BY CHRIS MORRIS

MANCHESTER, England - British prime minister John Major, his ministers, and other capitalist politicians are on a campaign to divert toward the European Union (EU) the anger that has spread among many working people here against the government over the "mad cow disease" crisis. This is unfolding as London is being battered by Bonn, Paris, and other capitalist powers on the continent, which are taking advantage of the British beef disaster to get more of an edge on the United Kingdom in European and other markets.

"Douglas Hogg, the unfortunate Agriculture minister, was kicked all around the room in Luxembourg this week by the foreigners who now govern Britain," said Norman Tebbit, a former British minister under Margaret Thatcher, in a column in the April 4 London Sun. He added that "our masters" were "intent on grinding Mr. Hogg and his country into the dirt."

Tebbit was referring to an emergency meeting of the EU farm ministers, which took place in Luxembourg April 1-3. Disregarding protests from Hogg, the European Union decided to maintain a global ban on British beef exports.

The prohibition was instituted earlier when the British government disclosed that 10 deaths from Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) in Britain may have been caused by consumption of beef infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. The revelation resulted in a quick collapse of the British beef market, the near ruination of many British farmers, and layoffs of thousands of workers in food processing. Some 161,000 British cattle have been registered as infected with BSE since 1985 as the government weakened hygiene regulations and food inspection procedures.

At the Luxembourg meeting, the British government agreed to slaughter 4.7 million cattle 30 months and older - 15,000 cows per week for five to six years. In exchange the European Union pledged to pay up to 70 percent of the cost of compensating farmers. London has to foot the bill for the remaining 30 percent plus for the culling, slaughter, and incineration of the herds.

Bonn takes swipe at London
German foreign minister Klaus Kinkel has since said the EU payment will be partly funded by reducing Britain's annual 2.9 billion ($4.4 billion) rebate on contributions to the European Union, negotiated by Thatcher's government. "Once the lost rebate is taken into account the true value of compensation may fall to 30 percent," reported the April 6 Guardian. Germany's agriculture minister said Bonn's position reciprocates for London's demand that the EU pay as little compensation as possible to Germany when swine fever broke there in 1994.

"I am totally pro-Commonwealth and anti-European Union," stated Bernie Grant, a Labour Member of Parliament and founder of the Parliamentary Black Caucus, in a typical comment attempting to fan the flames of patriotism for the British crown.

Reactions by businessmen and bourgeois commentators in other countries in Europe have been equally sharp. "The president of the French cattle association, Joseph Dole, described the British as `convinced anti-Europeans who are taking the mickey out of us in this mad cow affair and who should count themselves lucky today to be getting help from Europe,' " said an article in the April 7 Independent.

English, Scottish, or Welsh beef?
Meanwhile, inside the United Kingdom and in Ireland there is a feverish drive to distinguish British beef from cow meat produced in areas other than England. The Tesco supermarket chain has started labeling beef as Scottish, Irish, or British - a move welcomed by farmers in Ireland and Scotland where bovine infection rates are lower.

Ian Paisley, leader of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland and member of the European Parliament, has spoken in favor of this distinction in labeling. Representatives of the Scottish Nationalist Party have done so as well. At the same time, the Scottish Office of the British government announced that "we can't claim" that Scottish beef is BSE-free.

Douglas Scott, president of the Scottish Federation of Meat Traders, which represents around 500 retailers, said, "There has been a flurry of calls at the grassroots level for separate labeling. But at the decision making end we have held back."

A spokesman in Scotland for the National Farmers Union, which is led by capitalist farmers, said, "Scottish beef is noted for its quality, but we cannot say it is BSE-free. It has to be looked at in the context of British beef. Then we will be looking at a marketing initiative."

Chris Morris is a member of the Amalgamated Electrical and Engineering Union in Manchester.  
 
 
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