The Case for Worker’s Control of Industry versus
Private/State Capitalism

The case of Nigeria will be the main example. Nigeria has a huge international debt and many internal problems as well as a history of military dictators. Its main industry is OIL, run by SHELL on offshore platforms near the Niger Delta. Oil profits are the main source of revenue for the Nigerian government (I estimate up to 90%, actually this is the case in Angola, which also has abundant diamond deposits besides off-shore foreign owned oil platforms but the analogy is basically so similar that the two countries can be considered as the same), much of which goes on servicing foreign debt (at this current point, Nigeria has successfully serviced all its foreign debt)

I would estimate that corporate taxes are low to encourage investment, so lets assume that the oil companies (well, Shell) pay 10% of their profits to the state. Many of the technicians in the oil industry are western experts and, I keep assuming, most of the work connected with the oil industry for Nigerians themselves is security work. This is obviously a big incentive against common ownership and also works on the sweatshop principle, i.e. it is cheaper to pay your workers 25 cents an hour, for 16 hours and to pay couple of guys with iron bars $2 a hour to make sure they work than to pay everybody $1 an hour.

Obviously, although Nigeria gets some of the capital, the vast majority leaves the country, still leaving a gigantic debt.

What if the state took over the oil industry? They could do so simply by buying the oil platforms back from Shell. However, while they are busy raising the revenue to do so, their foreign debt would increase and vital funds would be kept from healthcare and education. Also, the costs of training up new technicians while keeping up oil production would become very difficult. It is difficult to see how the state could ever recoup its expenses. This also raises the issue of a brain drain from health care to industry.

Why not just send the army in? This could lead to an international incident involving the western powers, who may just pay the army to stage a coup de’tat. Even if all goes well, a large amount of security would be required and then you have the problems stated above when the oil is secured. In any case, the development/ improvement of other industries would be neglected.

It seems that the only way for the Nigerian people to escape poverty would be the immediate, spontaneous takeover of the oil platforms.
Unfortunately, in international markets, human lives do not count as capital investment. In an organised overthrow of capitalism, lives would be the only investment. It could only be hoped that the Nigerian army stays neutral and the revolt has the support of the populace at large.

Going back to my estimates for the transfer of oil capital, even if oil production and export was at 20% of the pre-revolt levels, the country would have doubled its capital intake. This could then ALL go on healthcare and education; and without a formal government, the foreign debt would be void!