Media Release:
Anti-war March in Johannesburg, Friday, 15th Nov

The Gauteng Anti-War Committee announces a march to take place this Friday
in protest against the
war-mongering coming from the US and British governments. We join millions
of people around the
world that have - in various ways - protested against the prospect of a
US-led war against Iraq -
whether a unilaterally-declared war or one sanctioned by the UN.

Over the past few weeks, a million people marched in Italy, at least half a
million in the US,
200,000 in the UK, millions in the Arab world and millions more in various
other parts of the
world. As the sabre-rattling continues in Washington, the Gauteng Anti-War
Committee joins these
millions of people around the world in raising South African voices in
protest.

In order to secure its imperialist designs on the world, the US insists on
going to war to effect
a 'regime change' in Iraq. This strategy has been used by the Pentagon and
CIA many times
previously: from 1950 to 1953 against the elected Mossadegh government in
Iran, leading to its
overthrow and the bloody reign of the Shah; in 1954 against the
democratically-elected government
of Arbenz in Guatemala, leading to a U.S.-engineered military coup and the
slaughter of over
100,000 native people; from 1970 to 1973 against the democratically-elected
government of Salvador
Allende in Chile which ended in the coming to power of the dictatorship of
General Pinochet and the
murder of 30,000 Chileans; its collusion in the assassination of Patrice
Lumumba and the
installation of the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in Congo.

In each case, those governments were replaced by US puppets that looted the
countries' land and
resources for the benefit of Western corporations and transformed the
territory into a staging
ground for CIA operations in the respective regions.

This seems to be the plan for Iraq as well. In this context, of course, it
is mostly about oil. The
US wants a war in order to gain control over Iraq's immense oil reserves.
Iraq possesses the
world's second largest proven oil reserves (112.5 billion barrels, about 11%
of the world total)
and immense gas fields. Experts believe Iraq has additional undiscovered oil
reserves, which could
double the total. As rising world demand depletes reserves over the next
10-15 years, Iraq's oil
will gain increasing importance in global energy supplies. The US recognizes
this importance and is
attempting to gain control over the Iraqi oil. In 1999, General Anthony
Zinni told the US Congress
that Iraqi oil is a 'long standing' 'vital interest' for the US and that the
US 'must have free
access to the region's resources.' Earlier this year, Dick Cheney released
the National Energy
Policy Report which declared that imports accounted for half of US oil
consumption in 2000 and will
jump to two-thirds in 2020. The report calls on the White House to place a
high priority on
increasing US access to Persian Gulf oil supplies. A US led attack on Iraq
will allow the US to
install a puppet-regime that will break existing contracts between Iraq and
other countries and
reshuffle world petroleum markets in favour of US oil firms. According to
former director of the
CIA, James Woolsey, "It's pretty straightforward. France and Russia have oil
companies and
interests in Iraq. They should be told that if they are of assistance in
moving Iraq toward decent
government, we'll do the best we can to ensure that the new government and
American companies work
closely with them." Control over Iraqi oil would allow US leaders to
decrease its dependence on
Saudi oil, weaken OPEC's control over oil price, and drive the price of oil
down to $15/barrel -
perhaps forestalling a catastrophic crash in the US economy.

For 11 years, the United States and the UK have manipulated the United
Nations Security Council,
plotted with various elements of the Iraqi opposition, insisted on
maintaining sanctions that have
decimated the Iraqi population, and dropped thousands of bombs on civilian
and military targets
from the skies above Iraq. In 1996, UNICEF reported that over one million
children had already died
in Iraq as a result of sanctions. Children under the age of five were dying
at the rate of 5,000
per month - over 150 per day - due to malnourishment and curable diseases as
a result of the
sanctions. By 1998, the number of dying had climbed to over 250 per day.
And the bombing raids
continue: as of 3 October, US and British planes had bombed Iraqi targets 46
times in 2002.

Our additional concern is that the 'fog of war' can, in the words of 99
Israeli academics who
signed a letter of protest recently, 'be exploited by the Israeli government
to take further action
against the Palestinian people, up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing'. A
US-led war against Iraq
will have dire consequences, then, not only for the Iraqi people but for the
Palestinians, for the
entire Middle East - with the formation of another client and puppet state
in the region - and the
entire world as the US calls for the legitimisation of unilateral attacks
against sovereign states
and for the law of the jungle to prevail.

The march will begin at 2:30pm on Friday, 15th November, outside the Israeli
Trade Mission in Bath
Avenue, Rosebank and proceed to the US Consulate in River Road, Killarney.

For more information, contact:
Salim: 082 802 5936
Na'eem: 084 574 2674