[Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Graham, Total Coverage Limited <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <subscribers:;> Sent: Monday, August 13, 2001 7:58 AM Subject: [Co-opNet] Woodcraft Folk in the news This just brought to my attention by a colleague (thanks Guy), apparently from Saturday's Guardian: Have a break and make a better world Nestl�, Esso, ethical trading, child soldiers and the Kyoto protocol tax the brains of the Woodcraft Folk in their multicultural villages John Vidal Guardian Saturday August 11, 2001 The Nestl� chocolate bar vending machine at the Scout Association's giant campsite at Walesby in Nottinghamshire is an unlikely venue for a fierce debate between 11 to 16-year-olds over the activities of global food companies. But the KitKat machine that usually does a roaring trade has attracted spontaneous demonstrations and picketing, and has only just survived the attention of the Woodcraft Folk, the 20,000-strong alternative scouts movement which has been holding one of its five-yearly international camps on scout ground. Nestl�, which denies its baby milk formula substitutes affect children in developing countries, has done an exclusive deal with the scouts to sell its chocolate on site and many of the 3,500 Woodies are appalled. "This machine kills babies. It's evil," says Safa, his back against it, stopping anyone from putting in their pennies. "Yes, but I think you should be standing at the side of the machine and explaining to people, and letting them decide," says Ian, gravely. "You are being too forceful. It's the mothers' fault for taking the powdered milk. The alternative is to give more aid," says Khalil. "How much help can you give a country?" asks Amarize. Safa responds: "I just feel very very angry. They just want to make money out of babies' lives. I want to vandalise these people." "That's just stupid," adds another. The camp administrators are not amused. "This is disgusting behaviour," one of their leaders tells the Woodies' daily newspaper, the Planet. The Woodcraft Folk charity, which takes people from age four (the "woodchips") to 20 ("district fellows"), was founded 76 years ago as an urban working class alternative to what was regarded as the militarism and colonial sympathies of the scouts. Since then, dodging ideologies and political parties and moving into the social middle ground, its 500 groups have become an ethical nursery ground, feeding into the pacifist, anti-racist, environmental and globalisation debates. For the past two weeks, alongside more traditional youth activities such as discos, craft work and night time bivouacs, they have been trying to make a fairer, saner world. The 3,500 have been divided up into 35 multicultural villages, each with different resources. Everyone has been playing a game of inter-village cooperation. Credits are given by a committee of children for fair trading and sharing, reducing energy consumption and waste, and redistributing resources. Village 13 has specialised in ecotechnology, setting up solar showers and trading haircuts for fruit and veg. Village 37 has a peanut butter mountain and is making donations like the World Food Programme. Village 21 is reportedly unsure whether to dump a load of cucumbers on the camp market, and fears it could undermine others; yet others have set up fair trade initiatives. And this being the Woodies, nothing has been simple. One village has protested that the game was too competitive, and occupied for 24 hours the camp's council of youth ministers. Village 15 has declared a people's republic and issued a universal declaration of independence from the "authoritarian, non democratically elected" council which has been overseeing the game. A third village offended everyone by demanding credits for giving aid, and a fourth declared a state of juvenile anarchy and refused to wash up. To complicate matters, the separatists in Village 15 have set up a monarchy, ruled by "King Alex", with barons and vassals. "We're into conquering everyone. Actually, we're trying to provoke a collective revolt against ourselves. But everyone's so apathetic," says Lady Didsbury. Not so, others argue. The council of ministers (ages six to 20), the equivalent of the UN, has been unfazed by the outbreaks of alternativism. It is locked in debate over the world's problems and how to phrase a declaration of ideas to send to the adult world earth summit in Johannesburg next year. Having voted that the whole camp should eat less meat, and rejected the adult- imposed credit system which they think will not achieve sustainability, they are moving on to debate Nike, Gap and Nestl�; America's strategic defence initiative; Western Sahara; ethical trading initiatives; child soldiers; and the Kyoto global warming protocol. Some issues need little debate. "Esso? Well, obviously it's evil," declares one minister. Others are trickier. Dolezal, 16, from an inner city comprehensive, carefully sets out the Palestine problem and makes the differences between anti-semitism and anti-Zionism. But it is, she admits, complicated. "We do need to find a way to explain it to six-year-olds," she says. By early evening on the penultimate day, one group is mediating between people with different personal problems, another is holding a workshop on assertiveness, the peace camp has attracted more than 3,000 people to mark Hiroshima Day and 2,000 condoms have been distributed. "It's amazing what has been going on. The pure scale of what has happened is something everyone should know about. Awareness has replaced indifference. It's so optimistic," says Dolezal. As the 3,500 packed their bags, a victory for global common sense was declared with the Woodies agreeing on how to change the world. "Not bad for two weeks," said one of their ministers. __________________________________ = -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ You are subscribed to Co-opNet, the Southampton Co-op Network e-mail list. Co-opNet is sponsored by Total Coverage the co-operative marketing communications consultancy mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> for more info. Co-opNet is archived at: <http://www.poptel.org.uk/links/co-opnet/> Thanks to Poptel for providing this service To join: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To leave: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
