6-11-07, 9:45 am

In an article for , Kevin Zeese writes that an oil workers strike in Iraq may cause a serious crisis of legitimacy for the al-Maliki government by forces as it appears ready to adopt the oil privatization agenda pushed by the US government.

Oil workers struck early last week and have come under threats by the government and are being surrounded by the Iraqi military forces.

One of the main demands of the oil workers union is consultation on the oil privatization law presented to the Iraqi parliament in February.

The Iraqi parliament so far has not acted on the proposed law, but the US government turned the heat up on Iraqi lawmakers in early May after the passage of a series of 'benchmarks' for determining progress in the war tied to financial aid for the Iraqi government.

Bush administration officials have strongly pressured the Iraqi government to adopt the privatization law, with several top figures making surprise visits to Baghdad to do so.

Ironically, the Democratic leaders in Congress acquiesced to the call for 'benchmarks' which actually serve to punish the Iraqis for a civil war that has been caused by the US occupation, its policies as the occupying power, and its policies to favor certain sectarian groups over others.

The oil law would essentially force the privatization of Iraq's oil and allow up to two-thirds to be owned by foreign companies, mainly multinational corporations based in the US.

Maliki has characterized the strike as economic sabotage and threatened to respond with an iron fist.

On tour in the US to protest the occupation and the theft of Iraq's resources, Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, Iraqi Electrical Utility Workers Union President, in an interview with David Swanson of , said, 'Everyone knows that America has interest in the area whether it was geographical location for the troops in addition to what Iraq has in not just oil but other resources, Iraq resources.'

Though the Iraqi parliament has refused to take up consideration of the oil law, it has recently voted to keep open the possibility of rejecting the extension of the UN mandate that serves as a fig leaf for the US presence in Iraq.

According to Raed Jarrar and Joshua Holland, in an article for , Iraq's parliament passed a binding resolution that will allow it in the future to block the extension of the UN mandate when it comes up for renewal in December.

The law would shift authority for the mandate from the prime minister to the parliament.

The passage of the bill in parliament followed a nonbinding petition signed by a majority of Iraq's parliament calling for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

These steps may have risen as a result of outrage expressed earlier this year by Iraqi lawmakers when al-Maliki sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council requesting an extension of the occupation mandate without consulting parliament.

Both the oil strike and the withdrawal issue seriously challenge the legitimacy of the al-Maliki government, which is more and more being seen as a tool of the Bush administration and the occupation.

This crisis of legitimacy is likely to further intensify sectarian violence as more of the representative organizations in parliament are sidelined.

--Joel Wendland is managing editor of Political Affairs and can be reached at