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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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
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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'