San Francisco Action Shuts Down Bechtel Headquarters on Anniversary of Iraq Invasion

DASW (Direct Action to Stop the War)

San Francisco, March 19, 2004 -- Over 500 Bay Area
residents marked the anniversary of the U.S. invasion
of Iraq by taking direct action at the headquarters of
the Bechtel corporation to protest their exploitation
of the Iraqi people and misuse of U.S. tax dollars. Two
marches converged on Bechtel's offices, one led by
teachers holding a banner reading "Education Not
Occupation," and one led by healthcare workers marching
with banners reading "Healthcare not Warfare" and
"Democracy Not Empire". The march was flanked by a
marching band, yogis for peace, colorful puppets,
cyclists, and banners protesting the US occupation of
Iraq. While the crowd occupied the street, several
dozen people engaged in civil disobedience by blocking
the entrances to the building. By noon over twenty-five
people had been arrested. The actions were organized by
local grassroots mobilization Direct Action to Stop
the War (DASW) and will be among the first of hundreds
of anti-war actions happening this weekend in 250 U.S.
cities and over 50 countries.Kate Raphael, a Bay area resident who recently returned
from Iraq, explained why people were confronting
Bechtel. "Bechtel has used its close ties to the Bush
administration to get $3 billion worth of contracts to
repair water systems and schools but I was recently in
Iraq and I saw children playing in sewage and schools
with crumbling walls. Bechtel executives are getting
rich while people in Iraq continue to suffer and die.
What Bush calls reconstruction is really a corporate
invasion that's auctioning off Iraq's resources to the
highest bidder."

Affinity groups involved with DASW also occupied an
abandoned building to highlight the impacts of the
escalating military budgets on Bay Area communities.
"Why are we spending billions to illegally occupy Iraq
when there isn't even enough affordable housing in our
communities? Teachers are getting pink slips and our
hospitals are under funded while more and more money is
directed to Bush's policies of permanent war and
empire-building," said Victoria Welle a San Francisco
hospital worker.

Last year, DASW coordinated the largest and most
consistently visible direct actions against the war
inside the U.S. On March 20th, 2003 an estimated 20,000
people engaged in civil disobedience which shut down
the San Francisco Financial District. In the following
three days over 2,300 Bay area residents from all walks
of life were arrested for protesting the invasion.
Throughout the spring, DASW's direct action campaign
continued with mass actions at the offices of war
profiteering corporations like SSA,APL, Chevron-Texaco,
Lockheed Martin and Bechtel.

The anniversary of the invasion comes as the Bush
administration struggles to answer difficult questions
about their motivations for a costly and unjust foreign
policy. The fact that no evidence of weapons of mass
destruction, or links between Saddam Hussein's
government and 9-11, has been found has led to a sharp
drop in Bush's public approval. "The Bush
Administration lied to the American public and took our
country to war under false pretenses. A government that
lies is not a democracy. We need grassroots action to
show the world Americans stand with them in opposing
Bush's lawless warmongering," said Raeanne Young, a
student at Mills College in Oakland.