed over to the Iraqis. But not only are Bremer’s Orders morally wrong, in so far that the riches of Iraq are for the Iraqi people, they are also legally wrong, as under international law, the CPA had no jurisdiction to impose these orders.

As an occupying power, Bremer and the CPA had to comply with international treaties that determine what occupying powers can and cannot do. Article 43 of the Hague Regulations (of which the UK and the US are signatories) clearly states that occupying powers must respect, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in that company. The Hague Regulations also state that occupying powers can only be seen as administrators of the country and prohibits substantially altering the nature of public assets. Changing a public asset to a private one is substantially altering its nature, thus, by privatising Iraq’s economy and public services, the CPA was breaking international law. This amounts to pillage under the Geneva Convention, and the pillage of a country’s resources is a War Crime. It worth noting that this did not go unnoticed by the Attorney General in the UK who shortly after the war began, advised Prime Minister Tony Blair in a leaked memo on the 26th March 2003, “imposition of major structural economic reforms (in Iraq) would not be authorised by international law”.

In Iraq there has been resistance to Bremer’s illegal orders, most notably through the General Union of Oil Employees (GUOE) who succeeded in kicking out the Haliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Root and Brown from their workplace and securing higher wages for their employees. The focus of the GUOE’s work is to ensure that Iraqi’s maintain sovereignty of their oil reserves to ensure Iraq’s future development. This is currently under immediate threat through the appointment of ex-CIA stooge Ahmad Chalabi who has just been appointed provisional oil minister in Iraq and has openly announced his intention to move forward on oil privatisation.

Bloody Plunder

The people of Iraq are paying the blood price for a global economic system fuelled by plundering the world’s resources from the poor and handing them over to the multinationals. The challenge for activists in the G8 countries must be to find ways in which we can be most effective in our solidarity with those in the South who face the brunt of capitalism’s destructive nature.

As the US Empire fights to expand its neo-liberal hegemony across the world, activists have to think tactically about where and how they can be most effective to challenge this. Iraq is where the US and UK’s neo-liberal policies are the most exposed and the most opposed and therefore, it is on the issue of Iraq that campaign against the further expansion of such polices and their devastating impact can be most effective.

The G8 summit in Gleneagles in July brings together Bush and Blair to plot further expansion of their market driven agenda under the guise of third world development. This provides a unique opportunity for the anti-capitalist, anti-war and green movements to come together and expose the reality of the violence of these development programmes as seen through the illegal expansion of neo-liberalism policies in Iraq. It also allows us to highlight the real reason why we went to war – to expand the US’s free market policies.

We need to escalate our campaign and our tactics. Whilst it is correct to call for “troops out” immediately, we must recognise that even if troops left Iraq this evening, Iraq would still be occupied through the vicious economic restructuring of its country. The G8 gives us a perfect opportunity to challenge the root causes of the war on Iraq and revitalise the anti-war movement in the UK who, tired of marches and speeches, needs to get back to analysing, challenging and confronting our supposed “leaders” and what they stand for.

Part of this means there can be no more ‘business as usual’ for the corporations making huge profits out of Iraq or for the governments that stand by and allow this to happen. We may not have stopped their war, but we can stop their spoils of war and a key part of this means making it unsustainable for corporations to do business in Iraq. The lessons for how to do this can be found in the recent past. Whether or not one agrees with the politics of Fathers 4 Justice, they consistently hit the headlines in 2004 through pulling a series of high profile direct action stunts including climbing up Buckingham Palace and handcuffing themselves to government ministers. Through a sustained programme of civil disobedience they forced government to notice them and listen. In a similar way, the Vietnam anti-war movement’s success was built not only through building broad links with veterans refusing to fight and military families against the war but also with a sustained programme of civil disobedience across the US. As the occupation of Iraq slips further and further away from the media’s gaze, anti-war activists must escalate our tactics and a strategic programme of systematic and sustained direct action must be a key component in any future strategy.

A week before the leaders of the G8 countries meet in Gleneagles, Corporate Pirates are calling a protest outside the Iraqi Oil Petroleum conference on Wednesday 29th June at the Hilton Hotel, Paddington, in solidarity with the General Union of Oil Employees of Iraq. The timing of the event enables us to set the tone for the G8 conference. The day after Blair won his historic third term he stated that it was time for the country to “move on” from Iraq. But we cannot and should not move on whilst the military occupation of Iraq continues and Iraqis die as a result of coalition imposed economic policies.

Yasmin Khan is a London-based activist who works in Corporate Pirates and other anti-occupation groups.