Defending the Commons - Science doesn't yield to the highest bidder

Brochure so far (OpenOffice format)

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 22:39:14 -0500

Introducing Monsanto

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 22:12:38 -0500

Monsanto is a multinational agricultural biotech corporation. The company is the leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed. It's 2005 annual revenue was $5.23 billion (fiscal year end Aug 2005). In the 1940s, they were active in the Manhattan Project, helping to develop the first nuclear weapons. They were also the leading producer of Agent Orange in the '60s and '70s. In 2003, Monsanto sued a dairy in Maine for advertising that its milk products did not come from cows treated with its bovine growth hormone, claiming that such advertising hurt its business. They have been sued in numerous cases over the health and environmental effects of their products.

Seed Industry Concentration 2005 - ETC

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 21:56:15 -0500

According to ETC Group, the top 10 multinational seed firms control half of the world's commercial seed sales (a total worldwide market of approximately US$21,000 million per annum). Corporate control and ownership of seeds - the first link in the food chain - has far-reaching implications for global food security. With control of seeds and agricultural research held in fewer hands, the world's food supply is increasingly vulnerable to the whims of market maneuvers. ETC Group's report includes a table listing many of the world's top 20 seed companies and their acquisitions and/or subsidiaries.

Know your sponsors: Pharma

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 19:34:21 -0500

Who are your sponsors?

Pharmaceuticals

In 2004, the pharmaceutical industry had a global revenue of $550 billion (US). Among the top 10 selling companies worldwide are several of this symposium’s sponsors:

Pfizer ($46.13 billion)

GlaxoSmithKline ($31.38 billion)

Sanofi-Aventis ($30.92 billion)

Merck ($21.49 billion)

AstraZeneca ($21.43 billion)

Wyeth ($13.94 B)

In September 2004, Merck pulled its arthritis drug Vioxx off the market after a Food and Drug Administration study linked Vioxx to 27 000 sudden deaths and heart attacks in the between 1999 and 2003. Vioxx had been marketed in 80 countries and generated $2.5 billion in sales in 2003. The FDA, a government agency, tried to block the publication of the study.

"The senior executives at Merck and the leadership at the FDA share responsibility for not having taken appropriate action and not recognizing that they are accountable for the public health. … Meanwhile, Merck was spending more than $100 million a year in direct-to-consumer advertising — another activity regulated by the FDA and a critical mechanism in building the 'blockbuster' status of a drug."

Corporations

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 17:53:19 -0500

The purpose of a corporation

A corporation is a group of people that has been given the legal status to act as a kind of "artificial person". The law gives a corporation certain rights like the ability to own property, sign contracts and pay taxes.

Shareholders are people who invest money in a corporation by buying shares through the stock market. These people are involved in making decisions regarding the behaviour of the corporation. However, those who have invested the most money are granted the most decision-making power. This is like having a political system where you get more votes the more money you have, instead of democracy with its one-person/one-vote system.

Links

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 15:09:56 -0500

Lets get our links in order! How do we create a new page (not just another story?), so the links page is only a link to the page on the main? Thanks

Resource Sites:

Academic Commons

Academe September 2002 Issue - Who owns your ideas?

Project Communis is a multimedia journal of politics, privatization and the public good. It is maintained by activist and graduate student Rob Maguire, from Atlantic Canada.

Democracy and the Common Good

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 13:34:49 -0500

"Who owns the patent on this vaccine?" Edward R. Murrow, Radio & TV Journalist
"Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. COuld you patent the sun?" Jonas Salk, Inventor of the Polio Vaccine.

What is most valuable to you? Is it your house, your car? What about your planet?

All private possessions are derived from the goods we share in common - earth, air, water, and the collected sum of all human knowledge and experience, including science.

Science and the commons are increasingly being threatened by our wanton destruction, blatant disregard and diastrous misinterpretation of what science and the commons really are.

We have the right to own things. But where does the line get drawn? Who owns the works of the ancients, and should our greatest discoveries be in the hands of a few?

In a publicly participated democracy, the centuries of generations who have contributed to our way of life and knowledge base would be shared. Should be shared. Progress depends upon our ability to own commonly the knowledge gained.

These days, the patent process is so overblown that it is now extending into the realm of DNA. And it is greatly hindering, not helping, progress and humanity.

"Patents for living organisms impoverish human society ethically, ecologically, and economically." Vandana Shiva, Physicist and writer.

Our democracy is dependant on our common goods. As we wither away our commons, we have less and less common space. Common space is where the poor and rich meet on equal footing. It is where we can share one another's company, without having to pay a cover price. It is where the rights to free speech and assembly are protected.

We must protect what is common to all: The land, waterways, knowledge, the Internet, the sky, airwaves, public space, and our rights. The commons are very much like our democracy - not something which we can idly continue to have, but must actively continue to be vigilant in protecting and expanding.

"The law doth punish man or woman
That steals the goose from off the common,
But lets the greater felon loose,
That steals the common from the goose."

Academic Freedom

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 13:19:52 -0500

Academic freedom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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Academic freedom is a widely used and championed phrase, but an often poorly defined concept with different meanings in different cultures and different contexts. It can refer to the alleged right of students, teachers or academic institutions to do or be protected from a number of different things.

LIST OF RESOURCES, EVENTS, ACTION

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 13:03:20 -0500

citizens, greens, unpatented life forms,

This is a multi-layered email to discuss academic freedom, democracy, the privatization of science and the misidentification of technology as science, in Manitoba and beyond, including an action notice (see #1). This is part of a longer-term movement in Manitoba to awaken citizen participation in the protection of the common good.

Alon

1)Government-Industry collusion + Action FRI OCT.28!

The Business of Science Conference is being held today and tomorrow at the Fairmont Hotel: Sponsored by giant pharmaceutical multinationals, Monsanto Canada, nanotechnology interests, the government of Canada through the Centre for the Commercialization of Biomedical Technology (new NRC building near U of W), the Manitoba government, U of M, Red River College and more, this conference in pure hype and triumphalist advertising that the government is actively promoting without concern for the lack of public discourse on bio- and nano- technologies, not to mention the fact that government money is being invested in public-private partnerships that develop products that are privately patented and profited from - again, with little public awareness of these technologies and their impacts, not to mention lack of long-term testing and the application of the precautionary principle.

Check out the schedule: http://www.gov.mb.ca/est/rit/bos/index.html

Monsanto is bringing in 80 high school students to "learn" from Manitoba, North Dakota and Minnesota, "...part of Manitoba's strategy for building biotech leaders"(from "Bioscience Future Leaders Program - High School Component" description)

If you want to help offer these students and others literature that will be questions-based with weblinks, definitions, and quotes, show up outside the Fairmont Hotel at 8:30 AM Friday. This will not be a Green Party of Manitoba action, though it will be commensurate with GPM values and our responsibility to broaden the public discourse. The action will be legal, non-violent, and non-confrontational in spirit and intent

2)Ian Mauro and Stef McLaughlin at U of M. - talk next week at U of W

Ian and Mauro are researching farmer's perspectives on GMO. Their video "Seeds of Change" is being blocked by the U of M admin. Monsanto Canada is moving their national HQ into the U of M SmartPark. Ian and Stef debated someone from the Admin. publicly earlier this week at U of M. SEE ARTICLE BELOW for more info. Furthermore, Ian will be speaking at U of W next Thursday Nov. 3 at 10 AM, in the UWSA boardroom, Bulman student centre, as part of UWSA's FTAA Resistance is not Futile week, corresponding with the FTAA - Free Trade Area of the Americas - meetings in Argentina.

3)Learn about biotech and nanotech and public loss of control on research and a year's more of reading at www.etcgroup.org - "Erosion, Technology, Concentration".

4) A new citizens' group is emerging in Manitoba to watch these issues and educate the public on the erosion of the commons (too late? never!!!).

http://enclosingthecommons.freeculture.ca

is the evolving website that is in the spirit of open software and shared information commons, so to contribute to the website you can get a passcode and get involved...

5)More links, for starters:

www.percyschmeiser.com/

http://biotech.indymedia.org – Biotech Indymedia
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Big_Business-Bad_Science.php - The Institute of Science in Society, London
http://www.monsanto.ca
http://www.gov.mb.ca/est/rit/lifesc/index.html - Manitoba’s Life Sciences
http://www.canadians.org – Council of Canadians (link to GE Free Canada Campaign)
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/ - Cdn. Centre for Policy Alternatives – search under “Biotechnology”

http://www.cfs-fcee.ca/ngc/whistleblower/english/whistleblower.php - Cdn. Fed. of Students Whistleblower website

6)Two talks next Thursday evening

i)University of Winnipeg:

Ethics, Public Policy & the Pharmaceutical Industry

Thursday, November 3, 2005 at 7:30 p.m.
Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall (3rd Floor Centennial Hall)
University of Winnipeg

What is Science?

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 12:14:37 -0500

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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For the scientific journal named Science, see Science Magazine.

Science portal

Science is two things:

About Monsanto

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 23:16:23 -0500

Monsanto Company NYSE: MON is a multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation. It is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as its flagship product, Roundup. Monsanto is also by far the leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed, holding 70%–100% market share for various crops. Agracetus, owned by Monsanto, exclusively produces Roundup Ready soybean seed for the commercial market. In March 2005, it finalized the purchase of Seminis Inc, making it also the largest conventional seed company in the world. It has over 15,000 employees worldwide, and an annual revenue of $5.4 billion US reported for August, 2004.

Resources for Educators

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 22:32:25 -0500

This need to change asap

Propaganda and Dialogue

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 22:22:30 -0500

Critical thinking means reflecting on the meaning of statements, examining the offered evidence and reasoning, and forming one's own judgements. Propaganda is a way of changing other people's opinions and behaviour through deception and confusion rather than discussion and understanding. Propaganda short-circuits discussion. Some common approaches, also called logical fallacies:

Appeal to authority: Tell people that an "expert" believes something is true.

Argumentum ad nauseum: Repeat something often enough that people take it as truth, even though they've never seen proof.

What is science?

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 19:40:51 -0500

Discussion of what composes rigorous scientific method, principals and practice.

Meeting Today (wednesday)

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 11:59:30 -0500

Time: 2.30 pm
Place: Bulman Student Centre main floor, University of Winnipeg

A group of concerned citizens is calling for an organizating meeting to prepare and discuss actions for Friday the 28th at the Business of Science symposium at the University of Manitoba.

The symposium is being sponsored by the Government of Manitoba and a slew of multinational pharmaceutical, biomedical and biotech corporations, such as Monsanto, Biovail, and Pfizer. The symposium will, according to the website, feature:

Business development benchmarking
Tours of world-class life science facilities