Anti-Greenpeace campaigner tours

By Lisa Macdonald The right-wing National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) is sponsoring an end of the month visit to Australia by former Greenpeace campaigner Patrick Moore. Since 1991, Moore has been working for the British Columbia Forests Alliance (BCFA), a timber industry-funded "citizens" alliance created by the multinational public relations firm Burson Marstellar. According to Bob Burton, a research officer for the Wilderness Society, Moore has defended the clear-felling of rainforests in British Columbia, lobbied US foundations to cut off funding for conservation groups and been forced to retract misleading claims about the activities of Greenpeace. "In 1994 he had to retract claims about Greenpeace funding airfares for government delegates to the International Whaling Commission conference, while the London Times rejected his claims that they had been blackmailed by Greenpeace to withdraw an ad proposed by the BCFA and stated that they never even received the ad", said Burton. Burton said Moore defended the involvement of Burson Marstellar in promoting a positive international image for Argentina to attract investment at the time of that regime's death squad operations, which killed 35,000 people. "People get killed everywhere", Moore said in 1991 to justify his position. Burton points out that Burson Marstellar, which also advises the NAFI, is well known in the United States for its campaigns in defence of corporate giants responsible for some of the worst human and environmental disasters in history. Its record includes defending Union Carbide after the Bhopal disaster and Exxon after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. More information about Moore's visit is available from TWS on (002) 234 910.

From GLW issue 223