Week of Action Against Bechtel and the Corporate Invasion of Iraq

HATS OFF & TWIRLING IN THE AIR to all the awesome organizers, activists, and our collective creative hard work that made this week of actions (June 1--June 5, 2003) targeting Bechtel and the Corporate Invasion of Iraq a HUGE SUCCESS!!! ***And A SPECIAL THANKS to ANTONIA, the dynamo without whom this would not have been possible!!!*** WHAT A MARATHON of Activism, which included a Day of Religious Outreach, two Bechtel teach-ins, a Day of Public Outreach, a Congressional Call-in Day, the compiling and release of the BECHTEL REPORT, detailing Bechtel's trail of destruction around the world, and a Day of Direct Action at Bechtel World HQ in SF, Bechtel Lobbying Office in D.C., and Bechtel Nuclear Facility in Pittsburgh!!! Following is a brief article covering the culminating action in San Francisco.

EARLY MORNING STREET THEATER
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Starting at 6:30 am or so on Thursday, June 5, 2003, a COMPELLING and COLORFUL GAUNTLET of Street Theater Vignettes began to form along BEALE STREET, San Francisco, ending at the doors of 50 Beale Street, BECHTEL WORLD HQ. Each targeted various aspects of Bechtel Corporation for its dirty dealings around the world--most recently in Iraq. Later, as Bechtel employees walked the gauntlet, many looked hard and thought twice as they took in the diverse spectrum of people--AT ITS HEIGHT, the crowd numbered close to 300 PROTESTORS--who put such creative energy, effort, and thought into this rich demonstration against their employer.

The GAUNTLET started with a DISCO song-and-dance piece created by the Ronald Reagan Home for the Criminally Insane affinity group called REPUBLICANS GONE WILD - CORPORATE ORGY IN IRAQ, in which activists masked as Cheney, Bush Junior, Candoleeza Rice, and other Bush Administration Corporate SLEEZE writhed to disco music, semi-clad, sporting US MISSILES strapped to their crotches and sets of GIANT PLASTIC TITS strapped to their chests--while BUSH SENIOR sang in LOUNGE-LIZARD STYLE the OBSCENE STORY of the US MILITARY and CORPORATE INVASIONS of Iraq: Each time BUSH SR tied the word MONEY to KILLING, smacking his lips, the dancers cavorted orgasmically. This piece alternately STUNNED, SHOCKED, OUTRAGED, & DELIGHTED onlookers. However, as outrageous as it was, it only began to suggest the obscenity of US policy in Iraq, which has resulted in the brutal suffering and deaths so many innocents for US Corporate profits.

Just down the sidewalk, dramatically counterpointing the Corporate Orgy was the PRAYER and RESISTANCE affinity group, colorfully clad on colorful mats, blissfully performing SYNCHRONIZED YOGA POSTURES to the same DISCO RHYTHMS... THEY WERE AWESOME--providing a peaceful, beautiful ALTERNATIVE to the CORPORATE ORGY of killing and profiteering!!! CLOSER to the main entrance of BECHTEL, the PRESENTE CLUSTER assembled their touching TINY COFFINS STUFFED WITH MONEY, again underscoring the sacrifice of human life and human needs for corporate profit. The MOURNING MOTHERS, activists wearing GIANT MASKS depicting Iraqi women carrying limp rag dolls resembling DEAD CHILDREN, positioned themselves at the Bechtel entranceway, creating a COMPELLING TABLEAU of the HUMAN COST OF WAR. Of course, there were many wonderful placards, banners, and costumed individuals, as well as a PORTABLE SOUND SYSTEM with which activists led VIBRANT CHANTS up and down the street, Breakfast Bagels and a Pizza Lunch from FOOD NOT BOMBS, and the GREAT, BOISTEROUS Brass Liberation Orchestra, BLO--all adding to the FESTIVAL ATMOSPHERE of the Protest!

ALL THE WHILE, DOZENS of POLICE and police VANS built up along the street. Police erected BARRICADES along the sidewalk almost the entire length of street and protestors were forbidden to stand in the street. However, protestors paid little attention to the police presence. MEDIA was there in DROVES, including all the local TV channels, KQED, the Chronicle, and the Bay Guardian, among others. The week's previous actions had already garnered articles in the WALL STREET JOURNAL, the ASSOCIATED PRESS, and local TV stations, adding to the anticipation and excitement of this, the CULMINATING ACTION.

FIRST WAVE OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
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Between 7:30 and 8 am (all times approximate), about 30 ACTIVISTS MOVED IN, heroically putting their bodies on the line, BLOCKING the various entranceways into the building: NO BUSINESS AS USUAL for BECHTEL today!!! Some BLOCKADERS recited poetry and on-point spoken word from their positions along the human chain at the main entrance, as police prepared for mass arrests. The FIRST ARREST ensued perhaps a half hour later to cheers from the crowd of "We Salute You for Saying NO TO WAR!!!" while arrestees intermittently rocked the vans to more triumphant cheers from the crowd.

RALLY, CODE PINK STREAKING, BECHTEL REPORT
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About 8:30 or so, after the last POLICE VAN headed toward the Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant. The FORMAL RALLY BEGAN....

SPEAKERS! Inspiring speakers, such as IAN ZABARTE of the Western Shoshone National Council, stunned and educated the audience about the staggering amounts of nuclear radiation and its deadly consequences that result from NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTING at the Bechtel-managed NEVADA TEST SITE--truly this testing, and testing like it, such as right in our own backyard at LIVERMORE LAB, is an ABOMINATION THAT MUST BE STOPPED!!!

CODE PINK & BECHTEL REPORT! At about 9am, Code Pink activists, clad in their UNDERWEAR and WRAPPED in PINK CELLOPHANE ran the GAUNTLET to the front doors of BECHTEL, carrying a banner demanding TRANSPARENCY in the awarding of the contracts to rebuild Iraq. This delightful action prefaced the FORMAL PRESENTATION of the much-anticipated, 33-page BECHTEL REPORT, "Bechtel: Profiting from Destruction - Why the Corporate Invasion of Iraq Must be Stopped," compiled and written by Corpwatch, Global Exchange, & Public Citizen. After which various speakers spoke on the content of the Report, and the need for Iraqis to determine who rebuilds their country, with, perhaps, the help of a disinterested humanitarian organization, such as the UN. (To get a copy of this mind-boggling report, click http://www.citizen.org/documents/profilebechtel.pdf ).

COCHABAMBA LETTER! This was followed by the reading of a moving and powerful OPEN LETTER from the People of COCHABAMBA, who had suffered terribly from Bechtel water privatization in their city in Bolivia, to the People of IRAQ, who soon will be subject to Bechtel's profiteering in the rebuilding of the Iraqi water system and civil infrastructure. The letter is to be published in a Baghdad newspaper.

SPEAK-OUT & MORE STREET THEATER! Emcee DAVID encouraged protestors to stay & keep the momentum building for a promised SECOND WAVE of CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE! So unabashed & talented onlookers and activists stepped up to the mike, SANG SONGS, RECITED POETRY, and presented more BECHTEL INFO. A few HIGHLIGHTS included CROW's STIRRING RENDITION of an Irish resistance song, with updated lyrics, ERIC SHAW's **RIGHT-ON** spoken word, admonishing the public to rise up and reject a system that puts profits before people and planet, which had the audience howling in approval, and JULIETTE BECK's informed speech on Bechtel abuses and warm praise for the assembled protestors! AWESOME!!! By this time, the Pax Christi affinity group and others had re-created the WONDERFUL street theater piece that had so engaged passersby at Montgomery BART station on Tuesday, the Day of Public Outreach: "BECHTEL LEMONADE - ONLY $20 a GLASS!" This vignette that had Bechtel "executives" selling water to those who could afford it, and shrugging off the Mourning Mothers who had lined up for a drink for their parched children, SAID IT ALL!!!

2ND WAVE OF CD, VICTORY, & ENDING
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Around 11:30, a SECOND WAVE of PROTESTERS BLOCKED the MAIN ENTRANCE of BECHTEL. This time, about THIRTEEN COURAGEOUS women and men put their bodies on the line, saying NO to Corporate War Profiteering in Iraq!!! Cheering Supporters rallied round them!!! All were arrested by 12:30. VICTORY had been declared early-on, when DAVID announced that BECHTEL had told employees not to come to work today! The WOMEN'S GLOBAL STRIKE FOR PEACE, a group of women who have been protesting Bechtel EVERY Thursday since the threat of invasion reared its ugly head, ended the event with their stories and an OPEN MIKE for the public to step up and share their feelings, which they did.

OUR MESSAGE ECHOED ACROSS THE STATE & THE NATION! Media on the following day included articles in the New York Times (AP), the L.A. Times, and the Washington Post (AP), a large photo spread in the SJ Mercury News, starting with a big picture and story on the front page of the business section, articles in the Chronicle, Examiner, and Santa Rosa's PRESS DEMOCRAT, huge TV coverage on Channels 2, 4, & 5 that continued throughout the protest (7am--2pm) and also included long spots on the evening and late-night news hours, and KQED who provided half-hourly reports, among other venues. On the INTERNATIONAL FRONT: KOREAN TELEVISION is planning a segment on the Bay Area anti-war/anti-empire movement from the start through the Bechtel protests, and there may be a follow-up in-depth BECHTEL EXPOSE, based on information in the report, in the LONDON INDEPENDENT. FREE SPEECH RADIO, SF public-access cable ("Money Talks"), and other Indy Media outlets also covered the actions!

***THREE MIGHTY CHEERS for Direct Action to Stop the War and our tireless efforts to stop illegal and immoral US military and corporate aggression in Iraq and the Middle East!!!***


Mary Bull
Mourning Mothers Affinity Group
Direct Action to Stop the War http://www.actagainstwar.org