SUNS  4366 Wednesday 3 February 1999

London, Feb 1 (IPS/Dipankar De Sarkar) -- The British government has indicated it will upset plans by Third World farmers to march across Europe with other campaigners this summer to protest the operations of giant agri-business corporations, international financial institutions and Western governments.

The British appeared bent on refusing to admit some 600 farmers - about 500 from India - whose scheduled protest march was reminiscent of the way Mahatma Gandhi brought his Indian freedom campaign to the doorsteps of textile manufacturers and ordinary workers in England nearly 70 years ago. The activists planned nonviolent 'direct action' campaigns outside the offices of multinational corporations in Europe.

The Inter-Continental Caravan (ICC) was launched in London last week when campaigners voiced their concern over the activities of Western multinational corporations that allegedly ran against the interests of poor people throughout the developing world.

Indian campaigners, however, were refused travel visas by the British High Commission in New Delhi, a spokesman for the gathering said.

Mark Brown, representing the People's Global Action Against Free Trade, The World Trade Organisation and Corporate Rule said "we suspect that there is a political motive" behind the refusal to grant visas.

At least three speakers from India - Prof. Nanjudaswamy from the Southern state of Karnataka, Vijay Jawandia of the Maharashtra province and Checkotu Kariyanjanu, an indigenous peoples' land rights activist - were billed for the event.

"The fact the three could not make it here makes prospects scary for bringing 500 people here in summer," admitted Kate Wilson, one of the organisers. "This is an ambitious operation."

The organisers renewed efforts to mobilise support among British, German and French members of the European Parliament for the caravan. They declared there were precedents for a group to be recognised and granted visas as 'political ambassadors.'

Diverse groups of campaigners on refugee and immigration issues meanwhile offered to host the farmers if they succeeded in reaching Britain.

"Once they come into the country, they shouldn't be stuck in a detention centre or on the next plane out. We have to make sure that all eyes are watching," Wilson said.

Once in Europe, the farmers would be involved in what organisers called "non-violent direct action."

"They are not going to be coming here and dismantling buildings brick by brick. There will be no destruction of property here," said Wilson. "What they might do is participate in high profile events to highlight the dangers of biotechnology in agriculture."

In the past, such action in Britain usually has taken the form of activists entering a field where experiments on genetically modified plants are taking place and uprooting some plants.

For activists from India, however, such action may appear too low key. European campaigners say their counterparts in India are used to authorities turning a blind eye to such actions as stoning and damaging fast-food outlets and burning fields sown with genetically-modified seeds.

In contrast, two activists in Britain endured a two-and-a-half year libel case when McDonald's, the U.S. fast food giant, took them to court for distributing leaflets attacking the firm's products.

"We wouldn't advocate it (burning of crops) here in Britain - the crops probably will not even burn here," said Rowan Tilly, an activist from Genetix Snowball, whose members have faced legal action from multinational corporations for uprooting genetically modified plants. But, she added, "we can work with the Indian farmers."

Campaigners say they were determined to press ahead with a series of street protests across Europe coinciding with two major political events scheduled for June - summit meetings of the European Union and the Group of Eight (G8) most industrialised nations in Cologne, Germany.

Protest plans called for the third world caravan to link up with European farmers, and world debt, fair trade and disarmament campaigners, travelling in convoys of 15 to 20 restored buses to
Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

"Welcoming groups" also were being organised in Poland and the Czech Republic, organisers said. Food appeared to be no problem - it will be vegetarian, organic and produced by "responsible producers" and even the cooks were activists.

"Most of the food will be cooked by the political activist mobile cooking collective, called Rampenplan, which is based in the Netherlands, but has cooked for large scale political events all over Europe," proclaimed an ICC leaflet.

"This is part of a long-term approach of increased level of coordination among movements around the world,"

The People's Action Group, the organisers of the caravan, was set up at parallel meetings last year during a gathering of world leaders at the WTO headquarters in Geneva - a move that some observers said signified a split among non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on how to respond
to the phenomenon of economic globalisation.

While moderate groups based mostly in affluent Northern countries preferred to lobby corporations, institutions and governments, other NGOs - including those from developing countries - said globalisation needed to be challenged through confrontation and strategies such as 'direct action.'