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77 posts

Infernal Petroleum Experience
Mar 18, 2003, 16:24
http://uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=57468&group=webcast

People Against The War Target International petroleum Exchange (IPE)
by Infernal Petroleum Experience 11:52am Mon Mar 17 '03 (Modified on 10:07pm Mon Mar 17 '03)
phone: 07952720535 [email protected]

Press Release

People Against The War Target International petroleum Exchange (IPE)

Twenty people today disrupted the trading floor of the International Petroleum Exchange in the city of London while others outside held a banner reading "Oil Fuels War". These people are only a tiny fraction of those in this country (and around the world) who are opposed to a war againmst Iraq and who are waking up to the new style of government - "Corporateocracy".

"We're visiting IPE today to highlight the intimite relationship between the rush to war on iraq and the west's insatiable thirst for oil." Said Sandra Ried of the Infernal Petroleum Experience. "The IPE is where that connection is most accute and where a very small number of companies and individuals reap enormous rewards at the expense of the great majority of the worlds' population, who struggle to keep their head above a tide of war, climate chaos, human rights abuses and forced displacement; both at home and abroad.

She went on to say that "oil courses through the veins of the capitalist system turbocharging its destructive impacts. We are taking direct action to stick a well placed spanner in the war machine. Writing to our MPs and marching through central London hasn't stopped this war and it will not move us towards the safe and just world we want to live in."

"Over the past six months, we have seen an elected govenrnment consistently kick sand in the face of public opinion at the behest of the bully boy of corporate and US interest. No one wants this war. Democracy has been clearly revealed for the charade it is. We hope the people will begin to take direct action as the prefered way of doing things."

Infernal Petroleum Experience Onsite Mobile: 07952 720 535
Email us at: [email protected]
For further reports and pictures of this action: www.uk.indymedia.org

Notes:
1. The IPE is Europes' largest marketplace for buying and selling of oil and gas 'futures', second only to new york's Nymex. In January 2003, with world oil prices climbing through the cieling at the prospect of war, with Iraq and the resulting chaos and destruction that would ensue, it traded over 3 million contracts worth US 95 billion dollars. Its new owners ICE count BP, Shell, and ELF among its largest shareholders.

2. The anti-war movement is millions strong worldwide. In the UK, March 17th-23rd is a week of 'Obstruct and Resist' actions against war [http://www.j-n-v.org/obstruct&resistpress.htm]. This is our attempt as a small part of that movement to help put the world back on course for a safe, sustainible and socially just future.

(more on indy threads)
http://uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=57468&group=webcast
http://uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=57464
grufty jim
grufty jim
1978 posts

Oil Fuels War
Mar 18, 2003, 16:35
>
> ... held a banner reading "Oil Fuels War".
>
It fuels a lot more than that. Oil fuels almost everything we do. From getting to a protest, to writing about it on the internet. As well as the half-million or so other uses we put it to in order to maintain our way of life.
cookie
77 posts

Re: Oil Fuels War
Mar 18, 2003, 17:18
So what are you saying Grufty, these peeps shouldn't have bothered?

Or that they have to be living perfect primitivist lives before they can stand up and say this war is wrong, and linking it with oil... as they probably got the train/tube there and posted it to indymedia (using a computer)?

Or that saying oil fuels war is bad as it fuels everything and its diverting the point - even though war is slightly high on the agenda this week (and totally connected to all the other things oil sustains too)

Sorry, maybe its because I'm wiped today, but I'm really failing to understand this response.
grufty jim
grufty jim
1978 posts

Re: Oil Fuels War
Mar 18, 2003, 19:42
>
> So what are you saying Grufty, these peeps
> shouldn't have bothered?
>
No, cookie. That's not what i'm saying. Though i guess the tone of my message made it easy to interpret that way. Sorry about that.

>
> Sorry, maybe its because I'm wiped today,
> but I'm really failing to understand this
> response.
>
That's because it wasn't really trying to get across any new information. It was just an expression of frustration at how crazy things are getting these days. Sometimes (?!) i use U-know to just let rip with my frustrations over society and politics. Should probably try to curtail that.

Let me just say that i'm fundamentally opposed to this war. I believe it's a dreadful idea that, in the long run, will have little or no positive consequences for anyone (Iraqis, Americans, Britons, anyone else), though *may* (and the jury is still out on this) bring some short-term benefit to some. At it's most basic, this war is quite simply immoral and unethical.

At the same time i view it as entirely inevitable. I can see no alternative to this war, excepting the deliberate and voluntary *slashing* of the standard of living of almost every American and every European.

But i see no historical precendent for such a course of action. I honestly do not believe the human race is capable of such an act.

I accept that i have very inconsistent beliefs about the human race. There is - at some level - a contadiction between my beliefs about our potential for beauty and altruism and kindness; and my beliefs about our basic biological and psychological imperatives.

I don't have the "in god's image" thing to fall back on anymore... so as far as i'm concerned, we're basically animals. Animals who have achieved greatness in a very real sense; but animals nonetheless.

And i believe there are significant limits to the altruism of animals _en masse_. As individuals some of us are willing to make great sacrifices for the nebulous concept "the common good" (as i write that, given recent events, i'm thinking specifically of Rachel Corrie). As individuals, most of us are willing to sacrifice much - if not all - to protect of those we love and care about.

However, i do not believe that *most* people are willing to permanently return themselves and their progeny to a far more primitive and less comfortable, subsistence lifestyle as an alternative to fighting a foreign war with an overwhelming military advantage.

I accept that's a pessimistic appraisal of our species. But i fail to see how any other conclusion can be reached given just a cursory glance at the world we have created.

I am not living a "primitivist" existence (though i am doing a lot of research into how i might do that). This isn't a soap-box harangue by the righteous against the unworthy (honestly, if you knew me, you'd know that's not where i'm coming from). It's just my analysis of the situation - and, believe me i'm always looking for a more optimistic counterpoint. So tell me where i'm wrong.

As far as i can see, this war is the literally inevitable result of global consumerism. Protesting it without providing an alternative, is (in my often-wrong opinion) basically futile - even if it is an entirely appropriate and correct response to witnessing an immoral act over which you have no apparent control.

So i don't disagree with the protesters; nor do i think they shouldn't be doing what they're doing. But i do get frustrated at times to see so much creativity and energy being poured into a futile protest against an inevitable war, when there is so little creativity being poured into solving the problems which face us regarding resource depletion and overpopulation (and believe me; there really *is* a shortage of talent in this area).

That's all. Just frustration tinged with a pinch of despair at recent events. I'm not criticising the anti-war movement. But i do believe they may be fighting the wrong battle - and there *is* a battle to be fought.
morfe
morfe
2992 posts

Re: Oil Fuels War
Mar 19, 2003, 00:15
"I'm not criticising the anti-war movement. But i do believe they may be fighting the wrong battle - and there *is* a battle to be fought."

Completely agree, with the exception of 'wrong battle'. I believe it's all part of the same battle, except the banners are all most people can manage because of everything from lack of time to apathy to disillusionment. Yes, the battle against greed must be fought FIRST, but it's the one thing that will surely be brought about only by nature's intervention. Aren't we too far down the line?

Remember that film 'Threads?', when one old guy survives a nuclear attack on Sheffield, he finds one another surviving man in the burning rubble of a house. He goes to the man for comfort, the man says "get out of my house"...
grufty jim
grufty jim
1978 posts

Windowlight
Mar 19, 2003, 01:19
Here is an example of what frustrates me about the anti-war movement (of which i myself am a part... by virtue of being "anti-war" and what have you).

http://www.moveon.org/windowlight/

In the email that i received regarding this, it said:
>
> We have joined together to articulate a vision
> of how the world should be -- of how nations
> should treat each other, of how we can
> collectively deal with threats to our security.
>
> One simple way to show your continued
> commitment to this vision is to put a light in
> your window. It could be a Christmas string
> or candle, a light bulb, or a lantern. It's an
> easy way to keep the light of reason and hope
> burning...
>
I think that - in theory - this could be a beautiful protest. Thousands... millions of homes shining out their opposition to the war. What an image. A statement of solidarity. Giving two shining fingers to Blair and Bush.

But then a voice in the back of my mind points out that this action basically involves burning resources to protest a resource war.

There *are* things that can be done to effectively protest this war. Stop buying petroleum products for a week. How's that for a relevant, direct, deliberate protest against the murder of Iraqis?

Don't burn *more* oil in protest. Burn less. Nobody drive their car for a week. Everyone stay home. Don't use electricity (no TV, no internet, spend a week by natural light, take this opportunity to defrost the fridge). Buy fresh fruit and vegetables without plastic wrapping. Buy freshly-baked bread without plastic-wrapping. Make sure it's organic so that you're not creating demand for fossil-fuel-based fertilisers and pesticides. Do it for a week. Don't go to work. Don't turn the oily wheels of capitalism.

I believe that protest *makes sense* as a response to a resource war. Really it does. But it doesn't have the convenience of the moveon.org plan which points out that "It's an easy way to keep the light of reason and hope burning". And it needs a *lot* of people to take part to be effective.

The effective method of protesting is not "easy". And the easy method, in this case, is just not effective. Indeed, as i said, 'Windowlight' will actually have the consequence of generating a slight rise in demand for the resource this war is being fought for.

(I accept, by the way cookie, that the occupation of the IPE which started off this thread is a different class of protest action, and one which i completely support. The more i think about it, the more i think it's a great action as it draws attention to just this point; though i feel that the specific connection between western consumerism and foreign wars needs to be made).

I'm not offering "solutions" right here. And i know i sound like i'm putting forward a counsel of despair. But in my defence, i am spending an awful lot of my time studying this subject and searching for solutions; and i am writing about it and trying to get the word out.

I believe global consumerism and market economics are the true problems facing humanity. I believe that the impending war in Iraq is simply an inevitable symptom of them. I believe that those who try to cure the disease by fighting symptoms are never going to be making the best use of their energy and creativity.


(and notice the preponderence of "I believe" statements there)
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