Media Release: Radical Youth to Picket ANZ

Anti-war protestors will be picketing ANZ bank on the corner of Victoria Street and Queen Street this Saturday 5th November from 10am.

We invite all those who oppose militarism, colonialism and the neo- liberal policies of the Bush Administration to join us to demand the immediate withdrawl of ANZ's involvement in the Iraq war. The picket may rove the central city hitting all central ANZ's.

Bring food, drink and noisemakers for a carnival atmosphere. The theme is clowns and pirates to represent ANZ's piracy in Iraq and the ridiculous justifications given for the war in Iraq.

On the 1st of September 2003, ANZ announced that it was part of the Trade Bank of Iraq - a conglomerate of international banks led by JP Morgan Chase - created by the Occupation American, British and Australian forces in Iraq.

The Iraq Trade Bank was set up to 'facilitate international trade as part of Iraq's reconstruction'. In reality this means the development of colonial economic relationships and further corporate profiteering from a war that has already left 100,000 Iraqi civilians dead.

The consortium encourages the importation of cheap products from the West (such as dairy products from NZ), flooding the Iraqi market and making Iraq dependent on outside business to the detriment of its own economy. Iraqi unemployment is around 70% because the economy is being restructured in a manner that benefits corporations and not the people of Iraq.

Anti-war activists in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia have been targetting ANZ over the last year with protests and blockades. Aotearoa peace activists have been involved in two successful actions in which a branch of the bank has been forced to close.

"We demand of ANZ the immediate withdrawal of its participation in the Iraq Trade Bank." says spokesperson Omar Hamed.

ENDS

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