the party in Millaud

[Russell Grinker]

>If you have RealAudio you might enjoy the short Guardian audio file
>anticipating the trial of the WTO-and-MacDonalds-bashing lefty sheep
>farmer, Jose Bove:
>
Lefty? From the info in the attached article from my local rag, Bove looks
distinctly like an old fashioned French rural chauvinist and champion of
petit bourgeois small producers v monopoly capital. But then these days
maybe that's as radical as you get.

Russell

Farmer in court after anti-Big Mac protest

MILLAU, France -- In a festive display of hostility to the the global
marketplace, thousands of protesters descended on this southern French
market town yesterday as the trial of a farmer accused of criminal damage to
a McDonald's opened here. Jose Bove, a veteran left-wing militant, was
driven to the court house in the town of Millau with his nine co-defendants
in a wagon pulled by a tractor, as the crowd of environmentalists, trade
unionists, students and other campaigners roared and whistled support. Bove,
47, who produces Roquefort cheese at his farm on the nearby Larzac plateau,
was turned into an overnight star of the anti-globalisation campaign last
August after he led the attack on a half-built branch of the fast-food chain
in retaliation for US trade sanctions. McDonald's said the damage cost
690000 euros but lawyers for the defendants were expected to tell the court
it was a symbolic act, comprehensible in the context of an on-going struggle
between agro-industry and the small farmer. A number of well-known opponents
of globalisation were to be called as witnesses.
The streets of the town yesterday were festooned with banners, crammed with
stalls peddling produce and propaganda, and resounding to the noise of
drum-bands, as an array of left-wing and alternative causes lined up to join
Bove's campaign to outlaw "malbouffe" -- junk food. "This is not just about
food.
''It is about the struggle of small people, leading simple lives, to free
themselves from the dictatorship of the multi-nationals," said Christian
Dignac, 55, who drove 200 kilometres from Montauban to take part. Displaying
their ideological wares in the form of T-shirts and tracts were defenders of
the local Occitan language and of the rights of Zapatista rebels in Mexico,
a group representing immigrants in poor French suburbs, the anarchist party,
and Christian Rural Youth. With experience of agitation going back 30 years,
Bove turned last August's attack into a media triumph -- and has since
successfully played on the widespread suspicion in France towards American
big business.
The right-wing mayor of Millau Jacques Godfrain said: "Bove has warned that
his supporters will vent their anger if he is convicted. ''That is not
democracy ''Justice should be free from intimidation."
The McDonald's restaurant on the outskirts of Millau -- since rebuilt --was
closed yesterday to avoid drawing further violence. -- Sapa-AFP