"International Call to Action: Monsanto on the Ropes"

OPERATION "CREMATE MONSANTO"

By Professor Nanjundaswamy,
Karntaka State Farmers Association

"Dear friends, Monsanto's field trials in Karntaka will be reduced to ashes,
starting this Saturday."

On November 26, 1998 two days after the Indian Minister of Agriculture disclosed
the location of three fields where genetically modified cotton was being
grown, the Karntaka State Farmers Association (KRRS) announced plans its
plans to burn the fields.

On November 28, thousands of farmers occupied and burned down the three
fields in front of TV cameras in an open act of civil disobedience. These
actions were the start of a direct action campaign by farmers against
biotechnology, called Operation Cremation Monsanto, which will not stop
until all corporate killers like Monsanto, Novartis, and Pioneer leave
India.

The campaign will run under the following slogans: stop genetic engineering,
no patents on life, cremate Monsanto and bury the World Trade Organization.
There is also a more specific message directed at all those who have
invested in Monsanto: You should take your money out before we reduce it to
ashes.

These kind of actions have the potential not only to kick the corporate
killers out of our country but also pose a major challenge to their survival
in the stock markets. Who wants to invest in a mountain of ashes or in
offices that are constantly being squatted (and if necessary even destroyed)
by activists? For these reasons, we are making an international call for
direct action against Monsanto and the rest of the biotech gang. Stopping
biotechnology in India will not help much if it continues in other
countries. The threat that it poses does not stop at the borders.

This call for action will hopefully inspire all the people who are already
doing brilliant work against biotechnology and those who have not been
active to join hands in a quick, effective worldwide effort. This is a very
opportune moment to target Monsanto for its meglomaniacal attempt to
monopolize the life industry. It is now going through a hard time of
layoffs and restructuring in a desperate effort to survive.

It is also a good time to target Monsanto because recent scandals have
contributed to its profile as a corporate killer, as if creating Agent
Orange and bovine growth hormone weren't enough.

We are calling [ONLY] for nonviolent direct actions. Nonviolence in this
context means that we should respect all (non-genetically modified) living
beings, including police officers and the people that work for these
transnational corporations.

The campaign should proceed in a decentralized manner, and nobody should
speak on behalf of other people involved in the campaign without their
consent. However, people can report about the actions without pretending to
represent them.

If you want more informed of what is going on in India and around the world
on this matter, please send a message to listproc@gn.apc.org with the
message subscribe pga-ge in the text body or contact us at
swamy.krrs@worldnet.net.