Black Group Praises Bush or...
Shakedown Gang Cheerleads Dubya?

Bush's call for European governments to end their opposition to GM crops has "earned the praise of members of the African-American leadership network Project 21" who have issued a press release to express their support. This is not just about GM foods, say Project 21, "What is really at issue here is the same European mentality that has successfully suppressed Africans and people of African decent for hundred of years."

Radical sounding stuff though it might seem a little surprising that Bush's America gets off scott free when it comes to harming Africans or people of African decent. Perhaps that's understandable, though, when one considers that Project 21 is an initiative of the National Center for Public Policy Research  - a conservative/free market foundation with a strongly anti-environmental agenda.

According to PR Watch, Project 21 'opposes affirmative action and the minimum wage and has issued news releases in support of genetically modified foods. Project 21 has been funded by R.J. Reynolds, and it has lobbied in support of tobacco industry interests, opposing FDA regulation of the industry, excise taxes and other government policies to reduce tobacco use.'
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=National_Center_for_Public_Policy_Research

Black American journalists Glen Ford and Peter Gamble describe Project 21 as a 'Black front group' and 'a network and nursery for aspiring rightwing operatives'.
http://www.blackcommentator.com/20_commentary_1_pr.html

One of those operatives is Niger Innis who sits on Project 21's Advisory Committee. Innis is also the National Spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality - CORE - which in May 2003 organised a counter-protest against Greenpeace, alleging the environmental group had committed 'eco-manslaughter' through the impact of its policies on the developing world. Greenpeace's 'opposition to genetically modified foods' was listed by CORE as among the ways by which 'these zealots' cause 'misery and death'.

'The carnage has got to end,' Innis claimed in a press release. 'People should be ashamed to support these fanatics... Today's protest is just the first step in bringing justice to the Third World.'
http://www.core-online.org/news/release_4.htm
                  
CORE once played a leading role in the American civil rights movement but during the 1970s CORE all but collapsed and the remnant was taken over by Niger's father, Roy Innis, who moved the organisation to the Republican right.

Journalists Ford and Gamble describe CORE as 'a tin cup outstretched to every Hard Right political campaign or cause that finds it convenient - or a sick joke - to hire Black cheerleaders'. And they report how James Farmer, the legendary civil rights leader and former head of the original Congress of Racial Equality confronted Roy Innis on TV for turning 'the organization into what Farmer called a "shakedown" gang.'
http://www.blackcommentator.com/20_commentary_1_pr.html

The perfect cheerleaders for Dubya and GMOs.
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Black Group Praises Bush for June 23 Demand that European Leaders Step Up International Fight Against Hunger
Renews Call for End to European Ban on Genetically Modified Foods
http://www.nationalcenter.org/P21PRGMFood603.html
For Release: June 23, 2003
Contact: David Almasi at 202/371-1400 x106
or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

President George W. Bush has earned the praise of members of the African-American leadership network Project 21 for his strong, renewed demand that European leaders help in the fight against famine in Africa by dropping their opposition to genetically modified foods.

At the Biotechnology Industry Organization conference in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Bush said that European leaders who are restricting the importation of genetically modified foods and pressuring other countries - particularly those in famine-ravaged Africa - to reject so-called biofoods are "acting on unfounded, unscientific fears." Bush said: "For the sake of a continent threatened by famine, I urge the European governments to end their opposition to biotechnology."

Genetic modification can be used to produce foods that will grow in adverse climates, repel insects, stay fresher for longer periods of time and provide greater nutritional benefits. Additionally, foods can be grown to administer vaccinations that thwart deadly diseases. Fears of trade sanctions from European powers opposed to genetically modified foods has forced the governments of African countries like Zambia and Zimbabwe to reject U.S. food aid that contains biofood items.

"The debate over the use of biofoods in Africa is unfortunately not just about food. If that were the case, millions more Africans would be going to bed with full stomachs and be properly immunized since we have the technology to do both right now," said Project 21 member John Meredith. "What is really at issue here is the same European mentality that has successfully suppressed Africans and people of African decent for hundred of years."

President Bush has already criticized Europeans' "unfounded, unscientific fears" about genetically modified foods, and has urged European governments to "join - not hinder - the great cause of ending hunger in Africa." The Bush Administration has filed suit with the World Trade Organization to overturn European bans on biofoods.

A commentary by Project 21 member John Meredith on genetically modified foods is available at http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA298.html. A National Center "Ten-Second Response" newsletter on the specifics of the Bush Administration's request to the World Trade Organization on this matter also is available at http://www.nationalcenter.org/TSR6203.html.

Project 21 has been a leading voice of the African-American community since 1992. For more information, contact David Almasi at (202)371-1400 x106 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or visit Project 21's website at http://www.project21.org/P21Index.html.
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"For the sake of a continent threatened by famine, I urge the European governments to end their opposition to biotechnology. We should encourage the spread of safe, effective biotechnology to win the fight against global hunger." - President Bush
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2974214
This is the man who at the G8 torpedoed President Chirac's proposal to ban the dumping of subsidised farm produce in African markets.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=41156
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/columnist/story/0,9321,969259,00.html
This is the man in control of the world's stingiest aid budget.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g8/story/0,13365,967654,00.html
And whose aid promises are misleading.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/oneworld/20030522/wl_oneworld/118151053610546