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Iraq carve-up 2004 - Demo against the Corporate carve-Up of Iraq
It was a spirited and undeterred solidarity protest despite the cops and the rain.
'Iraqi Procurement 2004; Meet the Buyers' was a 3 day event in London where a small elite of politicians and corporations work it out how they can reconstruct Iraq for their own benefit and in line with Bush's agenda without consulting Iraqi communities in any way.
Representatives from 300 companies - including Shell, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and US arms manufacturer Raytheon – attended the conference, where they met members of the US occupation authority, the US-installed Iraqi “government”, and wealthy Iraqi business-people to discuss "the wide range of opportunities available" to make a profit out of the increasingly blood-soaked occupation of Iraq. The conference took place in the context of a series of new laws passed by the US last September, that "effectively put [Iraq] up for sale" to foreign investors (Guardian, 22 Sept. 2003)
A growing body of evidence that the way in which the Bush administration has been "treating [reconstruction] contracts as prizes to be handed to their friends" has been "delaying Iraq's recovery, with potentially catastrophic consequences" (economist Paul Krugman, New York Times, 30thSept. 2003) On the other hand, US attempts to ‘restructure’ (rather than cancel) Iraq’s odious debts, attempts likely to "rob Iraq of [its] economic freedom by requiring that it adhere to an IMF structural adjustment program" (Jubilee Iraq). All of this as a backdrop for the killing of over 600 people in the US siege of Fallujah, "the vast majority of [whom] were women, children and the elderly" according to the director of the town’s general hospital (Guardian, 12 April)
To celebrate their corporate carve up of Iraqi, delegates attended a banquet at the New Conaught Rooms, Great Queens St, WC1.
But crowd of about 30 to 40 people, including RoR samba band loudly greeted delegates and let them know that the voices of the uninvited would also be heard. People shouted out to delegates while Iraqi corporate dollars carpeted the pavement and pigs in suits grabbed and gorged themselves on handfuls of Iraqi occupation dollars from a trough.
There was samba, free falafel and sweets. Several people took turns on a mike to addressed the protest including an iraqi christian, speakers from the Iraqi Organisation for Women's Freedom, the Union of Unemployed Workers of Iraq, Voices In the Wilderness, No Sweat, Campaign Against the Arms Trade, and the Green Party amongst others.
For info on the main players in the Corporate carve-up of Iraq see www.theirpayday.org
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