interview with Leeds' anti Bayer campaigners
IMC Leeds | 26.10.2003 23:02 | Bio-technology
Indymedia: I am currently with two local campaigners part of the national
campaign against Bayer to get them out of Genetically Modified (GM) crops. Could you tell me a bit about the campaign, when it started and where it came from?
Campiagner 1: This particular campaign started after the Earth First (EF)
gathering this year when it was decided that commercialization of GM crops was imminent and it would be good to target the company predominantly responsible for the commercialization which is BayerCropScience, part of Bayer PLC.
Campaigner 2: There has been anti- GM activity for the last 5 years and we’ve
been aware that the commercialization of GM could be announced in the next few months and were thinking of the best way to stop it. So the campaign was being talked about informally in pubs and between campaigners before the gathering with Bayer winning the lottery for target as they hold the patents for 9 of the 11 potential seed licenses for commercialization.
Campaigner 1: Bayer had already been identified as the key company back in
April, and a few actions took place making it a big deal that they were the most guilty, the company most involved in and most likely to commercialise GM crops.
Indymedia: Since the decision was made to have a national campaign against
Bayer has there been a lot of activity?
Campaigner 2: On the Bayer website (www.stopbayergm.org) 24 actions have
been reported. Which are only the ones reported. These range from covert actions like gluing up locks and spray painting at night to more overt actions such as office occupations. There has been a lot of activity, but not as much as hoped for.
Campaigner1: If we are really going to have a decisive victory we need to be
more widespread. They (Bayer) said “that a ripple had been sent through BayerCropScience” and that was heard from a couple of sources within Bayer and that was quite early on, well certainly before a lot of the actions happened. In terms of the EF network or radical environmentalist into direct action I think this is the highest level of focused action for a long time.
Indymedia: Why use Direct Action as a tactic?
Campaigner 2: I think we have already seen the results of direct action with
things like the roads movement, but also within GM.
Bayer stated in an article in the Observer about a month ago that they were “stopping crop trials in the UK because of the actions of a criminal minority trashing those trials.”
There has been an email sent out on LeedsEF stating that some of the GM researchers in Cambridge were leaving the country because they get too much harassment here with emails and phonecalls giving them abuse for doing GM stuff in this country, so helping create a very hostile climate as the latest in the war against technology.
Indymedia: With this specific campaign what do you think you are likely to achieve using Direct Action against Bayer?
Campaigner 1: The stated aim of the campaign is to get Bayer to back out of commercializing the 9 varieties of GM crops. Direct action against genetic modification has already succeeded in pushing GM development out of Britain. Bayer became the main player in that fairly recently (as other companies such as Monsanto have pulled out) and are the last big company involved. It’s a matter of guesswork to know if we’ll achieve what we want. I think at the very least we have a good possibility that we will significantly delay or reduce the commercialization of GM crops in Britain.
Campaigner 2: I think if Bayer pull out other companies like Monsanto who are linked to Bayer and have all sorts of trade agreements with them and Syngenta who might go for commercialization, are less likely to touch it if a company has already pulled out but its not just about some Frankenstein food. GM is the latest in the onslaught of civilization against this planet.
You’ve got a good quote haven’t you…
Campaigner 1: The deputy of the US treasury a few years ago paraphrased the
campaign against genetic engineering in Europe as:
“The biggest single obstacle to globalization”.
That was because genetics was and is one of the technologies which capitalist countries rely on.
Campaigner 2: It’s certainly not a single issue campaign.
Campaigner 1: But I think in terms of what the campaign achieves as well as
having an immediate short term direct effect on Bayer and then hopefully on other companies. Which I think will happen even if Bayer don’t pull out, I think that threat capacity will still be recognized. Bayer are a very strong company and smaller companies could feel that level of campaigning would be too much. But I think there’s the wider political implications of there being a very strong feeling against GM in Britain which are that hopefully more people critiquing GM will convert that into more radical and political forms of action. In this case grassroots mobilizing and not relying on authority to change things has generated a very strong direct action campaign.
Indymedia: So if other people in Leeds want to get involved with the Bayer
campaign, is there anything they can get involved with locally?
Campaigner 2: Yep absolutely.
Firstly if they want to go and do stuff on their own that’s absolutely
fine, anyone can take action in whatever way they see possible for them or whatever they’re up for.
They can also get in touch with LeedEF to get involved. There’s a noise demo in Newbury (Bayer HQ) on 13th November and we’ll be organizing transport going down from Leeds for that. That’s the next big public action. There are actions going on regularly which they could get involved in.
So yes get in touch with Leeds EF!, either come to one of our monthly meetings – 1st Wednesday of every month at the Adelphi pub, Bridge St or email:
leedsef@leedsef.org.uk
Indymedia: Is there anything else you want to add?
Campaigner 2: There should be more action going on even if its just going round
spraying the website address or flyposting or if anyone lives near Cambridge or Newbury to go and flypost whistleblower flyers.
Campaigner 1: And one thing we didn’t mention was that part of the reason for
this campaign is that Bayer’s interest are far more then genetic engineering so the potential is quite exciting as the campaign could be won because Bayer could pull out or give up altogether on genetic engineer as its only a small part of their company and if its negatively effecting the rest of the company they might decide they are better off out of genetic engineering.
campaign against Bayer to get them out of Genetically Modified (GM) crops. Could you tell me a bit about the campaign, when it started and where it came from?
Campiagner 1: This particular campaign started after the Earth First (EF)
gathering this year when it was decided that commercialization of GM crops was imminent and it would be good to target the company predominantly responsible for the commercialization which is BayerCropScience, part of Bayer PLC.
Campaigner 2: There has been anti- GM activity for the last 5 years and we’ve
been aware that the commercialization of GM could be announced in the next few months and were thinking of the best way to stop it. So the campaign was being talked about informally in pubs and between campaigners before the gathering with Bayer winning the lottery for target as they hold the patents for 9 of the 11 potential seed licenses for commercialization.
Campaigner 1: Bayer had already been identified as the key company back in
April, and a few actions took place making it a big deal that they were the most guilty, the company most involved in and most likely to commercialise GM crops.
Indymedia: Since the decision was made to have a national campaign against
Bayer has there been a lot of activity?
Campaigner 2: On the Bayer website (www.stopbayergm.org) 24 actions have
been reported. Which are only the ones reported. These range from covert actions like gluing up locks and spray painting at night to more overt actions such as office occupations. There has been a lot of activity, but not as much as hoped for.
Campaigner1: If we are really going to have a decisive victory we need to be
more widespread. They (Bayer) said “that a ripple had been sent through BayerCropScience” and that was heard from a couple of sources within Bayer and that was quite early on, well certainly before a lot of the actions happened. In terms of the EF network or radical environmentalist into direct action I think this is the highest level of focused action for a long time.
Indymedia: Why use Direct Action as a tactic?
Campaigner 2: I think we have already seen the results of direct action with
things like the roads movement, but also within GM.
Bayer stated in an article in the Observer about a month ago that they were “stopping crop trials in the UK because of the actions of a criminal minority trashing those trials.”
There has been an email sent out on LeedsEF stating that some of the GM researchers in Cambridge were leaving the country because they get too much harassment here with emails and phonecalls giving them abuse for doing GM stuff in this country, so helping create a very hostile climate as the latest in the war against technology.
Indymedia: With this specific campaign what do you think you are likely to achieve using Direct Action against Bayer?
Campaigner 1: The stated aim of the campaign is to get Bayer to back out of commercializing the 9 varieties of GM crops. Direct action against genetic modification has already succeeded in pushing GM development out of Britain. Bayer became the main player in that fairly recently (as other companies such as Monsanto have pulled out) and are the last big company involved. It’s a matter of guesswork to know if we’ll achieve what we want. I think at the very least we have a good possibility that we will significantly delay or reduce the commercialization of GM crops in Britain.
Campaigner 2: I think if Bayer pull out other companies like Monsanto who are linked to Bayer and have all sorts of trade agreements with them and Syngenta who might go for commercialization, are less likely to touch it if a company has already pulled out but its not just about some Frankenstein food. GM is the latest in the onslaught of civilization against this planet.
You’ve got a good quote haven’t you…
Campaigner 1: The deputy of the US treasury a few years ago paraphrased the
campaign against genetic engineering in Europe as:
“The biggest single obstacle to globalization”.
That was because genetics was and is one of the technologies which capitalist countries rely on.
Campaigner 2: It’s certainly not a single issue campaign.
Campaigner 1: But I think in terms of what the campaign achieves as well as
having an immediate short term direct effect on Bayer and then hopefully on other companies. Which I think will happen even if Bayer don’t pull out, I think that threat capacity will still be recognized. Bayer are a very strong company and smaller companies could feel that level of campaigning would be too much. But I think there’s the wider political implications of there being a very strong feeling against GM in Britain which are that hopefully more people critiquing GM will convert that into more radical and political forms of action. In this case grassroots mobilizing and not relying on authority to change things has generated a very strong direct action campaign.
Indymedia: So if other people in Leeds want to get involved with the Bayer
campaign, is there anything they can get involved with locally?
Campaigner 2: Yep absolutely.
Firstly if they want to go and do stuff on their own that’s absolutely
fine, anyone can take action in whatever way they see possible for them or whatever they’re up for.
They can also get in touch with LeedEF to get involved. There’s a noise demo in Newbury (Bayer HQ) on 13th November and we’ll be organizing transport going down from Leeds for that. That’s the next big public action. There are actions going on regularly which they could get involved in.
So yes get in touch with Leeds EF!, either come to one of our monthly meetings – 1st Wednesday of every month at the Adelphi pub, Bridge St or email:
leedsef@leedsef.org.uk Indymedia: Is there anything else you want to add?
Campaigner 2: There should be more action going on even if its just going round
spraying the website address or flyposting or if anyone lives near Cambridge or Newbury to go and flypost whistleblower flyers.
Campaigner 1: And one thing we didn’t mention was that part of the reason for
this campaign is that Bayer’s interest are far more then genetic engineering so the potential is quite exciting as the campaign could be won because Bayer could pull out or give up altogether on genetic engineer as its only a small part of their company and if its negatively effecting the rest of the company they might decide they are better off out of genetic engineering.
IMC Leeds