Around 100 people, and organisations, including Voices in the Wilderness and No Sweat, came together on Saturday 4 September in central London to stage the Iraq War Fat Cats Theatrical Tour.
Scene 1: Outside the Shell HQ on the South Bank. Cast members plus the Strawberry Thieves choir sing radical songs; then perform a play about the historical role of the oil industry in seeking to control the Middle East with scant regard for the rights of the people living there.
Exit through Jubilee Gardens, leafletting the public, over the Millennium Bridge, past Trafalgar Square; musical accompaniment: Rhythms of Resistance samba band.
Scene 2: The Edith Cavell memorial; cast members mime (see picture) the successful campaign by oil workers in southern Iraq to get rid of their Ba’thist bosses and for higher wages — all this in the teeth of the UK/US occupation.
Scene 3: Haymarket, before the offices of the World Bank — cunningly disguised inside New Zealand House; cast members stage drama deploring the fact that the Iraqi people are expected now to pay back the debts amassed by the tyrant Saddam Hussein.
Scene 4: Eros statue, Piccadilly Circus; in baking heat, cast members give presentation about the role of mercenary “security” companies in Iraq. Up the road on Piccadilly is the HQ of the Aegis security company.
We hope to put on the plays again during the ESF, and this is something campaigners can do in their own town centres. The scripts will be available at www.iraqworkerssolidarity.org.
l March against the occupation of Iraq. London, Sunday 17 October; assemble 12 noon Russell Square, march to Trafalgar Square for rally, concert by Asian Dub Foundation.