PRESS RELEASE Voices in the Wilderness UK [A]
23rd April 2004
Contact 0845 458 2564 or 07791 486 484

Protest coalition opposes the corporate invasion of Iraq at oil and arms-trade backed business conference

Activists call for workers rights and for genuine and democratic reconstruction in Iraq

Tuesday 27th April, outside the London Hilton, Park Lane at 6.30pm: Two suited ‘executives’ wearing pig masks and bearing corporate logos will gorge themselves on a trough of blood-stained banknotes outside the London Hilton on Park Lane to symbolise the ‘corporate feeding frenzy’ taking place at the business conference ‘Iraq Procurement 2004: Meet the Buyers.’ The protest - timed to coincide with the conference’s four course ‘gala dinner’ - is being organised by a number of groups and individuals and is supported by Voices UK, Campaign Against Arms Trade, Rhythms of Resistance and the Green Party amongst others. The London Hilton on Park Lane is ‘the official hotel of choice’ for the conference at which representatives from 300 companies - including Shell, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and US arms manufacturer Raytheon – will be meeting members of the US-installed Iraqi “government” to discuss ‘the wide range of … opportunities available’ to make a profit out of the increasingly blood-soaked occupation of Iraq [B].

Also attending the conference will be Brian Wilson (Tony Blair’s special envoy on reconstruction) and former US Rear Admiral David Nash (the man in charge of handing out $18bn worth of US tax-payers money for the “reconstruction” of Iraq).

The conference takes 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 [C];
· 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’ [D]
· the ongoing repression of workers rights in Iraq: keeping Saddam’s harsh 1987 labour law on the books, trying to impose big wage cuts, raiding union offices, arresting union leaders and refusing to grant unemployed Iraqis demands for jobs-or-benefits [E]
· US attempts to ‘restructure’ – rather than cancel - Iraq’s odious debts, which are likely to ‘rob Iraq of [its] economic freedom, by requiring that it adhere to an IMF structural adjustment program’ [F]

It also takes place in the wake of 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 [G].

Voices spokesperson Gabriel Carlyle said ‘After three devastating wars and thirteen years of comprehensive economic sanctions Iraq desperately needs reconstruction. However, whilst billions of dollars worth of contracts have been handed out to US and British companies, today Iraq’s hospitals remain in a dire condition and Baghdad still only receives about 12 hours of electricity a day. We are here today in solidarity with the people of Iraq to demand that Iraqis be allowed to determine their own economic future, for a reconstruction process directed by the Iraqi people for the benefit of the Iraqi people – not by big business for its own profit - and for justice for Iraq’s workers. The corporate feeding frenzy in Iraq must stop.’

The protest (Tuesday 27 April, London Hilton, Park Lane, 6-9pm) – which will include music and free food – will also be addressed by some of the Iraqis who have not been invited to the conference, including representatives from the Union of Unemployed Iraqis; the Organisation for Women’s Freedom in Iraq; and Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation. Amongst others speaking will be representatives from the Green Party, Stop Esso campaign, No Sweat campaign, Jubilee Iraq and the Campaign Against Arms Trade.

CONTACTS
The following people are available to speak to the media:

Andrew Wood from Campaign Against Arms Trade (on Raytheon): 020 7281 0297
Paul Ingram who works at a defense policy research institute and is the Green Party European Parliamentary candidate: 07932 448 290 or 020 7639 2586
Hani from Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation – just returned from Iraq: 0207 252 5333
Yasar from Jubilee Iraq (on Iraq’s debt): 07958 216 162
Mick from No Sweat (on workers rights in Iraq): 07904 431 959
Houzan from the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (on women’s rights in Iraq): 0795 688 3001
Cindy from Stop Esso (on ExxonMobil’s participation): 0207 354 5708
Dashty from the Union of Unemployed of Iraq (on workers rights in Iraq): 07734 704 742
Gabriel from Voices UK: 0845 458 2564 or 07947 839 992

NOTES
[A] Voices in the Wilderness UK has been campaigning on Iraq for the last six years.
[B] See www.iraqprocurement.com
[C] See http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1047008,00.html
[D] Economist Paul Krugman, New York Times, 30th Sept. 2003
[E] See http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=4231
[F] See www.jubileeiraq.com
[G] www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1190263,00.html

See more information about the protest