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ILLUSTRATIVE OPPOSITION
Through our actions and our propaganda, we ask: how did it come to be that
we control so little regarding this particular issue and regarding our Eves in the
broadest sense?
There are many ways to illustrate the need for direct democracy. As
discussed earHer, we can popularize the demand for poKtical power using a
variety of media ranging from radio, pamphlets, and teach-ins to guerrilla
theater, bill board alteration, and murals. There is no ‘recipe’ for making the
connection between ecological and revolutionary political issues, as each
activist group brings their own talents and sensibiEty to the project of
opposition.
I am a member of a smaE media coEective in Western Massachussetts
that engaged in iEustrative opposition regarding issues of biological patenting
and agricultural biotechnology. Last year, the group saw the need to raise
pubEc
awareness
regarding
the
introduction
of geneticaEy
engineered
organisms into the food supply that has begun in recent years. In addition to
being concerned by insufficient research on the potentially aEergenic and toxic
effects of ingesting geneticaEy engineered foods, we were troubled by the lack
of research regarding environmental risks that surface as plants spread their
geneticaEy
engineered
traits
to
other
neighboring
organisms
(through
cross-pollination or ingestion).
But we were not solely concerned with environmental and health risks
associated with geneticaEy engineered crops. The group also wanted to
address issues of economic and cultural seE-determination surrounding the
issue. We wanted to educate ourselves and the pubEc regarding how local
farmers throughout the world are economicaEy and culturaEy threatened as
multi-national
agro-chemical
companies
graduaEy monopolize
the
seed
industry worldwide.
We also had another primary concern. Our group wanted to Elustrate the
link between the social and ecological problems presented by geneticaEy
engineered crops and the need for poEtical transformation. We wished to
demonstrate how both corporations and the State, rather than citizens,
determine economic, ecological, and poEtical poHcy related to agricultural
biotechnology. As a media coEective composed of writers, actors, and artists,
we decided to create a series of theatrical events as a way to Elustrate our
opposition to biotechnology.
At a demonstration that protested Monsanto (a U.S. based multi-national
agro-chemical company heavEy invested in biotechnology) corporate offenses,
our group performed a theater piece in which a two-headed monster (wearing
name-tags that read “the State” and “CapitaEsm”) deEvered an oratory regarding
its autocratic decision to find new avenues for capitalist expansion through
biological patenting and genetic engineering. Surrounding die monster, floated