Surviving Capitalism (Not) : BP in the Gulf

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

BP in the Gulf - the Persian Gulf

from Asia Times Online. It is becoming all to easy, almost fashionable to attack BP. This author shows how sophisticated he is by showing off his knowledge of BP's history of crimes in Iran and that he has been boycotting BP for years. He writes:

...when you're filling up at a Shell or ExxonMobil station, it's hard to feel much sense of moral triumph. Nonetheless, I reserve my right to drive by BP stations. I started doing it long before this year's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Thus he implies that other big oil companies are just as guilty of crimes, but quickly steers away from delving into that mine-ridden subject. Big Oil corporations have been the leading predatory actors in capitalist exploitation and political crimes and shenanigans in many countries of the so-called developing world, countries that were too weak to defend themselves. Read this, this, and this.

If such companies were nationalized and under the control of working people, such monstrous crimes would not have been committed.