Oil Workers And Privatization Of Iraqi

Juan Cole 04/07/2005

Oil Workers and Privatization of Iraqi Petroleum

An oil workers union in Basra, organized after the fall of the Baath regime, may be the strongest guarantee against the privatization of the Iraqi oil industry.

But given how broke the Iraqi government would be without the petroleum income, I don’t think there is any chance it will privatize, anyway. That particular dream of the Washington consensus people was always a fantasy.

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page