Lza Head Calls for Nationalization of U.S. Oil Firms by Government

The head of the Labor Zionist Alliance called for the “nationalization” by the United States government of American oil companies as a “response to the so-called energy crisis contrived by the oil companies.” The real response to the oil companies “and their potential for mischief, and hardship for the general population, is to advocate nationalization of the companies,” declared Dr. Judah J. Shapiro who addressed the national executive committee of the LZA here yesterday.

Speaking to Labor Zionist leaders from throughout the U.S. and Canada, Dr. Shapiro said, “it has been charged that the energy crisis is no more than a contrivance of the oil companies to obtain greater profits and to distract the public from the investigation of its price-fixing techniques.” Advocating federal nationalization of American oil companies, Dr. Shapiro said that “others are nationalizing the oil and we should be seeking to bring sellers and the distributors of oil under the strictest United States government controls.”

Continuing, he asserted: “Punishment of Standard Oil of California and Mobil Oil by the destruction of a few thousand credit cards and at best a limited boycott, is nothing compared to the introduction of legislation in the U.S. Congress which would define oil as a national concern and its supply supervised by strict federal controls. Israel is not an issue in this non-existent energy crisis, but ethical considerations and Socialist principals are.”