Baku—centre of fossil fuel capitalism and revolution

November 4, 2024 –
From Socialist Worker (UK)

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The Congress of the Peoples of the East in Baku in 1920 brought together revolutionaries from across the Global South (pic: Wikimedia commons).

Many will despair as yet another round of Cop29 climate talks take place in a centre of oil and gas production, Baku in Azerbaijan.

But Baku has another history—one of struggle against colonialism, imperialism and capitalism itself.

Oil has been produced here from ancient times. At around 1300, Marco Polo wrote about oil “in such abundance that a hundred ships” could load simultaneously. He said, “This oil is not good to eat, but it is good for burning.”

Baku became a birthplace of fossil fuel capitalism. By 1901 Baku and the surrounding region supplied more than half the world’s crude oil.

Azerbaijan’s oil profits massively enriched a small handful of capitalists. But the oil couldn’t be extracted without workers. In December 1904 a citywide general strike shut the oil industry. Mass workers’ strikes spilled over into revolution in 1905.

Despite the defeat of this revolution, Baku’s oil workers remained strong. Revolutionaries from Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik party were central to these struggles.

The Bolsheviks fought to overcome differences between groups of workers from different ethnic backgrounds and religions.

Baku became a powerhouse of the 1917 Russian Revolution. But the divisions between ethnic and religious groups fostered under the Russian Empire meant that there was also vicious violence.

The revolution’s eventual victory saw the nationalisation of the oil industry.

Companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, Standard Oil and Anglo-Persian Oil—later BP—lost everything. In May 1918 Azerbaijan declared independence, freeing itself from what Lenin called “the prison house of nations”.

To regain the oil, and stop their enemies getting it, 40,000 British troops invaded Azerbaijan in 1918.

One British soldier wrote home, “We are not here to put down Bolshevism, but to guard British capital sunk in the oil fields.”

By 1920 the British withdrew and their puppet government collapsed, bringing the region back under the control of the revolution. The oil wealth was back in the hands of the people.

In November 1922, Arseny Avraamov’s Symphony of Factory Sirens—which used factory sirens, ship horns, train whistles and an enormous choir—was performed in Baku.

In September 1920 an event took place in Baku that should inspire us today.

The Bolsheviks called The Congress of the Peoples of the East to bring together anti-colonial activists and representatives of the newly-founded Communist International. The Bolsheviks hoped that workers’ revolution would inspire anti-colonial movements worldwide.

Almost 2,000 people gathered from across the Caucasus, the Middle East and Europe, with delegations coming from as far away as Korea and India.

There were hundreds of representatives of smaller national groups, such as the Uzbeks, Bashkirs and Abkhazians. The closing “appeal” called on workers in the West to revolt.

“Workers of Britain, America, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and other countries! Listen to the voice of the representatives of the millions of the peoples of the East in revolt, who are telling you of their oath to rise up and help you in your fight.”

The Congress was a sharp retort to those Western socialists who considered these to be “backwards” countries that would need to go through capitalist development before a socialist revolution. The people of the East were leading the struggle.

Cop29 will again be filled with delegates aligned to fossil fuel corporations. The Cop talks won’t break from a capitalist system that puts profits first.

When we protest during Cop29 for a sustainable world, we should remember the region’s rich tradition of revolutionary struggle.

Source: Socialistworker.co.uk