Part of the International Struggle for Economic Human Rights

Jenna E. Ziman and Hugh Mejia work with San Francisco Food Not Bombs <sffnb@iww.org>

From 1988 to 1996, the San Francisco police have made 1000 arrests of San Francisco Food Not Bombs (FNB) supporters because of their public distribution of free vegetarian food to homeless and poor people. In the course of these attacks, the police have confiscated huge quantities of food; confiscated cooking equipment and the group's vehicles; attacked peaceful FNB demonstrations; confiscated FNB literature, banners, and signs; interfered with the activities of FNB legal observers, photographers, and videographers; brutally beaten FNB members during their arrests or while in prison; and subjected FNB members to death threats and sexual harassment. Amnesty International, The United Nations Human Rights Commission, FoodFirst Information and Action Network, and The Humanitarian Law Project are very concerned about these human rights violations, and they have been investigating the FNB case.

The right to food is being attacked on a global scale by repressive governments and profit-hungry corporations. Austerity programs imposed on "Third World " countries by the International Monetary Fund have resulted in food price increases and have triggered massive demonstrations and riots. In 1994, the Zapatistas burst forth in Mexico, demanding land, food, and an adequate standard of living. The impact of NAFTA and GATT on peasant farmers has driven women and children to rob grain trains. Protests over food have rocked Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Peru in recent years. According to studies by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, at least 800 million people world wide are hungry and malnourished.

The US government has refused to recognize the right to food as a basic international human right. During the World Food Summit in Rome, in 1996, the US stated that US support for the right to food would mean that welfare reform in the US would be in violation of international law. The US rejected the summit's final agreement, which pledged the world's governments to reduce the number of hungry people on earth by 50% by the year 2015. In fact, earlier in 1996, California state courts sent FNB hunger activist Robert Kahn to jail for 28 days for violating the court order prohibiting FNB from feeding homeless people in San Francisco.

Amnesty International in London sent letters to US Federal, California State, and San Francisco City Government officials in October 1994, November 1995, and June 1996 stating that the government attacks on FNB are serious violations of Articles 19, 20, and 25 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which are guaranteed under US and international law.

* Article 19: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference ..."

* Article 20: "Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association."

* Article 25: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of one's self and one's family, including food, clothing, housing ..."

Amnesty International did not receive a single US Government reply to any of its letters, and so the organization declared that it may consider jailed FNB members as "prisoners of conscience."

In contrast to the silence of the US Government on the FNB case, there has been significant internationational attention and media coverage. At the November 1996 World Food Summit in Rome, members of the Indian section of FoodFirst/F.I.A.N. publicly condemned the US Government for arresting FNB and interfering with its free food distribution to the poor. At the Spring 1997 session of the United Nation Human Rights Commission in Geneva, a Chinese government official criticized the US for its hypocritical positions on international human rights issues and cited the persecution of FNB as an example of human rights violations in the US.

The systematic persecution of FNB activists was almost certainly a contributing factor in the decisions of Amnesty International and FoodFirst to conduct world-wide campaigns about human rights abuses and violations in the US. Amnesty International's "Rights For All " Campaign, initiated last October, was prompted by growing international concern over the US government's gross disregard of international human rights standards in both its foreign and domestic policies. See their web page at: www.amnesty-usa.org/rightsforall

The FoodFirst organization is also now engaged in its own campaign to address the growing problems of poverty and hunger in the US, and to persuade the US to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. See their web page at: www.foodfirst.org/fian/fhome.htm

Another important international initiative in the global struggle is the I-99 International Solidarity Conference of May 31 to June 6, at the New College of California in San Francisco. This event is being co-sponsored by the International Workers of the World, Food Not Bombs-San Francisco, New College of California, and by other labor and human rights organizations. The I-99 Conference brings together individual activists and labor unions from around the world in an effort to confront the crisis of corporate economic globalization. See their web page at www.iww.org/~intl99.

For additional information about the Food Not Bombs movement: Food Not Bombs San Francisco, PO Box 40485 San Francisco, CA 94140; <sffnb@iww.org>; www.foodnotbombs.org