Resistance is fertile - Action day global agriculture 3rd of June in Rostock
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Every year, 30 million people all over the world die from starvation or malnutrition. Diverse processes like the forced opening of markets, price dictation by supermarket chains, or the export subsidies for food production systematically destroy the existences of numerous small farmers, especially in poor countries. Monocultures and factory farming have catastrophic consequences for natural resources like the soil, water, or biodiversity. Also, the quality of food suffers significantly. Multinational corporations from the North like Monsanto and Bayer are taking over the genetic resources of the South by using 'intellectual property rights' and try in this way to gain control of food production. But in the industrialised countries, there are ruinous price pressures and massive concentration processes in agriculture also. Contrary to the rhetoric of fighting poverty and hunger that accompanies every G8-summit, the rich, industrialised countries are pursuing destructive, extremely neoliberal agricultural and fishing policies that lead to more displacement, hunger, and rapidly growing inequality. The profits of these policies go mainly to multinational companies and large commercial farmers. All over the globe, small farmers, farm workers, and the landless are organising themselves in order to struggle for their interests against large land owners, corporations, governments, and international institutions. They occupy land, fight against the privatisation of water, burn down GMO-fields, and create cooperatives and projects to protect their traditional seeds. They fight for their food sovereignty- the right to decide themselves about their agriculture and nutrition. In solidarity with this global resistance and because food and agriculture are a basis of life for everyone, we are taking our protest to the G8-summit in Heiligendamm.
The action day on the 3rd of June wants to invite as many people as possible to be part of the diverse forms of action. It begins with a protest march with tractors and large puppets through the inner city of Rostock and ends with an event at the 'Agro-Bio-Technikum,' which operates the GMO trial fields in Gross Luesewitz, 15 kilometres east of Rostock. There will be a rally passing through several information and action points. Representatives of small farmer associations, farm worker organisations, and GMO-critical networks from North and South will be participating (Via Campesina, Conféderation Paysanne, and others).
Protest march from the University Rostock to the New Market
10.00 Prelude (Faculty for Agricultural and Environmental Science, University Rostock)
10.30 Start (Faculty for Agricultural and Environmental Science, University Rostock)
11.30 Protest march
12.30 Final gathering
Rally from Rostock to Gross Luesewitz
13.30 Start of Rally at location of final gathering, passing by several stations with info and creative actions in relation to the G8 and global agriculture: grain silos in the port of Rostock, strawberry plantation with questionable employment practices, factory farm, fast-food restaurant, institute for animal tests, food discount market, and more There are no limits to creativity during the actions or to the way of participating in the rally: by foot, rollerblade, bicycle, tractor, car, bus. However, there is a regional train that goes to Gross Luesewitz every hour.
Gathering and village party in Gross Luesewitz
13.00: Colourful protest against the local 'Agro-Bio-Technikum' and its controversial GMO-research and field trials. Gathering, stage performances, information stands, action stands, food stands, street theatre performances, games, music and much more.
Info and contact: Aktionsnetzwerk G8 und Globale Landwirtschaft, www.g8-landwirtschaft.net
4rd of June
10 p.m.: protest action in front of a Lidl-supermarket – with the participation of activists from the Andalusian union of agricultural workers SOC: Lidl has not only become known because of its lousy working conditions. Lidl (together with other supermarket chains) also stands out due to its ruinous price dictates. As a result of this the prices for agricultural products have gone down dramatically. Often it is mainly migrants (without papers) who find themselves being forced to accept the lousy conditions for wage and work in agriculture - be it as day labourers in the plastic sea of Almeria or as someone cutting asparagus in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.