Protest against ANZ bank involvement in the occupation of Iraq

The protest gathers on Saturday March 19th for a picket at US Consulate, 23 Customs St East from 11am, followed by a march to ANZ, 268 Queen St.

Global Peace and Justice Auckland are holding the march in conjunction with the Global Day of Action marking the second anniversary of military and economic occupation of Iraq.

The war in Iraq rages on despite the recent election. The US and its allies refuse to end their military and economic occupation despite popular resistance and global protests.

The brutality of occupation and the poverty induced by the “free-market” recolonization of Iraq generates growing resistance.

Elite state interests in the UK and US and the multinational corporations they protect profit from the war and enhance their economic control. Meanwhile the Iraqi people pay the price in blood and poverty – with 100,000 dead and unemployment reaching 70%.

In Australasia, the ANZ bank is making a killing in Iraq.

As a part of the consortium set up by the US occupation to manage the Trade Bank of Iraq, the ANZ plays a key role in promoting the interest of western business in Iraq. The consortium encourages the importation of products from the west to flood the Iraqi market, making Iraq dependent on outside business to the detriment of it’s own economy.

And as an Iraqi union leader pointed out in the February 18 UK Guardian: “Bush and Blair should remember that those who voted in last month’s elections in Iraq are as hostile to the occupation as those who boycotted them.”

GPJA believes it was completely inappropriate that the ANZ was a supporting act of AK05, a creative festival of arts, when ANZ is a key supporting act of war and occupation in Iraq. GPJA calls for:

The ANZ to withdraw support from the murderous occupation and end their contracts in Iraq!

The end to the occupation of Iraq!

Bring all foreign troops home now!

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