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DESCRIPTION:USLAW is calling on its affiliates, members, supporters and other antiwar 
 forces and our allies in other movements to take action on Monday (or as 
 soon as possible this coming week) in solidarity with the Federation of Oil 
 Unions in Iraq, which has announced its intention to strike the industry as 
 early as Monday over its opposition to the oil law and demands for 
 improvements in wages and working conditions.  Recognizing there is little 
 time to organize, these actions can be modest and still have an impact.  
 \n\nIn San Francisco, USLAW and the Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and 
 Justice have called for a demonstration Monday at noon in front of the 
 Federal Building where Speaker Nancy Pelosi has her office.  This will be 
 accompanied by leafleting with the attached flyer*. \n\n 
 http://www.iraqoillaw.com/may14flyer.pdf\n\nOther cities could consider 
 something similar - a picketline, vigil, rally, street theater or just 
 leafleting.  Actions could focus on government offices where members of the 
 House and Senate have offices, or military facilities/recruiting stations, 
 or businesses or business organizations associated with the petroleum 
 industry.  \n\nIf you do have some kind of protest, please send a short 
 report and photos so that we can share them with our Iraqi comrades, who 
 need to know that they have broad support across the 
 U.S.\n\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nPublished: 
 May. 11, 2007 at 8:28 PM\nAnalysis: Iraq funding bill too oily\nBy BEN 
 LANDO\nUPI Energy 
 Correspondent\nhttp://www.upi.com/Energy/Analysis/2007/05/11/analysis_iraq_funding_bill_too_oily/7716/\n\nWASHINGTON, 
 May. 11 (UPI) -- A new measure to fund the Iraq war has run into opposition 
 from congressional Democrats who say it does not offer enough provisions to 
 keep the United States away from Iraq's oil. \n\n"We have to be concerned 
 that the oil in Iraq belongs to the Iraqi people," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, 
 D-Calif. "It's absolutely that simple." \n\nWoolsey is co-chair of the 
 72-member Congressional Progressive Caucus and 76-member Out of Iraq 
 Caucus, a coalition from both chambers attempting to champion an exit 
 strategy from Iraq. A bill to do so received 171 votes, including two 
 Republicans, but was defeated Thursday prior to the supplemental passage. 
 \n\nWoolsey and seven caucus colleagues voted against the supplemental. 
 Unlike the supplemental bill vetoed earlier this month, the new bill does 
 not have a timetable for U.S. troops to end combat operations, and it still 
 includes provisions concerning Iraq's oil. \n\n"All I can say is I'm not 
 satisfied that what we're doing will actually benefit the Iraqi people and 
 not billions of dollars for oil companies," Woolsey said. The Washington 
 Post reports at least 138 of Iraq's 275 parliamentarians signed onto a 
 draft bill proposing a timetable, enough to carry the measure. \n\nThe U.S. 
 Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability 
 Appropriations Act of 2007 was approved 221 to 205. The Chicago Tribune 
 reports it will likely not make it through the Senate and will be vetoed 
 again. It authorizes $42.8 billion now but forces Congress to assess 
 President Bush's success in Iraq in July before giving him another $52.8 
 billion. \n\nCongress would look at, among other things, "whether the 
 Government of Iraq ... enacted a broadly accepted hydrocarbon law that 
 equitably shares oil revenues among all Iraqis," according to the bill's 
 language. This is one of four benchmarks for Iraq Bush outlined in speeches 
 back in January. \n\nUnited Press International made numerous requests to 
 ask House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey, D-Wis., about the 
 oil benchmark but received no response. His committee drafted the language. 
 When House Democrats asked him about the issue in a private meeting this 
 week, The Politico reports, he cussed them out. \n\nNegotiators in Iraq are 
 trying to find common ground on three key issues governing Iraq's oil: 
 which fields the central or regional governments will control; the 
 percentage of and mechanism for distributing Iraq's oil revenue; and the 
 scope and method for foreign investment. Much of the dispute boils down to 
 interpretation of the Iraqi Constitution, passed in 2005. \n\n"Were what 
 was being presented simply and exclusively a piece of legislation to 
 clarify the constitution's position on the sharing of Iraq's oil revenues, 
 that might make some sense," said Antonia Juhasz of Oil Change 
 International and visiting scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies. 
 "There's absolutely no reason why the United States should be involved in 
 those discussions." \n\n"The Democrats adopted the benchmarks to sound 
 reasonable, to say to the president, to say to the public: 'We'll give the 
 Iraqis the opportunity to show some political movement and if they don't 
 show the movement then we will end the occupation,'" said Juhasz, author of 
 "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time." \n\nJuhasz, 
 Woolsey and others fear it could play out poorly for Iraqis. Iraqi 
 political leaders are being pressed by oil technocrats who want to ensure 
 federal control over oil development and are urging a delay in the law. The 
 Kurds are pushing for action by the end of this month -- a deadline adopted 
 by the central government also, but likely to be missed -- and want 
 regional autonomy, as well as the free market to replace oil nationalism. 
 \n\nIraq has more oil than every country except Saudi Arabia and Iran, but 
 its sector has been hurt by the U.S.-led war and subsequent civil war, U.N. 
 sanctions and mismanagement by Saddam Hussein. There are concerns, 
 especially from Iraq's oil unions, that foreign companies will be given too 
 much access to, possibly control over, the oil. The Iraq Federation of Oil 
 Unions is threatening to strike Monday in opposition, which could take 
 Iraq's 1.6 million barrels per day of oil exports out of the global market. 
 \n\nMichael Eisenscher, national coordinator for U.S. Labor Against the 
 War, said the supplemental passage means Congress is "complicit in what 
 amounts to a backdoor privatization of most of Iraq's oil reserves." USLAW, 
 an umbrella group representing affiliates here with more than 5 million 
 members, is in regular contact with Iraq's unions. \n\nThe bill does state 
 appropriated money can't be used to "exercise United States control over 
 any oil resource in Iraq." Eisenscher and others, however, point to other 
 language that gives U.S. military authority to protect "American diplomatic 
 facilities and American citizens," even if combat operations are ended, 
 thus potentially using U.S. troops to protect American oil workers or 
 companies pumping Iraq's oil, be it from foreign insurgents or angry 
 Iraqis. \n\n"It's a concern," Woolsey said. "It should be debated, it 
 should be out in the sunshine, what does it mean and how many of our troops 
 would have to stay for just that reason?" \n\n-- \n\n(e-mail: 
 energy@upi.com)\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/05/13/18415726.php
SUMMARY:Stop Oil Theft Emergency Demonstration Against Oil Law -Solidarity with Iraqi Oil Workers
LOCATION:Pelosi' s Office\n450 Golden Gate Ave @ Larkin\nSan Francisco
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/05/13/18415726.php
DTSTART:20070514T190000Z
DTEND:20070514T200000Z
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