Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
the kid
Trad climber
fayetteville, wv
|
|
|
Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 7, 2010 - 10:27am PT
|
Here is an interesting read on the "History" of BP. If this is "Capitalism" then we are truly slaves to the Corporation/govt model that rules the world..
Wake up people to the mess that greed brings..
BP in the Gulf -- The Persian Gulf
How an Oil Company Helped Destroy Democracy in Iran
By Stephen Kinzer
To frustrated Americans who have begun boycotting BP: Welcome to the club. It's great not to be the only member any more!
Does boycotting BP really make sense? Perhaps not. After all, many BP filling stations are actually owned by local people, not the corporation itself. Besides, when you're filling up at a Shell or ExxonMobil station, it's hard to feel much sense of moral triumph. Nonetheless, I reserve my right to drive by BP stations. I started doing it long before this year's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
My decision not to give this company my business came after I learned about its role in another kind of “spill” entirely -- the destruction of Iran's democracy more than half a century ago.
The history of the company we now call BP has, over the last 100 years, traced the arc of transnational capitalism. Its roots lie in the early years of the twentieth century when a wealthy bon vivant named William Knox D'Arcy decided, with encouragement from the British government, to begin looking for oil in Iran. He struck a concession agreement with the dissolute Iranian monarchy, using the proven expedient of bribing the three Iranians negotiating with him.
Under this contract, which he designed, D'Arcy was to own whatever oil he found in Iran and pay the government just 16% of any profits he made -- never allowing any Iranian to review his accounting. After his first strike in 1908, he became sole owner of the entire ocean of oil that lies beneath Iran's soil. No one else was allowed to drill for, refine, extract, or sell “Iranian” oil.
”Fortune brought us a prize from fairyland beyond our wildest dreams,” Winston Churchill, who became First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911, wrote later. “Mastery itself was the prize of the venture.”
Soon afterward, the British government bought the D'Arcy concession, which it named the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. It then built the world's biggest refinery at the port of Abadan on the Persian Gulf. From the 1920s into the 1940s, Britain's standard of living was supported by oil from Iran. British cars, trucks, and buses ran on cheap Iranian oil. Factories throughout Britain were fueled by oil from Iran. The Royal Navy, which projected British power all over the world, powered its ships with Iranian oil.
After World War II, the winds of nationalism and anti-colonialism blew through the developing world. In Iran, nationalism meant one thing: we’ve got to take back our oil. Driven by this passion, Parliament voted on April 28, 1951, to choose its most passionate champion of oil nationalization, Mohammad Mossadegh, as prime minister. Days later, it unanimously approved his bill nationalizing the oil company. Mossadegh promised that, henceforth, oil profits would be used to develop Iran, not enrich Britain.
This oil company was the most lucrative British enterprise anywhere on the planet. To the British, nationalization seemed, at first, like some kind of immense joke, a step so absurdly contrary to the unwritten rules of the world that it could hardly be real. Early in this confrontation, the directors of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and their partners in Britain's government settled on their strategy: no mediation, no compromise, no acceptance of nationalization in any form.
The British took a series of steps meant to push Mossadegh off his nationalist path.
They withdrew their technicians from Abadan, blockaded the port, cut off exports of vital goods to Iran, froze the country’s hard-currency accounts in British banks, and tried to win anti-Iran resolutions from the U.N. and the World Court. This campaign only intensified Iranian determination. Finally, the British turned to Washington and asked for a favor: please overthrow this madman for us so we can have our oil company back.
American President Dwight D. Eisenhower, encouraged by his Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, a lifelong defender of transnational corporate power, agreed to send the Central Intelligence Agency in to depose Mossadegh. The operation took less than a month in the summer of 1953. It was the first time the CIA had ever overthrown a government.
At first, this seemed like a remarkably successful covert operation. The West had deposed a leader it didn't like, and replaced him with someone who would perform as bidden -- Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.
From the perspective of history, though, it is clear that Operation Ajax, as the operation was code-named, had devastating effects. It not only brought down Mossadegh's government, but ended democracy in Iran. It returned the Shah to his Peacock Throne. His increasing repression set off the explosion of the late 1970s, which brought to power Ayatollah Khomeini and the bitterly anti-Western regime that has been in control ever since.
The oil company re-branded itself as British Petroleum, BP Amoco, and then, in 2000, BP. During its decades in Iran, it had operated as it pleased, with little regard for the interests of local people. This corporate tradition has evidently remained strong.
Many Americans are outraged by the relentless images of oil gushing into Gulf waters from the Deepwater Horizon well, and by the corporate recklessness that allowed this spill to happen. Those who know Iranian history have been less surprised.
Stephen Kinzer is a veteran foreign correspondent and the author of Bitter Fruit and Overthrow, among other works. His newest book is Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future.
Copyright 2010 Stephen Kinzer
|
|
426
climber
Buzzard Point, TN
|
|
...prettt removed from the classical (naif) model of Adam Smith capitalism relying on "sympathy to your fellow man" to regulate markets....also Greenspan's take. Worked really well for a tiny %....
No wonder Churchill advocated gassing the "uncivilized tribes"...hey, just like Saddam!
|
|
couchmaster
climber
pdx
|
|
...sounds like "bitch bitch bitch" to me. 50 years of cheap gas for your parents and yourselves and all I hear is "bitch bitch bitch"
You guys send a thank you note yet? It's not too late.
|
|
WBraun
climber
|
|
The root desire for maintaining the comfort of the material body created all this.
In a nutshell it's really not BP or anything else but your own self that originally created all these nightmares upon you.
We create the world.
The finger, due to the illusionary energy, always points outside of oneself .....
|
|
Ricardo Cabeza
climber
All Over.
|
|
Couchstuffer,
Here's the thing; there are so many like myself who would have liked to grow up in a world that wasn't fouled, both politically, economically, and environmentally by oil.
We chose the easy way out, oil. What about the hard way, where we develop other means of producing power? The money still flows, just not towards gasoline and diesel.
|
|
WandaFuca
Social climber
From the gettin place
|
|
couchmaster said,
50 years of cheap gas for your parents and yourselves
Yeah, if the only cost was at the pump.
All I hear from you is bah bah bah, like a good corporate sheeple.
What if all the externalized costs--subsidies, environmental damage, war, medical payments, etc.--were part of the bill???
|
|
tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
|
|
Check out Kinzer's book "All the Shah's Men"
|
|
rmsusa
Trad climber
Boulder
|
|
Ricardo
We don't get to choose the world we were born in. We just have to deal with reality. Our oil economy came about as a result of hard work and toil over a century to provide us all with mobility. It was far from easy. Ever read stories about the beginning of it? When it started, we moved around with coal. Ever ridden a steam locomotive? Liquid petroleum is soooo much cleaner. Now we've got alternatives coming along and they'll happen when a majority of us decide they're good enough to do what we want. Every generation contributes a bit and we get better at things decade by decade.
Wanda
What if all the indirect benefits were included in the equation. The interstate highway system, arguably, did more to advance the material well-being of americans than any other single work this century. Airports run a close second. I don't think it's as clear cut as you suggest.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
One of the better books on the history of the oil and petroleum industries, with lots on the origins and evolution of BP, is Daniel Yergin's "The Prize". Unfortunately it only goes to the early 1980s, but it's very helpful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Yergin
|
|
Hawkeye
climber
State of Mine
|
|
a related book i recently read is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man
while i thought there was some extremism in the book, there were way too many facts and nice conincidences not to be taken seriously.
it is a quick read and pretty darn interesting about the invovlement of corporate USA dealing dealing with other natural resource rich contries. pretty disturbing.
|
|
Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
|
|
the story of mossadegh is one every american should hear, but it's only partly told here.
the cia operative sent to depose this fellow was none other than kermit roosevelt, nephew of teddy roosevelt, the great icon of by-jingo out-west rough-riding americanism, they say the most popular president we ever had, but his heyday didn't last too long, lest the public begin to feel it were in control.
kermit pioneered the great technique of hiring street mobs to demonstrate. poor mossy was outa there in no time. then came the reimposition of the unpopular shah. then came the predictable hard-core muslim reaction.
what breaks my heart is the picture mossadegh had taken of himself on a visit to new york, at the foot of our statue of liberty, believing the dream.
|
|
Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
|
|
The Shah should have been more benevolent in his power and profit sharing.
Or he should have treated his Praetorian Guard better and pre-empted the current masters' use of subsidized street militias/vigilantes. You have to have a good network of informers and enforcers at the grass roots level.
|
|
Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
|
|
You should see what the SOBs did to Wyoming, specifically around Pinedale. When they were drilling heavy out there, the smog and dust layer in the summer was above 12,000 ft. They had some of the highest recorded ozone levels in Pinedale ever seen in the US these last two winters. People werte getting headaches like crazy. BP just held some town meetings and made a lot of promises about solving the problem, with no apparent real effort to do so. During the years they were drilling hard, the dust and off gassing drifted all the way over the Winds into Fremont County. Usually the air in Wyoming is crystal clear in the winter. You couldn't even see the water tower in Arapahoe 20 miles from Lander for the haze. Several times when it snowed here, there was a fine gray dust in the snow. Now that the price of natural gas is so low that they can't make a profit on shipment out of the state, the air is in way better shape, but they've driven all the antelope and deer off the range out there. I would say that BLM should be chain whipped for their complicity in BP's destruction of the environment. They handed out drilling permits with no review and their environmental impact statements are a sick joke. As soon as the price of gas gets back up, the bastards will be at it again, you can bet. Just like that movie Avatar, they are only responsible to their shareholders who only care about the profits. They could care less about anything besides money.
|
|
blahblah
Gym climber
Boulder
|
|
Is BP stock a good buy now (at about $33.00)?
Seems like the market punished it more than warranted, and from I can tell from this thread, it's got good long term management skills.
|
|
Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
|
|
I have a hard time believing BP is any worse than any of the others.
When I worked at Prudhoe Bay in the early 80's they had a good rep. But
was that due to their doing, state scrutiny, or knowing the Sierra Club
was watching them like a hawk? I don't know but I can tell you Prudhoe Bay
was a model of cleanliness.
I suspect Wyoming was a bit more lax in their oversight.
As for the Gulf there is no doubt the federal retards are/were
both lax and inept and it starts in congress. The Democrats howling for
blood now are certainly complicit in dereliction of duty.
|
|
TGT
Social climber
So Cal
|
|
(history does not lie...)
But historians do,
and "journalists" usually are.
(often out of ignorance, not intent)
|
|
dirtbag
climber
|
|
Thank you BP for wrecking the Gulf.
|
|
the kid
Trad climber
fayetteville, wv
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 8, 2010 - 01:30pm PT
|
i think folks are missing the point. UK govt asked CIA to "intervene" and over throw a govt that was going against the "wishes" of BP/UK govt.
now a contact is a contract but really, how long will we keep the wool over our eyes on the past aggressions we have under taken for resources and control of power?
CUBA< Phillipines, Central and South America, Persian Gulf...
this "hole in the gulf" is just another rape of our resources at the expense of the bottom line..
i think all these leases in gulf and us soil should be renegotiated and the royalist directly tied to safety and eco performance. the better your safety record, the better your cut..
|
|
tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
|
|
connect the dots...
Where it all started...discovery of large reserves of oil.
Here are a few of the characters...
Mossaddegh: democratically elected leader in 1951 who wanted to nationalize the oil industry in Iran so that they could share 50/50 in oil profits with International Oil companies including the Anglo-Persian Oil Co aka British Petroleum.
Mossaddegh 1951 Time's Man of the Year
The coup designers (Operation AJAX)
Churchill & British intelligence officer
John Foster Dulles, secretary of State, one of the main forces behind the coup in D.C.
Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, who was the man on the ground who helped organize and coordinate the coup
Mr. Allen Dulles, Director of the CIA. All credit or blame is his to keep. Striking resemblance to the Secretary of State at the time...they were brothers.
Major General Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf organized security forces he trained to support the Shah (Gulf War I Stormin' Norman's father)
Ashraf Pahlavi, the Shah's twin sister, one of the main characters behind the coup. She has many adjectives to her credit, none of them are proper enough to write.
His majesty (Shah) had the bad habit of chickening out under the fire. This was not the first time he abandoned his supporter and left the country. This was a very unusual behavior for a king. They just don't do that. He went to Rome. He was so scared of the peasants chasing him during the escape that his wife left one of her shoes on the tarmac. The first day was glorious. The government was under the illusion that it had neutralized the shah's coup attempt. However things got worse.
1979 Iranian revolution
Sept 11, 2001
|
|
tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
|
|
|
Jul 13, 2010 - 08:29pm PT
|
BumP
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!