Dear Avaaz movement,
I'm sitting here with a sinking feeling in my chest.
Looking at
a 168-page court subpoena I just
received.It's from Monsanto's lawyers, under
authority of a US judge, and it
"commands" us to hand over
pretty much every single private email, document, note, chat,
or anything else that any Avaaz staffer has ever written
or done on our campaigns to ban Monsanto's key herbicide,
glyphosate.
Monsanto is a $50-billion megacorporation
and glyphosate is the cornerstone of their empire. We've been
its biggest opponent. They are infamous for legal strong-arm
tactics to intimidate opponents. And now they're coming after
us.
It's scary, but I'm turning my sinking feeling
into determination. We're not backing down. Because we're a
movement of millions of people that just isn't afraid.
Fighting this request will be costly, and it could just be the
tip of the iceberg. So
we urgently need to hire outstanding
lawyers to go up against Monsanto's best.Donate
to help defend Avaaz, and let's send Monsanto a message:
every time they come after us, they'll only make us stronger
--
We
don't know much yet about why this subpoena is coming and what
Monsanto will use all of Avaaz's private information for. But
we do know this is happening because, year after year,
we
are defeating Monsanto -- from legislative and regulatory
battles, to forcing the pullout of their largest plant in
South America.
The subpoena indicates that it's linked
to a class action case where cancer victims are suing Monsanto
because they say glyphosate caused their illness.
If
such class action litigation won,
it could be a massive
financial hit for Monsanto and a possibly final blow to
glyphosate. We don't know what Monsanto's legal strategy
is, but it might be that they are trying to attack Avaaz as a
way of undermining the credibility of the regulatory decisions
we've helped win on glyphosate. By fighting them hard, we'll
not only be defending Avaaz, and fighting glyphosate,
we'll
also be helping legions of cancer victims whose illnesses
may have been made by Monsanto.
Together, millions of
us have beaten Monsanto in the legislatures, now
let's beat
them in the courts:
There
aren't many corporations in the world that are bigger and
badder than Monsanto. The fact that we really can defeat them,
shows just how real our movement's people power has become. If
we stick together, with hope and determination, we really CAN
change the world!
With hope and determination,
Ricken and the entire Avaaz team
More
information:
Glyphosate -- Crushed it!! (Avaaz)
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/nothing_we_cant_do/
Campaign group Avaaz calls on EU to block Bayer's
Monsanto deal (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-m-a-bayer-eu/campaign-group-avaaz-calls-on-eu-to-block-bayers-monsanto-deal-idUSKBN1A922S
Monsanto's Harvest of Fear (Vanity Fair)
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/08/wall-street-whistle-blower-monsanto
Patients: Roundup gave us cancer as EPA official
helped the company (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/15/health/roundup-herbicide-cancer-allegations/index.html/
