[alternet-l] AlterNet News #72

[Adrian Harris]

THE ALTERNET NEWS - ISSUE # 72

This issue:

HOT SITES/
REAL NAPPY WEEK/
END OF THE ROAD/
CHOCOLATE ENSLAVES/
FALUN GONG PERSECUTION/
WEST BANK REPORT/
DRUG DUMPING/
SUSTAINABILITY IN EDUCATION/
SOIL SOUL SOCIETY CONFERENCE/
QUOTE/UNQUOTE/
DIARY/

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HOT SITES

The Mayday Festival of Alternatives will consist of around 10 days of
community-based events aiming at celebration, subversion and DIY
liberation. This URL may not be stable, as the MET police have been
threatening to raid those who have considered hosting this site:
--> diy.spc.org/ourmayday/
or
--> www.ourmayday.org.uk

The ancient Goring Wood near Worthing in Sussex will be affected by the
widening and realignment of Titnore Lane. The scheme is proposed as part of
a planning application for new housing and industry. Local campaigners have
set up the Protect Our Woodland site:

--> www.worthinga27.freeserve.co.uk/

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REAL NAPPY WEEK

22nd to 28th April  is Real Nappy Week, focusing on the environmental
effects of nappies and promoting fair choice for UK parents.

Three billion nappies are thrown away every year in the UK, adding up to 4%
of household waste. Real nappies save money, reduce waste and create local
jobs. In the first five months of the real nappy partnership operating in
Kent, 500 families using real nappies created four business opportunities
and nine part-time jobs.

Real nappies don't cost the earth - anything else is just rubbish!

More:
--> www.wen.org.uk
e-mail:nappies at wen.org.uk

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END OF THE ROAD

The End of the Road gathering will provide a forum for those interested in
a direct action response to the resurrection of the government road
building programme.

The previous roads programme became the front-line for radical ecological
resistance and inspired similar struggles in other countries. Now the road
builders are back for more! 

It is time to learn from past struggles, evolve new tactics, and become
'far more possible than their most powerful imaginings'.  

19th - 20th April, Nottingham

Contact:
e-mail: endoftheroad at hushmail.com

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CHOCOLATE ENSLAVES 

Child slavery is rife in the cocoa fields of the Ivory coast, the source of
43 percent of the world's cocoa. Slavery can be partly blamed on a slump in
the price of raw cocoa, as farmers have been forced to cut their labor costs. 

Child slaves work long and hard - they head into the fields at 6:00 in the
morning and often don't finish until 6:30 at night. Beatings by farm owners
and managers are common. 

"The beatings were a part of my life," said Aly Diabate, a freed slave.
"Anytime they loaded you with bags and you fell while carrying them, nobody

helped you. Instead, they beat you and beat you until you picked it up
again." Diabate has never tasted the finished product. "I don't know what
chocolate is". 

In November 2001 US chocolate manufacturers announced that they would take
steps to eliminate child slavery, but their proposals don't address the
basic problems facing small farmers.

Fair Trade does. Fair Trade agreements guarantee that poor producers are
paid a fair price for their harvests, giving them and their families a
chance for a decent life.

Global Exchange are demanding that US chocolate manufacturers commit to
purchase at least five percent of their cocoa as Fair Trade Certified.

Global Exchange:
--> www.globalexchange.org/cocoa/


Fair Trade Federation:
--> www.fairtradefederation.com/

Fair Trade chocolate:
-->  www.divinechocolate.com/

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FALUN GONG PERSECUTION

UK Falun Gong practitioners are gathered in front of the Chinese Embassy in
London on a ‘relay’ hunger strike to highlight the continuing persecution
of practitioners in China.

Since the Jiang Zemin began the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in
1999: 

* Over 100,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally arrested 
and detained;
* More than 1,000 have been forced into mental hospitals;
* Over 20,000 have been illegally sent to labor camps without trials; 
* At least 375 deaths through police torture have been confirmed,  with
government sources inside China disclosing that the actual number exceeds
1,600.

More:
--> www.clearharmony.net/

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WEST BANK REPORT

As Israeli forces continue to extend their military presence in the West
Bank, many eyewitness accounts have been posted to the Internet.

Peace News carries reports from those living and working in the turmoil:
Riham Barghouti, external relations officer at Birzeit University near
Ramallah, describes "massacres, mass arrests, bombings of residential
areas, destroying of roads, schools and buildings, terrorizing of all the
inhabitants of the area, and the denial of food, water, electricity and
other basic needs to thousands of Palestinian families."

Indy Media report from the Presidential Compound: 

"The situation inside the compound is extremely grave. There have been no
medical supplies allowed in and there are still injured inside requiring
care. The food supplies have also dwindled dangerously and the bottled
water available has almost gone. The water supply into the compound has
been cut again."

Eyewitness reports at Peace News:
--> www.peacenews.info/news/article/54

Indy Media reports at:
--> www.jerusalem.indymedia.org/

Contact details for nonviolent organisations in Israel/Palestine
--> www.peacenews.info/news/article/56

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DRUG DUMPING

New US-style tax breaks could result in British drug companies enjoying
massive publicly funded subsidies for dumping out-of-date or dangerous
medicines on the developing world.


A new report, written by Channel 4’s Mark Thomas and published by War on
Want, reveals that US drug companies have been making money out of ridding
their shelves of useless drugs while gaining kudos from ‘charitable’
donations.

Under US tax law companies can claim back twice the cost of producing the
drug. Unsaleable drugs cost money to destroy, so this represents a
substantial reward for clearing the shelves of unwanted stock.

During the famine appetite stimulants were dumped on Sudan by US drugs
companies, while in Lithuania worming medicine meant for animals has
temporarily blinded women. In Bosnia, so much useless stock was dumped on
the refugee camps that £34 million had to be spent on incinerating it.

It is a small step towards regulating an industry which, as a former US
spokesperson puts it, would rather "treat a bald American than a dying
African."

--> www.waronwant.org/fdrugs.htm

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SUSTAINABILITY IN EDUCATION

The fifth International COPERNICUS Conference in Sweden will examine how we
can further incorporate sustainability into higher education.

Last year Goteborg University organized the conference "Knowledge and
Learning for a Sustainable Society" to discus the role of universities in a
sustainable society. The COPERNICUS Conference will develop that theme, but
take a more practical approach.

Teachers, researchers, administrators and students will be joined by people
from the business community, governmental, intergovernmental and
non-governmental organizations.

COPERNICUS Conference, 12-14 June, Goteborg, Sweden.

--> www.mls.miljo.gu.se/COPERNICUS/


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SOIL SOUL SOCIETY CONFERENCE

The conference offers a stimulating and wide ranging programme of lectures
and workshops.  Speakers include Jonathon Porritt, Ed Mayo (Director, New
Economics Foundation), John Vidal (environmental journalist), Satish Kumar,
(editor of Resurgence), and Shauna Crockett-Burrows (editor of Positive News).

14th to 16th JUNE 2002, Hereford.

Residential £150
Camping £100
Non residential £60

Information and bookings:
free phone 0800 0138446 
e-mail: info at gaiacooperative.org

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QUOTE/UNQUOTE

"The real meaning of dialogue is concealed in the desire to listen. As long
as pacifists are wanting to shout there is no room for dialogue. If
dialogue is approached with the intent to persuade, there is no room for
dialogue. When two parties listen, giving up their preconceived notions,
there is room for dialogue.

Gandhi once compared Truth to a string. You can pull it and it is near
impossible to push it. In dialogue, the intent is to draw the other out.

When we are ready in this fashion, there will be dialogue. When two minds
meet for dialogue, there are three truths.

Recently I was coached by an 80-year old Gandhian in India. He spoke of
dialogue process thus.
1. Approach with an open and calm mind. Be ready to change your own mind.
Allow the other to change also.
2. State your truth if asked.

3. Having said it, listen deeply.
4. Do not state your truth again. Repetition does not confer truth any
higher status.
Satyam-eva Jayate (Truth shall prevail).
No guarantee that it is your truth that shall prevail."

>From War Resisters International

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DIARY DATES

Walk in Peace for Peace.
Every first Sunday of the month. Meet at Speakers’ Corner (by Park Café),
Hyde Park 10.45am for 11am. The walk will take about an hour.
If you arrive a bit late don’t worry, you’ll see the Walk on ‘Broad Walk’
going south from Speakers’ Corner.
Enquiries: Clare Brunt 020 8755 0353

The Campaign for Co-operative Socialism Campaign meet at The Global Cafe in
London's Golden Square every Wednesday from 11-1:

--> www.cooperative-socialism.org/

APRIL

Big Mayday Meeting, Sunday April 7th
2pm at London Action Resource Centre, Fieldgate and Parfett Street, E1
Details: www.ourmayday.org.uk
or email festivalofalternatives at yahoo.com

9th:
London Green Drinks. 6pm onwards upstairs at The 
Princess Louise, 208-209 High Holborn WC1V.
Also in Bristol, Bath, Oxford, Reading, Peterborough and
San Francisco..
--> www.greendrinks.org

HIV & Development Workshop (April 23-25 2002) - Queen Margaret University
College, Edinburgh, Scotland.
To identify social issues linked to HIV & develop approaches for
incorporating these into development projects; explore cultural & social
constructions of identity & sexuality; update knowledge on new medical
developments in HIV treatment; employ more effective policy & programming
responses to HIV; & consider current debates on mainstreaming.
--> www.comminit.com/events_cal/2002/777-event.html
Contact: Fiona Sutherland int-health at qmuc.ac.uk

13th
Start of Mayday Festival of Alternatives.
Timetable: --> diy.spc.org/ourmayday/

25th:
Africa Malaria Day
--> www.rbm.who.int/amd/abuja2002_first.htm

26th:
London-wide Critical Mass bike ride, meeting at Waterloo at 6pm.

27th:
Free workshop - Seeing Who You Really Are. 87B Cazenove Rd, Stoke
Newington, London N16 6BB. Saturday morning, 10am - 1pm.
More: 
-->www.headless.org/intro.htm

MAY
1st:
Mayday Festival of Alternatives:
--> www.ourmayday.org.uk

4th:
Annual Cannabis March & Festival. Brockwell Park, Brixton, London
--> www.cannabiscoalition.org

SUMMER FESTIVALS:

Buddhafield
July 17-21 Devon VACANT or ENGAGED?
Free tickets are available to contributors, total numbers are limited and
advance booking strongly recommended.  For more information contact
info at buddhafield.com or check also www.buddhafield.com for latest updates.


Eastern Green Gathering
August 29th, 30th & 31st. Near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

More Diary Dates on GreenNet:

--> webboard.gn.apc.org:8086/default/

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