ing transgenetic soy crops. He had already been sentenced to eight months’ probation for the destruction of transgenetic crops in France in 1998. He pursued this struggle, rallying in 2003 with the “volunteer reapers.” This movement aimed to destroy transgenetic crops in their fields in order to fight the spread of GMOs. The thousands of militants who adhered to the movement followed principles of nonviolence and civil disobedience, refusing to submit to laws that they found unjust. Their objective was to create public debate. Each action brought together a great number of militants, unmasked, in their own names, and with the full knowledge of the law. With such a large number, the legal consequences were (in theory) diminished, and the police could not have managed to rough up all the protestors. It’s also notable that Jose Bove is one of the founding members of ATTAC, an association that shares the same politics as the Confederation Paysanne with respect to GMOs. Asserting his activist views, Jose Bove declared “I am an anarcho-syndicalist. My influences are the founding of the First International in the last century and the Spanish CNT in 1936.” Bove is a public personality who inspires debate and splits opinion. It seems that his actions have majority support in France, but they retain a marginal character. The suc-
cess of his methods has made media coverage on agricultural issues hard to obtain. Interestingly, Bove leads actions in a spirit of active nonviolence, but these interventions are sometimes agitated. He employs the effects of media repercussions. Hence the symbolism of the act is more important than the act itself. His frank words and the political engagement of his acts, which have brought him all the way to prison, have equally contributed to his popularity and his abusive media treatment. He’s an object of criticism from his opponents as well as from more purist anarcho-syndicalists. After years as a militant, Bove has entered the political arena. He has refined his position, declaring that “if being an anarchist means only referencing the thought of the nineteenth century, as the Marxists have done, then it’s no good. Today, to act is to reflect on the state, on its technique, on the way in which this system becomes more and more totalitarian, on the way that the economy follows only its own rules.” In June of 2006, in an interview with Liberation, Jose Bove joined the 2007 presidential race, estimating his politics to lie at the left wing of the left wing. But by September he seemed to already have abandoned this idea, apparently intimidated by the burden of the office of president of France.
ATTAC, Association for Transaction Taxes
agricultural politics both in Europe and in the world, in particular the Euro-
Created June 3, 1998, ATTAC is “an international movement to democratically monitor financial markets and their institutions.” Present in 55 countries, its initial objective was to introduce a tax on international capitalist groups with the goal of decreasing speculation. Although critical of the processes of a world economy dominated by neoliberalism, ATTAC is not systematically opposed to globalization in general. It encourages economic policies
pean Union’s Agricultural Community. The CPE participated in the creation of Via Campesina, and has sponsored bans of bovine growth hormones and antibiotics in beet farming. They have also helped rural communities resist GMOs. www.cpefarmers.org
economic policies are possible.
La Confederation Paysanne (The Farmers’ Confederation)
www.attac.org
The Farmers’ Confederation is a rural syndicate born in 1987. The syndicate
that respect social and environmental issues, and insists that anti-liberal
reexamines the model for agricultural development of the last forty years,
Slow Food®
which has brought about a decrease in food prices, surpluses, health crises,
The International Slow Food Movement was founded in Paris in 1989. Slow
disparities between French, European and world regions and the depopula-
Food traces its roots to a protest against the opening of a McDonald’s in the
tion of rural areas. It defends farming communities as an alternative to in-
Piazza di Spagna in Rome. National chapters were established in France,
dustrial agriculture. Important to the anti-globalization movement, the Farm-
the U.S., Germany, Switzerland and Japan. Slow Food is locally active in 50
ers’ Confederation is a member of the CPE and the Via Campesina. Jose
countries in the form of conferences that represent areas with a cultural and
Bove helped the confederation to gain notoriety outside French borders.
culinary history. As the name indicates, Slow Food is opposed to fast food culture and its detrimental effects such as the standardization of flavor.
GMOs, Genetically Modified Organisms
www.slowfood.com
See Lumpen 99’s cover story “Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To
www.slowfood.fr/france
Be Mutants: BioEthics and the Pandora’s Box of Genetic Engineering” by Charles Shaw.
La Via Campesina Since 1993, Via Campesina is an international, autonomous, pluralist move-
The First International
ment that is independent of any political, economic or religious organiza-
The First International is the International Workers Association, founded
tion. Delegates representing farm workers converge every three years at
September 28, 1864 in London. In its Karl Marx-penned mission statement
international conferences for general decision-making. The movement is
of 1864, the FI asserts that “the emancipation of the workers must be the
coordinated by rural agricultural workers, women, indigenous communities
project of the workers themselves.” They declare to act “for the definitive
in Asia, North America, Latin America, Europe and Africa. Its headquarters
emancipation of the working class, that is, for the definitive abolition of the
has been in Indonesia since 2004.
wage system.” The First International is divided into Marxists and anarchists.
www.viacampesina.org
La Coordination Paysanne Europeenne (European Farm Coordination)
La Confederation Nacional del Trabajo (The National Workers’ Confederation) The National Workers’ Confederation is an anarcho-syndicalist organization
Created in 1986 the CPE represents 18 rural and farming organizations of
founded in 1910 in Barcelona. It became the main Spanish workers’ syndi-
11 European countries. These organizations propose a profound reform of
cate, and remains the principal anarchist organization of the country.
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