WAR Protests HLS Customers Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis and Bayer
Bayer Global Day of Action
The focus of this day of protest was the major customers of Huntingdon Life Sciences. The companies chosen today support and enable Huntingdon Life Sciences to continue to kill 500 animals per day with their blood money contracts.
First stop of the evening was the exclusive luxury hi-rise building of Lamberto Andreotti, who sits on the Executive Management team of Bristol-Myers Squibb. Lucky for the activists, the Ethical Society, whose meeting space is directly across the street from Andreotti’s apartment, had a concert scheduled. This ensured a steady stream of pedestrians, many of whom stopped to discuss the lack of ethics and compassion being shown by Bristol-Myers Squibb by continuing their relationship with the animal abusers at HLS.
Fifteen activists raised their voices in unison to advocate for the animals, imprisoned by Huntingdon Life Sciences, who have no voice. Graphic posters enlightened passersby to the suffering and pain caused by animal testing. Literature was freely distributed and concert-goers stopped by to take handfuls of flyers to distribute at the concert. It is always a pleasure for activists to converse with intelligent and educated people, who care about ethical issues and compassion.
Many expressed their support for animal rights and against animal testing. Most were disheartened to know that a well-known company like Bristol-Myers Squibb was complicit in the bloody business of Huntingdon Life Sciences.
Demo #2: Dorothy Watson – General Counsel – Novartis
After a short walk north, activists arrived at location that is very familiar to them. At the bustling intersection of 72nd Street and Broadway, activists raised their signs and their voices to name and shame Dorothy Watson of HLS customer Novartis. The erection of scaffolding along 72nd street served to amplify their already loud voices. This has to be one of the busiest intersections in New York City!
As always, hundreds of flyers were distributed and many stopped to engage in conversation with the activists. Many promised to call or write to Novartis and to Dorothy Watson in an effort to get them to cut the ties that bind them to the despicable animal abusers at Huntingdon Life Sciences. The bone chilling cold did nothing to dampen the spirits of the activists. Despite freezing fingers and toes, they held up their signs and gave voice to their anger and rage naming and shaming one of the coldest and most dispassionate partners of Huntingdon Life Sciences, Novartis.
“500 animals died today, Dorothy Watson is to blame….500 murdered in vain, Novartis is to blame”. Until the killing ends at Huntingdon Life Sciences, activists have vowed to continue their efforts to educate the companies that contract animal killing there. “Novartis, cut your bloody ties with the monsters at Huntingdon Life Sciences”.
Demo #3: Sybil Anderson – Physician - Bayer Corporation
Despite the numbing cold and frigid winds, activists traveled by both train and bus up to 135th Street and 5th Avenue in the well-known neighborhood of Harlem. There, activists set up in front of the building of Dr. Sybil Anderson of Bayer Corporation. This protest was part of the Global Day of Action against Bayer.
One activist held a sign prominently featuring a Bayer logo along with the words “Contracts Animal Torture”. This was a very different kind of location for the activists, who were gratified to find, that the hatred of animal cruelty is universal and people from all races and walks of life are equally disgusted by it. Many of Sybil Anderson’s neighbors stopped to take flyers and to ask questions of the freezing activists. Not one person spoke out against the protesters or argued against their right to be there and to loudly call attention to their cause.
Chanting…..”One Struggle, One Fight….Human Freedom, Animal Rights”, activists spoke the truth and were well received……”You can put our friends in jail, we will drive the final nail” was met with encouragement and nods of support from passersby.
Video Clips:
Lamberto Andreotti - Bristol-Myers Squibb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCdt3_B2ahI Dorothy Watson - Novartis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZsnT-CLdOM Dr. Sybil Anderson - Bayer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_1RyrLW3OM
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Group(CBGnetwork) urges NCSU to end deal with Bayer
28.01.2009 19:12
I wouldn't have published it on IMC UK as it regards an action in the U.S.....
Jan 28, 2009, The News & Observer / McClatchy-Tribune
Group urges NCSU to end deal with Bayer
A German activist group is attacking N.C. State University for agreeing to collaborate on research with Bayer CropScience and accepting a $1 million endowment from the company to establish a chair in sustainable development.
"Bayer has a long history of giving precedence to profits over human rights and a sound environment," the Coalition Against Bayer Dangers wrote in a recent letter to university officials. "By helping this corporation to greenwash its image, you reduce the concept of sustainable development to absurdity. We therefore urge you to stop this cooperation."
Bayer CropScience's endowment and collaboration with the university's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences was announced last week in conjunction with a symposium at the university titled "Stewards of the Future: Research for Global Sustainability Tomorrow."
Bayer CropScience has its U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park, where it employs 450 people. It's a subsidiary of Bayer AG, a corporate behemoth based in Germany whose businesses span the pharmaceutical, materials and agribusiness sectors.
The Coalition Against Bayer Dangers has been monitoring -- and criticizing -- Bayer for decades, but it has stepped up its efforts in the wake of the controversy surrounding one of Bayer's best-selling pesticides and the disappearance of millions of U.S. honeybees. In August, the group filed a complaint in Germany alleging Bayer knowingly polluted the environment. Company officials have rejected the contention that its pesticides played a role in the bees' disappearance.
Johnny Wynne, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said he has not seen the letter and knows of no reason "at this particular point" to end the collaboration.
Wynne said the school has had discussions with Bayer CropScience officials on sustainability issues such as reducing greenhouse gases, protecting water supplies and biodiversity.
"I have not had any concerns about working with them in these areas," he said.
Bayer CropScience spokesman Jack Boyne said he was unaware of the coalition's protest, but he added, "The Coalition Against Bayer Danger is an activist organization with a very clear bias against Bayer."
"The $1 million that Bayer has put forward to establish a chair of sustainable development, I think, is a very noble activity," Boyne said. "N.C. State has a very long history of collaboration with the private sector. If you look at Centennial Campus, I would say that the central focus of that is to foster this collaboration."
Open Letter
to Dr. Johnny Wynne, Dean N.C. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS)
to Dr. Tom Rufty, Bayer CropScience Professor of Sustainable Development
to Dr. James Oblinger, Chancellor North Carolina State University
Sustainable Development Chair: Reject Bayer Endowment
Dear Johnny Wynne, Tom Rufty and James Oblinger,
last week North Carolina State University announced that Bayer CropScience created a $1 million endowment and that Tom Rufty will hold the chair of sustainable development the endowment makes possible. Johnny Wynne is cited as saying: “We are honored to have Bayer as a collaborator in our research efforts to find solutions to the complex problems that issues like global climate change, population growth, and food and water shortages present.”
The Coalition against BAYER Dangers, which has been monitoring Bayer for 30 years, criticises this cooperation.
Bayer has a long history of giving precedence to profits over human rights and a sound environment. The corporation has fought against almost all agreements on environmental issues, be it the Kyoto Protocol for the protection of the climate, the new European laws on chemicals, the phasing out of CFCs or recent EU efforts to reduce the use of pesticides.
Bayer started hundreds of partnerships and sponsorships with universities, medical societies, environmental groups or educational organizations - particularly in fields where the company is criticised. Bayer has been abusing these cooperations to deflect criticism by watchdog groups or the media and to exploit the good image of their partners to present a corporate humanitarian image.
Bayer CropScience´s business is especially problematic:
Bayer CropScience continues to sell pesticides from WHO hazard classes Ia (extremely hazardous) and Ib (highly hazardous), including thiodicarb, parathion-methyl, fenamiphos, ethoprop, azinphos-methyl and triazophos. Particularly in conditions of poverty, the risk-free use of such pesticides is impossible. The company thus holds responsibility for fatal poisonings of thousands of agricultural laborers each year. In 1995 Bayer announced that it would remove all hazard class I pesticides from the market, a promise that is being continually broken.
A Greenpeace study last year showed that Bayer CropScience pesticides pose the biggest threat to human health and the environment, compared to other international producers.
Bayer´s facilities are highly dangerous. At Bayer CropScience´s Institute plant, large quantities of methyl isocyanate, the chemical that killed and injured over 100,000 in Bhopal/India, and phosgene, a nerve agent used in World War I are produced and stored. Last August a huge explosion occured in the plant. Two workers died, thousands of residents were at risk.
Bayer´s herbicide glufosinate is classified as reprotoxic. The substance is on an EU black list and will not receive further approvals in Europe. Despite grave dangers to consumers and operators glufosinate is one of the best-selling herbicides in the US.
Despite bans in more than 50 countries Bayer CropScience is still marketing endosulfan, a pesticide that is a leading cause of poisoning worldwide. Endosulfan is acutely toxic, is known to disrupt the hormone system, can damage the human reproductive system and has been linked to cancer among other human health effects.
Last year German authorities blamed Bayer´s clothianidin for the deaths of millions of honeybees. The German government suspended the registration for eight seed treatment products, including Bayer´s clothianidin and imidacloprid. Italy and France banned the substances as well.
Bayer CropScience is one of the few western companies that do business in Burma despite the catastrophic human rights situation there. Bayer has a subsidiary in Rangoon and is planning trials there with hybrid rice.
Bayer CropScience has several types of rice in its product range that are resistant to glufosinate. The rice type LL 601 was present in the food chain for many years despite not being authorized for consumption anywhere in the world. The European Union and Japan imposed import bans on imports, numerous rice growers in the United States lost export markets and sued the company.
The Coalition against BAYER Dangers has documented hundreds of cases when BAYER´s products or factories have harmed people or the environment. The company has only stopped the production of hazardous products when pressured to do so by the public.
By helping this corporation to greenwash its image you reduce the concept of Sustainable Development to absurdity. We therefore urge you to stop this cooperation.
With Regards,
Philipp Mimkes, Hubert Ostendorf, Axel Koehler-Schnura, Jan Pehrke, Uwe Friedrich
Board of the Coalition against BAYER-dangers
Coalition against BAYER Dangers
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Prof. Juergen Junginger, designer, Krefeld,
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