|
Newsletter
|
The aim of the Action Day, to gain support for the Organic Food and Farming Targets Bill, which proposes 30% of farmland and 20% of food sold to be organic by 2010, went out on several Radio Bristol news bulletins in the morning.
By 9.30 am we were ready at the Farmers' Market in Green Park Station
for MP Don Foster to sign a large pledge in support of the Bill, which
is likely to be on the list of Private Members Bills to be debated in the
current parliament. If the Bill becomes law, Britain will keep up with
the rest of Europe in the changeover to organic farming. Otherwise it will
fall behind.
BBC TV's Points
West filmed Don Foster signing the pledge. Although Saturday's Points West
is a short news bulletin, Bath FoE's action presented a strong news angle
against the photogenic backdrop of the Farmers Market and Apple Day. The
Bath Chronicle gave the event good coverage, both on the preceding Friday
and on the following Monday.
The link with the Farmers' Market, so appropriate for the Organics Day of Action, enabled us to talk to farmers and agricultural consultants directly, as well as to shoppers, and to get them to sign postcards urging MPs to back the Bill.
We sent off 87 postcards to about 10 MPs in this area and elsewhere, as visitors to Bath were also keen to sign up their support. An equal number of postcards went to Sustain in London, which is coordinating the national campaign. The postcards to MPs asked them to inform the signatory if they support the Bill. Don Foster replied promptly, saying he did. Although we know he does, it is helpful to him to know he has support from his constituents. He can show he has satisfied public demand. Votes and signatures count, a point that cannot be stressed too much. Too many of the public, including many farmers, have lost faith in the democratic process. One of the shoppers at the Farmers' Market sung out"It won't do any good! as we persuaded others to sign. Eighty-seven people showed they disagreed with her, and we will all prove her wrong once the Bill comes to parliament.
There is strong public support around the country for the Bill. Sixty FoE local groups took part in the Organics Action Day, and 250 MPs now support the Bill, making it the fifth most popular Early Day Motion.
Our trip to The Hague began on 17 November, with a train to Harwich. Here, we met up with hundreds of others from FoE groups and People and Planet groups across the UK.
The group from Bath University had almost been thwarted at the last moment by the University authorities. They had booked a University minibus well in advance to take them to Harwich. But when the authorities found out that the students planned to join in an international demonstration, the minibus was withdrawn. It seems that these days, students have to behave themselves: joining in with a peaceful demonstration concerning the future of the planet is not acceptable behaviour. Undaunted, the students arranged alternative transport at short notice.
As we were passing through customs, before joining the ferry, another curious spanner was thrown into the works. An elderly lady behind me had poles sticking out of her rucksack. The customs officer stopped her and asked if she had a banner. "Yes", she said. The officer then asked if he could have a look at it. "Why?", demanded the lady. "I have to see what it says", he replied. The same thing happened to other people with poles. When asked why he was asking these questions, all the customs man would say was that he'd been told to do this. He wouldn't say what wording he was looking for.
Is there a law against taking banners out of the country? Is there a law against peaceful protest? Do we live in a police state, where innocent people acting in a lawful manner are stopped and questioned, without any explanation as to why they are being questioned, or what they are being accused of? In any case, we were OK. I had the Bath FoE banner in my rucksack, but NO poles. So, I didn't get asked!
We then boarded the ferry, and had a smooth crossing. Several groups had brought large white sheets with them, and pots of paint. They laid the sheets out on the floor, and painted up banners with suitable slogans. Either they'd been too busy to make their banners in advance, or they'd thought of a way round the customs check!
We arrived
in The Netherlands, and slept the night in a sports hall in suburbs of
The Hague. The next morning, we met up with all the demonstrators from
other countries. There were banners in a whole range of languages. Most
were from Europe, but some were from further afield, including Canada,
Japan and Australia. Some people had been travelling for days - like those
from Latvia. The atmosphere was amazing! There was a tremendous sense of
unity amongst all the people who had travelled there. We set off and marched
to the Conference Centre where world leaders were meeting. Speakers, including
Tony Juniper from FoE UK, told us how countries such as the USA were trying
to wriggle out of their Kyoto commitments to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
We were there to send the politicians a very clear message: effective action
must be taken to combat climate change. Activities such as tree planting
and creative accounting are no substitute for real reductions in carbon
dioxide emissions reduction.
The 6000 of us then worked together to build a giant dyke in front of the Conference Centre. This involved filling sandbags from piles of sand, passing the sandbags along human chains, and then placing them in position. It all went very smoothly. When the dyke was complete, it consisted of 50,000 sandbags, and was some 400m long, and 1.5m high.
The chairman
of the Climate Conference, Jean Pronk, even helped with the building of
the dyke. He spoke to us, saying that he would make sure that all the delegates
were aware of our message. He promised to take a sandbag into the Conference,
and make sure that it remained visible during the talks, as a reminder
of the expectations we have of the delegates.
Sadly, as you no doubt heard on the news, the conference failed to reach an agreement. But that is probably preferable to making an agreement that is full of loopholes. The ministers will just have to meet up again, and keep on meeting up, if necessary, until they sort something out. The longer they leave it, the more serious and urgent the problem will become, and the greater will be the pressure on them to deliver.
News coverage of the dyke building was not very great in the UK. The media don't seem to be interested in demonstrations unless there is violence. But we did at least succeed in getting a story, with two pictures, into the Bath Chronicle.
The good news is that our demonstration passed off successfully. It shows that thousands of people from dozens of countries can come together for a peaceful, well-organised protest. When this happens, the participants become directly aware that they are not alone in their struggles, and everyone's confidence and commitment is boosted. I'm sure we'll be seeing more events of this kind in the future.
See also our Press Release, and more pictures of the event, with links to related web sites.
David Beasley
Chardon LL fodder
maize, a genetically modified crop seed produced by Aventis, will not be
included in the UK's officially approved seed list following FoE action.
Last April the government announced the fodder maize would be the first GM seed to receive official listing in the UK, after which it would be commercially available to farmers. But on 15 November the government postponed a public hearing into Chardon LL indefinitely, since it found that official basic tests into the crop had only been conducted for one year by the French authorities, not the two years required by EU law.
FoE had forced the British government to hold a public hearing into Chardon LL to comply with British law. Even so, petitioners against the seed had to pay £90 for the privilege of speaking, and participants at the hearing had to pay £30 just to listen. Surely a travesty of civil rights. If FoE and others had not called for the hearing, the French government fudge would not have come to light.
As part of its case against Chardon LL, FoE commissioned University of Bristol veterinary scientists to review a study by Aventis in favour of the seed's safety. Scientists Steve Kestin and Toby Knowles told the hearing that Aventis had failed to investigate "suspicious trends in chicken deaths connected with the fodder. Ten broilerchickens out of140 (7%) died after eating Chardon LL, compared to five deaths (3.5%) in a control group fed on non-GM maize.
The Bristol scientists urged further investigation. They said the nutrition tests carried out by Aventis were "inadequate" and "not of a standard that would be acceptable for publication in a scientific journal". The tests had only been repeated four times instead of the 14 times the Bristol team considered a minimum to be of scientific validity. They expressed their astonishment that the government had not found the Aventis study lacking in substance. Other experts at the hearing expressed concern that Aventis had not tested the maize on the cattle for which it was intended.
In a comment to the Guardian shortly after these revelations but before the hearing was postponed, a spokesman for Aventis was unbowed. He said, "We are confident that Chardon LL is a variety eligible for entry on to the national seed list, having already complied with all of the prescribed relevant regulatory procedures". Maybe he has changed his tune since the French fudge was revealed, but more likely he has just genetically modified his corn syrup.
It is as vital as ever to keep up pressure on the government, especially in election year, to let it know that GM is unpopular and unsafe, and that political sleight of hand in favour of big business is unacceptable. A little less than two years ago, the government announced a 3-year moratorium on the commercial exploitation of GM crops. Yet it was ready to approve Chardon LL this year, which would have enabled Aventis to sell the seed next season.
After widespread public anger at GM field trials in 1999, the government promised public consultation over future sites. But there was no public consultation. The announced a tripling of the number of farms testing GM crops and it stated which counties were involved, without saying which farms. The farms taking part in GM trials should be known before planting begins. The communities involved should be consulted, as in any planning exercise, so that whatever objections there are can be raised. In particular other farmers, especially organic farmers, should not be unwittingly placed in a situation where their "organic" or "GM-free" produce is compromised.
Write to your MP and tell him or her that
Susan Traill
A new Mines Manager is also now in place. The new stabilisation programme kicks off with Phase 1 which will last until September 2001. It consists of:-
Register asap and at latest by 11 January for this free teach-in. Contact Daniela Reale, 25 Beehive Place, London SW9 7QR, email daniela@wdm.otg.uk
(The next (localish) trade teach-in is planned at Cardiff on February 10th (tbc))
Although the collapse of the WTO's Seattle Ministerial has interrupted the current trade liberalisation process, powerful and influential corporations are working hard to regain lost ground.
The key to stopping further damaging economic globalisation is public pressure and we need to build on current public and media interest. A recent MORI poll, for example, showed that 9 out of 10 people in the UK think the Government should be able to favour the environment, employment conditions and human health over and above the interests of multinational companies.
These teach-ins will consider the many different aspects of trade and globalisation and will help campaigners take forward this campaign locally.
Just one of the specific
targets of the campaign is the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).
[The resurrection of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) in
a different form!]
In February 2000, governments started new WTO negotiations on services with the aim of reducing the role of government in the service sector.
Over the next two years, governments will be pressed to commit themselves, irreversibly, to privatisation of essential services and to withdrawal from regulation of service provision. They call it "progressive liberalisation".
GATS covers any tradable service...the only services excluded ...are those supplied "in the exercise of governmental authority"...(ie) supplied neither on a commercial basis, nor in competition with one or more service suppliers". In practice most "public" services in the UK (including health and education) would not be safe from GATS as they compete with private suppliers and in many cases users are charged (eg tuition fees).
GATS covers "Services" in just about everything, including for example, Communications, Distribution, Education, Energy, Environment (protection, refuse disposal), Finance (insurance, banking,etc), Health and Transport.
A practical example:-
In 1997, on World Bank instructions, the Bolivian Government sold the water system of the city of Cochabamba to International Waters of London Ltd (subsidiary of Bechtel). Prices rose by 100%. Poor households had to spend a third of their income on water; protests resulted. The state tried to quell the unrest with live ammunition. Six demonstrators died. Finally the government was forced to recognise the genuine suffering of the people. Under a GATS commitment the privatisation would have been irreversible.
Key GATS dates:
19 Jan Constraining Government? Globalisation and the political economy - Dr Greg Mahoney
16 Feb The Welfare State. How does recent evidence throw light on the future of the welfare state? - Dr Theo Papadopoulos
16 Mar Information Society. How may information technology affect global societies? - Dr Christopher May
20 Apr East Asia. How financial crisis over five countries has affected social policies and welfare. - Prof Ian Gough
18 May Education. Significant educational developments around the world. - John Abbott
15 Jun Culture. How cultural identity is affected by globalisation. - Ramaswami Harindranath
20 Jul The Environment. Achieving a sustainable future. Matthew Reed
Terry
On the 9th November several members of Bath FOE attended a meeting in Bath organised by the Shut Oldbury campaign. DISTURBING most aptly describes the talk
Caroline Lucas a Green party MEP and Paul Wilton spoke about the regulatory and health aspects:
MAGROX high octane fuel in a clapped out car? BNFLs response to this power loss is to propose using MAGROX fuel. This virtually untried fuel contains 14% more fissile uranium than the standard MAGNOX fuel currently in use. Hugh likened this approach to the owner of a thirty year old car with worn piston rings trying to get more power by using higher octane fuel.
Tritium the Bristol Channel tops the world! BNFL have admitted that use of MAGROX fuel will increase Tritium discharges from Oldbury. Already the Bristol channel is the most Tritium polluted body of water in the world. Tritium is implicated in leukaemia clusters and higher than ordinary occurrences of stillbirths. It can be carried by wind blowing across mudflats on the Bristol channel for at least 25 miles.
On top of this there are worries about whether the concrete containment vessel would be able to hold in the event of an explosion resulting from failure of welds on the steel coolant circuit. There is no secondary containment system at Oldbury.
Laurence Williams, Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, Rose Court, 2, Southwark Bridge, LONDON SE1 9HS
The NII are obliged to reply within 14 days with answers to points that you make
David Searby
Is there a collective noun for a group of Friends of the Earth Waste Campaigners? (Don't say a bunch of wasters). Whatever the word is, about 25 of us, representing the South West, gathered in Exeter at the end of November with the aim of setting up a loose network, ready to share information and join forces against any common threats. The South West is an incinerator-free part of the country at the moment and we agreed we are determined to see it stay that way.
Nationally Friends of the Earth is continuing to work on a campaign to reform the landfill tax and ensure that local authority recycling gets the funding it needs. There was some very welcome news recently when Tony Blair announced in his now-infamous green' speech that community recycling schemes will get a £50 million boost from the New Opportunities Fund.
FoE's General Election Campaign is also gearing up and waste will be a key election issue in key constituencies. All prospective parliamentary candidates and MPs are going to be asked to sign up to five pledges, including one to "Provide every household with quality doorstep recycling ensuring no new incinerators are needed and half our waste is recycled by 2010." The campaign will also be used for local council elections.
FoE has also recently submitted evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Waste Management. The Select Committee has been hearing evidence from all the major figures and organisations involved in waste in the country.
Andy Nelmes
A new law - the Countryside
and Rights of Way Act - was passed on 30th November 2000.
The new legislation puts into place additional safeguards for our most precious wildlife habitats - known as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). These sites are often home to threatened wildflowers and animals such as early gentian and the watervole.
The new safeguards include: