That important fact is that all the wealth and profits generated by Tullow Oil were made by the labour power of the working class in Africa, Asia and wherever Tullow Oil is operating. The surplus value, the unpaid labour power of the working class, is the source of all Tullow's profits past and present. But, of course, John Mulligan only sees the financial wizardry of Aidan Heavey as the source of all Tullow's success.

Another point I would like to make is this: all natural resources, whether oil, gas, gold, diamonds, etc, don't belong, and should not belong, either to individuals or individual companies, and should not be developed for the profits and privileges of the few.

Rather, these natural resources belong to all of us and should be developed and used for the benefit and the greater good of the people.

Furthermore, how can the developing world in Africa, Asia and South America ever overcome their economic backwardness, their terrible poverty, famines, disease, exploitation and oppression while western companies, like Heavey's Tullow Oil and the major commercial banks allied with the neo-liberal policies of the IMF and the world bank, control their natural resources and thereby their economies?

The end result is that western multinational companies and western banks make billions in profits, making millionaires out of people like Aidan Heavey and Lord John Brown of BP, while hundreds of millions of people die from curable diseases, hunger, exploitation and oppression.

Despite all the propaganda, capitalism is incapable of bringing progress and advancement to the majority of suffering humanity. On the contrary, it is because of capitalist hegemony in the world that the greater part of suffering humanity is condemned to a life of penury and pauperisation. For example, out of a total global workforce of 2.8 billion workers, 1.4 billion earn less than two dollars a day, while 550 million earn less than one dollar a day. This is the real face of capitalist barbarism. A world where a minority of rich countries and people get richer and richer, while the poor and downtrodden of the world get poorer and poorer.

Charlie Walsh, Pimlico, London 5W1 W85X.