French wine growers turn to guerilla warfare

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-06-17 06:02pm

BBC wrote:A shadowy group in France has issued the French government with an unusual ultimatum: raise the price of wine or blood will flow.

The group's name is the Crav, which stands for nothing more threatening than the Union for Viticultural Action in the Languedoc region in the south.

The Crav's deadline to the government runs out this weekend, which marks exactly 100 years since wine-makers in the region led their last revolt.

That ended with the French army shooting dead six demonstrators.

No wine-maker will publicly admit to being part of Crav but many sympathise with their demands, if not with their methods.

Driven to despair

Trimming the vines in the 17 hectares of vineyard which used to support his family, wine-grower Francois Thiebaud is in despair because of plummeting wine prices.

He says that he and many other wine-makers in this region are now fighting for survival:

"We're working at a loss," he tells me.

"We've lost between 40 and 50% of our income because of falling prices and the big cut taken by the middle-men.

"I can only afford to carry on working in the vineyards because my wife has another job.

"And some wine-makers have to claim social security benefits, because they earn so little that they can't feed their families.

"Some have even killed themselves because they couldn't feed their families on the money they earn."

Such frustration has now boiled over into the threats of violence by the Crav, made in a video message sent to France's new President, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Shots fired

In the video - shot in a secret location late at night - seven wine-makers, their faces hidden by black balaclavas, read out the spine-chilling warning that "blood will flow" if Nicolas Sarkozy does not act fast to raise the price of wine.

The group has proved that it is prepared to use violence to achieve its aims.

Already, several local supermarkets selling foreign wines have been attacked with small explosive devices, with others graffitied with the Crav's initials.

The group has also shot at and hijacked at least one lorry containing wine from abroad - and the fear is that the attacks could escalate unless the government responds to the group's demands, which it so far has not.

Jean-Francois Picquemal runs one of the supermarkets that was graffitied, even though he says it only sells wine from the area.

"There've been similar attacks throughout the region, and this was one of the nicer ones," he says.

"I think the wine-makers are upset with the middle-men who don't pay them enough for their wine.

"But at least this was only graffiti - it wasn't too bad. I think all this might get worse."

"I know a lot of wine makers, I'm from this region, and it's a very difficult situation for them."

The new 'Resistance'

France 3 television journalist Emilien Jubineau was taken in the darkest hours of the night to a remote location to witness the Crav's threatening video message being made.

He believes the group is in deadly earnest.

"It's not that they're necessarily dangerous people but these wine makers are extremely angry - they're desperate," he believes.

"The Crav may have done things that people might condemn but they've been very careful not to injure anyone so far.

"Their attacks have sent a very strong signal: what they want is for the government to talk to them about a real solution."

Sympathy with the cause

The solution Brussels has put forward is for producers to grub up 200,000 hectares of wine - much of it in the Languedoc - because the region is producing much more wine than it can sell in a fiercely competitive global market.

But the Crav say they will fight that idea every step of the way - just as the French Resistance in the south once fought the Nazis.

And even wine-makers not involved with the group say they share many of its frustrations, even if they do not agree with the threat of violence.

Jean-Marc Ribet of Chateau de la Vernede, which produces high-quality wine mainly for the export market, says supermarkets and restaurants are making huge profits at wine-producers' expense, often buying wine at one euro (£0.67; $1.33) a litre and selling it on for 15 euros a litre.

"Normally, the Crav would not exist if people were being heard, but wine-makers in the region are not being heard so they feel they have to speak louder so that the government listens."

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2007-06-17 06:07pm

You know, the world is going to hell, but--what the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK?

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2007-06-17 06:18pm

Well, this is new. It's been a national sport of the French to throw a strop and hold a demonstration when things don't go their way for a while, but this is a whole new level.

Vampiress_Miyu · Post by **Vampiress_Miyu** » 2007-06-17 06:18pm

O.o; What. On. Earth. . . .

Wow. People have reached a new level of madness.

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2007-06-17 06:20pm

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:You know, the world is going to hell, but--what the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK?

The French winemakers are suffering financial hardship because the younger generation is drinking much less wine than their parents. Combine that with the rise of good wine being grown overseas and some vinyards are forced to rip up their vines because its simply no longer profitable for them to make wine. Considering these people feel their traditional way of life is threatened, while a little surprising, it's not wholly unexpected these people might turn to guerilla acts.

The Vortex Empire · Post by **The Vortex Empire** » 2007-06-17 06:21pm

Threatening to kill people... unless they raise wine prices. What is this world coming to?

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2007-06-17 06:29pm

French, being fuckwits over some agriculture related topic? Surely ye jest...

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2007-06-17 06:52pm

What the hell...

Sidewinder · Post by **Sidewinder** » 2007-06-17 07:01pm

JME2 wrote:

What the hell...

I second that. Seriously, can't the French brewers (or whatever term describes people who make wine) collectively bargain with the supermarkets to increase their profit? Or is this in violation of the laws they have against price fixing?

FedRebel · Post by **FedRebel** » 2007-06-17 07:50pm

Breaking News: France unconditionally surrenders to Crav

Seriously the guys must be ingesting a little too much of their product, resorting to terrorism to counter falling wine prices is insane.

What's next, Germany deploying peacekeepers into France?

Post by **Surlethe** » 2007-06-17 08:17pm

Couldn't they, you know, quit working at a vineyard or winery and move on to greener pastures? You expect this sort of irrational fuckwittery from Islamic fundamentalists, not Western Europeans!

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2007-06-17 08:22pm

The wine MUST flow!
Seriously, these people are a little uh....

Winston Blake · Post by **Winston Blake** » 2007-06-17 09:11pm

BUNCH OF FRENCH GUYS DRINKING WINE ON A FRIDAY NIGHT

"Man, life really sucks."
"Yeah." "Yeah." "Yeah."
*everyone drinks*
"If only there was something we could do make people drink more wine!"
"It's those overseas wines, they're the problem."
*everyone drinks*
"What if, like, the gobernament just putsh da prices up?"
"We be gettin profitz!"
*everyone drinks*
"Hay guys, *hic*, listen to dis idea ah just had, it's so good..."

*the next day*
"... and that's when Ambush Teams 3 and 5 execute a right half-crescent assault on the first and last trucks of the Foreign Wine convoy. Any questions?"

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2007-06-18 01:27am

The best way we can work to stop these French winemaking Terrorists is to cut off their sorce of Income and follow my example. Only buy Australian Wine.

Zor

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2007-06-18 01:37am

Might I suggest the many fine wines grown in central NY? I may not have much local pride but at least the local wineries here don't fucking shoot at people

.

Netko · Post by **Netko** » 2007-06-18 02:27am

Sorry, I know this is serious, but it simply has me laughing like mad.

It's like someone took a look at one of those "Name the (fictional) organisation for whom having a special operations team is the most absurd, yet they still have one" threads and decided to win it, except in real life.

"Union for Viticultural Action" indeed.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2007-06-18 02:37am

Yeah, pricing the wine higher is going to make people want to buy more of it. Good job guys.

Post by **weemadando** » 2007-06-18 03:26am

French Winemakers have done this before about a hundred years ago - ended up getting in a gun-battle with the Army (which, they lost).

Dartzap · Post by **Dartzap** » 2007-06-18 03:29am

Ah, they must be getting pee'd off that some of the vineyards over the channel are starting to produce some fantastic stuff as well.

What is it with the some Frenchies always thinking they are superior? it's nigh on as bad as Empire lovers over here.

Andrew_Fireborn · Post by **Andrew_Fireborn** » 2007-06-18 04:34am

Wait, the French are pissed off at their government? Plotting a possible revolution?

My god... this is completely unheard of in all of history! Call in the Swiss, this is going to take a ruthless militaristic nation to put down.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2007-06-18 05:08am

Andrew_Fireborn wrote:Wait, the French are pissed off at their government? Plotting a possible revolution?

My god... this is completely unheard of in all of history! Call in the Swiss, this is going to take a ruthless militaristic nation to put down.

Switzerland is busy counting everyone elses money, maybe we could give Germany a ring...

Andrew_Fireborn · Post by **Andrew_Fireborn** » 2007-06-18 05:20am

I give to you a hat. It is made of a live lobster and barbwire. I want you to wear it, and understand that you have defeated sarcasm.

Drewcifer · Post by **Drewcifer** » 2007-06-18 01:05pm

Ah, I miss the good old days when pissed off French farmers expressed their discontent by spraying the local government office with manure.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-06-18 01:09pm

Vampiress_Miyu wrote:O.o; What. On. Earth. . . .

Wow. People have reached a new level of madness.

If we can have a War on Terror and a War on Drugs, we can have a War on Supply and Demand.

Post by **Edi** » 2007-06-18 01:22pm

The French have always been unbearable assholes over anything and everything related to agriculture and can go fuck themselves. Their wines are for the most part overpriced shit compared to stuff from Australia, Argentina and Chile. Of European wines, I've found Italian wines and some Spanish stuff tastier and less expensive.

So fuck these morons.