The latest event in an on-going campaign by the Corporate Pirates protesting the corporate invasion of Iraq, went off with a figurative Kerblam! Friday (13/05) lunchtime, as members of the group opened a “Pirates Pantry!”, selling cakes and biscuits to members of the public outside the offices of Windrush Communications.
Some pirates, yesterday.
Cake (artist's impression)
Additionally, the Pirates handed out information detailing the catastrophic affect that the invasion has had on the level of food security in the country.
The intentions of the World Bank are clear with respect to Iraq’s agriculture. Among the reforms it is calling for are:
- Removal of state planning and intervention in agriculture and redefining the role of a future Iraqi Government and its rules of engagement.
- Instituting a free trade regime for agriculture with abolition of price controls and state directions of the market.
Aims to restructure the Iraqi economy against the wishes and interests of the Iraqi people include the vital agriculture sector, which provides 29% of the GDP and 20% of employment in Iraq, and supports a rural population of 7 million people.
Privatising Iraq’s agriculture is central to World Bank and IMF plans for the Iraqi economy and its people. Yet the results of structural adjustment “shock therapy” are known from experience of Argentina, Russia and others that underwent far reaching reform: poverty and hunger overwhelm the poor and strike deep into the former “middle-class”.
According to Jean Zielger, the UN Human Rights Commission’s special expert on the right to food, after the US-led invasion of Iraq, acute malnutrition among Iraqi children aged under five nearly doubled. More than a quarter of Iraqi children do not have enough to eat and over 7% are acutely malnourished, which is a jump of the 4% recorded in the immediate aftermath of the invasion.
The Pirates Pantry fed and spoke with about 50 people, receiving a generally positive response, and raising over £25. Only Windrush Communications themselves seemed to be nervous about this peaceful, good-natured protest, locking the gates to the building and leaving a number of its employees stuck outside to enjoy an extended sun-kissed lunchtime.
Naturally, the Pirates photographed all the aforementioned cake related tomfoolery in stylish and groovy fashion, in the process creating some of the most strikingly beautiful images ever committed to celluloid.
The absence of these historic, ground-breaking pictures from this report - in favour of a badly drawn piece of cake and what would seem to be a randomly downloaded image of pirates from the internet - should in no way lead you to believe that the photographer forgot to load his camera with film.
Related articles:
Previous Corporate Pirates Events:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/02/305889.html
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2005/04/307995.html
About Windrush Communications:
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue22/issue22_part1.htm
Contact:
stopthepillage@yahoo.co.uk
The intentions of the World Bank are clear with respect to Iraq’s agriculture. Among the reforms it is calling for are:
- Removal of state planning and intervention in agriculture and redefining the role of a future Iraqi Government and its rules of engagement.
- Instituting a free trade regime for agriculture with abolition of price controls and state directions of the market.
Aims to restructure the Iraqi economy against the wishes and interests of the Iraqi people include the vital agriculture sector, which provides 29% of the GDP and 20% of employment in Iraq, and supports a rural population of 7 million people.
Privatising Iraq’s agriculture is central to World Bank and IMF plans for the Iraqi economy and its people. Yet the results of structural adjustment “shock therapy” are known from experience of Argentina, Russia and others that underwent far reaching reform: poverty and hunger overwhelm the poor and strike deep into the former “middle-class”.
According to Jean Zielger, the UN Human Rights Commission’s special expert on the right to food, after the US-led invasion of Iraq, acute malnutrition among Iraqi children aged under five nearly doubled. More than a quarter of Iraqi children do not have enough to eat and over 7% are acutely malnourished, which is a jump of the 4% recorded in the immediate aftermath of the invasion.
The Pirates Pantry fed and spoke with about 50 people, receiving a generally positive response, and raising over £25. Only Windrush Communications themselves seemed to be nervous about this peaceful, good-natured protest, locking the gates to the building and leaving a number of its employees stuck outside to enjoy an extended sun-kissed lunchtime.
Naturally, the Pirates photographed all the aforementioned cake related tomfoolery in stylish and groovy fashion, in the process creating some of the most strikingly beautiful images ever committed to celluloid.
The absence of these historic, ground-breaking pictures from this report - in favour of a badly drawn piece of cake and what would seem to be a randomly downloaded image of pirates from the internet - should in no way lead you to believe that the photographer forgot to load his camera with film.
Related articles:
Previous Corporate Pirates Events:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/02/305889.html http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2005/04/307995.html About Windrush Communications:
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue22/issue22_part1.htm Contact:
stopthepillage@yahoo.co.uk 
e-mail:
