For a world without war

April 23, 2003
Issue 

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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