>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