NEW YORK - February 18 - Amidst New Reports of Wrong-Doing by Halliburton and Bechtel, Peace and Labor Activists Hold National Day of Action against Corporations Profiting from Iraq War

WHEN: Tuesday, February 24, 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

WHERE: Outside Bechtel Corporation offices, 21 East 40th Street, New York, NY

WHAT: Peace and labor activists have joined forces to bring attention to what they call war profiteering by companies with close ties to the Bush Administration, like Halliburton and Bechtel. While those companies are raking in billions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction contracts, Iraq s infrastructure is still not functioning: the schools and hospitals are in disrepair, the phones don t work, electricity is intermittent, and the water isn t safe to drink. A handful of well-connected corporations are making a killing off the devastation in Iraq says Rania Masri of the Campaign to Stop the War Profiteers. This so-called reconstruction is benefiting the friends of Bush and Cheney; it s not benefiting the Iraqi people.

On Tuesday, February 24, a national day of protest against the corporate invasion of Iraq, activists will protest against these corporations behavior in some 20 cities throughout the United States, including Albany, Anchorage, Austin, Boston, Cape Corral, FL, Charlotte, Chicago, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Martinez, New York City, Phoenix, Providence, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, Reno, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. The protest against Bechtel will take place at Bechtel Corporation, 21 East 40th Street, New York, NY.

Halliburton and Bechtel are the top recipients of Iraq reconstruction contracts. Bechtel has been awarded some $3 billion to rebuild Iraq's electricity and water systems, as well as roads, hospitals and schools. Its executives gave thousands of dollars to President George Bush's 2000 campaign, and two of the company's top executives serve on advisory boards for the White House and Pentagon. Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root have been awarded $6 billion in Iraq contracts. Vice President Dick Cheney was Halliburton s CEO prior to his taking office in 2000 and continues to receive annual payments from Bechtel in excess of $150,000.

Both companies have been criticized for the quality of their work in Iraq. Halliburton has been accused of overcharging $61 million for fuel transported to Iraq and has repaid the Pentagon $27.4 million in overcharges for food that was never served to U.S. troops. In January, the company admitted that two employees involved in Iraq work took kickbacks worth $6.3 million. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has accused Bechtel of doing horrible work, and the Iraqi people wait in vain for life-sustaining public services. Many of the schools that Bechtel was contracted to repair have not been touched, and several schools that Bechtel claims to have repaired are in shambles. According to a recent report by the Institute for Southern Studies, one repaired school was overflowing with unflushed sewage.

Activists will call for the passage of legislation that addresses the lack of effective oversight in the Iraq contracting process, and penalizes companies engaged in war profiteering. They will also insist that Iraqi workers be allowed to organize trade unions. The U.S.-led occupation authority in Iraq has kept in place a Saddam Hussein-era law that forbids workers in state-owned enterprises (where the majority of Iraqis work) from forming unions. The CPA has also repeatedly detained or harassed workers who are demonstrating for jobs or better pay. "While Bush is putting the Iraqi economy up for sale to the highest bidder, Iraqi workers are being paid near starvation wages under the CPA wage scale and being denied the right to organize under Saddam Hussein-era labor laws. This is the ultimate hypocrisy for an Administration that pretends to be an advocate for the Iraqi people, said Gene Bruskin, co-convener, US Labor Against the War.

Sponsors of the national day of action against the corporate invasion of Iraq include California Federation of Teachers, Campaign to Stop the War Profiteers (Institute for Southern Studies), Citizen Works, CodePink, Democracy Rising, Direct Action to Stop the War, EPIC (Education for Peace in Iraq Center), Global Exchange, Labor Committee for Peace and Justice, National Network to End the War Against Iraq, National Youth and Student Peace Coalition, United for Peace and Justice, US Labor Against War, War Resisters League, WILPF (Women s International League for Peace and Freedom), and others.

More information:

About the Feb. 24 protests: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=2199

About War Profiteers: http://www.southernstudies.org/campaignpage.asp, http://www.corpwatch.org

About Iraqi workers rights: http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/

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