Chronology of
The Inter Continental Caravan for Solidarity and Resistance
by Maurizio Cucci
During spring 1999, after nine months of volunteer engagement, a few dozens of European activists of People Global Action (PGA), supported by myriad of local groups, succeed in the organisation of The Intercontinental Caravan for Solidarity and Resistance (ICC), which will involve five hundred women and men from three different continents to participate in a long series of protests, public meetings and debates of counter-information, on five main issues in accordance with the Manifesto of PGA:
1. Globalisation
2. Free Trade and Global Policy Institutions
3. Biotechnology
4. Corporate Power
5. Militarism
As this project has been conceived in India by the KRRS, the greatest farmer movements of the country, a large part of the activists are Indian farmers, but the project is endorsed by activists from all over the world and from different social sectors. In Europe the Green Party and Confédération Paysanne are the only institutional organisations which participate in the rally, while the other Europeans are the antagonists of ever, the only, always and anyway, standing on the weakest side. They include anarchists, punks, squatters, bio-farmers, immigrant groups, women groups, anti-genetic groups, Christian and peace movements groups, anti-nuke etc… And they meet regularly to take this project across nine countries of Europe; from Spain and Basque countries to Germany, from England to Italy, trough Holland, Belgium, France, Swiss and Austria.
For the first time Unions of southern farmers take an international campaign of protest in the north of the planet, together with the Indian farmers, Movimento Sem Terra from Brazil, Movimento Mapuche from Chile , Process of Black Communities from Colombia, environmentalists from Pakistan, Demo-Socialist from USA, Rainbow Keepers from Ukraine, Women Farmers from Bangladesh, activists for Human Rights from Nepal, Mexicans and many others. In the end, singles and groups who support the idea of ICC, are more than 355.
From the logistic uncertainties of the last ten days, fled out the Dambeck Monastery in Germany, a court of miracles constructed in the year 1224 on the axis of an antique Basilica. How the horizons can change!!! Recently, this was border land left uncultivated for all the time of the communist block. Today, interrupted windows and ancient doors, improvised stairs and desert courtyards are crowded of hundreds caravaneers, convened from the southern fields to Fortress Europe, to let their voices be heard.
The caravan, made of 11 buses, splits into eight segments, leaving to Holland, Belgium, France and Germany. In the next days, some of the buses will collect more people at the arrival gates of different airports around Europe.
In Amsterdam, screaming “Biotechnology down down! Biotechnology down down!” the caravaneers walk across an industrial area to the Cargill site, the greatest in Europe. In front of the gates Prof. Nanyundaswamy, President of KRRS , give a speech and also Shamsun Nahar Nhan talks, representing the women farmers of Bangladesh, with millions of tears pushing out from inside she testifies with all her forces “... we know you produce food which is a dam to our health!!! You must stop it now!!! Otherwise we, the women of Bangladesh, will stop you!!!“
Than, the song “We Want the Power” gives the rhythm for dancing to everybody. Even the old Prof. and Shamsun enjoy dancing.
During the Holland afternoon, at the Institute for Social Studies of Den Haag, it is again Shamsun Nahar Nhan who speaks “... in my country there exist the bio-pirates whose aim is to destroy the local seeds and replace them with packets of sterile ones, which are offered on the market with attractive instalment sales. After the last flood, they distribute at least half million of these packets.“
In Rouen, after the welcome in the Cathedral’s square within ATTAC79 and Conf. Paysanne, there is a march to the port where, screaming “No to transgenic Maize and Soya!”, the caravaneers pour into the sea a symbolic amount of transgenic Soya.
The afternoon in Limoges sees two public meetings, where Vijav Jawandhia, union leader in the State of Maharashtra, explains “... the standard income of an Indian farmer does not exceed two/three dollars per day. Under the pressure of globalisation, we are forced to import products which we could easily produce in India: olive oil from Malaysia, sugar from Brazil and from Pakistan, cotton from USA, wheat from Europe etc... For example: four years ago, always in the famous global market controlled by Americans, the cotton was worth 1.1 dollar, while today it does not exceed 72 cents. We should unite our forces to create another form of globalisation, more humane, more fair.“
The Brussels morning at the monument to the Atom sees the caravans of ICC, For Mother Earth and Money or Life, together with a crowd of thousands and thousands of people from all over Europe and even from overseas, marching until the barrier of the Belgian police, just in front of the NATO HQ. There, they raise their voices against the Kosovo war and all atomic arms.
The sun is rising on London when the caravaneers, together with people of Reclaim the Streets, march across Banglatown down to Brick Lane, screaming “WTO murdabad ICC sindabad!” all the way to the City where, first in front of The Bank of England and than in front of the Stock Exchange they raise their protests against the globalisation.
(The Guardian, Asian Age, Red Pepper, Big Issue, Sunrise Radio, BBC World Service, BBC Radio South East, Birmingham Asian Network, BBC TV Food Program, report the event.)
In France the caravaneers are in action in Bassanne, near Langon where, together with Conf. Paysanne they destroy an experimental field of transgenic rape seeds, loaned by Agrévo, a company working on GMOs. “It’s all legal in this action”, state, Saturday night, the Major of Bassanne, Claude Habye. “The authorisations are in the Municipality. I don’t know by whom the group was made up, someone told me they were Indians.“
After the action they leave to Vallée d’Aspes in the Pyrenée mounts. At the same time another segment is travelling from Rennes to Niort to attend a public meeting.
“On what, the poor people have to live if we are destroying their agriculture?” ask the President of ATTAC 79, Jean Ducos, opening the debate. Than the President of the local section of Conf. Paysanne, Philippe Coutand, urges to explain that “Here too, as it happens in your land, the farmers are protesting in the sites where they grows GMOs.“
Inside Berlin’s courtyards invaded by wreckage and sieged in derelict buildings by the unstoppable rhythm of the German restoration machine, the caravaneers get hosted by Berliner squatters, across a smashing rainfall trough outlets in the walls and dogs snarling in the dark. The hospitality is excellent, warm sleep and warm water are available.
Next stage for the Berlin bus is Poland but, during the last days, in at least 50 Polish locations, riots are on between police and Polish farmers. Armoured police vehicles, smashing water, are faced by from farmers’ tractors shooting pesticides. In Nowy Dwor Gdanski, a town on the Vistola’s estuary, the fights with police started at a road block, than moved downtown where farmers sought for shelter pursued by police rubber bullet and tear-gas, to which they answer with molotovs. Twenty-nine civilians are wounded and four police cars burned.
The caravaneers are projecting an action to support Polish farmers, to be held in Frankfurt am Oder, on the bridge across the border with Poland. Meanwhile, they send a message of solidarity:
“Polish brothers and farmers we, the Indian farmers, send you our warm wishes and feelings. Unfortunately we are denied visas to join your heroic demonstration against WTO and local issues. We are with you. Yours, on behalf of ICC and Indian farmers, KRRS and Andrapradesh farmers. The farmers delegation.“
In Pamplona, Pais Bascos, there is a press conference and a meeting with Navarra’s parliamentarians in the central Plaza del Castillo, where Vijav Jawandhia is denouncing that “The actual development model does not offer any solution to the world hunger. Farmers and rural world are exploited in the name of industrialisation, while the benefits often go to multinationals and great capitals.“
Again in Pamplona, accompanied by Trikitixa Music Band, a group supported by Navarra Platform Against Transgenic, the caravaneers reach the Public University, occupy the Library and open a discussion. One Indian farmer expresses his doubts on the so-called “Scientific Progress” marking that “Transgenic technologies will not solve the problem of the hunger in the world, because hunger is a problem of distribution”
Later they hold a symbolic action in the Parch of Taconera, where they plant local and Indian plants, in remembrance of the common struggle.
Next day in the central square of Tudela, Pais Bascos, they attend an action directed to sensitise the local farmers who have planted transgenic maize, bringing them their message “The aim of north American lobbies is to produce a fall of the prices all over the world. Sooner or later, all farmers will pay the expenses, no matter if they are Indians or Europeans.“
Meanwhile in Gaudiès, the caravaneers take a direct action in a field of transgenic rape seeds, an experimental land belonging to the Centre of Technical and Interprofessional Studies for Metropolitans Oil-yielding. They harvest the rape seeds and they burned it, watching flames dancing on transgenic plants. TV cameras from FR3 and France2 tape the action, and at least four newspapers report the event.
The main group of the caravan reaches Milan in the afternoon, welcomed at the Social Centre Leoncavallo. After words they move to the park of Castello Sforzesco, where they join some thousands of protesters who are demonstrating against the fool Nato’s bombing of Serbia and the criminal Serbian nationalism. During the action they plant thousands of white crosses in the park, to remember the civil victims and the 350 children who have been killed in the last days of the conflict.
The sun is rising on Rome when three buses of the local company of transport drives the caravaneers to the Railway Station where, screaming “Zapata vive la luche sigue!”, they are boarding the train back to Milan. Meanwhile in Bologna there is a direct action against McDonald and a biological lunch in Nettuno square.
In Montpellier, the caravaneers are taking a direct action against CIRAD . Together with the CUN, a non violent movement, and the farmers of Conf. Paysanne from the near departments of Aude, Aveyron, Gard and Hérault, they enter the site and force the fence of the greenhouse, where they destroy a stock of transgenic rice in test tubes, produced to be experimented in the region of Camargue. The action follow a formal request of the Fédération Familles Rurales for a general moratorium on the import and the authorisation to grow GMOs, opposing the refusal to become Guinea pigs of a more expanded world lab. Radio France records the event which have been reported from at least six newspapers, including Le Monde and Le Figaro.
At the same time, the people of the main segment of ICC is moving in Italy to Venice, where they meet the civil society and the local authority in the Municipality of Mestre., where Prof. Swamy gives a speech “We have to change because to go on like this is like a suicide. The one we all know like democracy is only a formal attitude. From Uruguay Round, which gives life to WTO, the Governments of the entire planet are following strong powers of transnationals companies. For the poor farmers of the so-called third world it starts a tribulation that can see no way out. But it is not enough. The worst is that the genetic mutations produced in laboratories risk to contaminate and expand in the environment where they have been introduced, producing a chain of genetically modifications on which we will never have the control. And all this happens only to satisfy the greed of Monsanto and of Multinational Corporations.“
On June 7th all the buses arrive at Geneva, at the Social Centre La Usine in Place des Volontaires, temple of the alternative culture. Here the caravaneers meet all together for the first time in the “Village for living together”, where Genevans and caravaneers exchange their different experiences and feelings.
The first part of the journey has been tiring and stressing, not only for the huge number of actions followed by hundreds kilometres seated on buses, but also for the gap of different languages, food needs and mentalities. All these problems came out in an hot and crowded meeting attended by all the bus co-ordinators at the Arquibuse, a squat near La Usine where the home squatters welcome the caravaneers with the banner “Kill your leaders”.
Later another plenary meeting is held at La Usine, where everybody has the chance to compare with each other and discuss the problems of the minorities inside the caravan. A meaningful instance has the intensity with which Hilda, a Mapuche woman from Chile, says that she participates in the caravan, even if she is seven month pregnant, in the hope to meet the international solidarity for the Latin Americans struggles. There millions of natives fight against their Government and multinational companies who oppress them. “Just in these days forty activists of Movimento Sem Terra were arrested in Brazil but nobody seem to feel the need of solidarity”
The Indians were immediately touched by her words and clarify that, once again, it is a problem of languages and information sharing, adding their interest to know more about those peoples and their countries.
The following day everyone wakes up in a sunny morning to attend, together with Genevans, the march to the WTO building. The slogans in Hindi alternate the Spanish, the English and the French ones, everyone screams in a thousand voices chorus united by the awareness of the threat represented by WTO. The Green scarves of kanaka farmers together with the red flags of Brazilians Sem Terra, the turbans of Punjabi farmers, the coloured hair of European squatters, a tractor of Swiss farmers and the thousands feet of the caravaneers got there from the four corners of the planet. They all show a firm and resolute opposition against the private exploitation of the planet’s resources, that WTO is going to globalise supported by useless governments. These same Governments are slaved by a perverse and fierce mechanism which holds sway on them and even grafts their national constitutions.
The rainbow wave is moving a crowd of banners with the slogans and the music bus aloud playing “We Want the Power” which has already become the sound track of the demonstration. The procession stops in front of a quite line of Swiss police, antiriot trimmed, who close the entrance to the WTO building.
Then it is time for a public speech and the orators of every group scramble the bus roof. There is no time for translators, so the thousands voices of the protest rise in a multilingual speech. They all give the same message, speaking for the peoples of the world, who are daily oppressed by the savage cynicism of the neoliberalist exploitation of the humanity.
The protest ends up peacefully and, while the super-crowded bus caracol back to Place des Volontaires, the euphoria and emotion for the struggle remove from everyone’s mind all the misunderstandings and conflicts, of the eve of this memorable day of action.
Back to Place des Volontaires, all the smiling hearts are embracing and kissing each others in a renewed spirit of the internationalist fight which wraps up everybody in an authentic and enthusiastic resistance party. Unrestrained rock groups alternate mini-shows of street theatre in a garish uproar of thousands of colours.
The evening sees Swiss-Italian TV News and also BBC World News reports the event, explaining motivations.
Then comes J18 day, contemporarily to G7 Summit, the day of the global protest targeting financial centres all around the world.
During the Koeln morning the caravaneers set up an action in front of Bayer site at Leverkusen.
Later they left the camp on the river side of the Rheine, starting the laugh parade which should meet other groups, marching downtown from several other points around the city. But when they reach the subway station and occupy a few wagons the train is stopped by hundreds policemen armed to the teeth. They answer to the force with a collective laugh then, after hours of siege, the police requires to identify all the protesters who refuse to give documents in the name of the free circulation of the people inside the city as inside Europe. This attitude gives the start to a mass arrest: ninety-five young European activists together with Indian farmers, Brazilian Sem Terra, Colombians, Mapuche and many others are smashed out the subway station, arrested, filed and searched. Thirty-two of them are jailed in the Police Station where they are searched again and interrogated, some of theme are denounced for resisting the arrest. A young Italian girl falls victim of the panic under the eyes of the press, and is driven to the hospital on the ambulance.
Strangely the public and private German TV are absent.
Meanwhile, downtown Koeln, the wives of the Seven Great participate in a vernissage in an Art Gallery; a group of the laugh parade, facing the Gallery, gives them the collective laugh and receives the welcome of the aggressive rods of the antiriot-police.
Later, a group enters an isolated police park and destroys with iron bars all the police cars parked there.
The extraordinary day of global protest is over, the J18 closes its trail together with the sun setting overseas on the Californian coasts.
Meanwhile all the brothers arrested in the subway station have been released.
Later the next morning thousands of people hand in hand are winding downtown Koeln across two wings of antiriot trimmed policemen with shields: they are facing a human chain organised by Jubilee 2000 to cancel the debts of poor countries. They want to symbolise global people solidarity to those countries of the so-called third world who are oppressed by hunger, misery and wars. Even if they have already repaid many times the first amount of their debt, the growing interests and the falling prices of their products build up a cynical mechanism that makes impossible for them to refund their national debts.
In a short time the light on the Summit will be turned off and politicians, journalists and protesters will go back home.
Also the caravaneers leave the camp, but one thing remains: the memory of a great experience which marks an important step in the history of the international struggle.
Along a thirty-days journey, the 11 buses run altogether over 90.000 Km, divided into more than 216 stages including 63 direct actions, 85 public meetings, 38 farms visited and 30 parties. Meanwhile there have been published 129 articles on newspapers and magazines and dozens of TV reports. All this take place at the daily rhythm of two direct action, three public meetings, one visit to a farm and one party, followed by at least four articles on local and national press and at least one minute on TV report of local, national and international broadcast companies.
The love and the respect for nature, added to the engagement and the responsibility for the future of bio-diversity on the planet, have permitted to wrap the entire caravan with a blanket of harmony, this has enabled the caravaneers to go beyond individualistic visions and mentalities, and to collect on the same trail so many peoples from so different social extraction, and cultures.
The caravan experience has urged a deep reflection on the human future threatened, as it is, by flesh-eating cows able to consume bone-flour of the chicken industry and sterile seeds, which see the light only if treated with fertilisers of the same brand. All this happens in a world context where one billion people are malnourished and fighting against hunger, while over four billions peoples live with less than three dollars per day. And where even the World Health Organisation, - which is not the most radical organisation - watching the index of poverty swelling dramatically, is talking about the capitalist holocaust.
The global opposition to the new world economic order has become a concrete reality. The future will testify that this crazy experience of a bunch of European antagonists, a few hundreds of Indian farmers and some other international movements was only the hors-d’oeuvre of the larger Seattle historical riots, the mother event of a vaster global fight, standing up daily against the neoliberalism of multinational capitals which is killing this unique wonderful planet.
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