CAPITAL'S ATROCITY GOES VIRTUALLY UNPUNISHED IN BHOPAL

Capital's mass murder at Bhopal happened almost 30 years ago.  Actually, that is not correct, the murders and the horrors are continuing today and those responsible walk around on this planet free, as if nothing happened.

The official immediate death toll was 2,259. The government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. Others estimate 8,000 died within two weeks and another 8,000 or more have since died from gas-related diseases. A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries.

The British press recently was full of full page advertisements recently pointing out that birth defects, which showed a huge uptick, after the disaster, are rising again.  Children are now being born dead and malformed in numbers not seen since the early days.

The ads were placed by the British charity, The Bhopal Medical Appeal. UCA News reports:

The advertisements show pictures of severely malformed or brain damaged children and the text says: “Some injuries are too harrowing to show, like the eye engulfed by a raw tumour that left a small girl in agony until it finally killed her.”

The charity, which funds two clinics in Bhopal, has also funded a “huge, rigorous study covering more than 100,000 people exposed to gas, to poisoned water, and to both.

“The work is almost finished. Results have to be confirmed and analysed but indications are that many families have been poisoned twice, first by Carbide’s gases, then by contaminated water.
“In poisoned areas birth defects are occurring at rates many times the Indian average.”

The advertisements say that after the gas leak, the Union Carbide plant was abandoned with the lethal pesticides still inside, while nearby were lakes of toxic waste, despite fears that local water supplies would be affected.

As early as 1999, a Greenpeace study found many wells contaminated with heavy metals and chemicals. The same contaminants were in the blood and breast milk of women living downstream from the factory.

In 2006 doctors visiting the affected areas found almost half the children they examined were brain damaged. Since then, the charity says, the situation has worsened.

As the Economic Times writes: 

The government of India initially sued Union Carbide for $3 billion, and settled for $370 million, and obtained the stamp of the Supreme Court of India on that settlement, discharging Union Carbide of any further obligation in the matter. This sell-out was in 1989.

The number of victims was far in excess of initial estimates, but the compensation amount remained the same. Only depreciation of the rupee and the interest accrued on the original deposit, as the courts decided to whom and how the money would be disbursed, enhanced the corpus.

But the compensation received by the victims from the sum obtained from Union Carbide was paltry.

In June of this year,  The Business Standard Reports:

Janki Bai Sahu, a survivor of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, who filed a case in a US court on behalf of herself and her family and sought damages from Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), has had her appeal petition dismissed on several grounds, including the statute of limitations.

She and others had their petitioned dismissed last year and had appealed before a higher court. The case was originally filed in 2004. The petition was on the pollution of soil and groundwater by hazardous waste generated in the factory, site of what is considered the world's worst industrial disaster, when toxic gas leaked from it in December 1984, killing thousands then and many more from the after-effects in later years.

Capital gets away with mass murder.  Capitalists make billions and walk away scott free while thousands suffer.  Global capital rules all, some would say, and they would be pretty correct.  The multitudes and in this case the victims have fought a long and hard battle and they are not giving up.  We need to be there with them.  Their fight is our fight.  The Empire which has wrecked havoc on them, is the same Empire we face in our own backyard.  The people of Bhopal were casualties of the war the Empire wages on us all.  They are some of the most horrible examples of the disregard of Capital for the people of the planet, and for the planet itself.  

There are two posts below.  The first from the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal is a reaction to the recent US court ruling.  The second from Bhopal.net contains information and a petition about the chief henchmen in all this and the on going attempt to bring him to some kind of justice. 

A Sad Day for Bhopalis and The World

After a 9 year Battle, the US Federal Court this month dismissed an appeal to hold Union Carbide liable for the pollution of soil and groundwater by hazardous waste generated by the abandoned factory.  Survivors Groups are indignant, but not defeated.  Please read the following Press Statement:

June 29 2013. Five Bhopal based organizations active on the issue of ongoing toxic contamination in and around the abandoned Union Carbide factory in Bhopal today condemned the recent decision of the US Federal court that dismissed an appeal filed by a group of plaintiffs last year.

The organizations said that the decision of the Appellate court was a gross miscarriage of justice as it deliberately ignored the documentary evidence presented in court in the last nine years. The organizations said that they would now persuade the Indian government, owner of the contaminated lands, to intervene in the case pending before the US court.

Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action said that internal corporate documents presented before the three Appellate court “unambiguously demonstrates that Union Carbide Corporation, USA, and not its Indian subsidiary, had designed the waste disposal system in the Bhopal plant as well as supervised its operation and monitored the harmful consequences of the hazardous design.” She alleged that the judges turned a blind eye to the facts on record simply in order to avoid making American corporations accountable for crimes committed outside the U.S.

Nawab Khan, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha said that the original case seeking clean up of the contamination by the US corporation and its former chairman remained within the New York court system and lawyers representing Bhopali plaintiffs were “exploring all options” to continue the legal fight. “It took survivors of the Nazi holocaust 50 years to obtain redress through the courts,” Mr. Khan said. “Like them, we will not give up until we receive complete justice for the wrongs done to our families.”

Balkrishna Namdeo, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha pointed out that the U.S. judges have clarified that the decision to absolve the parent corporation, a majority partner in the Indian subsidiary, could not be cited as a precedent for other cases. “That is the best illustration of how unsure the judges themselves are about the legal validity of their decision.” he said.

The case in the U.S. Federal court concerns the pollution of soil and groundwater by hazardous waste generated in the factory that was the site of the world's worst industrial disaster when toxic gases leaked from it in December 1984.

Louise Christian, world renowned British human rights lawyer expressing solidarity with the survivors, said "This decision to deny justice to poor and vulnerable people caused irreparable harm by big business should shame the world. The United States Appeal Court has ignored compelling evidence about the central role played by the Union Carbon Corporation based in the US in equipping overseeing and enabling the Indian offshoot of the company to produce UCC's own product, the insecticide Sevin. UCC failed to give advice which would have ensured not only that the leak of gas itself did not happen but also prevented the contamination which has poisoned the drinking water in a large area around where the plant was.

Those who run multinational corporations should not be allowed to escape liability for grievous harm by creating complex corporate structures and hiding behind them. The paltry compensation paid in India to the victims and the failure to prosecute anyone over Bhopal is a disgrace.

The history should be reviewed by the United Nations with a view to introducing international law mechanisms for securing justice in this and other cases".

Sign the Petition to Extradite former Chairman of Union Carbide Corporation, Warren Anderson for his crimes in Bhopal

Dear Sisters and Brothers of USA,

We, the survivors of the world’s worst industrial disaster in Bhopal ask your help in extraditing Warren Anderson, former Chairman of Union Carbide Corporation who has  jumped bail and refuses to face criminal charges related to  thousands of deaths.

SIGN THIS PETITION  http://wh.gov/l3cJi

You need to be have a address in US.

If the petition gets 100,000 American signatures by 13th July 2013 then the White House will respond.

 Extradite Warren Anderson, fugitive and bail-jumper, to India to face charges related to thousands of deaths

Former Union Carbide Chairman / CEO Warren Anderson skipped bail in India and fled to the US more than 28 years ago. In 1992 and again in 2009 the Indian courts  issued warrants for Anderson’s arrest for manslaughter. The 1984 Bhopal disaster has killed as many as 25,000 people and 120,000 continue to battle chronic illnesses. Cancer and Tuberculosis are rampant and next generation is also marked by Carbide poisons. There is abundant evidence that shows that the disaster in Bhopal was foreseeable and preventable and that it occurred because of deliberate criminal negligence by Anderson and his colleagues. Anderson lives comfortably in his three homes in the Hamptons, Florida and Connecticut. The president of USA and the US Departments of State and Justice need to stop harboring one of the world’s most wanted criminals. Extradite Anderson before he dies of old age.

ANDERSON CRIMES IN BHOPAL

Union Carbide Factory, Bhopal, India

Anderson was part of the 11 member managerial committee that approved untested technology in the Bhopal plant to cut cost by 25%.

TIMELINE

On 7th December 1984, Warren Anderson along with Indian officials was arrested in Bhopal and released on bail. He promised to return back in his  Bail Bond.

On 1 December 1987, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed charge sheet against Warren Anderson, chairman of UCC, and eleven other accused individuals and corporations. Warren Anderson is charged under Indian Penal Code sections 304 [culpable homicide, punishable by 10 years to life imprisonment and fine], 320 [causing grievous hurt punishable by 10 years to life imprisonment and fine], 324 [causing hurt, punishable by 3 years imprisonment and/or fine] and 429 [causing death and poisoning of animals, punishable by 3 years imprisonment and/or fine]

Anderson has not shown up in Bhopal Court despite several summons through Interpol.

On 10th  April 1992 CJM, Bhopal issues Non-Bailable Warrant of arrest against Warren Anderson and orders the Government of India to seek extradition of Anderson from the United States.

May 2003:  Ministry of External Affairs sends request for extradition of Warren Anderson to Department of State and Department of Justice, USA.

On 24th  July 2003, the Department of State, United States rejects the application for Warren Anderson’s extradition. Copy of  rejection of Anderson’s extradition obtained under Freedom of Information Act.

In 2004, 2005 and 2008 Government of India took up the matter again with the US Government to reconsider its decision on the basis of additional inputs. However all the requests were turned down.

On 28th April 2011 Indian Government through Ministry of External Affairs sent another request for extradition of Warren Anderson.

This request is still pending with the US Department of Justice and till today (March 2013)  no decision has been taken by them regarding extradition of Warren Anderson.Updated presented by Indian Govt to the CJM, Bhopal.

Warren Anderson is currently 92 years old.

 SIGN THE PETITION

  

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN IS A CREEPY ASS CRACKER

I seldom watch any trials on TV and the trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin is really no exception.  I have caught a few blurbs on the news but not much more.  I do know how people tried to mock and savage  the testimony of Rachel Jeantel.  Typical of white America.   

Then, in the background one day last week, while I was washing dishes, I heard someone refer to Zimmerman as the victim of reverse racism.  What?  I went out to see how anyone came up with that concept.  The news head explained to me that Trayvon had apparently referred to Zimmerman as a "creepy ass cracker," or something to that affect.  I had to chuckle at that.  Then I caught myself and realized they were serious.  They were actually equating this to the use of the N word.  They were equating this to the shooting of Treyvon by that creepy cracker.  There were people actually pushing this dreadful line.  

Unreal, I thought.

Then I remembered that I was in America and it was 2013 and I sighed.

The following is from We Are Respectable Negroes.

Yes, George Zimmerman is in Fact a "Creepy Cracker"

A trial should be a crucible for the truth. While the legal outcome remains much in doubt, George Zimmerman’s murder trial is a reminder of the semi-permanence of race and the reality of the color line in post civil rights America.

The Zimmerman trial has revealed several truths so far. Young, dark-skinned, black women testifying in court about life and death matters--and who happen to be “working class” or “poor”--are to be savaged and mocked. The myth of the welfare queen lives on; black, female, and “poor” is to be less than a human being. She is most certainly not due the most basic amount of human respect or dignity.

White America is fascinated by black vernacular speech and how people of color talk in private spaces and among ourselves, as opposed to in public spaces or other interactions where we are subjected to the White Gaze.  

The comments on Twitter, other social media, and the Internet at large, have revealed how one’s relationship to the truth is also very much a function of racial attitudes and political orientation.

Zimmerman’s supporters believe that he is a “victim” and black folks are existentially obligated to submit to white people (and those who identity with White Authority) at all times and in every situation. Most of Zimmerman’s supporters do not know about America’s long history of slave passes, white slave patrollers, or Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney’s infamous ruling in the Dred Scott case that black people have no rights that whites are obligated to respect. Yet, they echo such sentiments across time and space with ease.

Trayvon Martin’s advocates see in his killing one more example (among many thousands) where in the United States, black life is deemed to be cheap and expendable; African-Americans are presumed guilty until proven innocent—even while walking down the street and minding their own business.

While ostensibly a means of getting at the truth of what happened that rainy and dark evening, Zimmerman’s trial has also been a spectacle and a carnival sideshow in America’s centuries-long racial theater.

While talking on the phone to his friend Rachel Jaentel, Trayvon Martin apparently called George Zimmerman, the man who followed him in a vehicle, exited it with a gun, and pursued him against police instructions, a “creepy ass cracker.” In a twist of thinking, and an inversion of what studied, learned, and reasonable people understand about the realities of race and power in America, for colorblind conservative racists, George Zimmerman has been magically transformed into a victim of  “reverse racism.”

Such a troubled relationship to the truth would be the stuff of a great comedy sketch if these serious matters did not involve a young person shot dead by a wannabe cop who imagined himself as possessing a license to kill.

  

The truth can also be inconvenient: by virtue of his actions and character, George Zimmerman is in fact a "creepy cracker."

The origins of the word cracker are uncertain. What we do know is that Trayvon’s use of “cracker” drew on a long history of mass racial violence by whites against African-Americans that began with the transatlantic slave trade and the plantation system in the “New World.”

 “Cracker” is evocative of the sound of the whip, wielded by a white overseer or slave owner, as it lashes and tears black flesh. Cracker is a word that embodies white on black racial violence and tyranny.

Cracker is in no way equivalent to the word nigger.

Were millions of white people killed and enslaved by blacks holding the lash and calling them “crackers?” Were there signs that segregated whites from blacks that read “no crackers need apply” or “crackers sit in the back of the bus”? Were white people burned alive, their bodies defiled, postcards taken of their corpses, and public gatherings where blacks killed “crackers” by the thousands? Were there racial pogroms where blacks running amok, pillaging, raping, murdering and destroying property at will, yelled out for the blood of “crackers” in places like Tulsa,East St. Louis, Chicago, and Rosewood? Were there sundown towns that had signs on their outskirts which told "crackers" “not to let the sun set on them here” or they will be killed?

No. To suggest that the words "cracker" and "nigger" are at all similar is an act which is both intellectually dishonest and a lie.

History is rife with cruel coincidences and ironies. For decades,Sanford, Florida was a sundown town. Blacks were not welcome in its city limits. White racism was so potent in Sanford, Floridathat Jackie Robinson, the trailblazing hero who broke the color line in baseball, was not allowed to train there.

When Trayvon Martin called George Zimmerman a cracker he was channeling a sense of existential dread and fear of white racial violence. Trayon’s worries were prescient. George Zimmerman would later shoot and kill Trayvon after racially profiling him.

George Zimmerman is also a creep.

George Zimmerman stalked and followed an innocent person on a rainy night.  Strangers with loaded guns following innocent people around in the dark are almost by definition “creepy.” George Zimmerman has been accused of sexually molesting a relative. He has been visited with a restraining order for domestic battery.Zimmerman has also been in fights with the police. On the evening he shot and killed Trayon Martin, he was taking a medication which can cause anxiety, violent impulses, aggression, and hallucinations.

As demonstrated by his many phone calls to the police, George Zimmerman is obsessed with harassing and confronting black people who he feels do not “belong” in his neighborhood.Zimmerman is such an extreme Negrophobe that he has even called the police on a black child who was walking down the street.

The throaty rasps of his call to the police and anger that “fucking punks. those assholes they always get away” was that of an obsessive, one whose exhalations were more suited for a phone sex line than a 911 call. George Zimmerman’s obsession with black people and vigilante-ways were that of a deviant, and yes, a creep.

The efforts by colorblind racists, the White Right, and Zimmerman’s defenders to invert reality so that he is a “victim” of “black racism” in the guise of the word “cracker” is part of a larger social dynamic in the Age of Obama. Recent public opinion research has revealed how white folks now believe that “anti-white” "racism" is a bigger problem than systematic discrimination against people of color in the United States.

Fantasies of white oppression are not just the product of disinformation circulated by the Right-wing media. They do serious political work by legitimating the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and affirmative action, as well as distracting the public from how white racism and white privilege continue to systematically disadvantage people of color to the detriment of the country’s economy.

A yearning for a belief in the lie of “white oppression” also fuels the rise of the militia movement and domestic terrorists who believe that Obama is not a legitimate and democratically elected President. The logic which tries to falsely equate “cracker” and “nigger” is also operative in the Herrenvolk dreams of the Tea Party and the Republican Party’s efforts to resuscitate the Confederacy and Civil War era controversies about secession, nullification, and “states rights”. Ultimately, the lie of “reverse racism” and “white oppression” is a means to rewrite history in order to legitimate White power and dominance.

The simplest definition of racism is that it consists of power plus prejudice. On the night when George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, it was Zimmerman with both the power of the gun and who prejudged an innocent person walking down the street by virtue of their skin color as a threat.

Such behavior has been the modus operandi and habit of “creepy ass crackers” in the United States for centuries.