In early December, Adam Hanieh gave a lecture at the University of Ghent entitled “Disrupting the Fossil Order: Palestine, Imperialism, and Solidarity Today.” Jacobin got a chance to sit down with Hanieh before the lecture to discuss his recent book, Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market.

In his book, Hanieh offers a history of oil, which he argues is usually understood independently from the capitalist social relations that facilitate its production. In this interview, Hanieh not only describes the oil industry’s relationship to capitalism, but how colonialism and American hegemony — combined brutally in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip — are integral to the story of oil in the twenty-first century.

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Contributors

Adam Hanieh is a senior lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and the author of Lineages of Revolt: Issues of Contemporary Capitalism in the Middle East.

Dunia Daghlas is a PhD student in the Conflict and Development Department at Ghent University, affiliated with the Middle East and North Africa Research Group (MENARG). Her current research explores the history of the Palestinian movement in Kuwait from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Ruben Janze Lindberg is a PhD student in the Conflict and Development Department at Ghent University, affiliated with the Power in Practice Network (PiPN). His current research focuses on the disruption of financial institutions by grassroots movements in the City of London.

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