Naomi Klein has a monumental feature in last month's Harpers, blowing the face off of the economic occupation of Iraq and revealing the overlooked connections between Iraqi insurgency groups and national resistance to takeover by global capitalism.
"Shortly after taking over, Ja’far called a meeting with ministry officials to discuss selling off the soap factory, which would involve laying off two thirds of its employees. Guarding that meeting were several security officers from the plant. They listened closely to Ja’far’s plans and promptly reported the alarming news to their coworkers."
"Frightened by this prospect, a group of seventeen workers, including Mahmud, marched into Ja’far’s office to confront him on what they had heard. 'Unfortunately, he wasn’t there, only the assistant manager, the one you met,' Mahmud told me. A fight broke out: one worker struck the assistant manager, and a bodyguard fired three shots at the workers. The crowd then attacked the bodyguard, took his gun, and, Mahmud said, 'stabbed him with a knife in the back three times. He spent a month in the hospital.'"
"At the end of our meeting, I asked Mahmud what would happen if the plant was sold despite the workers’ objections. 'There are two choices,' he said, looking me in the eye and smiling kindly. 'Either we will set the factory on fire and let the flames devour it to the ground, or we will blow ourselves up inside of it. But it will not be privatized.'"
This is an absolute must read. I may not have been paying close enough attention to coverage of Iraq, but it seems that Klein has made some huge realizations about the economic nature of the occupation. Has this angle just been ignored entirely by the papers?
Posted by Adamski at September 27, 2004 10:00 AM