At lunch-time on Tuesday February 24 about forty people gathered near the Inner Harbor as part of the “International Day of Action Against the Corporate Invasion of Iraq, and Support of Iraqi Workers.” Another small group gathered at lunch-time in downtown Frederick, Maryland to distribute literature and engage people dialogue. According to the Business Gazette, “Bechtel National of San Francisco, the Bechtel division that secured a $3 billion federal contract to help rebuild Iraq, is relocating to Frederick to be closer to its main contractor, the federal government.” This division joins Bechtel Power and Bechtel Telecommunications, which are already headquatered in Frederick.

Baltimore City Demonstration

In cities across the Nation, people broke the silence on the quiet war for corporate control of Iraq. At Light and Pratt Streets, members of religious, labor and social justice groups distributed literature, displayed a banner to passing vehicles saying “Money for Jobs and Human Needs – Not for War,” and performed street theater. The event was organized by Communities for Peace and Justice. Sponsoring groups included ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), All People's Congress, CAGE (Coalition Against Global Exploitation), and the Maryland State and D.C. AFL-CIO.

Many U.S. taxpayers are concerned that the Iraq invasion is being used to justify the transfer of massive amounts of wealth from our communities to a select few transnational corporations. Specifically, they cite the transfer of costs to local governments and debt to our children. On Tuesday, some people were willing to stand up and voice their opinions in the streets of Baltimore. Minster Calvin Childs-Bey summed up how he feels about this, "They cause confusion then fund confusion. ... Cheney's friends are getting the contracts." Minister Clifford Hazel, with the Ministerial Council of Labor Relations of AFL-CIO, said, "They're spending billions building Iraq, while our schools are deteriorating."

Street Theater

A street theater group dramatized this transfer of wealth from the taxpayers to multinational corporations. The brief skit showed Vice President Dick Cheney taking cash out of a large safe labeled “National Treasury.” Uncle Sam sees this and tries to stop Cheney, but the security apparatus, represented by men in trench coats with microphones in their ears, prevent him from stopping the theft. Uncle Sam turns to a group of people representing the general public, who are distracted by a TV showing a “terror alert” message. Uncle Sam admonishes the public, “Don’t you see what’s happening?” “Your kids’ schools are falling apart, a lot of you are out of work, and God help you if you get sick!” Uncle Sam eventually convinces the “general public” to confront Cheney and the corporations, who stop in “freeze-frame” as they move toward Cheney. The narrator ends the skit saying, “The stage is set. This is where we are now. What ever happens from here depends on us.”









The Corporate Takeover Can Still be Stopped

The stage is also set for Iraq’s constitution and laws to be changed permanently to legalize the transnational corporate invasion of Iraq. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which currently runs Iraq, is issuing formal orders to change the economic rules of Iraq. This will allow foreign ownership of Iraqi banks, privatization of Iraqi state companies, opening the boarders to international trade with devastating effect on domestic industrial and agricultural businesses, giving away resource extraction rights, and allowing foreign corporations to expropriate all of their profits out of Iraq. As Naomi Klein has said, “It’s too late to stop the war, but it’s not too late to deny Iraq’s invaders the myriad economic prizes they went to war to collect in the first place.”

Iraqi Labor Exploited

It is telling that the CPA has issued orders that shift power to corporations, while leaving Saddam Hussein's repressive labor rules in place. Specifically, a 1987 law reclassified many workers as civil servants, and removed their right to organize unions. Fred Mason, Jr., President of the Maryland and DC AFL-CIO noted that a US labor delegation had visited Iraq. The MD/DC AFL-CIO was one of several local affiliates of US Labor Against the War (USLAW), which sponsored the Delegation. Mason said that, “Worker's wages [in Iraq] are capped at $120 dollars a month.”



According to Acene Djeman, general secretary of the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions, “War makes privatization easy: First you destroy the society, and then you let the corporations rebuild it." (Progressive, 12/2003). USLAW has announced a campaign to repeal the 1987 anti-labor law.
See December 2003 Progressive Article

Vocal Opposition to the Corporate Invasion of Iraq

The Bush Administration conducts its business in an atmosphere of arrogance and opportunism. We hear Bush saying, “I am a war President” as if his self-proclaimed war on a militant tactic (terrorism) qualifies as a war anymore than does the war on drugs. Bush then exploits this artificial war-time presidency to justify the consolidation of Executive Branch power. Fred Mason expressed his concern about this “tenor in the Country” saying, “folks in the Bush Administration feel they can say and do anything.” Mason cited Education Secretary Paige's recent statement that “The NEA [National Teacher's Association] is a terrorist organization,” to demonstrate how capricious the Bush Administration has become in using the “terrorist threat” to justify their policy positions.

This opportunism, which exploits the events of September 11, 2001, has become transparent to many people. The sight of people coming out in the streets of Baltimore on February 24 is evidence of a greater discontent. A growing number of people are not willing to let Bush get away with the quite corporate invasion of Iraq.

More information:

United for Peace

Nation Article by Naomi Klein, Nov. 24, 2003