ANZ exposed for making a killing in Iraq

Katie Cherrington & Megan Connor, Sydney

On January 20, students demonstrated outside ANZ branches in Sydney and Brisbane to protest the bank's involvement in an international consortium, the Trade Bank of Iraq, which facilitates corporate expansion in Iraq.

In Martin Place, Sydney, more than 70 protesters demanded the immediate withdrawal of all troops and an end to corporate profiteering from war and the occupation of Iraq.

The newly-formed Students Against War organised the protest, which included street theatre and a mass "die-in" that blocked the entrance to the building. Saw activist and Resistance member Fred Fuentes told Green left Weekly: "The action was really visual and effective, the people who walked by couldn't help but make the connection that Iraqi people are dying just for corporate gain."

Speakers at the 30-strong Brisbane picket, organised by the Stop the War Collective, included Robin Taubenfeld from ENuFF, Jim McIlroy from the Socialist Alliance, Eric Carl from Friends of the Earth and Mark Gillespe from Solidarity.

From Green Left Weekly, January 26, 2005.

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From GLW issue 612