Biodemocracy 2005: Reclaim the Commons!

Call to Action: Converge in Philadelphia, June 18th to 21st, 2005

CALLING ON ALL PEOPLE who resent the demise of democracy and hold to
the promise of authentic popular empowerment! All who dare to paint
poems of resistance on walls of oppression, dance in city streets in
defiance of police states, and plant seeds of sedition in the shadows
of Empire: come to Philadelphia! As the world?s leading agents of
eco-devastation and medical malpractice meet here in June, we cannot
stand quiet. Join us to challenge the corporate crime, poisons for
profit, and flagrant lies of the biotechnology industry, at the time of
their annual international convention, with a creative uprising for
truth, life and justice!RECLAIM THE COMMONS! We recall a custom much older than two-party
Republics, in which croplands, grazing land and forests were a public
domain that benefited the whole community and belonged exclusively to
no one. In today?s global society, our commons encompass the biological
strata that sustain life on earth — air, water, food, medicine,
energy, biodiversity — plus the means of communication, education and
transit that connect us culturally. Today, to a degree unprecedented in
human history, corporations have seized this public wealth and
privatized it to reap growing profits for a small and ever-shrinking
elite. As public access to and control over the commons has eroded, so
has true democracy. For democracy to thrive, for racial, economic,
social and environmental justice to take deep root, and for
sustainability to flourish ... we must reclaim our commons!

RESIST BIOTECHNOLOGY! With their industrial exploitation of biotech
research, agricultural, pharmaceutical and weapons-manufacturing
corporations are now busily locking their greed into the most primal
area of the commons, the genetic structures of life itself. At the
expense of public health and ecological harmony, their profit-driven
success hinges upon the global proliferation of dangerous genetically
modified organisms (GMOs), disregarding the health needs of
the poor while sinking money into science-fiction treatments of
questionable safety, and governmental funding for deadly biological
weapons deceptively classified as ?biodefense.?

The corporations gathering in Philadelphia this June are contaminating
the world with GENETICALLY ENGINEERED CROPS at the expense of our
health, popular food sovereignty and biodiversity. They are profiting
from unsafe and costly DESIGNER DRUGS, whose side effects can be worse
than the conditions they?re aimed to treat, while raising the false
hope that biotechnology carries the solution to all human ills. In the
name of ?biodefense,? they are profiting from the costliest expansion
of research into high-tech weaponry since the Manhattan Project,
developing new BIO-WEAPONS and resurrecting old ones, and exposing our
communities to the hazard of uncontrollable biological agents. To
reclaim our nutrition, health and security ... we must resist their
biotech!

PLANT REAL DEMOCRACY! Sustainable, community-based alternatives to
corporate biotech are possible and viable, and we are making them real!
At our counter-convention in June, we will not only shine an
educational spotlight on the dangers of GE food, medicine and weapons,
but will also exhibit the grassroots eco-solutions taking shape in our
own communities. The Philadelphia area is home to a fabulous array of
community gardens and organic farms, food co-ops and urban nutrition
initiatives, radical health collectives and advocates for universal
public health care, groups of student environmentalists and war
resisters, interfaith leaders for human rights and renewable energy,
and diverse neighborhood coalitions against police brutality, the
gutting of public services, and environmental injustice ...

We welcome this opportunity for local residents to come together and
learn from each other, and for visiting activists to share energy and
ideas from your home communities! With a shared commitment to putting
our values and vision into action, we can and will counter their
corporate bio-devastation with our peaceful uprising for BIODEMOCRACY!

To be involved with the BIODEMOCRACY 2005 mobilization, please contact:

Philadelphia RAGE (Resistance Against Genetic Engineering) at
phillyrage@riseup.net OR Nathaniel from the Student Environmental
Action Coalition at (215) 222 4711.

For updates about the mobilization:

Send a blank email to: biodev-subscribe@lists.riseup.net.

And check these websites in the coming months:

www.reclaimthecommons.net
www.biodev.org

www.phillyimc.org
biotech.indymedia.org.