oil

Since Saturday, 19 June, thousands of workers at oil and gas projects and petrochemical plants have been on strike across the country in several provinces. They are coordinating their action under the title of Strike Campaign 1400, which refers to the current year in the Iranian calendar. The number of industrial centres that have participated in this strike is reported to have reached more than 100 units in 10 provinces and the number of workers on strike has passed 105,000. Significantly, there has been very little news coverage of these massive strikes, both in the domestic and foreign media but the strikes are still going on as we write.

Covid outbreaks at extractives industry sites bring together shared interests and concerns of the diverse working class—blue collar and white collar workers in various industries, Indigenous people, including site workers. This provides a green syndicalist analysis of these issues and convergence points of resistance.

The rising tensions in the Persian Gulf in the past weeks can be easily attributed to a sharp crisis of overproduction in the international oil market, ongoing since 2014. One relevant theater for understanding recent developments therefore lies in the largely under-reported and often overlooked Libyan Civil War, and in particular in its wide-ranging implications for OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries).

On the Caribbean Island of Curacao refinery workers strike against the closure of their enterprise under influence of the economic, political and human tragedy in Venezuela and the danger of inter-imperialist war.