Roots, Nov/98
Antoni Wysocki
Hey mainots,
Here are the "news and events" listings from the latest edition of ROOTS,
the newsletter of ASEED-Europe. A SEED is Action for Solidarity, Equality,
Environment and Development, a global network of mostly youth and
students' groups. ASEED-Europe's website is at :
---Antoni
_____________________________________________________________
ROOTS
November 1998 Volume 5 Issue7
***************************************************
News and events:
EU Counter Summits
A lot is happening around the EU! During the EU Summit in Vienna, December
this year, an Austrian coalition of groups is organising meetings and
demonstrations. In June 1999 a German coalition organises activities
around the EU summit in Cologne.
There are plans for workshop on Agenda 2000 (the process of EU
enlargement) and some more practical workshops: e.g. how to organise a
referendum or how to campaign on EU issues. If you'd like to be involved
please contact ger...@aseed.antenna.nl
Vienna
On the occasion of the EU-employment-summit the 11th/12th December in
Vienna the Euromarch-kommittee has founded an alliance together with
several unemployed, antiracist and women's groups to call for action. The
action will include:
- a counter-summit, beginning on Friday;
- continuation of the summit;
- a big demo at 2 p.m.;
- culture program in the evening.
People from all over Europe will join. Please contact Gitti on the address
below if you are interested in coming!
Contact-people & further information
*Euromarsches: Euroma...@sonne.comlink.apc.org
*EU counter summit:
Isabel Martin, FZS, Reuterstr. 44, 53313 Bonn, GERMANY
f...@studis.de
*Camp between counter summit & G8
cam...@hickethier.snafn.de and soon also
http://www.camp99.de/
*Information related to the G8-summit
http://userpage.fu-berlin.de~inter/eu-g7
*Cologne '99 listserver:
This listserver mainly has messages in English. Subscribe to
listserv@link- lev.dinco.de with subject "subscribe eu+wwg-L"
eu+w...@link-lev.de
*Counter Summit Vienna:
Mehdi Ardi, Tel/Fax +43-1-4786345
10655...@compuserve.com
Gitti Goetz:
Tel. +49-89-404261, 4303516, Fax 45301474 g.g...@link-m.de
http://home.link-m.de/ggoetz/eurom/wien.htm
**********
Cologne
There are already a lot of preparations going on for actions and meetings
around the EU Summit in Cologne, Germany, June 1999. At the beginning of
this month there was a preparation meeting organised in Cologne by FZS
(German Students' Organisation); Young European Greens (which is not the
Green Party's youth section) and Young Socialists (Youth Sect. of the
Social Democrat Party).
During the workshops on Saturday some practical planning was done.
*Euromarches will organise a big demonstration on June 5 in Cologne with
the proposed theme "unemployment & exclusion".
*A working group was set up to organise a Counter Summit. Several
organisations have expressed their interest in taking in the planning. An
international advisory group will be formed, consisting of people that
have been organising similar countersummits.
*Two weeks after the EU summit, the G8 Summit will take place in Cologne.
During these weeks there are plans to organise an actioncamp.
*In January a 2nd European preparation conference for Cologne '99 might
take place.
*********************
2000 Walk for Nuclear Disarmament
15 to 30 May 1999
For Mother Earth International invites you to join the "2000 Walk for
Nuclear Disarmament" from the International Court of Justice in The Hague
(Netherlands) to NATO HQ in Brussels (Belgium). We are calling for the
immediate start of multilateral negotiations for a Treaty banning all
nuclear weapons by the year 2000.
For more information contact:
For Mother Earth International, Lange Steenstraat 16-d, 9000 Gent
BELGIUM tel/fax: +32-9-233 8439
e-mail:intern...@motherearth.org
http://www.motherearth.org/
The walkers are all invited to participate in the Hague Appeal for
Peace (HAP) May 11 to May 15, an international conference
aiming for the abolition of war.
*********************************
EYFA Winter meeting Jan 4 to Jan 10, 1999, Vac, Hungary
European Youth For(est) Action (EYFA) invites you to our annual Winter-
meeting! The winter meeting is the place where people come together to
plan (EYFA) projects and collaboration for the upcoming year, give
workshops and presentations about what they are doing, meet other
activists & campaigners and network network network! This year we will
run a four day diverse workshop program (Jan 4th-7th), followed by two
day decision making/strategy sessions (running concurrently on Jan 8th &
9th). The strategy sessions will focus on:
1) City Traffic campaigning and the next "Towards Car-free Cities"
conference likely to be hosted in Poland;
2) EYFA's directional strategies (policies, deciding on new projects,
etc).
For more information and an application form, please contact the EYFA
office:
Postbus 94115, 1090 GC Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Phone: +31-20-665
7743, Fax: +31-20-692 8757.
E-mail: ey...@eyfa.org
Deadline for returned application forms is December 8th.
**************************************************************
**************************************************************
A SEED HAS A NEW FAX NUMBER - ++31 20 468 2275
ROUNDING UP MONSANTO telephone number - ++31 20 468 2616
***************************************************************
A SEED Europe
PO Box 92066
1090 AB Amsterdam
Netherlands
tel: 31-20-668-2236
fax: 31-20-468 2275
email: asee...@antenna.nl
-- to unsubscribe, send the message 'unsubscribe aseed-roots' to
-- majo...@oudenaarden.nl
--
For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and
links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/
Antoni Wysocki
Hey mainots,
Here are the campaign summaries from the latest edition of ROOTS, the
newsletter of ASEED-Europe. A SEED is Action for Solidarity, Equality,
Environment and Development, a global network of mostly youth and
students' groups. ASEED-Europe's website is at :
---Antoni
_____________________________________________________________
ROOTS
November 1998 Volume 5 Issue7
***************************************************
*****************
CONTENTS
*****************
NEWS - K2/R4 ACTION DAY
LATVIA AND THE WTO
A SEED CAMPAIGNS - TRANSPORT
MIA
ROUNDING UP MONSANTO
ANNOUNCEMENTS - JOB VACANCIES IN BUDAPEST AND FREIBURG
EUROPEAN VOLUNTARY SERVICE
NEWS AND EVENTS -
EU COUNTER SUMMITS - KOLN AND VIENNA
WALK FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
EYFA WINTER MEETING
******************************************************
News:
MONDAY DECEMBER 14 1998
JOIN THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST!
No EBRD money for the K2/R4 nuclear reactors in Ukraine
A SEED Europe is co- ordinating an International Day of Protest against
the proposed funding of two new nuclear reactors in the Ukraine by the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). On Monday,
December 14th, protests will be staged at sites all over Europe, showing
the widespread resistance against using taxpayers' money from the EBRD to
finance another Chernobyl. There are still three more weeks to go until
the International Day of Protest on December 14th, but already dozens of
organisations have committed themselves to join. They are not just coming
from the region where the EBRD is active, Central and Eastern Europe, but
also from EBRD member countries like Japan, South Korea, the United
States and many Western European countries.
Act Now!
The Day of Protest comes at a crucial moment. The EBRD has been
considering this loan for years but has been reluctant to make a
decision. Right now, a Public Participation Process (PPP) is taking
place. This PPP ends on December 18th and the Board of Directors of the
Bank will make a final decision soon afterwards, early in 1999. If they
approve it, the EBRD will come up with a loan of 190 million US dollars,
probably followed soon by much biggerloans from Euratom and Western export
credit agencies.
If this happens, nothing will stop the Ukrainian sponsor, Energoatom, from
finishing the reactors and putting them into operation. But if the Board
says NO, it is very likely that the whole project will be cancelled, as
this will shake funders' confidence in the project and it will be
virtually impossible for the Ukrainian government to obtain other loans.
What
Lots of organisations have already joined us but we still need all the
help we can get to make the Protest a success. We are looking for
organisations in Central and Eastern Europe that can put pressure on
their local EBRD office on the Day of Protest. We also need organisations
in Western European countries that will do the same to the Western
Directors of the Bank, as they are the ones who will eventually make the
decision.
If you want to join, contact Johan Frijns at jfr...@antenna.nl or Katell
Gelebart at kat...@aseed.antenna.nl as soon as possible and we will get
in touch with you.
You can find regular updates on the preparations for this Day of
Protest at the web site: of A SEED Europe:
http://www.antenna.nl/aseed
***********************************************************
LATVIA AND THE WTO
Latvia has constantly moved towards liberal market-oriented economic
policies after it regained independence in 1991. Officials dream of
accession to the WTO, EU and NATO and recently OECD has been added to
this list. Naturally Latvia becomes a very attractive country for
international financial institutions and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI)
due to its geopolitical location and the enormous willingness of the
authorities to accommodate investments. The country is often considered a
gateway to the Northern European markets and according to Ex-Prime
Minister Mr G. Krasts "Latvia will make every effort to satisfy the
needs of foreign investors". In 1993 Latvia submitted the application for
joining WTO (at that time GATT). However the legislative framework was
not there at that time. "Latvia MUST join the WTO. It is a precondition
forjoining the EU ", commented the economist P. Branton.
This year the negotiation process got stuck on the question of the
audio-visual sector when the USA and EU started to claim their interests
and rights to Latvias market. This left an independent and democratic
country stuck in between two powerful forces. The EU negotiated with USA
and finally the Latvian government decided to harmonise its national
legislation with that of the EU.
On the 14th October Latvia was the first Baltic country to join the WTO.
On the 29th October the Parliament passed a bill on the protection of the
domestic market. Proposals to increase the import duty for dairy produce
that would support the rural population (which represents 30% of the
Latvian population) met with robust criticism from the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. The Ministry claims that free trade agreements oblige
the Parliament to follow the rules of the free market. Several daily
newspapers showed that Latvian farmers were angry about the reduction of
import duty.
Meanwhile EBRD is busy not only with K2/R4, but also with planning its
General Meeting on 19th - 23rd May, year 2000, in Riga. With Ministers of
Finance from over 60 countries, as well as business and media
representatives, it will be one of the most grandiose meetings that has
ever happened in the Baltic States. The EBRD has high hopes for the
success of the meeting - but success for whom?
Fanija Bluma, Information Centre "Green Library" Audeta str 79-209, 1050
Riga, LATVIA Ze...@latnet.lv
*********************************************************
A SEED CAMPAIGNS:
********************************************************
TRANSPORT
***********
TENs in trouble - Political update
The new German red-green government managed to deny funding for the highly
controversial Transrapid magnetic super high speed train link between
Hamburg & Berlin, thus virtually killing a very costly and unsustainable
TENs-project.
In The Netherlands, a debate is growing about the 'Betuwelijn', a rail
freight link between Rotterdam harbour and the German industrial area,
which would take freight away from the water, not from the roads. It's
one of the 14 TENs 'super priority' projects. Contrary to what European
Commission updates state, all involved parties fear that the link will
never become economically viable, which is why private funders have not
dived into the project so far (calculated at 9 billion DM, of which 15% is
private funding). The Dutch Minister of Transport has already decided to
put off the northern branch for
quite some time.
Action update
As the MATE questionnaires are coming in (please keep sending them!),
groups in action against road building are having a hard time.
In the UK, the Birmingham Northern Relief Road (also TENs) action camp is
about to be evicted. Info at +44-121-6326909. The same situation goes for
the Avon Ring Road action camp. Info at +44-411- 214168.
Please support as much as you can! A camp with a longer term future is
the Toytown camp at Cheltenham, to be reached at +44-797-1316597 or
<toy...@stones.com>.
Ireland will also see an eviction happening at the Glen of the Downs
action camp in Wicklow County.
In France, a big nasty UNCTAD trade conference on (amongst other things)
moving goods around globally took place in Lyon 9-12 November. Because of
short notice, 'action journalists' didn't manage to attend.
In Hungary, an action took place at the M-0 ringroad. Local environmental
organisations and CEE Bankwatch protested against the construction of the
northern sector of the ringroad, which was financed by the European
Investment Bank (EIB) in front of the Ministry of Transport on 28th
October. Organisations are going to turn to the Ombudsman of the European
Parliament for legal redress.
So for now, keep an eye on our website, where the transport part will be
updated shortly, and keep sending in the questionnaires for the MATE Map
of Activities on Transport in Europe. If you've lost your copy, please
let me know at <fr...@aseed.antenna.nl> or call the A SEED office.
WRITE IN YOUR AGENDA: INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT ACTION DAY: MARCH 27TH
1999!!
****************
MIA
*****************
The Empire Strikes Back
Just as in the first part of the Star Wars trilogy where it concludes with
the rebel alliance destroying the Death Star, the international anti-MAI
rebel alliance has successfully crippled if not destroyed the OECD Death
Star - the MAI. However, as Obi-wan Kenobe points out, "do not be tempted
by the dark side of the force."
While the alliance is celebrating the seeming destruction of the MAI in
the OECD, the Empire is gathering its forces and preparing a massive
counter attack. First, while negotiations have been crippled in the OECD,
it does not necessarily mean the complete end of MAI negotiations there.
With the possible collapse of the MAI negotiations in the OECD, there is
more and more talk about moving negotiations to the World Trade
Organisation (WTO). The European Commission (urged on by Darth Vader
himself - Sir Leon Brittan), with the support of the Member States, has
been manoeuvring since 1996 for a Multilateral Investment Agreement (MIA)
in the WTO but has never publicly stated its position. The MIA would have
the same flawed basic assumptions as the current MAI drafts and would be
perhaps a bit more limited than a MAI in the OECD. The preparations and
positions taken so far have happened in the same non-transparent way as
the MAI, with civil society interests not being taken into account, MAI
criticisms ignored and no impact analyses foreseen.
In late November, the WTO
The first six months of next year will be crucial for deciding whether or
not investment will become a negotiation issue in the next Round.
Monitoring and campaigning will be needed before June 1999. The pressure
mounts on the Commission, national governments, individual negotiators and
trade representatives, and business to abandon efforts to introduce the
MIA in the WTO.
MIA Toolkit
Due to changes in the situation and status of the MAI negotiations, we did
not release the MAI Toolkit (jointly produced by A SEED Europe and
Corporate Watch) as announced in the last ROOTS. We wanted to update the
information to include more on the WTO and the processes of investment
liberalisation taking place there and elsewhere. We will shortly be
coming out with the revised and updated version. For those of you who
have ordered copies, we will be sending the new Toolkits out as soon as
possible. We will also be providing continuing coverage of events in the
WTO and other fora in future issues of ROOTS.
**********************************
ROUNDING UP MONSANTO
**********************************
Monsanto/AHP Merger called off
Since the last ROOTS went to press, the proposed merger of American Home
Products (AHP) and Monsanto has been called off leading to a fall in
Monsanto share prices (26% on the day the merger collapse was announced).
Speculation on the reasons for the merger collapse suggests a clash of
corporate cultures, and cold feet on AHP's part due to Monsanto's
increasingly negative image. In the aftermath, Bob Shapiro has been
trying to convince investors that all is well and that Monsanto will
continue in its strategy of building a "life sciences" group without
looking for new merger partners, although he has carefully added that
Monsanto will continue to seek partnership arrangements on specific
products or product lines (such as the Cargill joint venture).
Troubled times ahead for Monsanto?
Financial analysts have mentioned the absence of any other merger
partners whilst highlighting the fact that Monsanto still remains a
"small fish" (difficult to believe!) and needs a stronger financial base
in order to deal with its recent rapid expansion and acquisition rate. If
in the short term the company can go it alone, in the long term it will
lack the resources for scientific research and for launching new
products. Already, it has a number of new products in the pipeline, which
will need funds and resources for commercialisation, and it may well soon
be over-stretched.
UNCTAD summit
The UNCTAD "Partners for Development" Summit (November 9-13 in Lyon,
France) is yet another alarming indication of the UN's progressive
promotion of genetechnologies, and their increasing partnership with
transnational corporations. The summit comprised three main conferences
entitled "Bio- partnerships for Sustainable Development: commercialisation
and the bio- industry challenge" (organised by the BIOTRADE initiative),
"Partners in Investment for Development" and "The Tripartite Meeting on
Micro-Finance".
As well as policymakers, Monsanto, Novartis and Rhone-Poulenc
representatives gave presentations. Interestingly, new members to be
"welcomed in" to the BIOTRADE initiative include Banco AXIAL, presented
by a Novartis board member amongst others. This again leads to questions
concerning the financing of gene technologies. The conference centred
around 4 main topics:
1. The importance of partnerships and collaborations in developing
and capturing the potential benefits of biodiversity.
2. Strategies to promote the development of bio-resource based
businesses in support of sustainable development.
3. The recent developments in research,technologies, markets and
products relevant for the bio-business sector.
4. Information on the latest legal and policy developments
affecting access and commercial utilisation of biodiversity and
associated knowledge and inventions.
Rounding Up Monsanto (& Co) on the net
Before Christmas, the Rounding Up Monsanto (& Co) website will be
launched.
The website will include information and analysis and action alerts.
Please send us any information you want posted.
**********
Certified GE resistant (Directory on Campaigning, Activism and Critical
Analysis of Genetics)
Last month, a questionnaire was sent out with ROOTS. The deadline for
inclusion of your organisation in the directory has been shifted to
November 30. So be in it! Contact Stephanie or Helen for further
details.
***********
BioValley Project Building
UmProWe is looking for people to come to Freiburg to set up a campaign of
local and regional resistance to the plans to turn the area into a centre
of research and development of genetic engineering.
Further details under "announcements" in this Roots.
More news on the seminar early next year to follow.
***********
GM Soya in Brazil
The IDEC (Brazilian Institute for Consumer Defense) is currently
campaigning against Monsanto's Roundup Ready Soya. A positive court
ruling against authorisation of GM soya was passed last September based
on the fact that there is no current legislation relating to food safety,
labelling, and trade of transgenic plants and food products. IDEC is now
concerned about Monsanto's lobbying of the Federal Government that GM
soya is the same as natural soya (prior to the court ruling, the
government appeared favourable to authorising GM soya). Brazil has very
large natural soya production and does not currently rely on imports at
all. The country's production could therefore represent an important
source of natural soya for both internal and external markets. IDEC needs
international support for its campaign against Monsanto and feels that
organisations can help in three main ways:
Spread this information through the international media;
Send letters to the Brazilian Federal Government about its position on
labelling and GM soya given the importance of the country in natural soya
production;
Send letters to the Brazilian Federal Government concerning the need for
food safety and labelling legislation.
Additional information can be obtained from:
Andrea LAZZARINI, IDEC, BRAZIL, tel: +55 11 3872 8790 - fax: +55 11 3862
8944 e-mail: id...@uol.com.br
Addresses for sending correspondence:
President of Brazil
Presidencia da Republica, Exmo. Sr. Prof. Dr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso,
Endereco: Praca dos Tres Poderes, Palacio do Planalto, 4 andar, Brasilia
- Distrito Federal - cep: 70.150-900 - BRAZIL, fax: +55 61 321 5804
Ministry of Health
Ministerio da Saude - Exmo. Sr. Dr. Jose Serra, Endereco: Esplanada dos
Ministerios, Blocos G, 5 andar, Brasilia - Distrito Federal - cep:
70058-900 - BRAZIL fax: +55 61 225 9632 / +55 61 224 8747
Ministry of Agriculture
Ministerio da Agricultura, Exmo. Sr. Dr. Francisco Sergio Turra,
Endereco: Esplanada dos Ministerios, Bloco D, 8 andar, Brasilia -
Distrito Federal, cep: 70043 900 - BRAZIL fax: +55 61 225 9046 / +55 61
226 9365
Ministry of Environment
Ministerio do Meio Ambients, recursos Hidricos e da Amazonia Legal -
Exmo. Sr. Dr. Gustavo Krause, Endereco: Esplanada dos Ministerios, Bloco
B, 5 andar, Brasilia - Distrito Federal, cep: 70.068 900 - BRAZIL, fax:
+55 61 226 7101
Ministry of Justice
Ministerio de Justica - Exmo. Sr. Dr. Renan Calheiros, Endereco:
Esplanada dos Ministerios, Bloco T, 4 andar, Brasilia - Distrito
Federal, cep: 70.064-900 - BRAZIL, fax: +55 61 226 2296