Several thousand protesters, some shouting ”the world is not a piece of merchandise”, demonstrated in Paris on Saturday against an upcoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit.
The protesters, who marched from the capital’s Luxembourg gardens, included communist and trade union militants, anti-globalisation campaigners and France’s best-known radical farmer, Jose Bove.
Demonstrations were also organised in other French cities ahead of the WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico. The meeting opens on Wednesday to discuss a trade treaty cutting tariffs and subsidies and further opening markets to foreign trade.
”If the WTO makes progress at Cancun, it will mean that the multinationals will be making the decisions about agriculture, intellectual property, on public services,” Bove, spokesperson for the Farmers’ Confederation, said at the start of the march.
He urged the French government not to sign any agreement.
A French court last week barred Bove, a pipe-puffing sheep farmer turned anti-globalisation crusader, from travelling in person to Cancun to protest.
The court ruled that Bove, who is doing community service in exchange for a prison term, was not permitted to leave France under terms of his early release.
Bove was released from prison in early August, five weeks into a 10-month term for destroying genetically modified crops. — Sapa-AP