[asia-apec 1480] KMP/BAYAN chair defends French peasant "Robin Hood"

[bayan]

Dear friends and comrades,

Here is a news item on Rafael Mariano, concurrent chair of the Kilusang
Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Peasant Movement of the Philippines) and
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN, New Patriotic Alliance).

Best regards,
BAYAN Public Information Department




KMP CHAIR IS DEFENSE WITNESS FOR  FRENCH PEASANT "ROBIN HOOD"

The chairman of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP - Peasant Movement
of the Philippines), Rafael Mariano, appears in a French court today as a
defense witness for José Bové, the farmer who is on trial for attacking the
building site of a new McDonald's fast food outlet in Millau, in the Tarn
valley of
southern France.

The ''symbolic dismantling,'' in Bové's words, of the McDonald's outlet
then under construction in Millau happened on August 12, 1999. The
attack was a protest action against the high tariffs the US imposed on
certain French specialty products including the famous Roquefort cheese.

Bové, a sheep farmer who provides milk to Roquefort makers, heads the
Conféderation Paysanne, the French movement of small farmers. He has
served already an unrelated eight-month suspended sentence for plowing
up a field planted in transgenic corn.

After the McDonald's attack, he spent three weeks in jail because he
refused to post bail. A picture of him with raised handcuffed wrists
crystallized his fame. Since then, the man has won the support of a
significant portion of the French population and was nicknamed "the
peasant Robin Hood."

Bové, who sports an oversized moustache like French comic strip hero
Asterix, was also a prominent participant in last year's
anti-globalization protests in Seattle. It was there that he befriended
another moustached peasant leader from the other side of the world:
Rafael Mariano, the chairman of KMP.

"I didn't have to think twice about José's invitation to defend him in
court," Mariano said, "as small farmers from industrialized countries
like France and poor Philippine peasants alike are suffering from
globalization."

"In the context of the devastation brought about by the WTO and other
instruments of imperialist globalization, his action was morally
justified," the KMP chair argued.

Other defense witnesses include activists from around the world like
Lori Wallach, president of Global Trade Watch, Bill Christison of the
Washington-based National Family Farm Coalition, Vandana Shiva, an
Indian environmental activist, and Rafael Allegria who heads La Via
Campesina, a worldwide alliance of peasant organizations of which
Conféderation Paysanne and KMP are members.

The Conféderation Paysanne has turned the trial into a huge protest
action against globalization. French newspapers are already referring to
the event as "Seattle-on-Tarn," a reference to the local river and the
anti-WTO protests in the US last year. Some 20,000 people have gathered
in Millau since yesterday to support José Bové and to attend 14 fora and
a free rock concert.

''We're making it the trial of globalization!'' said one of the
protesters. ''The verdict is already in,'' somebody added. ''No to the
World Trade Organization! No to globalization!''

Please refer to BBC news for a picture of Rafael Mariano in Millau,
France:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_812000/812995.stm






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