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This issue’s features:
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Marrakech Muddles
- the low-down on the climate treaty from a former Corporate Watcher
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The PRIVATE Sector
- Hackney services sell-offs, privatisation of education.. Why the UK government supports GATS.
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Campaigns
- Ilisu dam, Simon Jones, Genetix, No Sweat...
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CAMPAIGNS
Balfour Beaten!
After a year and a half the Ilisu Dam Campaign has succeeded - on 13 November the main contractors, Balfour Beatty, pulled out of the scheme along with Italian partner Impregilo. It now seems likely that the dam will not be built - other European firms are unlikely to be interested now that Balfour have pulled out.
The campaign is now calling for the lessons of Ilisu to be learned; for the ECGD and other export credit agencies to adopt legally-binding human rights, environment and development standards so that other 'Ilisus' cannot happen in future. To this end, the coalition that founded the Ilisu Dam Campaign will be campaigning on other projects in the region. One, the Yusefeli dam, would be built by UK firm AMEC and partly financed with a £68 million ECGD credit. Another, the BP-promoted Baku-Ceyhan oil and gas pipeline, will cut through the Kurdish regions of Turkey, raising human rights and environmental concerns.
Ilisu Dam Campaign, Box 210 266 Banbury Rd, Oxford OX2 7DL ilisu@gn.apc.org
Licence to Kill
Last week, at the Old Bailey, Richard James Martell, general manager of Dutch-owned Euromin, based at Shoreham, was found not guilty of manslaughter and his company not guilty of corporate manslaughter, over the death of Simon Jones in 1998. Instead they got a £50,000 fine with £20,000 costs for breaking health and safety regulations.
Simon Jones was killed on his first day of work when he was sent as a casual worker to Euromin. After just a few minutes "training" he was unloading cargo inside the hull of a ship. Within a few hours he was dead after having his head almost severed by the grab of a crane thanks to a cost cutting exercise by the boss.
As the Simon Jones campaign said, ‘We are painfully aware that in 21st century Britain the fight for the most basic of workers' rights - the right not to be killed or injured at work - is still being fought…The Health and Safety Executive have consistently shown themselves to be either unwilling or unable to take the necessary action against employers to ensure the safety of workers.’
from SchNEWS Simon Jones Memorial Campaign, PO Box 2600, Brighton, E.Sussex, BN2 OEF www.simonjones.org.uk
STOP PRESS - On Monday December 3rd, activists occupied the Euromin dock at Shoreham where Simon was killed, preventing lorry movements for several hours.
No Sweat!
Leading Indonesian trade unionist Dita Sari spoke to UK activists at the No Sweat Conference on 23rd November. She talked about the conditions for workers in factories in Indonesia and the problems unionists suffer, not just from bosses but from the government, the police, and armed Muslim fundamentalist gangs, who have taken to attacking union meetings and offices with clubs and swords.
Practical proposals for solidarity with Indonesian unions came out of the tour, including twinning UK union branches with branches in Indonesia and financially supporting strikers - contact No Sweat for details.
There are also plans for a unionisation drive here in the UK, encouraging low-paid and exploited workers to organise themselves.
No Sweat, PO Box 36707, London SW9 8YA. 07904 431 959. www.nosweat.org.uk admin@nosweat.org.uk
Genetix RoundUpTM
Legal victories
Opponents of GM crop trials in both England and Scotland have had much to celebrate in recent weeks.
On 19th November, in Worcester Crown Court a jury acquitted Barbara Charvet and Jim Ridout of criminal damage against a GM maize crop at Preston Wynn in Herefordshire in August 2000. The jury accepted the defence, that the two had acted to prevent the greater crime of genetic damage by cross-pollination with nearby crops.
North of the border, campaigners maintaining a vigil beside the oilseed rape trial at Roskill Farm, Munlochy are celebrating after receiving planning permission from Highland Council for their camp consisting of two caravans, a toilet and a yurt on council-owned land adjoining the farm.
The permission is being seen as a snub to Scottish Rural Affairs Minister Ross Finnie, who had previously angered the council and local people by granting permission for the trial without the local consultation the council had requested.
Contact: The Munlochy Vigil, The Layby, By Roskill Farm, Munlochy, Ross-shire IV8 8PA
Monsanto Dumped!
Its was only ever going to be a marriage of convenience, but less than 2 years after tying the knot US pharmaceuticals giant Pharmacia has announced it intends to seek a divorce from temporary bedfellow, the controversial and loss-making agri-business company Monsanto.
Pharmacia and Monsanto merged in March 2000. Pharmacia took on the deal to gain access to Monsanto's profitable drug unit G D Searle, but was then also lumbered with Monsanto's notorious GM seed and agrochemical business.
At the time of the merger all agricultural interests were spun off as a nominally separate company. The company kept the stigmatised Monsanto name, but with Pharmacia retaining a 85% stake. The remaining 15% of Monsanto's shares were sold to the public. Under the terms of the merger Pharmacia was barred from selling the rest of its stake until April 2002. Pharmacia's Monsanto shares will be offered tax-free to existing Monsanto shareholders, leaving Pharmacia free to concentrate on selling drugs.
Where does all this leave Monsanto? Only three years ago they were the company spear-heading the lifesciences concept, bragging that their mastery of genetics would lead to new crops, drugs and industrial materials. Through 'close' relationships with governments and an aggressive PR campaign, Monsanto hoped to force GM on the world.
All this backfired and Monsanto become the focus of a rapidly growing gl
obal resistance to GM crops, putting paid to their grand vision. All in all it looks like an uncertain and lonely future for Monsanto.
"Even our friends told us we could be arrogant and insensitive…We missed the fact that this technology raises major issues for people - of ethics, of choice, of trust, even of democracy and globalisation." Hendrik Verfaillie, Monsanto chief executive November 27 2000. |