Over a Barrel

Oil, Money & Power

www.overabarrel.info

Bob Ballantyne (1942-2004)
Piper Alpha survivor

"...for him it was coal mining that above all symbolised the world Thatcherism destroyed. It was this contempt for human cultural development and life itself that was to continue in the offshore industry..."

"Oil revenues helped to finance the social security expenditure necessary to ensure that de-industrialisation and the destruction of industrial communities did not lead to far greater social disruption and militancy than actually occurred. Meanwhile, the same profit-driven values that had made the coal mines the scene of so many human tragedies in the 19th century were threatening the lives of [oil] workers [in the late 20th century]."

The Crisis of Energy & Representation, Terry Brotherstone

Right: Bob Ballantyne's 'Inverted Coalmine', UK Sector Production Platform

Image of Inverted Coalmine. Link to bigger image.

"Cold death by neoliberalism... In 2006, while pensioners faced a 30% increase in energy costs, the North Sea operations of UK companies yielded a 42.9% return on capital."

"...the tendency to monopoly..."
"Scottish Power was sold to Iberdrolla, the Spanish energy and real estate conglomerate... the eighteen companies created at privatisation have been reduced to six. Only two ...remain as British companies."
The political economy of fuel poverty, John Foster

Left: The late Gavin Cleeland and his banner. Following the Piper Alpha disaster the Cullen Enquiry found that the Occidental oil company had been negligent in its operation of the platform. Gavin, a former miner and father of one of the 167 men killed never gave up his campaign for justice.

"By financing philanthropic projects John D. Rockefeller junior did a great deal to cleanse the blood soaked reputation of Standard Oil, his family's infamously monopolistic business. Through sponsorship, corporations not only enjoy the kudos of patronage but also shape culture. In the 1950s, the Athenian Agora, the market area in ancient Athens, was excavated and the Stoa of Attalos reconstructed thanks to Rockefeller money. Almost every day the Agora is described to visitors as the birthplace of democracy helping to associate its invention to the vibrancy of the marketplace. This connection supports a one sided view of history when it's forgotten that the ancient form of direct democracy was born from a struggle over debt. At some distance from the marketplace, and lying in a more neglected state is the Pnyx where Athenian citizens chose to build their popular assembly. The site has a much lesser place in the tourist itinerary." Managing the Message, Owen Logan		Tim Halford, former PR man to Armand Hammer the founder of Occidental Oil

US Presidents under construction, sculptor's workshop
Houston, Texas

Bust of Nike in the Stoa of Attalos, reconstructed
in by the Rockefeller Foundation

The Pnyx, ancient Athenian site of direct democracy

"For 'special meritorious conduct in the fulfilment of his high functions and anti-communistic attitudes', Dwight Eisenhower awarded Venezuela’s dictator Pérez Jiménez the United States Legion of Merit in 1954. In 1957 Jiménez held a plebiscite to garner support for his rule at home. Rosemary Ryan was living in Caracas at the time and she remembers this because the vote was also extended to foreign residents. Translated from Spanish, her ballot paper read: 'Yes, I do want to vote for Pérez Jiménez', or 'No, I will not vote against Pérez Jiménez'. If this seems laughable, the choices on offer in the world today won’t be seen as any less absurd or outrageous in the future."

Petrodollar Hegemony: "Following Nixon’s default there were a series of momentous capital outflows from the US but by 1975 they had been brought to an end by an agreement with OPEC ensuring oil would be traded only in dollars."

'...unlike the old days, we don’t declare direct ownership of natural resources – we just insist that we can pay for them with our paper money. Any country that challenges our authority does so at great risk'.
US Republican Congressman Ron Paul

'...the greatest rip off in history - we've run rings round the British Empire!'
Herman Kahn, the cold war warrior

Extracts from 'Living on oil under democracy', Owen Logan

Image of Chinnos and Torres. Link to bigger image.

Orlando Chirinos and Denyys Torres of the UNT trade union confederation, Caracas, Venezuela

"It's not so much that oil and democracy
don't mix, but more that the oil economy
reveals the exceedingly dubious nature
of modern democracy.

Image of Enron Building. Link to bigger image.

Under the Enron Building, Houston, Texas

Image of 'Christmas Tree'. Link to bigger image.

“Anyone can go to Baghdad; real men go to Tehran”
"...stories meant to sell the war have already started appearing – by the same actors! ... Scott Ritter’s plea to the Congress...is therefore worth reiterating: 'Summon [AIPAC], or any other lobby promoting confrontation with Iran, to the forefront, so that the warnings they offer in whispers from a back room can be articulated before the American public. Hold these conjurers of doom accountable for their positions by demanding they back them up with hard fact. See if the US intelligence community concurs with the dire warnings…and if it doesn’t, ask who, then, is driving US policy toward Iran?'"
'Anyone can go to Baghdad, real men go to Tehran', Muhammad Idress Ahmad

“In which respect is this empire ours? Who are ‘we’? How do we retreat from or dismantle empire?”
'The Next Gulf', Simon Pirani

Left: 'Christmas Tree' Rivers State, Nigeria
Below: Oil tank construction, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Image of oil tank construction. Link to bigger image.

Ingunn Vier Gabrielsenm widow of one of the drowned workers of the Odfjell rig with Kari Bukve of SAFE, one of the North Sea oil industry's so-called 'deviant' trade unions.

Image of Ingunn Vier Gabrielsenm and Kari Bukve. Link to bigger image.

Image of victims of Odfjell incident. Link to bigger image.

Victims of the Odfjell incident in 1976,
Ingunn's husband Axel is on the left.

"It is disconcerting when the man working alongside you is paid a wage only a third of what you regard as the absolute minimum acceptable." “Such machinations prompt the question: when does a trade union shift from representing workers to managing industrial relations?” The Ficticious Commodity, Andy Cumbers

Image of Christina Delgado. Link to bigger image.

Left: Christina Delgado and co-workers from UTD, the Piquetero organisation founded in 1996 by oil workers from General Mosconi, Salta, Argentina

Below: Saplings under a disused oil rig, part of a reforestation project run by UTD, the union of unemployed workers in General Mosconi, Argentina.

Pepino and Hippie Fernandez of UTD Mosconi. As an oil worker under the Vidella dictatorship in Argentina, Pepino risked execution for defending the environment.

Because the politics follows power and power at the moment is entirely in the hands of the multinational bankers and economists and that’s why whatever government is in power, it can’t deliver. And unless [organised] labour can find a means of confronting and dealing with power at the real level of its operation there’s no way it will really survive in the long term.”

UK trade unionist quoted in The Ficticious Commodity, by Andy Cumbers

Image of Pepino and Hippie Fernandez. Link to bigger image.

	Over a Barrel Cold Death by Neoliberalism John Foster Living on oil under democracy Owen Logan Many Sellers. One buyer. Jake Molloy & Ronnie McDonald The Fictitious Commodity Andy Cumbers “To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing” Phil England The Ecological Question: Can Capitalism Prevail? Daniel Buck The Next Gulf Simon Pirani “Anyone can go to Baghdad; real men go to Tehran” Muhammed Idress Ahmed The Friendly Atom NuclearSpin The Inverted Coalmine Terry Brotherstone Photography: Owen Logan Design: ARP/Variant Oil Lives : Oral History of the UK North Sea Oil and Gas Industry