WTO - 'A new freedom struggle'/Civil disobedience call over GMOs

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GMW: WTO - 'A new freedom struggle'/Civil disobedience call

over GMOs

" GM WATCH " <info

Sun, 18 Dec 2005 17:47:27 GMT

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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1.Civil disobedience called to oppose GMOs at WTO

2.WTO HONG KONG MINISTERIAL - A new freedom struggle

3.Saying 'No! to the WTO and GMOs - poem

 

EXCERPTS: " the rights of Monsanto are put above the people, and direct

action is the answer " . (item 1)

 

The Hong Kong Ministerial of the WTO has met with widespread protests

across Southeast Asia.

 

NGOs and groups from all over India met in a two-day-long conference in

Delhi last week to initiate a mass movement against the Hong Kong

conference that they believe is a new instrument of colonialism.

 

" It is more difficult than the freedom struggle [against British rule

in India], " says Amar Nath Jha. " Now, our own government, our own police

are on their side [the WTO's and the multinationals]. "

 

Madhuri of Jagriti Adivasi Dalit Sanghtan, working in Badwani district

of Madhya Pradesh (India), agrees: " The Bt cotton crop was a failure,

so many farmers committed suicide. But even after this, the MNCs, and

disgustingly, the government too is encouraging farmers to use it. " (item

2)

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1.Civil disobedience called to oppose GMOs at WTO

Lin Gu / 18 December 2005

http://www.panos.org.uk/global/tradingplaces_feature18.asp

 

The outcome of a US-EU dispute being heard at the WTO over genetically

modified organisms has wide ramifications for developing countries,

anti-GM campaigners such as Vandana Shiva say.

 

[HONG KONG] International civil society groups have delivered a strong

message to the sixth World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting

in a petition against genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

 

Presented to WTO deputy director-general Alejandro Jara on December 14,

the petition urged the global body to respect people's self

determination to " know and choose what they eat and farm " , honour

governments'

right to " protect their citizens and the environment from GMO food and

farming " , and reject trading complaints of the United States and other

major GMO producers.

 

Written by members of a worldwide campaign known as Bite Back, it was

signed by more than 135,000 citizens from 100 countries and more than

740 organisations, said Alexandra Wandel, trade coordinator of Friends of

Earth Europe, a non-government organisation.

 

The campaign was launched in 2003 - soon after the United States filed

a suit against the EU at the WTO, claiming that a temporary EU ban on

GMOs contravenes international trade rules.

 

" It is our own right and not up to the WTO to decide what we eat and

what crops we farm, " the petition said, adding that national governments

have the right to protect their people and environment from the risks

of GMOs, including by imposing bans.

 

European moves

 

The EU has defended itself against US accusations by quoting the

" precautionary principle " , as recommended by the international biosafety

treaty, the Cartagena Protocol. The principle allows governments to take

precautionary measures regardless of scientific findings.

 

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, has now approved

the importation of four new GM maize varieties and one of GM oilseed

rape. It has also tried to lift some member states' bans on GMOs, without

success. It is thought to be keen to avoid the costly sanctions that

the EU would have to face if it lost the ruling of the WTO dispute

settlement panel.

 

Although the EU-US ruling was postponed from this October until March

2006, the issue spilled over to the Hong Kong meeting when WTO deputy

head Jara was asked about unconfirmed reports that the EU had already

lost the dispute.

 

Jara refused to confirm the news when confronted by Indian GMO

campaigner Vandana Shiva at the petition presentation.

 

A gift for Jara

 

Shiva, a leading activist against GMOs, said, " If Europe is losing, it

means the rise of citizens everywhere to make protests - the rights of

[the agricultural multinational] Monsanto are put above the people, and

direct action is the answer " .

 

As Jara was about to leave, he almost forgot to take a basketful of

organic food, and Shiva immediately reminded him of the gift prepared for

him by the petitioners: " Otherwise that shows you don't care about our

voice, " said Shiva.

 

Phil Bereano, professor of technology and public policy at the

University of Washington, said the EU may maintain strong reservations

over the

importation and cultivation of GMOs even it incurs trading sanctions.

 

This, he said, was due to the fear of losing public support, thanks to

hard lobbying by some NGOs and mounting opposition by the general

public.

 

Implications

 

Some observers worry that the US could use a win over Europe to

increase sales of GMO products to developing countries.

 

Professor Xia Youfu of the University of International Business &

Economics, who used to chair an expert advisory committee on trade and

environment at China's Ministry of Commerce, points out that the

confrontation on GMOs " reveals the contradiction between two

categories of

international treaties: the principles of the WTO, and those laid down

in the

Convention of Biological Diversity including the Cartagena Protocol " .

 

The two categories of treaties, Xia said, " should be equal in power and

no one can override the other " . But the WTO regulations fail to give

adequate consideration on environment, he said, " and there is the need to

have the two categories of international treaties coordinated through

more negotiations. "

 

Lin Gu is correspondent for China Features

 

The features on Trading Places are free to all media to reproduce with

appropriate credits to the journalist and Panos London (please notify

media).

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2.WTO HONG KONG MINISTERIAL

A new freedom struggle

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main15.asp?filename=Cr122405A_new.asp

 

The Hong Kong Ministerial of the WTO has met with widespread protests

across Southeast Asia. Heavily loaded in favour of the rich nations, the

WTO could spell doom for the Third World. Mihir Srivastava reports

 

[photo caption: United Resistance: Villagers and workers protest

against WTO in Delhi

Photo Sharad Saxena]

 

Two fundamental factors are missing from the Doha WTO agenda: Nations'

right to food security and sovereignty. This has enraged activists and

people across the Third World.

 

The Uruguay Round of WTO conference resulted in the opening of markets

of poor countries. The sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong

starting on December 13, 2005 will rap up the Doha Round started in late

2001. The conference is about liberalisation of sectors like agriculture,

industry, raw materials and services in poor countries. The conference

has met with massive public protest across Southeast Asia. Past

experiences show that the rich nations, spearheaded by the US and EU, are

reluctant to do away with their multi-billion agricultural subsidies and

other barriers of trade, while they pressurise poor nations to open up

agriculture and other sectors to give a free run to capitalist monopolies

and multinationals.

 

" We are opposed to the western model of development which is guided by

market, inappropriate technology and consumerist lifestyle. We are for

a development model that is based on equality, austerity, self-reliance

and sustainable coexistence, " says Sunil, general secretary of

Samajwadi Jan Parishad, and who works with tribals and the poor in the

interiors of Madhya Pradesh.

 

NGOs and groups from all over India met in a two-day-long conference in

Delhi last week to initiate a mass movement against the Hong Kong

conference that they believe is a new instrument of colonialism. " We

reject

WTO and its proposal. We will struggle to force the government to quit

WTO, " says Amar Nath Jha social worker. Jha presided over the meeting.

 

The group consists of various civil society groups and grassroots

organisations. The Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Bhartiya Kisan Sangh, both

offshoots of the rss, and the Left fronts, have been kept out of it.

 

Two fundamental factors are missing from the Doha WTO agenda: Nations'

right to food security and sovereignty. " The WTO and its promoters and

agents (IMF, WB and MNCs) want to snatch away from people their right

to ownership; the right to guide their destiny, " says Manoj Tyagi of

Azadi Bachao Andolan. " The irony of the situation is that the worst

affected people, peasants, workers, hawkers and small industrialists are

unaware of it, " he adds. " Our strategy should be to educate the affected

parties, especially youth, who should then provide strength to the

movement to force the government to quit the WTO. "

 

" It is more difficult than the freedom struggle, " says Jha. " Now, our

own government, our own police are on their side. " Madhuri of Jagriti

Adivasi Dalit Sanghtan, working in Badwani district of MP, agrees: " The

Bt cotton crop was a failure, so many farmers committed suicide. But

even after this, the MNCs, and disgustingly, the government too is

encouraging farmers to use it. " The case is not different in the power

sector.

" The price of power in rural MP has increased by 15 times. And the

cotton prices are going down all the time. There is no restriction on the

imports by the government, " says Madhuri.

 

The situation is not different in the West Bengal tea belt either,

where starvation deaths have been reported. " There have been 25

lockouts in

the past few years. The livelihood of thousands of people has been

destroyed. Wage labourers are paid less, unions have no teeth, the market

is flooded with tea from outside, " says Jagat Kishor Rajbir a social

worker in Bengal.

 

The WTO, along with the World Bank, has instituted policies that

destroy the government school system by withdrawing investment which

in turn

forces even the poor to go to private schools, " sums up Prof Anil

Sadgopal, eminent educationist. " We should be ready for a political

struggle, " says Jha. " In doing so we should also work for an alternative

model, " he adds. " We have to find a model outside the market and the

government. We have to bring back the days of experimentation, days of

Kheda

and Champaran, " he says.

 

Thousands of poor tribals, peasants and labourers dislocated form their

land, their livelihood snatched, were in Delhi last week to demand

their right to life. " I am here for a cause; not to roam around, " asserts

farm labourer, 60-year- old Phool Singh of Kathau tribe in Surat,

Gujarat. He has a family of 18; six of them work as labour for a

paltry Rs 35

a day. " I struggle every day to earn a meal at the end of the day, " he

adds. " The cotton crop failed this year, the prices are falling. How

does the government think we will survive? Nobody is bothered, as if we

do not exist, " says Dinesh of Kutub tribe in MP. Employed in a cotton

loom in Surat, young Rajesh says, " The rich in Delhi have cars, big

houses, money, good food; but we have nothing despite our relentless hard

work. We don't even have clean water to drink. " Yamuna Bai of Adamgari in

Surat sums up the struggle: " No schools, no teachers... our children

will meet the same fate. There is no hope. So we thought we will die

fighting. "

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3.Women say NO!

http://ngin.tripod.com/poetry.htm

 

Women say 'No' to GMOs

We just say 'No'

Women say 'No' to GMOs

We just say 'No'

 

We know about love

We know about care

We need to trust

The food we share

 

Women say 'No' to GMOs

We just say 'No'

 

People say 'No' to the WTO

They just say 'No'

People say 'No' to the WTO

They just say 'No'

 

They know that there's

a world to feed

And it can't be done

with corporate greed

 

People say 'No' to the WTO

They just say 'No'

 

 

 

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