Are we resigned to be continuously, ubiquitously and shiftily watched on, to have our buying, moving, activities, contacts - the smallest details of our everyday lives - tracked and recorded?

Do we accept having our lives under electronic monitoring via chips which can radio-communicate, mini-wireless sensors, biometric systems, "smart" videocameras, underskin implants, smart dusts, spy objects?

In Grenoble, on 2006, June 1st, the CEA (the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique) and the INPG (the National polytechnical Institute of Grenoble) are inaugurating Minatec, the "1st European pole for nanotechnology". It is in their labs, associated in this new center, that the new tools of technologic control are created (and more and more are coming!).

Are we ready to swallow Atomically Modified Organisms, toxic nanoparticles, to be invaded by alienating electronic toys? After the mad cow disease, GMOs, abestos, pesticides, radioactivity and the 2001explosion of the AZF chemical factory, we know what kind of disasters have been brought to us by the recent technological leaps and the political changes that usually come along with them. The development of technological industry goes along with the increase of social misery and a general health deterioration (cancer, allergy, sterility and so forth).

The nanotechnologies which are developped in Minatec consist in manipulating matter (life and non-life) at the atom scale. Like in a building block game, new materials and new molecules are built. At this scale, several sciences are converging, and preparing future plagues: nuclear physics, molecular biology, chemistry, cognitive science and the science of information. They are the new lightning war that is being waged to life by the techno-industry.

The nanotechnologies are imposed to us in the same way as were nuclear energy and GMOs. The same despotism will generate similar damage. Such a method reveals the harms we can expect and fear from them; above all it shows to what extent their promotors do dread our legitimate distrusting and refusing.

Then, why do our governors applaud the inauguration of Minatec? Because in 2006, to manufacture alienating machines (mobile phones, ambient gates, domotics),controlling machines and killing machines ("intelligent" weapons, fighting robots and so on) is all worth a lot of money and creates jobs.

If we have any left dignity , political and historical conscience, any kind of revolt instinct, we must refuse Minatec and the nanotechnologies. In the name of heart and reason, let's refuse the relentless pursuit of technological advance and the destruction of the environment; the race for profits and jobs: the totalitarian nanoworld.

CLOSE MINATEC! EMPTY THE LABORATORIES!

ON 2006, JUNE, 1st, LET'S ALL GO TO GRENOBLE AGAINST THE INAUGURATION OF MINATEC


NB : There are activities also on may 30th, may 31st and june 2nd, check the website and contact us :
 http://ogn.ouvaton.org
 ogn@poivron.org




WHY WE WILL PROTEST AGAINST THE INAUGURATION OF MINATEC
IN GRENOBLE,ON 2006, JUNE 1st

In Grenoble, for years, the university, the industry and the army have invested in nanotechnology in order to boost the economical growth and to "revolutionise our lives". We refuse this new techno-industrial disaster.

Against the invasion of electronic spies
Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID chips) embedded in every object of our daily life and in our identity papers, under animals‚ and man‚s skins; micro-sensors scattered in the environment and on persons; biometric sensors; "smart" videocameras; smart dust: these control tools are designed in the labs of Grenoble. Soon we won‚t go anywhere, say any word, and buy anything without being tracked and recorded; a totalitarian world in which the mere idea of contestation will be an obsolete one.

We do not want GMOs or AMOs (Atomically Modified Organisms)
After genetic engineering, atomic manipulations: nanotechnologies are attacking food and agriculture. Some researchers use nanoparticles to smuggle foreign DNA into plants cells so as to make them produce proteins withe new characteristics. Soon farmers will be forced to use nano-encapsulated pesticides, vet nanoparticles, molecular sensors, and also to inject chips under their animals skins. For milleniums, however, the humans have known simple methods to grow healthy food. Once again, the industry is trying to forbid it to us.

We refuse electronic gadgets
In addition to nanoparticles and nanomaterials, the industry is trusting the "communicating objects" to boost sales. Pens, refrigerators, clothes, domestic appliances, telephones: every single object will be connected.This is known as "ambient intelligence". A marketing idea to have us buying always more useless products, polluting both for the manufacture and for the elimination. You don't need them? Yes, you do, say the "sociologists of uses" of the IDEAS Lab in Minatec, who are paid to make us accept the nano-fashionable junk.

Against nanoparticles, "abestos bis"
In a recent study, some rats were made to inhale carbon nanoparticles: their lungs look like those of the victims of abestos. Some large mouth basses were introduced carbon fullerens into the water they lived in: they developped various cellular abnormalities. Nanoparticles can already be found in sunscreens, in self cleaning glass or in some rubber tyres. Toxicologists have shown that their very small size allows them to move everywhere in the body, across the skin, blood cells or the blood brain barrier. Why do insurance companies refuse to insure the environmental and health risks of the nanotechnologies?






We (also) refuse the weapons of the future
The nanotechnologies are also used to wage war. The DGA (the french DARPA) signed an agreement with the CEA, which gives it access to the latest scientific breakthroughs of Minatec, allows it to decide about subjets for thesis and to direct the researches. Researchers have already designed "smart" shells, micro-drons, communicating and camouflaging fabrics, chemical and biological sensors, micro sources of energy, infrared sighting weapons,microcapsules for toxic products, exo-skeletons and other death tools.

We do not want the machine-man
We refuse the project of "converging technologies", also addressed as NBIC (Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information and Cognitive science), which pretends to create an "improved" human race, thanks to implants and electronic prothesis, which will more probably lead to the automation of the human race: robots.

We refuse the reign of CEA-Minatec over the region of Grenoble
The city of Grenoble and its inhabitants are asked to adapt themselves so the place remains attractive to researchers, start-ups creators and engineers who are coveted by our elected representatives. Destruction of old urban areas to build luxury housing projects, eviction of the popular classes from the city center, rises of rents, massive urbanization, prestige politics. Accorder to a delighted elected councillor:"it is the tyranny of success, the poor hand over to the rich". The community - which means, we - finance the investment (€ 115 millions, out of the € 193 millions that Minatec costs, are public funds) for the profit of private companies. They decide for us, we pay for them.

Against the dictatorship of the technician system
"The nanotechnologies are going to revolutionise our lives" claim researchers and manufacturers, as they did for GM food and nuclear energy. If there was to be such a revolution, it would happen against our will. For instance: Minatec, initiated by the CEA (the Atomic Energy Commission) in 1998 and approved by the Metro (Grenoble plus its suburbs) in 2000, was decided in the secret of the meetings of the techchnological and political elites, without ever consulting the inhabitants . It is only in 2005, to answers the citizens protests, that the Metro organized a talk show, "Science and democracy", aiming at making us accept decisions already taken.
Close Minatec.


Opposition Grenobloise aux Nécrotechnologies
February 2006