Standard Oil of California and -now Biafra— Phillips; the French by ERAP; an area inhabited not by the In the complex diplomatic negothe Italians by ENI: the British Moslem, largely pastoral Hausaby Royal Dutch Shell and Fulani, but by the ambitious, British Petroleum (BP). The business-minded and democratic latter two, operating as a con- Ibos, who had given Sir George sortium, are the biggest pro- Goldie so much trouble back in the palm oil age. ducers.
Curiously enough, Nigeria has gone through two "oil ages"long as northern sultans and hundreds of millions of dollars the modern Petroleum Age was preceded by the Age of Palm emirs ran Nigeria. After the in liquid capital in company military coup of January 15, treasuries, but also the combined Oil. For in the 19th century it was palm oilthe main ingre- 1966, however, Sir Abubakar dient in soap that drew Euro- Tafawa Balewa, the Prime pean traders to the Niger River Minister, and his mentor, the and led to the British conquest Sardauna of Sokoto, were murof the "Nigerian Protectorate". dered.
The richness of the palm oil The coup was led by Major resources in the Northern Re- General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, gion was a 19th century com- an Ibo, and backed by a group mercial legend. But European of young officers, most of whom largest corporations outside the merchants could never really make a killing on the because of the bargaining power of the Ibo merchant chiefs who personal favouritism with acted as middlemen between the representative government. They tors tend to be very well conEuropeans and the palm oil also wanted the oil companies producers. This drain provided to pay more taxes. the vehicle for the entry of Sir Within a little more than six George Goldie, the piratical months, however, on July 29, "father of Nigeria". Goldie saw 1966, a counter-coup led by include that the key to obtaining the oil Major General Yakubu Gowon governor of the Bank of Engwealth lay in breaking the put the northerners back in con- landmonopoly of the Ibo chiefs by trol of the Federation dealing direotly with the northerners. Armed with a royal charter from Queen Victoria Throughout the months of Sepwhich gave him a "legal" mono- tember and October, pogroms British Foreign Office's premier poly on all trade in the region, were launched by Goldie used river gunboats to soldiers and local police against includes serving as ambassador blast away his Ibo competitors.
He then had the British colonial estimates, over 30.000 were in secretary threaten his French competition with war if they refugees streamed back into the South tried to encroach on Goldie's Eastern Region. section of the Niger. At the same time, in order to Ibos still remember Sir maintain its credibility in the while equally well connected in George's handling of greatest historical figure, Ja Ja, had been pressured into taking somewhat King of Opobo. Ja Ja had built as hard a line in negotiations palm oil and was strong enough its Ibo predecessors to withstand the European General Ironsi. Mr.
who was to get the oil revenues? York saw the companies in their most pro-Biafran mood. tiations, the posture of the oil "compromise" was suggested on treated from their earlier posicompanies would be decisive in the revenue payments: 57.5 per tions. determining who would eat and cent paid to Biafra, cash-on-the- they lied, had never been made. who would starve, who would barrelhead, the rest to be placed get guns and who would go in an escrow account in the the Biafran defeat at Bonny, defenceless. Behind the oil com- name of Biafra Still, the Ibos were not a panies diplomacy lay not only could "maintain order" major obstacle to the oilmen as billions of dollars in assets and Biafra, the balance would be his.
On July 3rd, Shell-BP revealed an agreement to make a token the customary July power of the Dutch and British Biafra. governments, who, with their substantial stock in Shell and bets. It didn't come out openly wait. And, with great fanfare, British Petroleum, sustained a for Biafra. To placate lively and intimate interest in Nigerian affairs.
Shell and British Petroleum "under duress." After all, some the war before April 1st, 1968, are the world's largest and third of the oil wells were within when Biafra was due to receive Federal territory, and Lagos its payment. were also Ibo. The young offi- U.S., with combined sales of might recapture the refinery. oil, cers specifically wanted to end over ten billion dollars more This was essentially the line Biafran victory the feudalistic private courts and than three times the GNP of taken by Britain Commonwealth more unlikely La Nigeria. Their corporate direc- Secretary Bowdon, who nected indeed in the circles where British diplomacy is for- betting on both horses: "At this had lost 280 million dollars in lines. This is no mere militaristic mulated. stage there can be no recogni- 1967. and it couldn't British Petroleum's directors tion of the Eastern Region (our another year like that. The Shell- of renewed massacres. MoreLord Cobbold, ( Economist pointed out.
Britain's equivalent of the recognition might be on its way. 42-million-dollar and U.S. Federal Reserve Bank: W This would save face all around. wiped out 400 Ibo Army officers J. Kewswick, an ordinary direc. With luck, and enlisted men in the process. tor of the Bank of England: and happy, and Lagos "realistic"
Sir Humphrey Trevelyan, the enough not to blockade the oil. April, 1968, Shell-BP signed a single section containing almost Lagos, northern cil diplomat (whose experience the blockade to oil. Production government. stopped in the midwest and in Ibos living in the north, By some to Egypt during the Suez crisis Biafra. Only Gulf's 1956. ambassador to Irag killed, and nearly two million during the 1958 upheaval, and felds continued to pump their French, heretofore holding none labourers and sioner in 1967).
Shell's board of directors, on.
their north, the Gowon government the British government, has a found they'd been wise to hedge siderations aside.
more American their bets on Biafra. The oil who were forced out of Nigeria flavour: Eugene Black is a direc. blockade was not broken, and by Sir Georpe Goldie in the days under Bank and until recently. head pointing on the battlefield. By petroleum flowing their way.
Abdul of the World Bank. Lord Shaw- late July, Bonny had fallen, folAs Federal troops advanced into For the moment, however, all A Biafra, the oil companies re- these commercial and diplomatic negotiations, both French The "token payment," and British, are merely speculation about Biafra's future.
In August, 1967, just after long as the war continues, production remains at a standIf Ojukwu Shell-BP "discovered" a clause still. The companies have not in in its contract with Nigeria carned a cent since the conflict enabling the oil companies to began. And they know they postpone royalty payments from must get back into full produc Ist until tion before another Middle payment" of 700,000 dollars to March 3Ist, 1968, the end of Eastern blowup.
fiscal 1967. The Lagos govern- So the companies want the But Shell-BP was hedging its ment declared its willingness to war to end, and- except for the French-they want the Federal the General Gowon announced to government to win. And so they Federal government, it pleaded the press that the goal of the must enthusiastically second exthat the payment had been made Federal government was to win FBI agent Joseph Palmer, the American assistant secretary of State for African Affairs, who asks the Biafrans to "comAs the deadline approached, promise" and save themselves. seemed even But Biafra can't simply give -but Biafra still up. As the Federal troops adex- controlled the pipelines If the vance. Colonel Ojukwu speaks plained to the House of Com- war dragged on, Shell-BP would of a second phase of combat; a mons how the government was be in trouble. British Petroleum people's war behind enemy stand bravado; there is genuine fear also emphasis*-implying, as The BP response was twofold. In over, for the Ibos, surrender that March, 1968, they announced a under the newly promulgated "crash pro- Nigerian Federal structure gramme" to build pipelines and would mean accepting the diviBiafra would be terminal and storage facilities sion of Biafra into three partswithin Federal territory. And in with the Ibos crowded into a however, did extend new agreement with the Federal no oil lands whatsoever. As in the years before oil production The British government is began, they would have to emioffshore now irrevocably committed to grate from their homelands to waiting tankers. And the war the Federal government. But the earn their living as clerks, farm itinerant merArabian high commis- 50,000 barrels per day into wait- of the Nigerian franchises, have chants. After the massacres in ing tankers. And the war went little to lose by giving a bit of the north and atrocities of the encouragement to the Biafrans. present civil war, such a DiasGradually, the oil companies And, purely diplomatic con- pora represents to the Ibos the the French. end of their people.
Bob Fitch and Mary Oppenheimer are the authors of "Ghana: End of an Illusion"
The largest French entrepren- (Monthly Review Press 1966); they were married on Julv 26th. 1968.
(A Dwarf Correspondent)
The International Anarchist Con- ministers such as Montseny, and gress was held in the marble quarry- pro-American Cubans, to be invited; ing town of Massa Carrara (Italy). and when the former attacked CohnIt was attended by delegates from a Bendit for associating with revolularge number of countries, but tionary Marxists, he pointed out that resolved itself into a conflict between this was a curious case of "purity"; two opposite points of view. On the after all, Cohn-Bendit associated, as one hand was the fossilised bureau- we would do, with those revolucracy that had decided to create an tionary Marxists interested International Federation solely in abolishing capitalism; not, as Montorder to give itself some vestige of seny had done, with the CP and support in its national federations. others who had interest It wished the congress to devote time preserving it. to parliamentary-type motions and He condemned the idea of merely reports from non-existent organisa- putting forward motions condemning tions stating, from the point of view aggression in the manner of political of exiles, how revolutionary the parties. Cohn-Bendit attacked the socountries they had not seen for a called anarchists from Miami-they lifetime really were. On the other were not the Cuban anarchists at all, hand militant core that he said, they were just an exile group insisted that such a state of affairs living on CIA handouts. The real could no longer be tolerated within Cuban anarchiete were in Cuba the anarchist movement. "fighting the dictatorship". This was not a clash of age as On these lines the congress stated in most of the world's press; divided; on the one hand, those who people such as Federica Montseny wanted an institution of revolution; had been real bureaucrats a third of on the other hand, those like the a century before and were mythical Swiss and British delegations - and ones now. It had been hoped by the many other groups from around those controlling the congress the Continent who came in on a keep out what they called disruptive "British" ticket — who pointed the elements; this was prevented by the way for a spontaneous revolutionary British delegation, which had de- movement. An enormous discussion cided to give out British delegate's went on outside the congress papers to anyone from any country amongst the large numbers who had prevented frome/speaking. been attracted to it. As summed up Stuart Christie, for the AFB by Noir & Rouge, the revolu(Anarchists Federation of Britain) tionaries were against an anarchism made it clear he was speaking not harking back to Proudhon. with merely for British Anarchists but for bureaucrats reproducing old heirrevolutionary anarchists generally. archical structures. Our aim was not when he asked why the most militant the stroggle for anarchism as an groups such as the 22nd March, abstract ideal but a revolutionary FIJL. Noir & Rouge. etc., were struggle with the most libertarian excluded. was absurd for ex- character possible CARtoon Archetypal Slogan NEWSREEL: filmed reports from Theatre, revolutionary socialist the radical Americal left. Twelve thaatre group noone 10-12 minute films have been reTor CL At present working on pla GLC tenants. -ring leased, including: October '67 Pen2409 if you can help. tacon Confrontation: Up-Againstthe-Wall Mother-Fuckers' Garbage VSC POSTER in shape of NLF. Protest: Riot Weapons. flag in three colours with relevant Further information, and bookings slogans. Priced 6d. For information Campaign. Com- Downside Crescent, London, N.W.3. mercial Road, London E.1. SWI-3228
8 THE BLACK DWARF 13.5 FREE GRANTS FOR ALL! ing ground in Prague, particularly Are you an African student? Are amongst the Various you "leftish' or even vaguely student journals had been publishing "leftish"? Are you poor and do you rOTSKVIle literature. Isaac Deutsneed a free scholarship cher's Stalin and The Unfinished -10 Tne United States? If you are all this Revolution were being serialised and more then don't hesitate and photographs of Trotsky had been published -for the first time ring Mr Michael Pistor, the kind, in any Communist State apart from warm-hearted Education Officer at Cuba. It is not surprising, therefore, the American Embassy in Grosvenor that a few days after the Russian Square. For some years now Mr tanks rolled into Prague the Czech Pistor formerly stationed in the Cameroons, has been playing host to sent out a top priority to all leftish African students in close touch activists: BURN ALL PROVOCATIVE MATERIAL. What were they with certain national liberation referring to? Books by Galbraith. movements. They are wined and TIME magazine. Not at all. What dined and offered free scholarships was burnt was copies of magazinés at American Universities or free containing Deutscher's work. The 1a LInTS Con somewhat spurious project known as Leadership Ex- instruction was duly obeyed and most of the copies burnt! Comrade change. Little wonder then that Mr Deutscher would have been flattered.
Pistor is an undoubted expert on the various struggles in Africa and PATHETIC NEWS is probably better informed than One of the more noxious aspects most commentators stationed in Africa itself. Small wonder also of the cinema today is that in many that when Nigerian war theatres one is sometimes unfortuagainst Biafra began to assume nate eneugh to sit through Pathe genocidal proportions there was a News. We usually tend to laugh at meeting of Biafran and Nigerian the nauseous tones of the comstudets to discuss the matter. The mentator telling us coyly that the meeting was held under Mr seratch on Prince Charles' check was Pistor's auspices and was the first not a shaving cut but had been and last of its kind. Mr Pistor caused by a lady friend. What is told the Dwarf that he was def- cucouraging is that the derisive nitely not working for the CIA hoots of laughter which greet Pathetic News seem to grow louder.
BURN DEUTSCHER, BÜRN Despite this, however, why is it that One of the things which worried such drivel is churned out regularly the Russian enormously about pre- to mislead the average viewer. A In varione Crechadloun kis was the recent newsreel, showing the Anti"subversive' ideas which were gain- Russian demo on Czechoslovakia, constrasts the Labour Party speaker course a loyal defender of American with the mob' ie. us! The com- Imperialism in Vietnam and usually mentator remarks: "Present was the defends the US position and the trouble-making element which Lon- Labour Government's support of it don has come to know and despise quite shamélessly. But even if he in the past few months." End of didn't would the TUC have passed unbiased, -obieclive commentary! a motion saying that all links with What rights do these cunts have to American trade unions should be cut speak on behalf of Londoners in oft. Not on your life. AFL-CIO their smooth, specially-cultivated delegates are still permitted to Tory accents? Surely Pathetic News defend their government's butchery is a thing of the past. It has been Vietnam. The brothers at the made completely irrelevant by tele- TUC of course 'understand the diffivision. The soporofic reactionary culties the Americans face." And trash they produce is a disgrace even anyway if they broke off links they to bourgeios democracy". would forfeit all the free trips to COverate of second-rate SPOFL America — a favour which some of royalty and animals in zoos is of the members of the General Council interest to no one and should be would not be able to do without. flushed down the lavatory as scon as possible. REPRESSION IN WALES The recent bomb attacks on a CANNON'S LAW RAF centre in South Wales are by One of the more nauseating sights no means isolated attacks. There at the centenarv congress ef the have been bomb incidents in Wales TUC was the sight of Mr Les for the last few years and there is Cannon of the Electrical Trades at least one bomb incident a week Union mouthing in that nasty style in Wales. Cardiff after 10 p.m. he has developed the old cold-war like a city under Martial Law with cliches against the Soviet interven- police patrols guarding government tion in Czechoslovakia. He was most. buildings and Labour Party offices. concerned that the TUC cut off the To attribute the unrest as the Secrefew links it does have with tary for Wales has done to Rusian counterpart. We cannot talk cowardly bunch of thugs' is to avoid to aggressors seemed to be the facing the problem. The unrest exmessage. We will never condone the tends deep into the soul of Wales. use of force. Union meetings are attracting 2000It is reported that a few trade 3000 members and the youth in unionists had to leave the halt particular are developing a socialist during Mr Cannon's speech as they conseiousnecs. were literally feeling sick! We sym- Four hundred Branch constables. pathise with them. Mr Cannon is of and officers are based in Cardiff under the command of Jock Wilson It comes as a surprise, therefore. well-known as the scourge of the to learn that the BBC is filming an London Left not too long ago. It is hour long profile/interview with Sir their duty to 'root out extremists" Oswald Mosley to be shown in the and prevent incidents when Bonnie near future. Wake up Paul Fox. Prince Charlie is investitured. What NO COMMENT is amusing is that all the Special Branches Including their gallant VANCOUVER, Monday. Sir Jeader aTer all Scotsmen. Which Ronald Howe, OBICH Chief brings troubles in Merthyr in the 30's when back MCIOEICS of the Constable of the CID at Scotland Yard, says violence is increasing it was a Scots battalion which dealt in Britain because "we are letting with the 'troublemakers". in too many coloured people."
Sir Ronald, who arrived in VanTHIS ENGLAND couver on a pleasure cruise, said in "It has always been an ax:om cf an interview vesterdav. "England has existed for thouBeitsh foreign policy that we stand up "for smaller nations" New sands yeers without them Statesman, Editorial, 6th September (colcured people) and why chonld 1968. we have them now." It is rapidly beeoming an axiom of He had no patience with "sickly the New Statesman to print crap sentimentalists" who, in his words, tike this in its editorial columns. would "leave police powerless to protect 95 per cent of the population from the other five per cent criminal B3C CHARADES element."
A few davs ago the BBC Sir Ronald is in favour of using hoved a film on Ramsay Mac.
tear-gas chemical to contrcl riots.
Danniz which should have been and restoring capital punishment. seen by viewers some weeks ago but British prisons, he said, were buildwas postponed owing to the Czech ing up a hard core of criminals who crisis. In the film there is an inter- had nothing to lose by shooting a with Sir Oswald Mosley warder. -Associated Press.
Indeed there should be. Mosley was • Minister in MacDonald's Government and a potential Labour Prime Another victim of the invasion of Minister. The bureaucrat in charge, Czechoslovakia is the John Heartfiela however, objected to the Mosley exhibition. The work of the great interview and ordered the deletion of German communist propagandasome relevant comments SOni TIn _I designer was to have opened in employment in the 30's spoken by Camden next month under Arts Mosley. The producer was outraged Council auspices, but for months the but suffered the philistinism. F.O. was doing its best to sabotage Sohn Hent ne An example of his work if with one exctise after another have presented a powerful arsenal the latest being that the letters DDR revolut.onary graphic weapor mustn't appear on the catalogue. So, which is of much more use to come August 21 and the Tory leader Czech comrades in their strugi Comden bravely answers the than all the odious hypocrisies appeal from Literani Listy for a cul- Douglas-Home or Crossman: wl tural boycott, and claims credit for the content of Heatfield's work the cancellation. quite as vicious of Ulbricht's as Fuck him. The exhibition would was of Hitler.
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