The Evening
Standard

Anarchists 'Hijacking' GM Food Protest Groups

Professional agitators have infiltrated groups protesting at genetically modified crops, police say. They have identified links between organisers of the GM food protests and those responsible for the 18 June action that ended in a riot in the City of London.

A picture is developing of a cabal of anarchist ringleaders who ally themselves to protest movements and subvert them for their own ends.

Detectives say ringleaders of the June protest, Reclaim the Streets, are linked with two anti-genetically modified food protest groups, Genetic Snowball and the Genetic Engineering Network.

All involved were previously prominent in a variety of environmental actions, including road protests and attacks on oil installations. Police believe the same groups are now behind plans for an anti-GM foods demonstration in London on 30 November.

Last week the Home Office's Animal Rights National Index, a secretive Scotland Yard-based unit which monitors ecological and animal rights activists, ordered Special Branch teams around the country to step up surveillance of anti-genetically modified food groups as the attacks became increasingly orchestrated by radical groups. Police fear the November demonstration in London - codenamed NO2WTO by organisers - which is linked with a day of action in Seattle in America to disrupt a World Trade Organisation meeting, may turn violent. The Evening Standard has learned that several American financial institutions have been pinpointed as targets. Organisers of the June protest from London, including representatives of Reclaim the Streets, are expected to travel to Bangalore in India for a meeting on 23-26 August to co-ordinate the demonstrations. The meeting is hosted by militant farmers who have been destroying GM crops planted by American food giants Monsanto in India. Mark Brown, the Vestey heir revealed in Monday's Evening Standard as the man suspected of using income from his £2.7 million trust fund to finance part of the June City protest, was expected to attend before his arrest by City of London police. Police sources said: "What happened in June is linked to the GM crop protests and the same people are planning further action. They may not be violent themselves but they set the scene and encourage those who are."

Copyright 1999 The Evening Standard All Rights Reserved