1. Wivenhoe protestors in High Court Appeal
2. Time Bomb at Harbury
3. Let's decontaminate Tony Blair before the General Election (includes: BATTERY ON NUMBER 10 - great idea!)
4. A Belgian site about resistance to GM
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1. WIVENHOE GM PROTESTERS IN HIGH COURT APPEAL FOR THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY JUDICIAL REVIEW HEARING
THURSDAY, 15th FEBRUARY, 10.30am, The High Court, The Strand, London. Supporters to gather from 10am.
PRESS RELEASE - 14/02/01
Protesters who decontaminated around 25% of a government trial site of genetically modified maize in Wivenhoe, Essex, in July of last year, have now won the right to have their appeal for the right to a trial by jury heard by the High Court tomorrow (Th. 15/2). The case could have significant implications for the right to a jury trial, and comes as home secretary Jack Straw moves still further in restricting trials by jury. Recent cases have seen peace campaigners, naturists, as well as the Greenpeace GM protesters being acquitted when tried by their peers. On July 20th last year, eleven people, all living within a few miles of the crop and not connected with any particular organisation, were arrested and charged with criminal damage to the Aventis owned trial site. In September Colchester Justices ruled that the defendants had no right to elect a jury trial. For the case to be committed to the Crown Court, the value of the damage should be either in excess of £5000 or unclear. The appeal is on the basis that the value of the damage to the experimental crop is unclear. Most appeals are rejected before a review is granted. The case will be listed as :- ANDREW DAVID ABBOTT -V- THE COLCHESTER JUSTICES. The eleven protesters are: Andy Abbott (31) Colchester; Ken (48) & Eadie (53) Butcher (53) Wivenhoe; Andrew Curtis (23) Colchester; Dave Issacson (20) Colchester; Julie Moore (48) Earls Colne; Tracey Osben (37) St Osyth; Dean Scott (31) Mersea; and Nicki Shillaker (41) Colchester. FOR MORE DETAILS (result of hearing expected from midday) TEL ANDY ABBOTT ON 07929 956 874, or LYNN & ASSOCIATES SOLICITORS ON 01255 240880.
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2. Press Release: Time Bomb at Harbury - 3 months and counting
In the early hours of Tuesday 13th February, a group of local people entered the trial field of Genetically Modified Oilseed Rape at Deppers Bridge Farm, Harbury and dug up 300 square metres of the crop. Mystery surrounds the identity of this anonymous group who left the enigmatic slogan "Time Bomb in Harbury! 3 month’s countdown - when the rape flowers it’s too late"
This is the second action at the test site - dubbed the "Field of Discontent" - after activists decontaminated an area of the field in January.
Spokesperson Fiona West said "We were inspired by articles in the local press about the previous action so we decided to do something for ourselves. It is only 3 months until the crop flowers, at which time pollen will be spread across a huge local area contaminating organic and conventional crops."
"This is a time bomb waiting to go off. We urge the farmer to remove this hazard from his land before it's too late. If he doesn't, then we hope the people of Harbury will act to protect their local environment. Otherwise this will be a case of 'You reap what you sow' "
Further action is expected.
Photographs of the heap of damaged plants with the banner emplanted will be delivered to local newspapers on Tuesday and Wednesday 13th/14th February. Publications further afield should reply to this message if copies of the photographs are required for publication.
End
DIG IT UP! A call to remove GM Oilseed Rape from Britain's countryside. Visit our archived website at www.dig-it-up.uk.net to find out about the scandal.
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3. nlpwessex: Let's decontaminate Tony Blair before the General Election!
As Britain braces itself for a deluge of environmental pollution from a record 96 large scale GM crop trials this spring, a growing number of genetic engineers are working on new GM plants and bacteria in an attempt to clean up heavy metals and other contaminants from the environment.
Meanwhile one of our local GM campaigners has gradually been storing up used household batteries at home because he couldn't bring himself to put them in the dustbin knowing that one day the toxic contaminants in them would leak into the environment. Well, now Chris Keene in Essex has come up with a great idea to make it easier to make sure these batteries don't do that any more.
So follow his instructions (see below) and get sending your spare used battery samples to 'Biotech Blair' at Number 10 Downing St, London - NOW!
GMOs are being developed all over the place in a pathetic attempt to deal with the symptoms of environmental and social problems which wouldn't be there in the first place if the globe's resources were intelligently managed - and in the process they are going to create even bigger ones.
GMOs can never be a substitute for creative and intelligent living in harmony with natural law.
What the globe needs more than anything else right now is creative intelligence - not GMOs and "monocultures of the mind".
So after you've sent the battery to 'Commodus' Tony, why not take a look at some unique consciousness based approaches for developing this fundamental requirement at : http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/eviscom.htm ?
The more coherent consciousness is in society the more people can see for themselves what the truly sustainable solutions are, and the less need there is to campaign endlessly on environmental and other issues as a result. Maybe there are some people out there who would welcome such an opportunity to take a break from campaigning! "You must now at last perceive of what universe you are a part, and of what administrator of the universe our existence is an afflux, and that a limit of time is fixed for you, which if you do not use for clearing away the clouds from your mind, it will go and you will go, and it will never return." Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome 161 AD to 180 AD, ('philosoper king' in Ridley Scott's 2000 blockbuster film, "Gladiator")
NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex
Footnote for non-UK residents - in the meantime why not create your own battery campaign and start sending used samples to your own 'Premier'?
BATTERY ON NUMBER 10
The idea is to bring Tony Blair's attention to the need to recycle batteries in particular. We want to do this by getting people all over the country to send a small spent battery through the post (during the last two weeks of February) in an envelope with a short notice saying something like:- "The international symbols on these mean DON'T BURN! DON'T BIN! DON'T BURY! Please can we make arrangements in the UK to recycle batteries?"
This will give the Government a clear message from all across the country that people are worried about the way we dispose of batteries amongst other things. This message will get to Tony Blair just before the election (which we are reliably informed with be on 5th April) and he would be silly to ignore it. -- Chris Keene, Coordinator, Anti-Globalisation Network 90 The Parkway, Canvey Island, Essex SS8 0AE, England Tel 01268 682820 Fax 01268 514164
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4. Topic: - Belgium - Birth certificate of the website “Service of Biosecurity and Biotechnology (SBB)”.
A site about resistance to GM.
The site covers the period from March 1999 to May 2000. From the disruption of a conference organised by Monsanto in Brussels to the pulling out of one of their fields; by the campaign of stickers made by CAGE who led to thirty actions in supermarkets and tens of thousand of stickers on contaminated product. Harvest on actions of resistance to the GM invasion: leaflets, press release and in most case pictures, accounts, and others review of press, these informations weren’t so accessible than the “network society “ will let you think.
The site english homepage is http://sbb.collectifs.net/IndexAn.htm The original (in french) homepage is http://www.collectifs.net/sbb/ or http://sbb.collectifs.net
You will find:
Pictures and press releases about an action at a conference organised by Monsintox with the support of the European commision. The 18 March 1999 , 21 people were arrested after an one and half hour sit-in inside the lobby of the hotel. sbb.collectifs.net/18mars/SAS.HTM
During the Belgian stage of the Inter Continental Caravan, from May 27 to May 29 1999, two hundred Indian farmers demonstrated in front of the Monsanto’s European research center at Louvain-la-Neuve (in the center of Belgium). Pictures of different moments of their presence with us at sbb.collectifs.net/icc99/icc.htm
On 15 August, Wervel and Oxfam (two Belgian development NGOs) organised a demonstration in front of a genetic field belonging to Plant Genetic System (part of Aventis) at Aalter (Flanders). Fifty people display a banner in front of a GM field. sbb.collectifs.net/15aout/AA1.HTM
At the “Cross fights” (Carrefour des luttes) on 21 July emerged what will become later on the network CAGE. On 20 November, a new phenomenon appeard: the dissemination of orange stickers “GM risk”, 12 supermarkets were the target of massive labelling. A campaign which grew fast by the unexpected, angry and... televised interview of the manager of the vending machines of sweets in the subway of Brussels (on wich stickers were methodically placed), Sales dropped down by fifty percent. In application of the formula “Label today so that nothing needs to be labelled tomorrow” tens other actions follow... The occasion for a point on the presence of GM in our alimentation. On sbb.collectifs.net/cage/ CAGE1.HTM
On 24 February 2000, 3 persons were arrested at the conference: “Biotechnologie: hope or anxiety ?”. This “public” meeting was organised after the first reserve about the transposition by Belgium of the European directive 98/44 about patent on livelihood. Since the beginning “the question was not to be in favor or not on patent on livelihood” which was, like everybody knows, universally accepted... A petition opposed it anyway, and three activists came to participate to the mascarade. sbb.collectifs.net/brevets/CD1.HTM
At the Festival of Resistance to GM, on 7 May 2000, “200 ennemies of the Brave New Transgenic World”go from “supermarket” to “supermerchants” by decontaminating the Mon$anto experimental farm at Franc-Waret. We have only a few transgenes to lose and the whole world to gain ! On the site 3 pages of commented photo reportages with hundred pictures of the day, some extract from the conference early in the day, diverse documents, information about the escape of Monsanto on 31 May and for the end the last news of the ... repression ! Who’s ever seen the site on line since 20 may have only accessed some elements of what is on sbb.collectifs.net/7mai/7mai-index/fw.htm
On this site, a few paths to get rid of the plague and, in exclusivity, the 2000 list of contaminated communes. This list is not There were not curtailed like on our cyber homonym of the very official SBB. Go to sbb.collectifs.net/OGMenBelgique/Liste2000.htm
For desert, a genetic map of the (principal) charlatan of the Kigdom of Belgium, a page of links, some texts and a page were you will find other Belgian campaigns and, at last, a page concerning our current works.
See you soon, on a virtual or (much) true site !
Service of Biosecurity and Biotechnology (SBB)
If you want some information contact the network CAGE. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Site: http://sbb.collectifs.net/cage/CAGE1.HTM Diffusion list: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. To subscribe send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.