Asia, Africa and the Anglo-Americans

Horace Cayton on Iran’s Oil Fight With Britain


The Mossadegh Project | October 10, 2021                   


Horace R. Cayton, Jr. (1903-1970)

A column by Horace R. Cayton, Jr. (1903-1970), African-American sociologist, activist, educator, author and columnist.




Issue of Iranian Oil Serves to Earmark Need for Respecting Dark Peoples

by HORACE CAYTON

[March 31, 1951 — The Pittsburgh Courier]

AGAIN the sins of the past catch up with us today. The manner in which European countries have treated the colonies and smaller nations has led to distrust and hatred. This feeling is evident in Asia today and is part of the reason we are finding so much feeling against all of the United Nation’s forces. We, the United States, are being held equally guilty. If we did not actually exploit these countries we aided and abetted the procedure by our lack of action in their defense.

This time it is oil. The locale is Iran. This is the background:

For fifty years, Britain has had control of the Iranian oil fields. These concession are supposed to run until 1993. Fifty-three per cent of the stocks in the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the operating company, is owned by the British Government. About 6 per cent of the world’s output of oil comes from Iran. At present it constitutes the most valuable non-American supply that is available to the Western powers.

Each year these oil fields pipe millions of tons of fuel to the armies, navies and air forces of the United States, Britain and other Western Powers.

*    *    *

THESE OIL fields would be a prize of any war between the West and the Soviet Union. For a long time the Western Powers have been haunted by the fear that Russia might overrun that undefended country to try to gain possession of the oil.

The present crisis arose when by unanimous vote the Majlis, or Lower House of Iran’s Parliament, voted to nationalize the oil industry. This decision is just one manifestation of the upsurge of violent nationalism that is spreading all over the East and the Near East.

Besides this upsurge in nationalistic feeling the controversy was made more heated by English reaction. They dispatched a note to the Iranian Government reminding them that the oil company was operated under a concession that would not expire until 1993, and that, in spite of the English having operated it in that country for fifty years, there were no Iranian citizens who had the technical skill to carry on the operations.

*    *    *

FEELING IN Iran is running high. Spectators in the gallery of the Parliament cheered the prospect that the Government would take over the powerful British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

Just a few days previous to this decision, Premier General Ali Razmara, a foe of nationalization, was shot by a Moslem fanatic, who accused him of selling out the country to foreigners. [Killed March 7, 1951] After the vote in the Parliament, people ran through the streets of Teheran shouting, “Our oil is nationalized,” and 2,000 persons massed outside Parliament cheering wildly and carrying deputies about on their shoulders.

Americans feel that unrest in Iran may he reflected in her Moslem neighbors, threatening the big United States development in Saudi Arabia. Assistant Secretary of State George McGee has been ordered to that country for conferences. [George McGhee]

*    *    *

SO THERE we have it again. The exploitative methods of the British have again resulted in the antagonism of small nations and of the non-white people of the world. This, as in Asia and Africa, has played into the hands of the nationalists of those countries and to the aid of the Soviet Union. If Russia is able to gain concessions in those oil fields it will be in large part the fault of the West, and especially of Britain.

Now they are opposing nationalization while they are busy nationalizing their own basic industries.

But the United States, too, will be guilty. We will be guilty for shilly-shallying in practical support of those elements in the country that try to work for independence and reform against the pressure of inertia and selfish interests.

We cannot continue to support the exploitative colonial policy of England and expect to win the allegiance of the peoples of Africa and Asia. What is happening today in Iran will happen all over the world if the West does not learn to respect the natural and justifiable ambitions of brown, yellow and black people throughout the world.


Shirley Chisholm Appeals For Human Rights in Iran (1972)
Shirley Chisholm Appeals For Human Rights in Iran (1972)

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More by Horace Cayton:

Great Britain’s ‘Loss of Face’ In Iran Could Inspire African Move | Oct. 13, 1951

Why Can’t the Black People of the World Play It Smart Like The Iranians Did? | Nov. 17, 1951

Interview: UN Ambassador Nasrollah Entezam on Race, Apartheid | Nov. 15, 1952



Related links:

The Pittsburgh Courier Editor Percival Leroy Prattis on the 1953 Coup in Iran

Columnist Carl Rowan on Iran and Mossadegh | March 21, 2000

Arthur James Siggins Blasts “white imperialism” in Africa and the Middle East (1951)



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