STOP THE CORPORATE FEEDING FRENZY IN IRAQ
Protest to coincide with the gala dinner for the Shell-sponsored business conference ‘Iraq Procurement 2004: Meet the Buyers.’ Reconstruction not rip-off - Justice for Iraq’s workers.

When: 6-9pm, Tuesday 27th April
Where: Outside the London Hilton Hotel (‘the official hotel of choice’ for
the conference), 22 Park Lane. Nearest tubes Marble Arch and Hyde Park Corner.

Between 26-28 April representatives from 300 companies - including Shell, ExxonMobil,
ChevronTexaco and US arms manufacturer Raytheon – will be attending a business conference in London entitled 'Iraq Procurement 2004: Meet the Buyers', meeting 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 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 (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, 30th Sept. 2003)

* 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)

* 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’ (www.jubileeiraq.org)

* 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)

Please join us on the 27th to demand:

* that Iraqis be allowed to determine their own economic future
* a reconstruction process directed by the Iraqi people for the Iraqi people NOT by big business for profit.
* justice for Iraqi workers
* the cancellation of Iraq’s odious debts

Speakers to include: Ewa Jasiewicz (activist recently returned from 8 months in Iraq) and representatives from the Union of the Unemployed of Iraq, the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, the Campaign Against Arms Trade, Jubilee Iraq, and the Green Party.

There will also be some street theatre and (hopefully!) music and food. Please make and bring appropriate banners!

This event is supported by Voices in the Wilderness UK, CAAT and others. For more information go to www.voicesuk.org or contact voices at  voices@voicesuk.org or phone 0845 458 2564 (local rate call).

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WHO'S GOING TO BE AT IP 2004?
* 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
* Brian Wilson (Tony Blair’s special envoy on reconstruction)
* Members of the US-installed Iraqi “government”
* Wealthy Iraqi business-people
* Representatives from 300 international companies, including Shell, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, (US arms manufacturer) Raytheon and Volvo.

WHO'S NOT GOING TO BE AT IP 2004?
* democratically elected representatives of the Iraqi people
* poor Iraqis
* representatives from Iraqi civil society: the labour movement, women’s
organisations etc…

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‘[A] people, starved and sickened by sanctions, then pulverised by war, is going to emerge from this trauma to find that their country had been sold out from under them. They will also discover that their new-found "freedom" - for which so many of their loved ones perished - comes pre-shackled by irreversible economic decisions that were made in boardrooms while the bombs were still falling. They will then be told to vote for their new leaders, and welcomed to the wonderful world of democracy’ (Naomi Klein, Guardian, April 14th)’



PRESS RELEASE
Voices in the Wilderness UK [A]
22nd April 2004
Contact 0845 458 2564 or 07947 839 992

BBC’s John Simpson refuses to speak at Iraq business conference
Activists to protest at oil and arms trade-backed Iraq Procurement Conference

The BBC’s World Affairs Editor, John Simpson, has refused to speak at a business conference next week at which representatives from 300 companies - including Shell, ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and US arms manufacturer Raytheon – will meet 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]. Mr Simpson’s agency had apparently forgotten to inform their client, who only found out that he was listed on the conference web-site [C] as the ‘guest speaker’ at the conference’s ‘four course [gala] dinner with wine’ yesterday afternoon, after Voices UK circulated a press release urging him to pull out of the event.

In an email to Voices UK, Mr Simpson explained that the moment he heard his name was on the conference web-site he ‘immediately rang the organizers to make it clear there was no possibility of [his] taking part.’ ‘I’d never accept an invitation to anything that was as contentious as this,’ he added.

Voices spokesperson Gareth Evans said ‘We are very pleased to learn that John Simpson will not be speaking at this conference and that he was unaware his name was being used by the event’s organizers. John Simpson was one of the few journalists to speak out against the devastating UN sanctions on Iraq, so we are not surprised to learn that this “booking” had nothing to do with him. We would urge any other public figures that are approached to speak at this event over the coming week to similarly decline.’

Voices is one of a number of groups and individuals helping to organise a protest to coincide with next Tuesday’s conference dinner. Two suited ‘pigs’ bearing corporate logos will gorge themselves on a trough of blood-stained banknotes at 6.30pm next Tuesday outside the London Hilton on Park Lane to protest against the ‘corporate feeding frenzy’ taking place at the business conference and dinner. The Hilton is the ‘official hotel of choice’ for the conference. The protest, in support of the rights of Iraqi workers and demanding ‘reconstruction, not rip-off’, will also feature speakers from the Union of Unemployed Iraqis, the Organisation for Women’s Freedom in Iraq, and the Campaign Against Arms Trade amongst others.

For more info. contact 0845 458 2564 or 07947 839 992

NOTES
[A] Voices in the Wilderness UK has been campaigning on Iraq for the last six years. For more info. see www.voicesuk.org.
[B] See www.iraqprocurement.com
[C] See www.iraqprocurement.com/docs/agenda.htm