The Palestinian revolution up against U.S. oil imperialism
The epic struggle of the Palestinian people against the full weight of U.S. imperialism and its crony Israel is at the cutting edge of the global class struggle today. The actions by imperialism to commit genocide by starvation and drown the people of Gaza in blood brings the struggle to a head.
Israel has been exposed as a butcher and violator of every human rights standard under international laws. Its bombing of the ship Conscience which sought to bring vital material aid to Gaza highlights the crucial importance that world solidarity plays in the Palestinian struggle.
What is behind the genocide being carried out by the ruthless Zionist Israel Occupation Forces (IOF), one of the world’s most advanced militaries, backed by over 40,000 U.S. military troops in the West Asia region?
The roots of the U.S.-Israeli war against Gaza are found not in the ancient prejudices of Israeli settlers. The almost permanent recent wars against Palestine and the people of the Middle East are economic. What has caused the recent war against Palestine and the other wars, revolutions and counterrevolutions in the region since World War II is imperialism’s drive to control oil and gas resources and the profits garnered from them.
The Gulf region of the Middle East has long been dominated by the imperialist oil companies — Big Oil. The Gulf region has the most proven oil reserves, which are the easiest and cheapest to extract, and also bring in the most profits for Big Oil than anywhere else on the globe. These corporations moved into the Persian Gulf/Arabian Sea region after World War II as U.S. imperialism replaced British imperialism in the region.
At the same period in 1948, 775,000 Palestinians were violently forced out of Palestine in the ethnic cleansing they call the Nakba, and the U.S. replaced Britain as the chief supporter of the Israeli colonialist forces.
Big Oil in West Asia
The companies reporting their 2023 profits are Chevron at $21.3 billion, Exxon-Mobil at $36 billion, Shell at $19.3 billion, Total Energies at $21.3 billion, Conoco-Phillips at $10.9 billion, BP at $15.2 billion and Phillips 66 at $7 billion! Exxon-Mobil also made $56 billion in profits in 2022, and Chevron made $36 billion. (nrdc.org, Feb. 2024)
Historically these are the most profitable corporations in the U.S. empire. During their long period of domination, they have dictated U.S. foreign policy at the expense of the demands for sovereignty from the peoples of West Asia. This is part and parcel of how the U.S. imperialist empire is built, at the expense of the people of Palestine, West Asia and across the world.
In 1953, the U.S. CIA was instrumental in overthrowing the democratically elected government of Mohammed Mosaddegh in Iran. The U.S. intervened, because he pledged to nationalize Iran’s rich oil resources. The 1979 Iranian Revolution was a great win for the Iranian people in the struggle against Western imperialism and reversed U.S. domination of an important regional power.
The 1967 war
In 1967, Israel, heavily armed with U.S. weapons, attacked Egypt, Syria and Jordan in what was called the Six Day War. Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem (Al Quds in Arabic) and the Golan Heights in Syria, greatly adding to the territory it had seized in 1948.
The next Arab-Israeli war started on Oct. 6, 1973, when Egypt and Syria initiated an attack on Israel to regain lands Israel had stolen in 1967. Like the first Arab-Israeli war, it was centered in Palestine. The next day, Iraq nationalized shares of the Basra Oil Company owned by Exxon and Mobil. One week later, the Arab states of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced a plan to cut exports of oil and recommended an embargo of all unfriendly states.
Imperialism was shaken by these moves! The OPEC states won a higher share of the profits in oil, which they had been selling at extremely low prices. Rather than accepting a cut in their profits, the U.S. oil companies chose to drastically increase their prices to workers in the U.S. and elsewhere. This step aroused workers’ hatred towards Big Oil.
The war and the embargo ended in March 1974 with the oil-producing states improving their position against imperialism for a short time. But Palestine remained occupied.
This historical development all goes to show what the oppressed working classes of West Asia are up against. It’s not just Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet officials, nor is it only President Donald Trump. It is the leading owners of the production and consumption of the West Asia region, which are the giant oil monopolies of the U.S. and Western imperialism. And all wars are fought for economic interests, not for the reasons given by capitalist politicians like vengeance or peace.
Kissinger served Rockefeller interests
But two U.S. wars against sovereign Iraq, in 1991 and the invasion of 2003, along with many years of U.S./U.N.-imposed sanctions inflicted a setback on the Iraqi people. The U.S. oil monopolies took over the rich Iraqi oil fields after the U.S. military devastated the country and murdered tens of thousands of its people and displaced millions. The hand of the Rockefeller oil family could be seen, since Henry Kissinger, a Rockefeller protege, was a close adviser to the mad-bombing George Bush Jr. administration.
- Paul Bremer, who became the U.S. colonial administrator of occupied Iraq in 2003, had worked for Kissinger’s ruling-class consulting firm for 17 years. Also Rex Tillerson, CEO of the Rockefeller’s Exxon-Mobil, became Trump’s first secretary of state during his first administration. The oil giants remained a part of the imperialist regime.
On top of the giant profits directly absorbed by Big Oil, the U.S. has fostered a program of recycling its petrodollars through the royalist Gulf states. The oil monopolies pay the Gulf states, and the dollars are recycled through Western banks and then used to buy arms from the U.S. military-industrial complex. The kings and emirs use these arms to repress popular revolutions.
Petrodollars are also used to build fabulously rich, futuristic cities in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states with the forced slave labor of millions of superexploited migrant workers. This close alliance between U.S. and Western oil capital with the banks, construction corporations and military behemoths spreads huge profits throughout the ruling class.
This money is used to supposedly enhance the reputation of the Gulf states and their Big Oil rulers. On one side is this farcical imperial rule joining world imperialism with the feudal regimes. On the other side is the grassroots struggle of millions of people. The hotspot of that battle today is led by the Palestinian people and their Resistance forces, who are sacrificing their lives for a free Palestine from the river to the sea. Their victory will open the door to revolution against imperialism in the region and in the world