Petroleum, Labor, And Legislative Politics In Hashemite Iraq, 1953

Labor relations in Hashemite Iraq cannot be separated from domestic and regional politics, nor from the rise in global consumption of petroleum. As Albert Badre pointed out, in the Arab world management came “overwhelmingly from a society with traditions and ideals that differed considerably from those which animate the society providing the labor force” (Badre, 1957: 19). In Iraq, most industrial managers were British, with smaller numbers of Americans, French, and German citizens. The petroleum market had expanded in an unprecedented way during the first decade after World War II. While in 1945, 7.8 million barrels were consumed every day; by 1957, the market absorbed18.3 million barrels on a quotidian basis (Badre 1957: 5). The United Kingdom and France were the most significant consumers of Iraqi petroleum, purchasing together a little less than half of all the country’s exports