Quick Weekly Links

A very busy week this week, so just time for a few links that might be of interest.

Matt Sellwood has put a draft of his forthcoming pamphlet on Greens and The Left in Britain on his blog and is requesting comments - read it here.
Matt also has video of Mark Thomas' contribution to the Put People First Rally that I mentioned in my last blog entry - good rabble rousing stuff, with humour. A report and pics from the march and rally on the Lenin's Tomb blog here. Joseph Healy's reflections here.

Meanwhile, some interesting links from Jim's Daily (Maybe) blog here.

In other news this week (as the Two Ronnies used to say!)a big victory for the anti-incineration movement in Cornwall.

The RMT are balloting for strike action on the London Underground in a battle against job cuts, a pay freeze and management bullying.

Information here on another story I have covered previously - latest developments in the battle to defend the William Morris gallery in Walthamstow.

Finally, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) issued a report on "The Financial and Economic Crisis: A Decent Work Response," which examines current rescue efforts in 32 countries, including all members of the G20, and notes that demographic projections suggest that nearly 90 million net new jobs would be needed over 2009-2010 to absorb new entrants in the labor market and avoid a prolonged jobs gap. The study calls for enhanced cooperation among key international organizations and a reprioritization between these goals, to, inter alia: pave the way for a green economy; and enhance the Green Jobs agenda, considering that green technologies tend to be more job-rich than their carbon-intensive counterparts. A more sceptical view on likely "green bailout plans" from India here.

the enemy of nature

Sometimes, when you are reading something it is just so appropriate to the times and other things you have recently read or heard about. So it was for me the other day when I was reading Joel Kovel's excellent argument for ecosocialism, the enemy of nature.

The Bhopal anniversary was just the other day, I had just been reading in the newspaper about the plans to privatise parts of Scotland's forestry in order (it is claimed) to "pay for climate change tackling measures" and this weekend sees the annual climate change demonstrations in London and elsewhere. With these in mind, Kovel's words (on page 40-41 of the 2007 Zed second edition) took on an extra immediacy and relevance -

The essential argument for environmental economics within the capitalist system is that by privatizing nature people learn to care for it as their property. However, the problem is that, being made property, nature is a priori severed from its ecosystemic ways of being. Thus the ceaseless rendering into commodities, with its monetization and exchange, breaks down the specificity and intricacy of ecosystems. To this is added the devaluation, or basic lack of caring, which attends what is left over and unprofitable. Here arise the so-called "externalities" that become the repositories of pollution. To the extent the capital relation, with its unrelenting competetive drive to realize profit, prevails, it is a certainty that the conditions of production at some point or other will be degraded, which is to say, natural ecosystems will be destabilized and broken apart. As James O'Connor has demonstrated in his pioneering studies of this phenomenon, this degradation will have a contradictory effect on profitability itself (the Second Contradiction of Capital"), either directly, by so fouling the natural ground of production that it breaks down, or indirectly, in the case of regulatory measures, being forced to pay for the healthcare of workers, etc, re-internalizes the costs that had been expelled into the environment.(see note)
In a case like Bhopal, numerous insults of this kind interacted and became the matrix of a ghastly "accident." For Bhopal, degradation was concentrated in one setting; while the ecological crisis as a whole may be regarded as its occurrence in a less concentrated but vastly more extended field, so that the disaster is now played out more slowly and on a planetary scale.
It will surely be rejoined to this that a great many countervailing techniques are continually introduced to blunt or even profit from the degradation of conditions and production, for example, pollution control devices, commodification of pollutants, etc. To some degree these are bound to be effective. Indeed, if the overall system were in equilibrium, then the effects of the Second Contradiction would be contained, and we would not be able to extrapolate from it to the ecological crisis. But this brings us to the second great problem with capital, namely that equilibrium and confinement of any sort are anathema to it.

Note - The first contradiction of capital is that of the classical "realization crisis", where cutting workers wages makes it more difficult for them to purchase the commodities they produce.

Wise words indeed - I recommend Kovel's book to all seeking a deeper understanding of the current systemic economic and ecological crisis.

Anniversary of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster in India‏

Clean up and pay up!

Join the Global Day of Action for Corporate Accountability

Wednesday 3 December

– also International Day of Disabled People

See www.bhopal.net

Actions by the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, led by Bhopali women gas survivors from Muslim and Hindu communities together, with worldwide solidarity, helped bring about two victories:

* The Indian government agreed to set up a Commission on Bhopal, as campaigners had demanded in their march to Delhi this summer. At that time, many protesters, including small children and women, were beaten, arrested and imprisoned by Delhi police for demonstrating in front of the Prime Minister's residence. They were eventually released after international condemnation of the authorities.

* On 3 November 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reinstated claims against Union Carbide Corporation for continuing large-scale water pollution from the abandoned pesticide factory in Bhopal, where poisons have not been cleaned up. The case was previously dismissed by a lower court. Now the Second Circuit has reversed that decision, finding the dismissal to be improper. Every time it rains, toxins from the factory contaminate the drinking water of nearby residents. Many babies and children with disabilities there are recent victims of Dow, which took over the Union Carbide Corporation and its responsibilities. Dow has never agreed to clean up the site.

You can phone or write to Dow's UK office to urge them to clean up the site and pay proper compensation:

Dow Chemical Company Ltd
Diamond House
Lotus Park, Kingsbury Crescent
Staines
Middlesex TW18 3AG

Tel. 0203 139 4000
Fax: 0203 139 4004

Background

On the night of 2-3 December 1984, a gas cloud from the pesticides plant in Bhopal immediately killed approximately 8,000 children, women and men. Since then a further 15,000 people have died and at least half a million more were poisoned or disabled. Bhopal is recognised as the world's worst industrial disaster.

Compensation has been very, very hard to get. Only those who have documents to prove their claim have been paid – around $1000 each – less than 10p a day – enough to buy a cup of tea in Bhopal.

The deadly pesticide gas was similar to nerve gas, causing death, disability and devastation on a comparable scale to that suffered by people, animals and the environment caused by military weapons of mass destruction – depleted uranium in Iraq, Agent Orange in Vietnam and nuclear testing in the Pacific …

Indra Sinha's novel Animal's People, short-listed last year for the prestigious Man Booker Prize, is "a bold, punchy parable" based on Bhopal today, whose lead character, "Animal" is a disabled gas survivor. To hear an interview with the author, click on

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/audio/Booker_Indra_Sinha.ram

Weekly Links 21/09/2008

British Politics
It is the annual Party conference of the ruling Labour Party in Manchester this week - long term Labour MP and media personality Diane Abbott explains why she won't be going here.

John McDonnell MP reports on his hopes for the parallel Convention of the Left.

On the same site David Lowry has an article on the nuclear commitments of the Prime Minister.

Red Pepper have established a blog for the Convention of the Left.

Human Rights
Peter Tatchell has alerted us to several significant cases of human rights abuses in recent days. First he had an article in the New Statesman on the situation with Balochistan activists in Pakistan and the UK. Secondly he had an article on low caste Dalit people in India on the Guardian Comment pages. Finally he alerted us to an urgent action alert over the treatment of sexual minorities in Uganda.

Another Green activist has alerted us to the case of Annociate Nimpagaritse, who has been in danger of being deported to a very hazardous situation in Burundi.

On 29th September Mark Thomas has a Book Launch with Amnesty International of his new book, Belching Out The Devil - Global Adventures With Coca Cola.

Green Issues
Helpful news items from EUWID, a site that gives news for the recycling industry - a study has shown that recycling PET plastic bottles is much more environmentally friendly than incinerating them.

On the same site, news that the European recycling rate for paper and board has now hit 64.5%, on course for the 66% by 2010 target that the industry set itself. Good news for all those campaigning on these issues, but we need to keep up the work and pressure for higher rates of recycling in the UK.

Unions and Work
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) report for the UNI global union network on their action at the 2008 European Call Centre Awards Ceremony.

International
Greek ecosocialists (working within the broad left electoral coalition SYRIZA)have organized and now have an excellent website in several languages.

I have had the following solidarity request from the IWW International Solidarity Commission -

Dear friends and comrades,

For two week in late-April and early-May four members of the Industrial Workers of the World traveled to Haiti to meet with labor leaders and document the plight of the Haitian working class. During our trip we encountered a Haiti still reeling from food riots which had gripped it just weeks prior. We found the workers and organizers that we met with to be extremely competent and passionate, but almost completely immobilized by a severe lack of resources.

Now a new crisis grips the Haitian people in the form of over a thousand dead and one million out of a total population nine million people displaced as a result of the recent hurricanes which have battered the island.

Haiti's government struggles to respond to what can only be called a humanitarian disaster, but no longer has the infrastructure after years of brutally enforced hollowing out as a result of neo-liberal economic policies. With the shell of the government unable to respond, and profoundly corrupt and bloated NGOs unable deliver aid to where it is needed, the best hope for Haiti lies in the response of citizens and organizers who live and work in the country.

The Haitians themselves have the skills, the energy, and the organization to accomplish this task, what they lack is the resources.
We are making this urgent appeal for aid in order to help those we met in Haiti, who hosted us in their homes, who fed us when they were hungry, who showed us that they have the know-how and the energy, they just need the resources to get the job done. The International Solidarity Commission of the IWW has established a fund to help get money and aid to the people on the ground that need it most. Please send your donations to
*IWW Haiti Fund c/o General Headquarters
PO Box 23085,
Cincinnati OH 45223*
USA

Workers' Struggle in India

The following is a message about an ongoing workplace struggle in India that I have just received -

WORKERS OF PEPSICO FOODS LTD ON INDEFINITE STRIKE MERCILESSELY BEATEN BY HIRED GOONS, ABOUT A DOZEN INJURED.

FARMERS, AGRICULTURE WORKERS' UNIONS AND OTHER PEOPLES' DEMOCRATIC ORGANISATIONS ANNOUNCED THEIR SUPPORT AND FORMED A JOINT ACTION COMMITTEE

(Dear friends please forward this information)
PepsiCo Foods India Ltd is a MNC in the district of Sangrur of Punjab on the highway connecting Patiala and Sangrur. The management of the factory always tried their best to ensure that a union of workers may not be formed in the factory. Whenever workers tried to organise themselves either they transferred the leaders to far off places or sometimes leaders sold their conscience and were given better positions in the hierarchy.

The workers of the factory who are approximately 280 and the number of contractual workers is 450. The regular workers started the formation of a union in a secret way. But the management immediately suspended their leader Sanjeev Kumar.

The management on 12-04-2007 suspended Sanjeev Kumar for instigating workers against management and for also taking more leave in 2007. An enquiry was going on and he was dismissed on 2-08-08. Four other workers were also suspended on very silly grounds that they are associated with union activities. On 5-5-08 the workers union got registered with the name PepsiCo India holdings workers union No.23 which got affiliated to AITUC.

Since 15-06-06 management started harassing the workers.
On 19-08-08 at 2.00 p.m. all workers started Dharana. Since then the the production of Uncle Chips Kurkure and other such products has stopped.

On 23rd of August a heavy police force came at about 7.30 a.m. with about 220 workers (almost 100%) on the gate. Suddenly the owners and drivers of the Truck Union from the nearby town of Bhawanigarh came. They insisted on getting their trucks inside to get them loaded. The workers protested. Workers blocked the gates by lying down on the gate. The truckers started beating the workers with lathis but police were watching the whole scene silently. About one dozen workers got injured. Villagers from surrounding area gathered in thousands in a few minutes and they resisted the truckers and then the villagers blocked the national highway for about six hours. Only then civil administration became active.

Up to now the management has dismissed the president of the union on very silly charges and suspended another nine workers.
On 25th August dozens of peasant organisations especially the farmer's organisation reached the factory gate in support of the struggle of the Pepsi workers. An action committee is formed by these organisations and a huge protest rally is organised for 1st September at the gate of Pepsi.

Three rounds of negotiations have taken place between management, civil administration, union representatives and some representatives of the surrounding villages. Management is reluctant to reinstate the president of the Union.
--

Pepsico India details for protests -

Pepsi Foods Private Limited

3B, DLF Corporate Park, 'S' Block, Qutab Enclave, Phase-III
Gurgaon - 122002
Haryana, India
Tel: 0124-2355880 Email: corporate.communications@intl.pepsico.com

If you would like to contact Customer Care, please email consumer.feedback@intl.pepsico.com or call 1800224020

This comes amidst a rising tide of workers' struggles in India -

See here
and here

Support Bhopal Campaigners!

I have reported before on the campaign by survivors of the disaster at Bhopal in India, including their recent march. The campaign has now entered a new stage with a hunger strike.

This week campaigners were subject to vicious treatment by security forces, as detailed in this action alert -

BHOPALIS BEATEN UP IN POLICE STATION
AXN ALERT
9 JUNE 2008. 11 a.m.
Plainclothes policemen and women and some uniformed police today beat up Bhopal survivors and their children inside the parliament street police station.
16 year old Imran was belted by policemen, including Yad Ram, a uniformed policeman from the Parliament Street police station. The belting has hurt his eye, and he has been taken to the hospital. Other policepersons whose names are known include Suraj Bhan, Mallik (a tall, big-set cop), Mahendra (in plainclothes), and the gun-toting Yad Ram.
27-year old Vikas was set upon by 13 policemen. Irshad, 20, was also beaten up badly. The police did not spare the kids. The youngest padayatri, 11-year old Yasmin, 6-year old Nagma, and 24-year old Meera More were also beaten by the police when they tried to prevent the police from dragging Rachna Dhingra, a padayatri, into the lock-up. Seeing the girls come in aid of Rachna, Plainclothesman Mahendra Singh screamed: "In Kaaliyon ke kapde fado." (*Tear the clothes off these blackies).*
All the while, the older women were forced into police lock-up.
Since the time that they were picked up from the Prime Minister's Office for demonstrating in a high-security area, senior police officials have talked tough. Callers who spoke to Mr. Nand Mohan, Deputy Commissioner of Police said the top cop said the Bhopalis will have to face the consequences this time. The Prime Minister's silence on the matter of demands has prompted the Bhopalis to protest in front of his house two times.
Mr. Muthukumaran, Director of Public Relations, Prime Minister's Office did not know that Bhopalis were being beaten up at the parliament street police station for a mistake of his boss, the Prime Minister. However, when intimated about it, he said: "I have heard about it. It is shameful. I have informed the authorities, and we'll see what can be done."
This is not a matter about a few angry policemen. The policemen had nothing to be angry about the Bhopalis. The rot spreads far higher.
With nine Bhopalis, including two women (Rachna and Meera) who are to go on a hunger strike tomorrow, please begin a neend udao.
Call the below people, and demand that a full-blown enquiry affixingresponsibility for today's deplorable incident is conducted:

Deputy Commissioner of Police Nand Mohan: +91 9818099041
Assistant Commissioner of Police Gurdeep Singh: +91 981033880
SHO Avinash Diwedi +91 9810046832
Muthukumaran. Director, Public Relations, PMO: +91 9871990019

for more information, visit www.bhopal.net
Nityanand Jayaraman
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal

In Britain protests are being directed to the High Commission of India in London -

We are asking people to protest about the beating, arrest and detention of vulnerable children, women and men protesters which started on 9 June, to the High Commission of India in London:

High Commissioner Shiv Shankar Mukherjee

High Commission of India

India House

Aldwych

London

WC2B 4NA

Tel: 020 7836 8484

Bhopal Marchers Have Reached Delhi

I blogged back in February about the struggle of the survivors, relatives and supporters of victims of the Bhopal Disaster (December 1984) and their renewed march on Delhi after the Indian government failed to live up to previous pledges. The marchers have now reached Delhi. Here is the press release issued at the end of the arduous protest march:

Bhopal Survivors Arrive on Foot to Remind PM of Unkept Promises

28 MARCH, 2008. NEW DELHI – Marking two years since their last padayatra from Bhopal to Delhi, 50 people, including survivors of the 1984 gas tragedy, their children, people exposed to contaminated drinking water and their suupporters, today concluded their second 800 km march by walking from Nizamuddin park to Jantar Mantar. "We were forced to undertake this grueling walk because the PM failed to keep his word. This time, we are not going back until we get a public declaration from him that he will deliver on his promise," said Hazra Bee, a survivor and one of the padayatris.

The PMO has rejected a request for an appointment with the PM, and two further requests have not elicited a reply. However,international support for the survivors is pouring in. More than 1300 faxes from 18 countries have already reached the PMO, prompting officials there to threaten survivors with legal action. Yesterday, members of the Scottish parliament marched to the Indian embassy in Edinburgh, even as other Bhopal supporters in London went to the Indian embassy there to submit a memorandum urging the Prime Minister to meet the Bhopalis' demands.

On April 16, 2006, the Prime Minister ended a 21 day strike, including a 6-day hunger strike by the Bhopalis, by promising to meet the demands of the survivors. The survivors had demanded an empowered Commission to implement social, medical and economic rehabilitation schemes for survivors and their children, in addition to cleaning up Union Carbide's toxic wastes, providing clean water to water-affected communities, and taking legal action against Dow Chemical and Union Carbide. However, the PM suggested a Coordinating Committee to oversee implementation of rehabilitation schemes and environmental remediation.

Over the last two years, the Coordination Committee has had three meetings and accomplished nothing. More than 25,000 people continue to consume poison-tainted groundwater in the absence of reliable and good quality water supply. More than 5000 tons of toxic wastes remain buried and spread in and around the factory site, and no efforts have been taken to contain them or export them to the US for final disposal. No rehabilitation schemes have been implemented.

Government inaction on rehabilitation and environmental remediation has placed Bhopalis at the receiving end of two disasters – the 1984 gas leak and the ongoing water contamination -- both with pronounced effects on children and future generations. Despite a 1991 Supreme Court order directing the Government to extend insurance benefits to 100,000 gas-affected children, not one child has been covered, leading to a spurt in destitution among families with sick children. In contamination-affected communities, congenital deformities among newborns is a rising trend.

The future generations are in danger. That, say Bhopal survivors, is why any Commission that is set up has to execute its schemes over at least 30 years. The Bhopalis estimate that the Government needs to invest in a corpus of Rs. 2000 crore to provide an annual budget of Rs. 100 crores for the Commission throughout its term.

In contrast to the inaction on Bhopal, the Government has, in the last two years, openly advanced the cause of Dow Chemical and Union Carbide. Information unearthed from the PMO through RTI indicates that ambassador Ronen Sen, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Ratan Tata, P. Chidambaram and Kamalnath have all written letters supporting Dow Chemical. In response, the Cabinet Secretary has suggested exonerating Dow Chemical keeping in mind the scope of investments by Dow and other US companies in India.

In less than a decade, Dow Chemical has chalked up an impressive list of violations of law and due process. In February 2007, Dow caught for paying more than Rs. 80 lakhs in bribes to Indian agriculture ministry officials to register three toxic pesticides. In 2005, Indian Oil revoked a technology deal with Dow after it found out that Dow was trying to sell Union Carbide's technology by lying that it was its own. Recently, Dow has managed to convince Government of India to approve the sale of Union Carbide's technology to Reliance Industries despite the fact that a 1992 court order directs the Government to confiscate all Union Carbide's assets in India.

"This is a repeat of the betrayal of 1989 where the Government colluded with Union Carbide to shortchange the people of Bhopal on the compensation settlement," said Satinath Sarangi, another padayatri and a long-time Bhopal activist from Bhopal Group for Information and Action. "23,000 people have died, and the collusion still continues. We're determined to break this corporate-Government nexus that plays havoc with people's lives."

A daily account of the 2008 march can be found here.

Support Bhopal Survivors

I was contacted by a member of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal asking if I might publicise their campaign on my blog and I am happy to do so. Bhopal Survivors have just set off on a long walk to Delhi to highlight their fight for justice and to pressurise the Indian Prime Minister to act on promises he made two years ago:

Bhopal. February 20th, 2008 -- Bhopal's survivors set off on an arduous 800km walk to Delhi to assert their basic, fundamental rights to justice and a life of dignity and health. You can read an account of the first day of walking here.

When they finally reach Delhi, Bhopali victims of Dow & Union Carbide will remind Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that promises he made two years ago concerning economic, social and medical rehabilitation, and provision of clean drinking water, are yet to be met.

The unfolding disaster in Bhopal has to end now. Experience tells us that the colossal effort of survivors in making this gruelling journey will not persuade Indian politicians to fulfil their duty to justice and to humanity.

What will persuade them is you. Please act now.

Here is a personal account of the Bhopal disaster:

http://www.bhopal.org/aziza.html

Here is a daily blog and photos of the march:

http://www.bhopal.net/march/padyatra2008_blog.html

The campaign are asking for support in the form of messages to the Indian Prime Minister -

http://www.boston4bhopal.org/write_fax.php

http://www.bhopal.net/march/padyatra2008_postcards.html

I am happy to offer my support, thanks to Prakash Narayanan for alerting me to the ongoing campaign.

greenman