Tuesday, November 2, 1999

• Europe at a Social and Economic Crossroads As It Enters Free Trade Talks

  
  

  An article on the Washington Post’s front page today begins: "Mike Moore had been in his new job exactly a month when he got a taste of what awaits him in Seattle. The new head of the World Trade Organization, on a scouting trip there for this month’s WTO summit, was shouted at, interrupted, contradicted and insulted all day by anti-WTO protesters. The low point came when, during a panel discussion, a heckler compared him to Adolf Hitler."

• Physicians Speak Out On U.S. Bioterrorism Initiatives

  
  

  In this month’s edition of the American Journal of Public Health, a group of socially-responsible expressed their concern over the U.S. government’s initiative against bioterrorism, the threatened use of chemical or biological agents. They say that the funding of bioterrorist initiatives has increased substantially since the signing of Clinton’s 1994 Executive Order on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, often at the expense of existing public health programs. Further, they are alarmed by the militarization of public health that may result, as the military’s war against bioterrorism could lead into an international arms race not unlike the Cold War.

• Peace Activists Acquitted in Britain After They Damage Trident Nuclear Submarine System

  
  

  Three peace activists from the group Trident Plowshares were acquitted late last month in Britain of malicious mischief and theft for destroying a communications system for the Trident nuclear submarine. This past June 8, the three boarded a floating laboratory on a lake in Scotland called Loch Goils and effectively disabled a vital link in Britain’s nuclear system. A jury acquitted them of the charges, based on their argument that they were trying to stop their country from committing a nuclear crime.