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Report
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On 15 April 2005, Rashida Bee, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh (BGPMSKS -- Bhopal Gas-Affected Women Stationery Workers’ Union), was invited by the Global Women’s Strike to speak at the Crossroads Women’s Centre in London. The Union was formed by women placed in a government-owned office-stationery factory as family bread-winners after many men died. Ms Bee was accompanied by UK-based Bhopali activist Farah Edwards-Khan, who, aged 10, witnessed the tragedy 20 years ago. Bhopal is the world’s worst industrial disaster. It began on 2 December 1984 when, at a pesticide factory run by US multi-national Union Carbide, a chemical reaction inside a tank containing 13,000 gallons of methyl isocyanate led to a massive release of lethal gas, killing over 8,000 people. 12,000 more lives have since been lost. At least half a million people were exposed, and an estimated 150,000 are living with gas-related illness and disability. Survivors’ health problems include breathing and loss of sight, but cancers affect women especially – Ms Bee lost six family members this way. 20,000 people are being slow-poisoned by contaminated water, because Union Carbide (now merged with Dow Chemical, notorious for napalm and Agent Orange) has refused to clean up the abandoned plant, and toxic chemicals wash from it into Bhopal’s water supply. “It’s one year since the [Indian] Supreme Court ruled that clean water must be provided, but we haven’t had it,” said Ms Bee. Few water tankers come in, so people queue for hours. Children have stunted growth and are in pain at night, so mothers have no choice but to give them sleeping drugs. Mercury has been found in breast milk. Solveig Francis, co-author of The Milk of Human Kindness: defending breastfeeding from the global market & the AIDS industry, said pollution of breastmilk is an international problem, the responsibility of multi-nationals, not of mothers -- and doubly-contaminated formula milk is worse. Women gas survivors have led the struggle for justice from Dow, the Indian government and the UN. Ms Bee described how women and children went to Dow’ s offices in Mumbai and took them over, put red paint hand-prints on the windows, and shouted ‘Dow, this is the blood of Bhopal on your hands’. Later, they went with 5,000 brooms, contaminated mud and water. Dow fined them heavily for disrupting business. During a protest visit by BGPMSKS to Dow’s offices in The Netherlands, the Dutch authorities jailed the women for five hours. BGPMSKS and others campaign for prosecution of Union Carbide executive Warren Anderson, free after the US refused his extradition. They press for US-scale compensation -- only disabled survivors who had documents to prove their claim were paid – merely $500 each, quickly spent on medicines. Union Carbide put a low value on Indian people’s lives, with government acquiescence. For over 17 years, the stationery women have fought discrimination in wages and conditions. Non-gas-affected women are paid 5,000 rupees (£62.50) a month, whereas they get 2,000 (£25) for the same hours. Now the government is contesting an industrial ruling in their favour, maintaining the women do not deserve pay equity because they are gas-affected. The Union has won a US environmental prize, the money from which, has been dedicated to second-generation medical treatment (orthodox or Ayurvedic) and some individual grants; their campaigning is funded by members’ subs of 10 rupees a month (10p). In 2003, the stationery women marched against war: “Bhopal, Iraq – gassed, bombed – all for $$$”. Sara Callaway (Women of Colour in the Global Women’s Strike), commented that wars make a way for corporations -- under Bush and Blair, there has been an explosion in pollution in poor communities worldwide, mostly people of colour. Ms Bee mentioned visiting Plaquemine, Louisiana, a Black community devastated by cancer from Dow. Ms Callaway welcomed this solidarity, asking how women could support them; Ms Bee called on all women to make “No More Bhopals!” reality. Claire Glasman from WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities) based at Crossroads, describing a shared struggle, criticised how environmentalists often treat people affected by depleted uranium and other pollution as horrific victims, while our organising and victories often go unrecognised. A diverse audience reported other environmental protests by women, including grandmothers in Huankantou, China, camped outside a polluting factory. The killing of two women by rampaging police cars sparked rioting by thousands of villagers.
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