[Peace-discuss] RE: new literature

[rohloff]

Howdy all. Here is a new flyer in the works on labor and Iraq. Please send 
me your feedback.

LABOR AND THE US-LED RECONSTRUCTION OF IRAQ


Now that the nation of Iraq has been ‘liberated’ by the United States, focus 
in the main-stream media has been on the process of reconstructing 
Iraq’s infrastructure and economy.

Some details on the proposed reconstruction process follow.

THE OIL

On Friday, May 9, the United States introduced a resolution into the United 
Nation Security council calling for the end of all non-military economic 
sanctions against Iraq. Although ending sanctions will theoretically begin 
to lessen the hardship experienced by the Iraqi people, it is also a 
necessary prerequisite for the operation of private corporations in the 
region.

The resolution would also allow the United States to restart Iraqi oil 
production and to place the proceeds in an Iraqi Assistance Fund to be 
held at the Central Bank of Iraq (recently placed under the management of 
Peter McPherson, a former Bank of America executive). The United States 
and its military allies would have sole power to spend this money as they 
see fit on relief, reconstruction, and disarmament.

The reconstruction of Iraqi infrastructure is expected to have a long-term 
price tag of some $100 billion. The awarding of private contracts is being 
facilitated by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).  
USAID has decided to limit awarding of contracts solely to American 
companies. This fact has not escaped international notice; France and 
Russia, who before the war were the strongest supporters of ending 
sanctions for humanitarian reasons, now oppose the sanction-ending 
resolution introduced by the United States.

Interestingly, passing of this resolution will allow USAID to disburse Iraqi 
oil funds rather than USAID funds to American corporations. Since no 
Iraqi and few international corporations have been invited to participate in 
the reconstruction phase, this means that Iraqi resources will be 
channeled out of the country without Iraqi oversight or input. It is also 
unclear whether Iraqi labor will benefit from these contracts, since there is 
no requirement in the contracts for the use of local labor or expertise.

THE COMPANIES

Six US companies have been invited to participate in the in the initial 
phase of reconstruction to the tune of $ 900 million. The companies—
Bechtel Group Inc., Fluor Corp., Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg, Brown 
& Root, Louis Berger Group Inc., Parsons Corp. and Washington Group 
International Inc.—together made some $ 3 billion in combined campaign 
contributions between 1999 and 2002, with 66% going to GOP 
candidates.

Bechtel is the biggest winner in the group, having received a contract for 
up to $ 680 million over 18 months. Bechtel has close ties to the US 
government, with former Secretary of State George Schultz currently 
serving on its board of directors. The company has been implicated in 
numerous human rights, environmental, and labor abuses including: (1) 
A water privatization scheme in Bolivia which tried to raise water rates 
200%, forcing many poor citizens to choose between buying water or food 
(2) The operation and management of the Nevada Test Site (3) 
Involvement in political coups in Syria, Iran and, most recently, Indonesia, 
where the progressive and democratic President Sukarno was 
overthrown in favor of the brutal and bloody dictator 
Suharto, who butchered many tens of thousand of people in East Timor 
and elsewhere (4) The operation of the notorious Grasberg gold mine in 
West Papua, one of the world’s greatest industrial environmental 
disasters.

Other winners include Kellogg, Brown, & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, 
which received an open-ended contract for management of oil-field 
emergencies. Strikingly, this contract was awarded without bidding. Not 
surprising is the fact that Vice President Dick Cheney served as CEO of 
Halliburton immediately before his entry into office; nor is it surprising 
that 
he continues to receive ‘delayed retirement’ payments from Halliburton of 
between $ 100,000 and $ 1 million each year. Halliburton has been 
accused of basing many operations in countries with dubious human 
rights records. KBR was responsible for building the illegal detention 
camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Halliburton is also currently subject to a 
SEC probe for alleged dodgy accounting practices (think Enron).

Smaller US companies that have also been awarded contracts include 
the security firm Dyncorp, which has been awarded a multi-million dollar 
contract to police Iraq. Dyncorp is being sued in a class-action lawsuit for 
widespread use of herbicides in Columbia in the ‘war on drugs’ which, in 
addition to eliminating coca crops, have also contaminated water 
supplies, indiscriminately destroyed agricultural crops, and killed 
children. Dyncorp has also been accused of engaging in the prostitution 
business in Bosnia.

Stevedoring Services of America, one of the largest non-union companies 
in the world, was awarded a $ 4.8 million contract to manage the port of 
Umm Qasr in Iraq. SSA was also involved in trying to break the recent 
International Longshore and Warehouse Union strike during negotiations 
on the West Coast.

CONCLUSIONS

The ‘winners’ here are, clearly, large American corporations who, by virtue 
of campaign contributions and close political ties, have been awarded 
large multimillion dollar contracts in Iraq.

The big loser here is labor, both Iraqi and American. Iraqi labor will not be 
engaged in the reconstruction process, and the resources of the Iraqi 
people will be channeled out of the country without their input or oversight. 
American labor loses, because all the Iraq contracts have been awarded 
to American corporations with long-standing human rights and labor 
violations; this will further reinforce the anti-labor bias of these 
corporations at home.