Genetics – Page 12 – Earth First!

Actions during the UN Biodiversity Summit in Bonn (MOP4/COP9)

Nature for people – not for business!

Nature for people – not for business!

The 4th Meeting of Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (MOP 4) and the 9th Conference of the Parties (COP 9) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are taking place in Bonn from the 12th to 30th May.

Behind the disguise of nature protection, transnational companies use these negotiations to increase their control over natural resources. Many of the solutions they push for to tackle climate change and the loss of biodiversity (agrofuel, GM crops and trees, Terminator, protected areas,…) in fact lead to the privatisation of biodiversity, at the expense of rural and indigenous communities.

A coalition of social movements and activists’ networks calls to protests under the motto “Nature for people, not for business!” We believe that in front of massive environmental destruction resulting from the plundering of resources by corporate interests, the priorities are an immediate end to privatisation and a fair distribution of natural resources in the benefit of local communities.

Join the mobilisations, resistance is fertile!

More info at ASEED and Biotech Indymedia
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Protest reports:

About 100 people protested outside Bayer on 17th May & delivered this –

Open letter to the Bayer Corporation in Leverkusen
Bonn, 16 May 2008
Dear Board of Directors of the Bayer Corporation,
Dear Bayer Employees,
During international conferences the Bayer Corporation attempts to exert enormous influence upon both, the process of negotiations as well as the results. This is now the case during the Convention of the Parties of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 9), as well as the negotiations of the Biosafety Protocol (MOP 4), taking place in Bonn. Thus, your company strives to maintain a “green” image, as indicated by the fact that your company was a sponsor of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) last year.

However, this is nothing more than a “greenwashing” campaign, since in other instances your lobbyists are taking every effort to fight attempts to protect nature—from the Kyoto Protocol, to the prohibition of CFCs to the new EU laws on chemicals known as REACH.

In addition, Bayer is a producer of many highly dangerous products; it emits large quantities of dangerous gases and greenhouse gases; it promotes the planting of genetically modified products and thus belongs to one of the large destroyers of biological diversity.

to name but a few examples:

Bayer is responsible for the insidious poisoning of soils and sources of water; it is responsible for the eradication of useful plant and animal varieties, an increase of pesticide-resistant pests and the massive damage of ecological valance through agrochemicals. Pesticides are known to be a main cause of the loss of plant and animal varieties. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has termed this “an environmental tragedy”. Bayer is the second largest producer of pesticides and is a world leader in the production of highly poisonous insecticides. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), several million people currently suffer from the effects of pesticide poisoning every year. Of these, up to 200,000 result in deaths.

One of the most recent cases concerning dangerous chemicals took place in the US Bayer factory in Institute, West Virginia. On December 28, 2007, several vats containing Thiodicarb, a pesticide, exploded. Dozens of citizens had to be treated for headaches and breathing problems, including at least one person who had to be hospitalized. Thiodicarb is one amongst the most dangerous agricultural chemicals that exist. It has been banned in Europe and during the past year there were 154 organizations in 35 countries which demanded from the Bayer Corporation to stop the sale of pesticides catalogued as being among the most dangerous, including Thiodicarb. The same factory in West Virginia contained extremely poisonous substances, including Phosgen, MIC and Phosgen gas, the latter of which was used as a weapon during the First World War.

Nature, consumers and users are also threatened by the Bayer-made herbicide, Glufosinat. According to a report by Swedish authorities which was based on research by the European Food Safety Authority, Sweden asked that Glufosinat be banned. Almost all genetically-modified plants made by Bayer are resistant against Glufosinat. The Genetic manipulation of plants is not aimed at fighting hunger, as is often claimed by Bayer. It is aimed at securing a market for herbicides. For ecological reasons, continuing the sale of Glufosinat can no longer be justified.

Bayer is responsible for the massive endangerment of biological diversity and the environment through the use of genetically modified plants. The company belongs to one of the most important protagonists of “green” genetic technology. Currently we are threatened with the likelihood of the EU approval of a variety of rice produced by Bayer—the same variety which was the center of the largest scandal concerning genetic technology to date, as rice which had not been approved for consumption reached trading markets worldwide. The massive planting of genetically-modified seed would inevitably be responsible for contamination and displacement of traditional rice varieties. Thus, biological diversity among crops would be harmed and the long-term food security would be threatened.

Other examples include the contamination of canola seeds through genetically-modified canola, which are illegal in Germany. This kind of pollution can be traced back to a herbicide-resistant product from Bayer CropScience which was tested many times in the field.

But Bayer refuses to take legal responsibility for the damages. This example goes to show once again that coexistence without the contamination of native seed varieties is impossible. Nevertheless, Bayer pushes forward to capture new markets: genetically modified canola is to be planted in Australia. Bayer has also requested permission for importing genetically-modified rice and canola.

Bayer is responsible for the privatization and monopolization of genetic resources such as seeds and medicinal plants. Bayer belongs to the largest transnational companies in the area of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals which share the largest portion of patents granted to date. The attempts to monopolize them harm biological diversity in the fields and rob indigenous communities of their medicinal plants and traditional knowledge.

Years of intensive influence on lawmaking on the part of transnational companies resulted in the TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) agreement of the WTO. This agreement results in the legal commitment to intellectual property rights such as patents on biological and genetic material – that is, property rights on life. Bayer was involved in this.

A particularly insidious mechanism of control and power is so-called terminator technology, officially known as Genetic Use Restriction Technology. This technology results in sterility of plants after their harvest, such that they may not be reused for re-planting.

A moratorium was placed on terminator technology in 2000 as part of the Convention on Biological Diversity, since it represented too great a risk to biological diversity. The Bayer corporation is also involved in the development of terminator technology—as is attested to by circa one-half dozen patent applications with titles such as “New Gene for the Coordination of Cell-Ablation” or “Process for the Production of Sterile Female Plants”.

According to Bayer CropScience, however, the corporation only owns terminator patents as a result of its acquisition of Aventis Cropscience. This is a false statement. Bayer is owner of at least five patents on seed sterilization technologies. This suggests that Bayer continues to be interested in research and use of terminator technology. During the 2006 COP 6 meetings in Curitiba, Brazil, Bayer lobbyists were involved in trying to reverse the moratorium of these technologies.

Bayer is also involved in the development of pharmaceutical plants, thus threatening biological diversity.

A new development concerns large Agricultural Companies’ application for hundreds on few patents on plants that are genetically modified to withstand droughts and other climactic stress factors. This is part of the struggle to compete a lucrative market that is growing due to global warming. The Bayer Corporation is a participant in this process.

Bayer is responsible for the warming of the earth. Presently, the Bayer factory in Krefeld is involved in the building plan of a giant coal-burning power plant which would be expected to release 4.4 million tons of carbon dioxide and 4,000 tons of nitrogen oxide into the air each year.

Bayer is responsible for water contamination with 700 tons of phosphorous, 2,700 tons of nitrogen, 1.5 million tons of inorganic salts, 73 tons of organic chlorine and 28 tons of heavy metals. Bayer belongs to the ten largest water polluters in Germany. In addition one must consider Bayer’s enormous use of water, amounting to 2 million cubic meters daily. The Bayer factory in Leverkusen has a higher consumption of water as the neighboring city of Cologne, with roughly one million inhabitants.

Bayer is responsible for the planting of energy plants for Agrofuels, which compete with food crops. Bayer plans to produce agrofuels from canola oil as well as the tropical plant, Jatropa. In order to do so, it will rely on vast monoculture plantations as well as the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides. The massive plantations of Jatropa will be responsible for the devastation of natural landscapes and the displacement of small farmers, as well as of a higher number of deaths through hunger. In India, landless people were already displaced from land which was purportedly “fallow”. This is the same land on which Bayer is planning to produce energy plants for agrofuels.

Bayer is also responsible for the death of millions of honeybee colonies in southern Germany, as suggested by the news of the last few days. The sudden death of honeybees happened immediately following the planting of corn. Many of the corn seeds were coated with a neurotoxin, Clothianidin, of Bayer CropScience. Beekeepers suspect that this could be responsible for the death of the bees. The Association of Beekeepers reports that this is the worst case of the death of honeybees of the past 30 years. Vicepresident of the Association, Manfred Raff justifies his suspicion of the Bayer neurotoxin based on the experience of Italian beekeepers, since planting in Italy happened several weeks earlier. In the latter case, Clothianidin was found in the dead bees. According to the Association, it is part of the agrotoxin Poncho Pro which is used for the etching of corn seed.

Bayer is responsible for hunger on the planet. While riots have erupted worldwide as a result of hunger, Bayer corporation states in its latest annual report, “we have been able to participate in the positive development of the world agrarian market”. This is a cynical formulation in the face of the drastic growth in prices of basic food products and the rise of hunger across the globe. The World Food Council considers that a substantial cause of the current food crisis can be traced back to a reduction in harvests caused by agricultural land that has been damaged by agrochemicals. As the second largest producer of pesticides, Bayer is significantly responsible for this development.

On the occasion of the negotiation of the Biosafety Protocol (MOP 4) from the 12.-19. of May in Bonn and considering the fact that liability in cases of genetic contamination are being discussed there, Bayer CropScience —together with Monsanto, Syngenta, BASF, DowAgroSciences and Dupont/Pioneer have proposed what they term a “compact”. They claim that they are willing to pay reparations in cases in which their products are responsible for the damage of biological diversity.

On the face of the matter, this seems positive. However, their compact pertains only to damage to biological diversity and human health. The environment as a whole or socioeconomic or cultural damages are not considered.

According to the proposal, damages to biological diversity are only to be considered if enough documentation on this biological diversity exists. However, no country holds such extensive documentation on biodiversity in order to be able to fulfill the requirements as have been presented. Therefore, the promises to make reparations remain empty! Moreover, contamination through genetic material has been said explicitly not to count as damage.

In addition, only states may be plaintiffs in these cases, such that individuals who have been caused damages remain without the possibility of receiving reparations. All legal procedures are to take place privately, leaving no transparency in the compact as proposed.

What is thus presented as a step towards corporate responsibility is an adept strategy of the company in order to protect itself against many instances of liability.

We highly criticize, therefore, that German as well as European policies continuously provide a platform for Bayer to carry out its “greenwashing program”, thus greatly supporting the interests of industries despite losses suffered by populations, biological diversity and the environment.

Worldwide, many individuals and organizations are resisting the health and environmentally damaging policies of the politics of the Bayer Corporation. We declare ourselves in solidarity with them and demand that the Bayer corporation end its deadly and poisonous production.

We demand that Bayer end immediately its environmentally harmful business, that it stop destroying biological diversity, and that it stop its privatization and monopolization. We demand that it take responsibility for its current actions and that it accept responsibility for any damages that may follow from these actions hereafter. As long as the corporation does not realign its practices, its claims to contribute to the conservation of nature ring both hollow and menacing.

Bayer—hands off from biological diversity
Hands off from ‘nature protection’ driven by profits and power.
For ecological agriculture and forestry, free of genetic technology and pesticides!
For the end to patents and intellectual property rights on life!
For the free access to seeds worldwide!
For a final prohibition of terminator-technology and any similar technologies causing sterilization!

Nature for people—not for business!

Signatories:
Aktionsnetzwerk globale Landwirtschaft, BUKO-Kampagne gegen Biopiraterie, La Via
Campesina, Coordination gegen BAYER-Gefahren, Bonner AK gegen Gentechnologie,
Aktionsbündnis COP 9, Verein fair-fish e.V., Indienhilfe e.V., Rettet den Regenwald e. V.,
Arbeitskreis Eine Welt Buchloe e.V., autofrei leben! e.V.

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Bonn, Sunday May 18 – Around 60 people have been protesting in Bonn against the large scale production of agrofuels. At two petrol stations car drivers had to make a choice: ‘petrol’ to the right, ‘food’ to the left. Banners were stating “agrofuels, no solution for oil addiction.”

Nowadays the media are frequently reporting about the negative impacts of the use of crops for energy production. But so far the honest conclusion that we have to change our lifestyle and overconsumption of resources and energy is ignored by the same media and policy makers. In global capitalism a small minority exploits 80 per cent of the global resources.
Most drivers had some sympathy for the action but wanted to fill up petrol anyway this time. They had to for example to go to a football match. What can you do?

The worker in the Shell station was furious about the counter information in front of her petrol station and called the police. After some discussions the action was allowed, although drivers had to be given more possibilities to go around the ‘gate of choice’.
At the BFT station everything stayed very relaxed.

Amongst the activists were many people from Via Campesina, the international network of small farmers. For them and the millions they represent, the large scale introduction of agrofuels is a direct danger for their livelihood and life. You can read more arguments against the overconsumption of energy and agrofuels in the text of the brochure that has been distributed to the passers-by.

After two hours the group started to move again for a short demonstration ending on a field with a picnic with healthy and local food, as it is still possible.

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Flier text:

Agrofuels are no solution for the climate and energy problem!

Action against biofuel and high energy consumption!

Food – Petrol

Hereby we want to draw your attention to the problems and consequences of the introduction of agrofuels. The cultivation of biofuels forms a direct competiton to food production.

You, as a driver, have to choose between food or petrol, as there is only 1,8 ha agricultural land available for each human being on earth.

You have the choice between:

a) Petrol: You tank but you get a negativ voucher which states how much less food you can consume the coming days.
b) Food: You receive something to eat and your car leaves without petrol.

The reason for the action
This week COP 9 is taking place in Bonn. The participants will debate on issues related to biodiversity and genetic resources. It concerns marine biodiversity, agrofuels, genetically motified plants, protected areas and the rights of indigenous people. However, biodiversity is also related to agriculture: ernormous areas are taken over by agricultural land, and large scale agriculture, as well as genetically modified monocultural plantations, are increasing. This is practically the opposite of biodiversity.

The situation regarding agrofuels in Gemany and the EU
In Germany regular petrol is currently mixed with 3 % Biodiesel / Bioethanol. The German government aims to reach a percentage of 6,75, although the EU imposes only 5,75%. Instead of promoting energy saving cars, the German government is supporting the production of big energy wasting cars. Unsuprisingly ernergy imports become a necessity. Recently at a meeting with his Brasilian (now resigned) collegue Marina Silva, the Minister of Environment Sigmar Gabriel announced a bilateral agreement to be signed in May 2008. This would enable Brasil to export ethanol to Germany, under the condition of sustainability.

Social and ecological consequences of agrofuels (three out of many)
1.Agrofuels are competing with food: The current food crisis is telling. Within a few month, the price of rice has increased with about 100 % and the price of grains by 130 % in 2007. One of the effects being food riots in many countries.
2.Large scale production of agrofuels is not environmentally friendly at all: as it extends monocultural cultivation, the use of human and environmentally polluting pesticides, the over-use of the soil, the loss of biodiversity and the use of genetic modification.
3.Small scale farmers loose their land and resources: as large scale agriculture is led by a relatively small number of large scale farmers and foreign companies. With small scale agriculture 40 families could sustain their livelihoods on a surface of 200 hectares. Large scale soja production, however, only needs one labourer for the same acreage.

The World Bank, the International Monitary Fund and governments have been pushing the liberalization of the agricultural sector during the past decades. As a consequence, food became a speculative good and profits of food companies and investors have increased enormously. Rich people can afford paying high prices for driving a car or flying, whereas poor people can not even pay for their daily bread any longer. This is unethical!

We demand: Food sovereignity, as well as the right for local communities to protect their food production, and to decide on their land use.

Our request to you!
These problems can not (only) be solved by the politicians at COP9. We have to change our energy consumption. Especially in ‘western industrialised’ countries, as here the consumption level has been high for decades. It’s time to face the mirror and reduce your own energy consumption drastically.

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On Monday, May 19, a demonstration against the German Plant Breeders Association (BDP) and in front of the botanical garden at the University of Bonn took place.

About 30 activists and peasants protested against bio-piracy and patents on life. Afterwards at the International Diversity Market at the Munster square in the centre of Bonn, there was a street theatre and colonized seeds were given back to peasants from Asia and Latin America.

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We combined our Bonn sightseeing tour with some adbusting. The city of Bonn has placed 450 billboards around the town: “Biological diversity needs our engagement” Nice, but oh so vague – they fail to say anything about how and why our lifestyles are destroying biodiversity, or how to preserve it. To prevent further loss of biodiversity we have to challenge not only our shopping habits, but also the corporate-governmental elites who are driving the destruction.

We decided to help the city and put forthward a clearer message. So we printed hundreds of speech bubbles to add to the billboards saying “Biological diversity needs our engagement”, with the following messages:

– …and our engagement needs action. Stop driving, start biking. –

– …and our engagement needs action. Boycott meat industry, go vegan! –

– …and our engagement needs action. Sabotage polluting industry. –

– …and our engagement needs action. Support small scale, instead of industrial farming. –

– Without you…nothing will happen. –

We also had some other posters that we put in suitable places, such as “Biosprit macht hunger”

Armed with glue and self-made billboard keys, we made our way through the centre. It was messy, great fun!

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Happy Shareholders support Corporations at Business Lunch during COP9

Thursday may 22 is the UN day for Biodiversity. This was the occasion for a group of shareholders to visit a lunch-meeting organised by the International Chamber of Commerce, the lobby organisation of worlds largest corporations.

“We, ‘The Small Shareholders Initiative’, TSSI are very glad about the important issues we have to report on behalf of the International Profitdiversity Day today:

Business gets 220.000 US $ to support companies in their work at the CBD. This means that we can give our profits to the shareholders and still make people believe that we work for biodiversity.

During the high level meeting Thursday May 29, business rightly gets a full hour to present its ideas. All other stakeholders together have to share the other hour. Afterwards all delegates are invited, as part of the official programme, by business for a lunch. Another possibility to make the delegations do what we want.

Hear hear!”

The rest of the speeches of the happy shareholders you can read in the flyer they handed out to during the party: http://www.aseed.net/pdfs/SlideEvent_versionA5.pdf

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Via Campesina Disrupts CBD

23.05.2008

VIA CAMPESINA JOINS BIODIVERSITY DAY CELEBRATIONS

This afternoon activists from all over the world have hung a banner, banged on teacups and handed out messages by Via Campesina during the official celebrations of Biodiversity Day at the 9th Conference of Parties (COP-9) of the UN convention on Biodiversity. They did so at the end of a message by UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon read by the Programme Officer of the Secretariat of the CBD to the distinguished delegates of the Convention.

The banners read “No Agrodiversity Without Farmers” and “Nature for People Not for Business”. The written message was brought to the attention of the delegates by farmers’ group Via Campesina, who were refused to be part of the celebration ceremony just before biodiversity day.

According to Via Campesina as well as many other present at the convention small farmers are the key to both the solution to world hunger and the safeguarding of the world’s biodiversity.

Via Campesina also warns against corporate interests advocating for a new Green Revolution in Africa as a strategy to increase productivity. Although they use concepts such as “sustainability”, “participation”, and “biodiversity management”, the production model is the same as that which has created the present crisis and growing loss of biodiversity

Small farmers, though, have the ability to feed the world. Peasant agriculture promotes food diversity, sustains traditional cultures and does not burden the environment. Moreover, small-scale, local and ecological production is an effective and immediate way of reducing carbon emissions and cooling down the planet.

After a few minutes the banners were taken away by UN police officers and officials and the people holding them were escorted out of the Maritim Hotel, and lost their accreditation badges, which are required to participate in the meetings.

Members of Via Campesina were given a round of applause from the delegates when they chanted “nature for people, not for business”.

Prior to the banner hanging action, members of Aktionsbündnis COP9, Via Campesina and supporters disrupted an industry lunch where agro-industrialists were congratulating each other for their excellent work at monopolizing the seed supply and destroying agricultural biodiversity. CBD Executive Secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf, who has been criticized for his pro-industry actions, presented at the side event following the lunch.

Grassroots Gathering 2008, 30th May-1st June, Ireland

Call-out for GG 2008, June Bank Holiday weekend 30/05/08 to 01/06/08, Dublin

The Grassroots Gatherings – an institution of the movement-building seen in Ireland post-2000 – are coming out of hibernation this June Bank Holiday weekend in Dublin. But it won’t be quite like before…

The story so far

The upsurge in social movement struggles around the turn of the century, from the streets of Seattle to the barrios of Argentina, from the townships of South Africa to the docks of South Korea, set the tone for much of the oppositional politics seen in the 2000s. Drawing clear lines around such moments is always difficult: establishing when something has peaked, when something has hit a plateau, and when something is in decline. But UK-based collective The Free Association captured a widespread sense of unease regarding this historical continuum in summer 2007 when they observed that “the ‘we are winning’ sentiment of the couple of years following Seattle has disappeared and been replaced by, at best, head-scratching and soul-searching. More a case of WTF than WTO…”

The social movements landscape of Ireland did not go untouched by this chain of global events: we’ve had our WTO moments and more recently our WTFs. From 2001 – a highpoint of the international wave of struggle – a key local symbol of global developments was the Grassroots Gatherings, open get-togethers for anyone who wanted to transform Irish society and the world in radical ways – ‘grassroots’ ways, in their focus on real democracy, and bottom-up methods, in keeping with the ethos of global networking bodies born in the turn of the century moment such as People’s Global Action (PGA). Though never really intended as organising platforms, the Gatherings made up a key hub of Irish movement-building and action: reclaiming the streets, building social centres, resisting war, environmental destruction and EU neoliberalism, the networks formed around the Grassroots Gatherings took their place in the global uprising against capitalism.

But reflecting the collapse of that ‘we are winning’ sentiment internationally, the Gatherings themselves had stalled by the end of 2005. It’s not as if this marked the death of Irish anti-capitalism – far too many good things have happened in the meantime, and too many great people have got on board for this to be true – but the sense of distance from the heady days of the early part of the decade has become stronger. Lots has changed since Seattle.

So why resurrect the Grassroots Gathering in 2008? Falling back on forms that have already broken down, until they break down again, is a self-defeating strategy. It’s what you might do when you have no strategy at all. We need a time capsule back to 2003 or 2004 – to a happy-clappy lucky dip of the same old workshops on the same old campaigns, skill-shares and alternative lifestyle ideas – like we need a hole in the collective head.

But unless we want to wallow in cynicism, and bail out of history like so many broken, bitter ex-radicals before us, what we do need – and what is more challenging – is to create a space in which to be critical about our mistakes and handicaps, rather than just look back on them with a baleful eye; to learn from them, and to start to look forwards and outwards.

Maybe this means admitting that the forces set in motion at the turn of the decade have run their course. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it means we can’t speak of a ‘movement of movements’ anymore. Or maybe we can. Maybe it means that the idea of a ‘Grassroots Gathering’ is obsolete.

But one thing it definitely means is this: amid the legacy of the turn of the century moment, a political sensibility (and maybe even a critical mass of people) now exists here that didn’t exist ten years ago: one that’s committed to radical social change, but not trapped in the dismal cul de sacs of Leninist, Stalinist and other dogmas. Whatever else has happened, we have broken through the ‘end of history’ of the 1990s. Our local experience of post-2000 anti-capitalism has been idiosyncratic (compared to wider trends, the course of Irish history often is); without the same movement traditions to draw upon as elsewhere, we reached our high-points later, and while some other nodes in the global network have even collapsed, ours hasn’t. Activists from overseas sometimes remark that the movement in Ireland seems fresh and outward-looking, unburdened by much of the baggage found elsewhere.

It may be that our situation is marked as much by opportunity as by defeat. So what are we going to do about it?

What’s happening?

While this Grassroots Gathering, like past ones, retains a vital element of straight ahead ‘popular education’ – with workshops on themes as diverse as Militant Research and Biotechnology – running through it are also some more focused workshop streams.

One of those ‘streams’ looks outwards: ‘Radical civil society and the state: hopes, fears and experiences’ is geared not so much towards the concerns of a typical Grassroots Gathering activist milieu, but towards those of community workers and activists, who will join us at this Gathering, and whose struggles against the vicissitudes of Irish society parallel the goals of the Grassroots Gatherings.

Another stream looks forwards and, to some extent, inwards: ‘Thinking about the Grassroots Movement’ takes in sessions on strategy; on how to create movement cultures of respect and solidarity; and on the question: across our uneven efforts to build networks regionally, nationally and globally, who are we, anyway, and what is it that unites us?

While some workshops are yet to be finalised, a list of confirmed sessions is below. Follow the links for more information and blurbs on workshops and streams. Watch this space for the final timetable, coming soon. Fun and games throughout the weekend provided with help from Electronic Resistance, Seomra Spraoi and friends.

Where?

Ground zero for GG 2008 is in the heart of Dublin’s Liberties: the building’s called Casadh, and it’s at 13, Newmarket Square, D8. A map will be posted below.

Other stuff

Take a look at our wish-list if you’d like to help out. We might even have a few openings for last minute workshop proposals, so don’t be shy about dropping us a line. We hope to make Grassroots Gathering 2008 a child-friendly space. We also hope to accommodate anyone with special needs, so if there’s anything we need to know, get in touch as soon as you can.

Contact

grassrootsgathering08@gmail.com for all correspondence; or

Tel: +353 85 724 3832

Links

http://www.myspace.com/grassrootsgathering08

http://grassrootsgathering.baywords.com/

Information on sessions and streams at:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog&pop=1…ate=1

Texts on the history of the Grassroots Gatherings:

Laurence Cox, “The Grassroots Gatherings: Networking a ‘movement of movements'”.
http://www.wsm.ie/story/2799

Terry, “A short history of the Grassroots Gathering”
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/73804

Sessions

Stream A: Radical civil society and the state: hopes, fears and experiences

(1) Radical civil society and the state: hopes, fears and experiences
(2a) What do we know?
(2b) Is what we’re doing working?
(3) Plenary

Stream B: Thinking about the Grassroots movement (big ‘G’)

(1) Catching up on who and what we are
(2) Going places: strategy and the Grassroots movement
(3) Solidarity? Building a healthy movement culture

Stream C: Learning about grassroots movements (small ‘g’) – and everything else
(1) Timeline of the ‘Movement of movements’
(2) ABCs of social change
(3) Militant Research
(4) What would it mean to win?
(5) Biotechnologies, food sovereignty and climate crisis
(6) Migrants in the movement
(7) The war against war
(8) Community garden wander
(9) Social centres network update
(10) The ‘gathering of gatherings’: round-up from a season of meets

More details and reader at http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87693

Stuck for something to do!? Uninspired & lacklustre..? The all new singing dancing EF!AU is here to lift your spirits

As if putting the boot into the genetics industry, filling empty spaces with joy & creativity, and fooling the fossil-heads wasn’t enough, people have been busy washing lumps of coal and covering themselves with paint…we kid you not…all in aid of halting the trashing of the planet!

Parliaments have been climbed, airport terminals flash(mobb)ed, fields & various other sites occupied, building stormed & blockaded, pipelines blockaded & destroyed…

Parliaments have been climbed, airport terminals flash(mobb)ed, fields & various other sites occupied, building stormed & blockaded, pipelines blockaded & destroyed…

Throw into the mix ye oldie Reclaim the Streets, the tried and tested eeeeevil Mr/Ms Sabotage, the launch of a new campaign ‘Leave it in the Ground’, plus a summer-full of dates, new contacts list, it’s a wonder we’ve fitted in a brand new sexy EF! summer gathering poster (front & back). Download the latest EF!AU to share with others, subscribe or check out some past issues. The next issue will come out at the beginning of August.

And of course, this year’s EF! Summer Gathering (or follow the link to the left) is from Wednesday 27th August to Monday 1st September 2008, if you want to plot & plan, and laugh & chat with old friends & new.

Phew, what a scorcher!

Anti-GM protest shuts down BASF UK headquarters (& photos & video links)

At the crack of dawn, Tuesday, 6th May, after a long night of preparation, Earth First! activists from all across England jumped into two vehicles and speed towards south Manchester, dead set on taking some effective action against the ecologically destructive plans of notorious chemical company BASF. There was no desire for symbolic protest, but simple action that hit hard at the one thing they value the most, their pockets.

At 7.20 am they turned hard into the only entrance to BASF’s headquarters in Stockport, vehicles blocking the entrance while various affinity groups piled out and got to work. A team of eleven people with lock-on tubes took the ground in front of the long gate, while others D-locked several side gates that were for pedestrian use only.

Meanwhile, some people spoke to the guards and were told that he wanted to shut the gate. Which was excellent news, and there was a rapid change of plan. The arm-tubes were put back in the vehicles, which disappeared off, to be used for the next action, and once the gate was closed a seriously heavy-duty motorbike chain was wrapped around it and one activist D-locked himself to it. And that was us there until 12noon, job done, BASF’s UK headquarters shut down for the morning.

A 30×10 foot banner saying Stop GM was hung from a nearby flyover so everyone would get the message as to why were there. Though, given we were on the border with Cheshire, one confused local inhabitant was curious as to what we had against Greater Manchester!

The only trouble came from the various BASF executives clearly eager to get to their phone conferences and thought driving at people constitutes acceptable behaviour. With such a casual attitude towards protestors standing in their way it is hardly surprising that they do not give a damn about what effect their products have on the rest of the world.

The weather was wonderful, sunny and warm, and we relaxed on the road while all the BASF workers were told to drink coffee in M&S or sit in the B&Q carpark – which naturally were leafleted so they had something to read while they waited. The police, when they turned up, were polite and clearly outnumbered by the protestors, so let them get on with it. There was a police liaison to keep things happy, and when the blockade was lifted, and everyone left with all their equipment – including the D-Locks and chains – and their were no arrests. The only thing they wanted was the large Sainsburys banner which had been redecorated with anti-GM messages, which they wanted to return to Sainsburys in case it had been stolen. We could not say fairer than the police delivering our anti-GM message back to the supermarket chain…

Though we were only there for the morning, the activists left on our own terms, knowing that the impact would continue to reverberate through the company. Evidence from other actions shows that the impact does not stop once the blockade is lifted, but the entire day will be lost. Meeting will have to be rescheduled, work-time caught up on, other offices will be furious about not being able to get in touch, and so on. And the bosses will still be paid for the time spent twiddling their thumbs. An excellent day out… if it could not be spent on the allotment, the next best place is lying on a roadway.

The pressure on GM companies has not gone away.

——————

Press release:

BASF UK HQ currently completely blockaded by protesters.

This morning 30 protesters from Earth First! have shut down the BASF UK headquarters (1) at Cheadle Hulme near Manchester (2), to highlight the company’s role in pushing GM onto our plates. BASF is planning to run the UK’s only trial of GM crops this year, a trial of blight resistant potatoes.(3)

The protesters arrived early in the morning at the flagship offices and have since been blockading the gate by sitting in front of it and locking on using d-locks and other equipment. They are successfully preventing any staff from
entering and are demanding the company pull out of GM immediately. They have also hung a giant 30 x 10ft banner reading “No To GM”. The protesters are planning to blockade the gate for several hours.

Mary Sunderland from Earth First! Said: “GM has no part to play in our future: it’s a dangerous, unwanted and unproven technology geared towards maximising profits for multinational corporations such as BASF. It is not the answer to food shortages, hunger or climate change. The real solution is to change now to a sustainable farming system and to distribute resources fairly around the world.”

The bio-tech industry claims GM will feed the world’s poor, but experts disagree. A major new study published in April shows that modified soya produces 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, confirming earlier studies showing the same trend. The study finds that the very process of modification depresses productivity.(4)

This revelation came just a week after the biggest study of its kind ever conducted,the International Assessment of Agricultural Science, concluded that GM was not an answer to world hunger. The UN study, conducted by over 400 scientists and approved by over 54 governments is a sobering account of the failure of industrial farming. The key message of the report is that small-scale farmers and agro-ecological methods provide the way forward to avert the current food crisis and deal with the effects of climate change.(5)

Neil Ross from Earth First! UK adds: “It’s time for everyone who is concerned about the future of our food and environment to stand up again and to say ‘No to GM’. When five years ago 86 per cent of the UK public said that they did not want GM foods the government and bio-tech industry brushed those concerns aside as unscientific. Science is now proving that we were right to oppose GM. Thanks to the courage of many ordinary people who ripped up GM crops our countryside has been GM free for the past four years. (6) We are determined to keep it that way. The message to BASF and
the government couldn’t be clearer. Stop wasting money on GM (7) and start investing in the real solutions to hunger: small-scale organic farming and equitable trade.”

Notes

(1)BASF is the world’s leading chemical company.
(2) Heading south from Manchester on the A34 , turn right onto Stanley Road (B5094). Take the second left onto Earl Road. Continue under the flyover (Manchester Airport Eastern Link Road) and BASF HQ is on your right.
(3) The UK trials of BASF’s blight resistant potatoes were due to take place from last spring at two locations for a period of five years. One site is a research centre in Cambridge, where last year anti-gm campaigners succeeded in destroying the field during a night time raid. The second trial site was never planted as BASF was unable to find a site for it. Campaigners have already vowed to decontaminate the Cambridge site again, should BASF go ahead with the controversial trial. Many believe that the trials are unnecessary as blight resistant potatoes are already available
through conventional breeding.
(4) The study was carried out over the past three years by the University of Kansas in the US grain belt and published by Professor B Gordon in the journal ‘Better Crops’. He grew a Monsanto GM soy bean resistant to the herbicide Round-up and compared it with a conventional variety. The GM bean produced only 70 bushels per acre compared to 77 bushels for the conventional bean.
(5) The report from the United Nations World Food Programme, the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) called for a back-to-basics approach to farming to meet the challenges of climate change and escalating food prices. The authors saw little role for GM technology in feeding the poor. The report
was based on a rigorous and peer-reviewed analysis of the empirical evidence by hundreds of scientists and development experts. http://www.agassessment.org/
(6) When GM crop trials started in the UK in 1998, no one could have predicted the public opposition to it. Within just 5 years, all GM companies including Monsanto, Syngenta and Bayer had retreated from Britain, numerous field trials had been destroyed and a moratorium against GM crop growing had been imposed.10 years later, Britain is still free from any commercial growing of GM crops. This opposition has also sparked massive resistance elsewhere in Europe.
(7) Using the Freedom of Information Act Friends of the Earth managed to obtained still partial information in October 2007 which shows that the Government gave at least £50 million a year for research into GM crops and food, compared with £1.6 million for research into organic agriculture last year, in spite of repeated promises to promote environmentally friendly, sustainable farming. http://www.i-sis.org.uk/dirty_GM_secrets.php

manchester[at!]earthfirst.org.uk
http://www.earthfirst.org.uk

——————

More photos

Video

GM fields squatted in Germany (& Portuguese update)

Two GM fields squatted in Germany
The past couple of weeks saw two successful field squats in Germany preventing the sowing of genetically modified crops.

Two GM fields squatted in Germany
The past couple of weeks saw two successful field squats in Germany preventing the sowing of genetically modified crops.
On 31 March a proposed gm barley field trial by the University of Gießen was squatted.. Activists squatted the field before the sowing of the crop. They erected a tripod made out of three lengths of wood plus a concrete lock-on dug into the ground and set up a tent camp. To date the field is still squatted with numbers growing all the time. There is growing local support for the action, especially amongst farmers. This action has followed several successful „field liberations“ over the past years, where anti-GM campaigners destroyed the GM crops planted by the University of Gießen. Saturday the 5th April saw hundreds of people and three tractors demonstrate in the city of Gießen for the cancellation of the trial.
On 4 April a second field was squatted in Oberboihingen in South Germany, designated for a trial of GM maize by the University of Nürtingen. Here another 30 feet tripod was erected and activists prepared to sit it out for several weeks.The tripod was soon joined by a circus tent, and a people’s kitchen. Farmers brought straw for the muddy field and local supporters swamped the kitchen with food. Concerts and talks were running in the circus tent. The first day started with 20 people on the field, by the end of the first day there were already 50 people. Just five days later the University saw sense and cancelled the trial! Oberboihingen was also the target of field liberations in the past years, in 2006 a beekeeper openly destroyed 3 plants in a public act of resistance.

These actions are part of the vibrant resistance against GM crops in Germany. Over the past few years Germany has seen a massive growth in GM crop trials and commercial Gm growing, particularly Monsanto maize. This has kicked off a huge public outcry with many people resorting to direct action including the large scale decontamination of GM fields by day and night. Direct action group Gen-dreck Weg! (GM filth – away with it!) has already announced another large scale open field liberation for this summer, where hundreds of people are planning to rip up GM maize.

http://www.gendreck-weg.de/

—–

Portuguese Judicial Police classifies action against genetically modified corn as a “terrorist” act in Europol report

In the last “EU terrorism situation and trend report” of Europol, the partial mowing of a field in Silves (Portugal), last summer, is classified as a terrorist act. In France, Germany and the UK, similar actions are often far more radical and happen regularly. Yet, they are not classified as terrorist acts in the report. Currently, in Germany an occupation of experimental GM fields is taking place.

The Portuguese radio station ‘Radio Clube’ was the first to report on the Europol document. But even the lawyer of the accusing party declared that he could not see any elements that would justify to label the destruction of the GM field of his client as ‘terrorist’. A specialist in penal law also declared he could not establish any relation between the action in Silves and terrorist acts.

It is becoming obvious that the Portuguese government is grabbing all opportunities to crush opposition against GM crops, by classifying a non-violent political action as an act of terrorism. They had this opportunity here because the Europol report is written based on the contributions of the relevant authorities of each EU member state. When a democracy is weak, police, in this case judicial police can afford to spread this kind of nonsense in an official report. And it does not only affect the ones involved in this particular case, but it oppresses everyone struggling for a better world, without GMOs.

5 years of war! Stop the Nanotech and Biotech War Profiteers!

Click here to join the action, join us on March 19th, 2008.

This Nano-Virtual-Sit-In is being performed on the 5th anniversary of the war on Iraq. We have chosen biotech and nanotech corporations and organizations as our targets, because their science is driven by the war and drives the war.

http://bang.calit2.net/5yearsofwar/

Click here to join the action, join us on March 19th, 2008.

http://bang.calit2.net/5yearsofwar/

Earth First! summer gathering date change & contact details

The dates of the EF! Summer Gathering have been changed, to work better with other events happening over the summer such as the Saving Iceland protest camp and the Camp for Climate Action.

The new dates are Wednesday 27th August to Monday 1st September 2008.

This should give us all the space to recover & reflect, and to plot & plan onwards and upwards.

The dates of the EF! Summer Gathering have been changed, to work better with other events happening over the summer such as the Saving Iceland protest camp and the Camp for Climate Action.

The new dates are Wednesday 27th August to Monday 1st September 2008.

This should give us all the space to recover & reflect, and to plot & plan onwards and upwards.

The new contact details for the EF!SG collective is summergathering@earthfirst.org.uk

You can download publicity – 2 posters & leaflet all in one: (front & back)

Watch this space for more info nearer the time.

International Women’s Day: anti-GM occupation & trashing, Brazil

On March 7th – International Women’s Day – dozens of Brazilian women occupied a research site of the U.S.-based agricultural biotechnology giant Monsanto in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, destroying the greenhouse and experimental plots of genetically-modified (GM) corn. Participants, members of the international farmers’ organization La Via Campesina, stated in a note that the act was to protest the “Brazilian government’s decision in February to legalize Monsanto’s GM Guardian® corn, which came just weeks after the French government prohibited the corn due to environment and human health risks.”

La Via Campesina also held passive protests in several Brazilian cities against the Swiss corporation Syngenta Seeds for its ongoing impunity for the murder of Valmir Mota de Oliveira. Mota was a member of the Movement of the Landless Rural Workers (MST) — the largest of the seven Brazilian movements in La Via Campesina — who was assassinated last October in the state of Paran during these organizations’ third occupation of the company’s illegal experimental site for GM soybeans. While Brazil already has a high number of land activist murders, “Mota’s was significant because it was the first to occur during an occupation organized by La Via Campesina, and the first assassination in Brazil to occur on the property of a multinational agribusiness.”

The expansion of agricultural biotechnology into Brazil is increasing agrarian conflicts and exacerbating historic tensions over land. The movements in La VÃa Campesina reject seed patenting, claiming the practice traps poor farmers in a cycle of debt to corporations that own the seed patents, and undermines small farmers’ autonomy to save and share seeds. They claim that “GM technology threatens biodiversity and native seed varieties, and violates the rights of consumers and small farmers by contaminating conventional and organic crops.”

Limagrain Moves GM Tests To The US due to French ban & decontaminations

FRANCE: February 29, 2008
PARIS – Europe’s largest seed cooperative Limagrain said on Thursday it had moved its research tests into genetically modified (GM) crops to the United States, put off by France’s hostility to GMs and the destruction of test fields.

Chairman Pierre Pagesse said Biogemma, Limagrain’s grain and oilseed research unit, would carry around 1,000 tests on GM crops this year in Illinois, in the US corn belt.

Limagrain has a 70 percent stake in the world’s fourth-largest seed maker Vilmorin.

“We have decided to transfer our tests to the United States this year,” Pagesse told Reuters in an interview at the Paris farm show.

“It is with a heavy heart,” he added. “For the first time we will move outside France and even outside the European Union to carry out our tests and this due to the current situation in our country,” Pagesse said.

While GM crops are common in the United States, France and other European countries are dubious about using the new genetic technology in agriculture.

France decided in December to suspend the cultivation of the sole GM crop grown in the European Union, a maize developed by US biotech giant Monsanto, and notified the European Commission earlier this month that it was extending the ban.

Pagesse said the expatriation of the GM tests to the United States, was also prompted by the repetitive attacks carried out by anti-GM activists on Biogemma’s test fields.

CONTRADICTION

The decision, although not irreversible, will inevitably affect the working of Limagrain, which owns 55 percent of Biogemma and totally relies on the company for its GM research, he said.

“I know that to move the intellectual part of the group is to move the group’s epicentre in time,” he said, stressing that the company had probably waited too long to make the move.

Limagrain would keep doing non-GM tests in France but all biotech research, carried out through Biogemma, would be done in the United States, which in the end could penalise Europe as seeds may not be adapted to European soil and pests, he said.

“The company keeps its knowledge but it’s the French peasants who are going to lose out,” he said.

Pagesse argued there was a contradiction between the French ban on the growing of GM maize and massively importing genetically modified animal feed.

“Either it is bad and we should hurry banning imports or we consider that it’s good for consumers, including through animal feed, then we should let French farmers use the technologies that we think are better adapted,” he said.

A government-appointed committee of scientists, farmers, politicians and non-governmental organisations said in January “serious doubts” remained over whether the MON 810 was safe.

The main worry mentioned in the report, which triggered the government’s decision on the ban, concerned dissemination to other crops and biodiversity, not human health.

Latest details: Earth First! Winter Moot 2008 – February 22nd – 24th 2008 – Nottingham

Join us for
Activist skill share
Planning radical action on climate change,
Sharing ideas for the Earth First! Summer Gathering
Opposition to the UK genetic crop trials and mega-dams in Iceland
a chance to share info on your own campaign

Arrive from 5pm, Friday February 22nd 2008, with dinner at 7 o’clock.
Open to all those who have been involved in radical ecological direct action and to those who just want to find out more.

Arrive from 5pm, Friday February 22nd 2008, with dinner at 7 o’clock.
Open to all those who have been involved in radical ecological direct action and to those who just want to find out more.

Cost: £15 (to include accommodation and food)
Crèche and disabled access both available,
but please call to let us know if you need either or if you have other needs.

At The Sumac Centre, Gladstone Street Nottingham, www.veggies.org.uk/sumac
For more info call 01508 531636 (number not available during the event)

Friday late afternoon and evening will be a chance to arrive, and for introductions, plus a G8 talk & film, and an Introduction to EF!

We’ll be kicking off early on Saturday morning (9am breakfast) – starting with all sharing the most important reasons why we’ve come to Nottingham, we’ll get on with some practical discussions around the EF! Action Update, the website, and the summer gathering.
From what we’ve all said, we’ll be able in the afternoon to move on to ‘where next?’, plus sharing campaigns we’re involved with & seeing what they need, and getting together locally and regionally with other folk who are there.

On Sunday we’ll move into groups to concretely take the ideas forwards from the Saturday, from the campaigns we’re already working on and what we want to do together. We’ll finish at 4pm, after having shared what we’ve come up with. Hoorah.

Earth First! is not an organisation, but a way of using non-hierarchical organisation and the use of direct action to confront, stop and eventually reverse the forces that are responsible for the destruction of the Earth and its inhabitants. For further info check out www.earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/

Plus
All day Friday 22nd February, Saving Iceland UK meeting, also at the Sumac Centre. Open to those interested in travelling to Iceland or taking part in solidarity actions against the construction of large, wilderness wrecking dams in Iceland.

For further information and essential booking contact 01508 531636 or savingiceland@riseup.org