politics for the 99%

… a scary future for farmers around the world - Published on AlterNet.org, by Katherine Paul, Sept 23, 2016.

… Reactions poured in from all the usual suspects.

Groups like the Farmers Union, Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth and others didn’t mince words when it came to condemning the deal. (Organic Consumers Association tagged it a Marriage Made in Hellback in May, pre-announcement, when the two mega-corporations were still doing their mating dance).

Predictably, the corporate heads of state last week promoted the proposed $66-billion deal as an altruistic plan to improve “the lives of growers and people around the world.” Last week, they told Senate Judiciary Committee members that the merger “is needed to meet a rising food demand.”

Is anyone out there still buying the line that Monsanto and Bayer are in the business of feeding the world? When the evidence says otherwise? … //

… On October 15-16, a panel of distinguished international judges will hear testimony from 30 witnesses and scientific and legal experts from five continents who have been injured by Monsanto’s products. This grassroots-led international citizens’ tribunal and People’s Assembly (October 14-16) will culminate in November with the release of advisory opinions prepared by the judges. The tribunal’s work, which includes making the case for corporations to be prosecuted for ecocide, is made all the more relevant by the ICC’s announcement.

The International Monsanto Tribunal is named for Monsanto, the perfect poster child. But the advisory opinions, which will form the basis for future legal action, will be applicable to all agrichemical companies—including Bayer.

In the meantime, we encourage citizens around the world who cannot participate in the official tribunal and People’s Assembly, to show solidarity by organizing their own World Food Day March Against Monsanto.

Monsanto. Bayer. The name doesn’t matter, and though size does matter when it comes to throwing weight around, the crimes perpetrated by the companies remain the same. It’s time to stop them.

(full text).

(Katherine Paul is associate director of the Organic Consumers Association – their website, /staff, /contact).

Links:

Popular acceptance of inequality due to brute luck and support for classical benefit-based taxation, on VoxEU.org, by Matthew Weinzierl, Sept 24, 2016;

Income inequality in a globalising world, on VoxEU.org, by Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, Laurence Roope, Finn Tarp, Sept 20, 2016;

After Brexit: The struggle for socialism in Britain, on Socialist Equality Party, by Chris Marsden, July 2016: a speech delivered by Chris Marsden, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party, at public meetings held in July in London and Sheffield;

… and this:

• The Trift Suspension Bridge, Swiss Alps.