This article is getting around a bit, being posted on multiple sites, but it is quite a good piece of journalism and so I've decided to post it regardless of its reach.
A very interesting quote in the article comes from an Iraqi trade-union leader, who said in a meeting about US and European attempts to dominate Iraq's petroleum industry: "We do not need thieves to take us back to the Middle Ages."
The modern Middle East is 90 years old, and ever since its creation, the West's agenda has been to keep the region politically inert so as to facilitate its own designs. Muttitt's piece is an excellent reminder that this reality has not changed and is alive and well. It is also a reminder of why power - be it capitalist, communist, fascist, monarchical, or despotic - is and has always been anti-union.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175586
(Article appears beneath introduction by site's editor.)
