Europe elections can't be ignored

Europe elections can't be ignored
(Tuesday 24 February 2009)
DEREK WALL

DEREK WALL explains why we should be giving our support to Lucas.

AS well as writing for the Morning Star, blogging and getting my next book written (Why Economics Doesn't Work, if you must ask), I try to do as much practical politics as possible.

I have been plugging away as a member of the Green Party for a lengthy period of time.

I joined so far back it wasn't even called the Green Party but the Ecology Party. The year 1980 is, frighteningly, nearly 30 years ago.

I remember going to my first regional party meeting. I think it was in Weymouth that summer and I am off to a regional party meeting in Oxford this week.

Back in 1981, I went to my first party conference and heard the great socialist historian EP Thompson call on the assembled political ecologists to get stuck into the movement against cruise and Trident.

Depressingly, while we have got rid of cruise, the key campaigners being the women peace campers at Greenham Common, Trident is about to be renewed.

It's probably fair to say that I am not a dyed-in-the-wool party political animal, despite my 30-year membership.

This is for two reasons. Political parties, while they demand our loyalty, are never perfect. I have been powerfully influenced by a concern that any political party can lose its radical edge.

Equally, a political party is a means to an end - for change, liberation, peace and, for me above all, the pursuit of a society that works ecologically.

Political parties are instruments and, all too often, imperfect ones.

I certainly think some of the most exciting developments in green politics have happened outside Green parties.

For example, Greenham Common, the anti-roads movement and climate camp are splendid examples of green direct action that, while supported by members of my party, are non-party political.

Likewise, back in 1980, I would not have believed that the Latin America left would have grown so green, with even former Cuban president Fidel Castro calling for action on climate change and turtle conservation.

Last year, I was selected as a Green Party candidate for the European elections in the South East constituency, so I am putting more of my energy into party politics this year.

Five years ago, I worked hard to get Caroline Lucas re-elected as the Green MEP for the South East.

I rushed around to public meetings, leafleted and canvassed like a crazy person and I am glad to say she was elected with a larger majority. Back in 1999, her majority was just over 100 votes.

So, in 2009, I am appealing once again for Morning Star readers to vote for Lucas and other Green candidates on the list.

I recognise that electoral politics can cause dilemmas for some people, but I believe that all on the left should be working to re-elect Lucas.

Her record is simply stunning.

For example, while most politicians have lacked the moral courage to criticise the actions of Israel, she has visited Gaza and acted as a consistent friend of the people of Gaza.

This month, she will be travelling to Palestine again.

Recently, she and our excellent London Green MEP Jean Lambert doorstepped the Israeli embassy, demanding a full refund of EU aid, which is estimated to be at least 53 million euros spent on Gaza's now destroyed infrastructure over the past 10 years.

Her work on climate change, animal rights and other ecological issues is equally impressive, but many on the left forget that Green Party members are active supporters of trade unions.

When my trade union took industrial action, I received public support from Richard Mallender, who was then chairman of the Green Party.

Trade union rights and proper rates of pay are being eroded by European law.

It is to the credit of the Morning Star that it has been a consistent campaigner against such aspect of EU law as shown in the Viking case that put European workers on poverty pay.

Lucas has, together with socialist and other Green MEPs including Labour's Glyn Ford, put forward a written declaration, which is similar to an early day motion, calling for an end to such neoliberal measures.

Lucas has noted that recent court rulings, such as the Viking and Laval cases, have seen the Posted Workers Directive used to allow contractors to pay foreign workers the minimum wage only - not the going rate for skilled workers in Britain.

"In an economy obsessed with remaining 'competitive,' employers are being permitted under EU law to push down the wages and reduce the union rights of continental workers, creating a pool of low wage and disadvantaged labour," she said.

European elections are based on proportional representation, which means that the Green Party has been able to elect two hard-working MEPs in 1999 and 2005.

Now, in 2009, we might do better, but my overriding aim as a Green candidate is to make sure our existing MEPs are relected.

It can be tougher for Green Party candidates during a recession, let alone the prolonged depression that we look to be faced with in Britain.

However, the Green Party is calling for job creation via a green new deal, which would lead to an expansion of jobs in renewables, public transport, insulation and other environmentally friendly projects.

Our record of challenging neoliberalism also means that we are equipped to win the economic debate. Greens have challenged the powers of the City, called for the renationalisation of rail and are strongly opposed to the privatisation of the Post Office.

In south-east England, it's not just Greens who are going to be working for Lucas's re-election but thousands of people of different parties and those who believe in peace, trade union rights, equality, ecology and real economic alternatives.

I would urge all readers in the south-east to get involved. Electoral politics cannot be ignored. I have great sympathy for social movements and party politics can be frustrating, particularly in the tough context of Britain, however, right across Latin America, radicals have used elections to win and introduce positive change.

We can do the same here and the European elections provide an excellent chance of electing politicians with a radical agenda, so please join me when I tramp the streets for Lucas this summer.

'Green fuel' kills

In October 2008 Ualberto Hoyos, a Colombian citizens was shot through the head and killed by para militaries. Was this part of a drug feud? Was Mr Hoyos a sympathiser of left wing guerrillas? No, he was killed as a consequence of EU policies aimed at protecting the environment.

In Colombia, there are numerous cases of right wing paramilitaries being used to remove local people from land used to produce palm oil. The European Union are strongly encouraging Colombia to produce more palm oil, despite human rights abuse and environmental damage. The EU is promoting a free trade agreement with Colombia. EU plans to produce 10% of fuel from biofuel will increase demand for Colombian palm oil and with it accelerate human rights abuse.

"The paramilitaries are not subtle when it comes to taking land," said Dominic Nutt of Christian Aid, in an interview with The Times of London. "They simply visit a community and tell landowners, 'If you don't sell to us, we will negotiate with your widow.'"

Farmers Who Refuse to Sell to Biofuel Interests Pay with Their Lives
Some farmers who have refused to sell or surrender their land have been murdered. There are also stories of paramilitaries cutting off the arms of illiterate peasants and using fingerprints from the severed hands to create fraudulent documents that transfer land ownership.

The Afro-Colombians, communities who live an ecological lifestyle, descended from African slaves brought to Latin America, are especially threatened by EU demands for biofuels.

A report from the BBC notes:


Mr Caceido, in his early 30s, says he moved to Bogota in 2001 after being threatened by presumed paramilitaries in Tumaco, a Pacific coast region.


"We have been discriminated against in three ways," he says with steely restraint.

"We are displaced, we are black and we are poor."

It is Mr Caceido's view that underlying the displacement of countless Afro-Colombians is a clash in values between the communities' use of the land and an initiative of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to produce more palm oil for biodiesel.

For Afro-Colombians, Mr Caceido says, land use is based on cultivating a few traditional crops for subsistence - such as corn, yucca and cocoa - or for hunting and fishing.

But, according to human rights organisations working in the north-west Choco province, and in dense forests along the Pacific, paramilitary gangs are seizing Afro-Colombian land to facilitate biofuel conglomerates.

The land is also being transformed, with elaborate network of highways, drainage canals and palm oil plantation sites. Tropical forests are cut down, water sources diverted, to aid the development of agribusiness projects.


Tens of thousands of Afro-Colombians have been forced to live in shanty towns in Colombian cities such as Bogota, there land is taken for plantations to produce 'green' fuel for cars in Paris, London and Brussels.

In the 1940s the civil war between the Conservative and Liberal Parties was used as a cover to expropriate 200,000 peasants from the land to make way for plantations. In Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel 'One Hundred Years of Solitude', one of the central episodes is based on a real life massacre of striking banana workers in the 1920s. There has been a long history of violence against peasants in Colombia that continues to this day.

Palm oil producing companies have made huge donations to the campaigns of President Uribe, whose ruling party have been connected to acts of repression. Despite being implicated in a palm oil scandal, Uribe's agriculture minister has resigned so he can run as Conservative Party Presidential candidate. Companies involved in the biofuel business are likely bankroll his election bid.

Arias is best known for the Carimagua scandal. The Minister was fiercely criticized when he decided to grant 43,000 acres of government land to large agribusiness companies, promising a fifty-year lease to the highest bidder. The land in question had previously been promised to displaced farmers. After a storm of protest, the Minister decided to give the land to state-owned oil company Ecopetrol, who intends to produce biofuel with the help of displaced farmers.



Britain is the biggest importer of Palm oil in Europe. Palm oil is in a range of goods everything including margarine and a variety of processed fuels, we cannot escape using it. Biofuels are going to lead to a huge expansion of palm oil imports into the EU from Colombia.

Uribe has pledge to increase the amount of land used to grow palm oil ten fold to 3m hectares. Obama is keen to expand US use of biofuels and the US sees Colombia as a key ally.

In October 2008 a gathering of indigenous and Afro-Colombian people opposed to land seizures for palm oil was violently attacked by government forces:
1. From 13 October until today, 15 October 2008, a contingent of at least 1,000 men, amongst them the Mobile Anti-Disturbance Squadron ESMAD, members from the José Hilario López Battalion, the 29th Brigade 29 and the 3rd Brigade of the National Army, have been operating in the María Piendamo reserve, using excessive force.

2. Today these state forces used Galil and 765 rifles, shooting at the indigenous people. They have for three days been firing tear gas canisters. Some of the fired rounds have been highly irregular, charged with black gunpowder, puntillas, tacks, glass that break on impact. They have also been using clubs and machetes.

3. Up to this momento at least a hundred serious injuries have been reported, including 5 rifle shootings. These reports are by no means the total injured, work of the emergency indigenous and human Rights teams has been impeded by multiple attacks from the state forces. Several media teams trying to reach the different gathering points of protesters in the two departments have similarly been completed blocked.


However EU negotiator Fernando Cardesa García when challenged about human rights noted 'we don’t believe the human rights issue is a problem for the negotiations, because it is not an element in the commercial agreement....In economic terms, under the interests Europe has in Latin America, Colombia is very important. Alongside Mexico and Brazil, Colombia is one of the three countries that absorb most of the EU’s investment in the region.

From the political point of view Colombia is important, because during its recent history the country has been stable in terms of changes in the government.

Socially, Colombia is an interesting case. Even though it is one of the countries with the greatest social inequality, it has developed more dynamic inclusion policies and social equality throughout the years. We find this quite interesting and useful if we want stability for the whole region.


Britain's Labour government are keen supporters of Uribe. Tony Blair is especially close to the regime and acts as an advisor to Uribe's government:
Three days ago Blair was condemned by former Labour Party colleagues for describing Colombia, where a brutal civil war has been raging for 50 years, and which has the worst human rights record in the Western Hemisphere, as "one of the few bright spots in the world today". Earlier this week both Blair and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by outgoing US President George W Bush – a move which was also widely condemned.


Palm oil plantations are also a major threat to the Amazon rainforests. One report notes:
The Chocó forests which are being destroyed by palm oil expansion are amongst the most biodiverse forests on Earth (biodiversity hot spots). They are home to 7,000 to 8,000 species, including 2,000 endemic plant species and 100 endemic bird species. Even before the current palm oil and agrofuel expansion, 66% had been destroyed.

The European Union should reject palm oil especially from Colombia and insist that human rights and environmental quality are respected as part of any trade agreement.

War on Want has produce an excellent report on the human rights abuse linked to with palm oil production in Colombia http://www.humansecuritygateway.info/documents/WOW_FuellingFear_BiofuelsInColombia.pdf


As a European election candidate I pledge to oppose the EUs plans for increased palm oil imports, particularly from Colombia, where palm oil production is associated with human rights abuse and environmental destruction. I would urge all European Election candidates to pledge their opposition to palm oil production in Colombia.

You can find out more about Colombia from Justice for Colombia here
and Colombia Solidarity

Derek debates this friday in Oxford

The Oxfordshire Branch of the European Movement is organising an "Any Questions" evening for European Parliament candidates in Oxford this Friday. Sparks are expected to fly as candidates from five political parties compete for support in this Open Public meeting, answering questions from the audience which they have no notice of.

Keeping order will be the branch president, Lord Hurd of Westwell. Douglas Hurd was Conservative MP for Witney and British Foreign Secretary for many years, and is a well-known supporter of the European Union.

The members of the panel will be:
Richard Ashworth MEP (Conservative)
Catherine Bearder (Lib Dem)
Philip Vander Elst (UKIP)
Dr Derek Wall (Green Party)
Labour have promised that they will be providing a "heavyweight" to participate in the event, but have yet to provide a name.

The meeting starts at 7.30 p.m. in the Maison Francaise, Norham Road in North Oxford.

For further information, please contact the chairman of the Oxfordshire Branch, Alan Armitage, on 07799-892385 or oxford92@aol.com

ends...

Notes:

The European Movement was founded in 1948 by Winston Churchill, as a membership organisation helping to promote the unification of Europe through provision of education and information. It is non party-political, and now operates across the 27 member states of the European Union. The Oxfordshire Branch provides speakers to schools and other educational institutions in the county, and holds public meetings typically four times a year. Recent speakers have included Lord Kinnock, Chris Huhne MP, James Elles MEP and Prof Kalypso Nicolaidis (Director of the European Studies Centre of Oxford University).

Richard Ashworth was elected to the European Parliament in June 2004 to represent the South East of England (he was also a candidate in 1999). He was a dairy farmer in East Sussex for over thirty years and during this time operated his own dairy business. He is currently a member of the European Parliament's committee on budgets and is Conservative Spokesman in this area, his secondary committee is employment.

Catherine Bearder is an Oxford resident, has served as an Oxfordshire County councillor and a Cherwell District Councillor, and has stood as a parliamentary candidate in both Banbury and Henley constituencies. Having travelled the world studying conservation issues with her husband Simon, a professor at Oxford Brookes University, Catherine puts prime emphasis on tackling climate change.She is number two on the Liberal Democrats' list for the South East in the June elections.

Philip Vander Elst is a freelance writer and lecturer, and author of a recent Bruges Group paper on The Principles of British Foreign Policy. He is the No.4 UKIP MEP candidate for the South East Region.

Dr Derek Wall is an experienced Green political campaigner, published author and journalist. He was Male Principal Speaker of the Green Party of England and Wales. He describes himself as an eco-socialist and stresses the importance of combining electoral politics and non-violent direct action (NVDA) to effect change.

Oppose racism

Racism and hatred of 'others' is on the rise in the UK and globally, The recession is likely to fuel it further and there has been a shocking rise in racist attacks, for example, on Polish people in the UK.

Cheap populists are making hay out of projecting quasi-racist statements, we need to oppose racism and celebrate difference.

There is a legitimate concern that globalisation and immigration can be used to drive down wages, however the way to oppose wage cuts and assaults on workers is through stronger trade union rights, adequate minimum wage, etc.

I have just signed the Liberty statement and I hope all other candidates in the Euro campaign will do so.


*"There is no place for racism and xenophobia in modern British politics.
Nor is democratic debate advanced by the denigration of the most vulnerable
in our country, including children and asylum seekers who do not enjoy the
right to participate in elections.

I promise to remember the importance of refugee protection, even in free and
wide-ranging debates about immigration policy. I will never play fast and
loose with the proud tradition of a nation that must always offer succour to
those in genuine fear of persecution."*


To sign click here http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/issues/5-asylum/liberty-asylum-election-pledge.shtml