Chavez coup, Venezuelan Oil, cause of Iraq war, and how to save ANWR

[NAO]

Nationalization. The answer to all of the above is nationalization.

Chavez has nationalized Venezuelan Oil and used the money to benefit the poor. The US has already tried one coup to topple him because this notion is utter heresy to the state capitalist system.

We did not go to war with Iraq because of WMD, democracy, or even oil per se. We went to war with Iraq because they had nationalized their oil, and they had laws forbidding foreign investment in Iraq. This was utterly intolerable heresy to the state capitalist system.

Under public land in Alaska, their are large deposits of oil. The land is NOT owned by stockholders of Chevron/Texaco. It IS owned by the People of the United States of America. My Social Security card, not any stock certificate, is what entitles me to the profits derived from any oil extracted from ANWR.

This is an idea that could easily become a populist fever that would transcend left/right distinctions. And it is utter heresy and would be intolerable to the powers that be.

If talk of nationalization of the oil in ANWR got on the national agenda, I guarantee that Republican leaders would be chaining themselves to bulldozers and hugging trees and pleading that we MUST save ANWR.

And if the ANWR project went ahead, as a nationalized effort, with all aspects of the expedition, drilling, extraction, and shipping handled by the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Navy and Coast Guard, and ALL the proceeds from the sale of the oil to Chevron/Texaco, China or whoever, going DIRECTLY into the national treasury, it would be worth it to lose ANWR.

To be able to build schools, rebuild infrastructure, save Social Security, re-invigorate Medicare and Medicaid, and give the Navy that new aircraft carrier they have always wanted, all without raising taxes or incurring any debt- and to be able to bring the nationalization option into national discourse for future projects - that would truly justify the loss of the treasure that is ANWR.

But it would not happen. ANWR would be saved rather than be nationalized faster than you can say 'preserve state corporate capitalism at any cost'.

[Wright Patman]

1. Saudi Arabia nationalized

its oil during the 1970s also. So that's not the key. The key point is that the Saudis recycled their petrodollars into U.S. banks and corporations.

Saddam and Chavez wanted to recycle into their own economies to benefit their peoples. Also, Saddam switched to the euro. If the Saudis ever do that, they are toast and they know that.

[NAO]

5. I thought Saudi Arabia had a private company AAMCO (sp?)

but yes, the pricing in Euros rather than US Dollars is what ultimately did Saddam in.

[Wright Patman]

7. Here is a link

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/saudi.html

"Currently, large state corporations, like oil firm Saudi Aramco (which has a monopoly on Saudi upstream oil development and controls 98% of the country's oil reserves) and the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC; the world's 11th largest petrochemical producer) dominate the Saudi economy. To date, there has not been a single sale of state assets to private control, and privatization largely has been limited to allowing private firms to take on certain service functions. In May 2002, Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi (reappointed in May 2003 for a third, four-year term) stated that the country was considering privatizing some operations of Saudi Aramco. One impetus for Saudi privatization is its desire to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), but progress has been slow towards achieving this goal, and there were no signs of an imminent breakthrough as of December 2004."

[getmeouttahere]

2. www.handsoffvenezuela.org

Keep your grubby hands off Venezuela, Bushies!

[NorCalDem]

3. Unfortunately, you're right

Great idea, would never happen in a million years. Unless someone (or group of investors) isn't going to get rich quick by drilling in ANWR, there is no reason for them to do it.

[NAO]

6. If it were widely TALKED about, it would result in fierce opposition to

drilling in ANWR.

That's the whole point - not that we would actually drill in ANWR and deposit the money in the US Treasury to be used for domestic projects - that would be great - but by talking about nationalization we would both create opposition to the project AND expose the corporate welfare that gives away our national treasures, socializing the costs (Bush gave money to explore in ANWR in his budget) and then privatizing the profits (private companies reap the financial gain of the work financed by the public sector).

So just TALKING about it, getting popular sentiment excited about it, only to have it crushed, would accomplish both the tactical victory of saving ANWR and the strategic victory of exposing corporate welfare.

[AP]

4. Technically, Chavez hasn't nationalized Ven oil. It has always been

nationalized.

He's just fired the managers who used the state oil co to make themselves and their friends wealthy.