FRANCE: The French sheep farmer and anti-globalisation campaigner Mr José Bové reported to prison at Villeneuve-les-Magelone near Montpellier yesterday dressed in a striped convict's uniform and chained to his 10 co-defendants. He asked protesters to camp outside the prison and threatened to go on hunger strike. Lara Marlowe reports from Paris
Mr Bové drove a red tractor at the head of a caravan of tractors, lorries and cars from his farm 130 km away. "The world is not a piece of merchandise," said the sticker on his shirt. He is to serve two months and 10 days for the destruction of a McDonald's restaurant on August 12th, 1999. The 20 days he already served count as part of his three-month sentence.
An indefatigable protester, Mr Bové occupied a field outside Rome planted with genetically modified crops during the congress of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation earlier this month. He was a leader of the violent demonstrations that sabotaged the Seattle World Trade Organisation meeting. Another legal case is pending against him for the destruction of genetically-modified corn in a research complex in France.
Nearly 300 sheep farmers participated in what they called the "dismantling" of the McDonald's restaurant, which was under construction at the time. Damage was estimated at €106,700.
They were protesting against US taxes on the Roquefort cheese they produce, which were levied in response to the EU's ban on US hormone-fed beef.
Mr Bové's rejection of la malbouffe (junk food) found deep resonance among French people. His action, the communist newspaper L'Humanité said yesterday, "quickly became a symbol of the struggle between small farmers and the ultra-liberal commercial order imposed by the US; a battle between David and Goliath against the background of a certain globalisation that crushes everything".
Mr Bové's conviction was upheld by the court of cassation in February, but the prosecutor announced in April that he would not be jailed until after the French presidential election "so as not to pollute the electoral debate". Gendarmes served him a summons on Monday morning, hours after the right won the legislative poll.
"I don't know why they're so crazy," Mr Bové said. "They just got elected with a big majority, and the first thing they do is put me in prison - as if they wanted to mobilise the social movement."
L'Humanité said the Raffarin government conveyed "a dangerous signal; that they're the old-fashioned right, always inclined to treat political or trade union protest as if it were a crime or misdemeanour".