On May 1, the day
of international workers' solidarity, anti-corporate activists, unionists
and peace campaigners will be taking to the streets of cities around Australia
to oppose the corporate looting of Iraq and to protest against the First
World corporate elite's assault on workers' rights. The following is the
call for action issued by the Sydney M1 Alliance.
For the Iraqi people, US “liberation” has meant death and destruction
on a massive scale. Many are now protesting against military occupation.
On April 15, 20,000 protested in the city of Nasiriya outside a US-led
meeting to plan a new government.
Behind the official propaganda the truth is that the US invasion of
Iraq is the military wing of corporate globalisation.
Bush, Blair and Howard have waged an illegal war to grab oil and resources.
They are already haggling over their war booty — lucrative oil, finance
and construction contracts.
The US Agency for International Development has invited US multinationals
to bid on everything from rebuilding roads and bridges to printing textbooks.
“Reconstruction'' contacts are estimated to be worth as much as $200 billion.
The Bush administration is installing retired general Jay Garner to
rule over Iraq and grooming [Ahmad] Chalabi as future president to “partially
privatise" the oil industry.
Australian capitalists are also part of this corporate looting: some
90 companies have put in bids, including Multiplex, Grocon, Clough Engineering,
and the Australian Wheat Board.
The US occupation will also allow Washington's neo-liberal hawks to
establish their dream economy — fully privatised, foreign owned with no
barriers to corporate exploitation.
May Day will be a day when people all over the world can demonstrate
our solidarity with the people of Iraq and Palestine and our opposition
to imperialism.
May Day began in America in 1884 as part of the struggle for the 8-hour
day. In Chicago in 1886 six striking workers were shot on May Day. Since
1890 it has been an international day of protest by workers against oppression
and injustice.
During the First World War anti-war activists held protests in countries
on all sides. On May 1, 1915, the German socialist Karl Liebknecht was
arrested and jailed for making an antiwar speech. In 1918 in Glasgow 100,000
workers went on strike and marched for peace on May Day.
This year, people will be marching globally to show their opposition
to corporate globalisation and the criminal wars unleashed upon the peoples
of the third world.
In Sydney, there will be a rally at Martin Place followed by a march
to the offices of Halliburton's engineering subsidiary Kellogg, Browne
& Root (KBR).
Halliburton was the first company to win an Iraq contract (to put out
oil field fires and rebuild the platforms). Halliburton's former CEO is
US Vice President Dick Cheney, who still receives US$180,000 annually in
“deferred compensation".
KBR built the prison camps in Guantanamo Bay for the captives of the
Afghan war and built US air force bases during the Vietnam War.
Only through solidarity will we be able to challenge Bush's agenda of
“globalisation at gunpoint”. A world without war is possible.
From Green Left Weekly, April 23, 2003.
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