I attended one day of the Seed Freedom Monsanto Tribunal People’s Assembly in The Hague on 15 October 2016, and I thought I would share some of my observations and experiences.
Very Poor Organization
The event was over 3 days. The first day was short and mostly a press conference, and the last 2 days were workshops and some presentations. Literally, 3 days to talk about and listen to others tell about how much they hate Monsanto! There were 3 workshop rounds, with hours between them of largely unscheduled time, and very little else planned.
Not enough good discussion leaders were provided, and there was no transparent or obvious way to influence the direction of the event. For example, I sent an email offering to speak, and this wasn’t even answered.
Racist Hosts and Speakers
The local hosts and speakers were all ethnic Dutch, in a city where half the population comes from somewhere else. There were lots of guests from other places, but the event itself completely ignored local initiatives and personalities of non-Dutch backgrounds.
After I brought this to the attention of the organizers, videos promoting this racism and these people were tentatively not placed on the event website, but instead appeared on the Seed Freedom website and even mailed to participants. I guess there was sort of a concession there, but not much of one.
Non-ethnic Dutch were also all but excluded from attending by the price. For the one day I attended, I paid €70, a small fortune by local standards. I think when the Rolling Stones played in Amsterdam they weren’t even that expensive. Mostly those people who were there were from ethnic Dutch NGOs who could afford to pay their entrance fee.
This was a major insult for those of us who care and try to confront racism.
Completely Infiltrated and Lacking Networks of Trust
A number of the participants were directly and indirectly employed by the seed industry here in The Netherlands, and elsewhere in Europe. They were allowed to freely spread their ‘propaganda’. It wasn’t possible to know who you were talking to, and if you could offer any degree of trust. There also wasn’t any good ways of building or working from within your own networks of trust.
It was almost impossible to have a conversation with anyone.
Conclusions
We have enough problems with racism here in the Netherlands. I hope the Seed Freedom People’s Assembly doesn’t return. It’s also time to stop releasing racist videos.
I don’t know very many people who don’t want companies like Monsanto to go on trial for their crimes, but I think People’s Assemblies should be bottom up and grassroots in origin, rather than top down and rife with commercial interests.
