http://www.progressive.org/?q=mag_bacon1005By David Bacon
October 2005 Issue
On April 9, 2003, U.S. tanks pulled up to Basra’s huge, dilapidated oil refinery. “We were coming out early, at the end of our shift, and there was the American army,” recalls Faraj Arbat, one of the plant’s firemen. The soldiers trained their guns on the oil workers. The head of the fire department made the mistake of questioning the troops, and he was ordered to lie facedown on the ground.
“He did as he was ordered,” Arbat recalls. “But then an American put his foot on his back. So we started fighting with the soldiers with our fists. The tank turret started to turn toward us, and at that point we all sat down.”
While a small core of Baathist loyalists were among the refinery’s workers, after thirty years of Saddam Hussein, the vast majority had more than had their fill of war and repression. They were prepared to welcome almost any change that removed the old regime, even foreign troops. But they did not expect the American heavy-handedness.
They also felt a strong sense of pride in keeping Iraq’s oil industry going. So in the ensuing days, most workers stayed and tried to bring the plant back into operation. “Slowly we got production restored, by our own efforts,” says Arbat. “Electricity workers, at their own expense, brought power back to the refinery. We found where the water pipes had been blown up, and went out with armed guards to repair them. Meanwhile, the Americans and British began coming with tanker trucks, loading up on the gas and oil we were producing.”
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