Oil and the Global Capitalist Crisis by Caleb Maupin is a speech he gave to the Second Congress of the Trade Union Center of Brazil on February 25th, of this year. His work adequately lays out how the international oil companies have influenced the world economy in their favour. How they’ve destroyed entire economies, and had millions killed to pocket more profit. Big Oil has used its power to shape history  and determine the course of many countries. How capitalism itself is a power that wrecks havoc in politics and self-determination. All of it, in the name of capital.

One of the most important points Maupin makes is the necessity of the domestic control of a nation’s natural resources, particularly oil. As he demonstrated, this remains true for a capitalist economy as it does a socialist economy. It is only by the domestic control resource wealth that it can be used to benefit its own citizens. Of course, socialism does this far superior to capitalism, but it is still a benefit to even capitalism.

Maupin shows how oil, and its corresponding price,  played a pivotal role in the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. It was the development of the oil fields in Baku that gave rise to the possibility of industrialization. Soviet oil eventually became a highly demanded commodity on the work market. This wealth was seized from the hands of the Swiss Nobel family, and Rothschild’s oil company (now known as Royal Dutch Shell). Quotes from the son of Ronald Regan also reveal how Saudi oil manipulation laid great harm to the Soviets in the 1980s, severely impacting their economy; certainly accelerating the economic problems of the revisionist era.

However, I would take issue with his idea that the White working class of the U.S. is a victim in ebbs and flows of capitalism. This class has always been very privileged living off the benefits of imperialist plunder. This reduction of their class is an equalization of them with the rest of the U.S. population. They have been net beneficiaries of the super-exploitation of the Third World. They have only been made to live like everyone else.  The American Dream of the middle class has always been a benefit of imperialism.

On the whole I recommend this work for anyone who wants a quick jolt of information on the global impact of the capitalist oil cartels, and their dirty dealings.

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For More information on Caleb Maupin and his work check out his website http://calebmaupin.info