TL: BRIEFING PAPER ON BHOPAL ANNIVERSARY SO: Josh Karliner, Greenpeace International (GP) DT: July, 1994 Keywords: environment toxics pesticides india south asia problems explosions deaths health / PLEASE READ The following is taken from a paper on the Tenth Anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Disaster written by Joshua Karliner of the Environment-Business Bureau & Political Ecology Group (US). Josh prepared this paper after a recent trip through India at the request of groups he met with there. It is meant to provide background on the case and initiate discussions about what we can/should do around the tenth anniversary of the most deadly industrial accident in history. --------------------------------------------------------------- BHOPAL 10th ANNIVERSARY BACKGROUND PAPER "I'm not tired now. It's only after we finish beating them that I'll be tired." Sabra Bi, resident, Nagar Nigam Colony, Bhopal. This memo is divided up into the following sections: 1. The Significance of the Bhopal Anniversary 2. The State of Affairs 2.1 India 2.1.1 Victims in Bhopal 2.1.2 Union Carbide to Quit India 2.1.3 The Transnational Tidal Wave 2.2 Carbide Internationally 3. Already Planned and Possible Lines of Action Please feel free to pass this around to other appropriate parties. 1. SIGNIFICANCE OF BHOPAL There are many reasons why the tenth anniversary of the gas disaster in Bhopal is significant, and therefore why it is important to mobilize around it. The following is my attempt to articulate some of them: 1.1 Along with Chernobyl, it is one of the two worst industrial disasters in the history of the world. Thus it is essential that Bhopal not be forgotten. Furthermore, it is imperative that the memory of Bhopal not be controlled or dominated by the Union Carbide and other corporations' vision. 1.2 Bhopal, India has been and continues to be the site of a ten year long grassroots struggle for justice and corporate accountability/liability. This ongoing struggle has been carried out from the community level with an internationalist vision (ie. "we don't want Bhopal to happen anywhere in the world"); its actions and demands should, in turn, be recognized and supported by the international community. 1.3 The gas disaster is a classic example of corporate double standards. The fact is that many companies continue to follow one practice in one place, and elsewhere a much less safe and stringent one if they can get away with it. The ability to get away with murder often influence corporate decisions to site a facility in a poor community of color in the United States or in a poor community in an African, Asian or Latin American nation. Such double standards can also be seen in the contrast between the extremely unsatisfactory compensation for the victims of the gas disaster and the compensation that would have been given to the victims of the disaster if it had ocurred in the US. This trend of double standards is often referred to as either environmental racism or environmental apartheid. 1.4 While Union Carbide has managed to evade most legal and financial liability for the disaster, its global image and reputation were seriously damaged. If it manages to walk away, ten years later, with a resucitated image as clean, green and benevolent (something it's been working on), this sends a ringing message to corporations the world over. If, on the other hand, Carbide is the subject of a global outcry and becomes a rallying point in calling for corporate liability regimes, an end to double standards, an end to environmental racism, clean production, revocation of their charter etc., it will send an alltogether different message. 1.5 Growing liberalization, privatization and globalization in India and throughout the world is drawing massive corporate investment in hazardous industrial sectors such as chemical and petrochemical production. The shadow that Bhopal casts (and that we make it cast) can help influence the debate about industrial hazards in the era of free trade. 2. STATE OF AFFAIRS: 2.1 INDIA: By no means am I an expert on the situation in Bhopal, let alone India. And while this is my second visit there in four years, many other people both on the ground in India, here in the US and elsewhere, have a much greater knowledge than I do. Thus the following are only some impressions combined with some basic information that I've gathered. This section however, does assume some basic knowledge of the evolution of events in India over the last ten years. Briefly and in sum, my impression of the situation in India is that the victims continue to be denied justice despite their ongoing struggle for it. On the other hand, much of the rest of India is bored with Bhopal and ready to put it behind them as they either ride the wild wave of neoliberalism and new foreign investment that is sweeping the country, or as they try to build sandbag barricades in desperate attempts to keep the rising corporate tide out. Meanwhile, Union Carbide is poised to evaporate--ready to flee India in an attempt to escape Bhopal's horrible legacy once and for all. 2.1.1: VICTIMS IN BHOPAL: The Bhopal Gas Disaster, which released over 40 tons of lethal Methyl-Isocyanate from a Union Carbide pesticide factory, killed thousands and affected hundreds of thousands more people, is, together with Chernobyl, one of the two single worst industrial accidents in history. In Bhopal, people claiming to be victims numbered more than 600,000 and sought compensation in excess of US $10 billion. In its suit against Union Carbide "on behalf" of the claimants, the Indian government sought $3.3 billion. Carbide offered between $300 and $350 million, and finally settled for $470 million. The settlement, finalized in 1991, reportedly cost the company only forty-three cents per share. Predictably, with forty claims courts now actively disbursing the $470 million settlement, the militancy and unity of the gas disaster victims, who once made for a very powerful presence, has been somewhat diluted and divided. Nevertheless, there is still a significant organizing effort in Bhopal to respond to what in many aspects is nothing short of an apalling situation regarding both compensation and health care for the victims. **COMPENSATION: So far, 10,000 death claims out of a total of 14,623 registered have been processed. Roughly 4,000 claims have been awarded to families of the deceased. Of those cases accepted by the courts, each death is "worth" roughly only US $3,000. Nevertheless, the fact that 4,000 deaths (and counting) is now the OFFICIAL number is somewhat significant, in that it is my understanding that for years Carbide claimed there were only 2,000 deaths. Meanwhile, 6,000, or sixty percent of all death claims ajudicated so far have been rejected by the courts. Some of those rejected cases were already confirmed as gas disaster-caused deaths by a previous government committee. Others were thrown out on questionable grounds. Furthermore, the government stopped accepting all new claims in 1992; Mr. Abdul Jabbar, leader of the Bhopal women's organization (!), claims that 7,000 more gas related deaths have occurred since that time. Injury claims total 639,793. Each injury case approved by the courts is entitled to roughly US $800 in compensation. I don't have the figures for how many injury cases have been ajudicated, although Carbide's representative in Bhopal claims that those "legally injured" are only between eight and ten thousand. **HEALTH CARE: According to the preliminary findings of The International Medical Commission On Bhopal, a group of physicians led by Dr. Rosalie Bertell (Canada) and Dr. Gianni Tognoni (Italy) that visited Bhopal in January of this year, the health care for victims is far from adequate. The Commission found "genuine long-term morbidity in a substantial proportion of the population." It also found a much broader spectrum of diseases than is currently officially attributed to the gas disaster, including neurotoxicity and post-traumatic stress. It also made a number of other important findings about the inadequacy of the health care provided to victims. Its final report is due to be released in September and provides an important "hook" for media and organizing work. While the government has provided some health care for the victims, these services are now being phased out. As compensation settlements are disbursed, funds are being withdrawn from three hospitals and sixteen policlinics. Not surprisingly, doctors are opening up private practices to "serve" the newly funded victim population. Thus, claim activists such as Sarangi, much compensation money will be funnelled through the victims to the Bhopal medical establishment. In other words, in addition to the lawyers and bankers, doctors are also poised to m ake a living from the settlement. Other government sponsored rehabilitation centers, while inadequate to begin with, are now being shut down as well; for example, a sewing clinic for victims has been defunded, eliminating 2,300 jobs. According to Abdul Jabbar, the government's plan is to close down all gas disaster related health budgets by 1995 (10 years after). Some of this slack will be taken up by the Carbide-funded hospital to be built and underwritten by the company for eight years (see below for details on this hospital). 2.1.2 UNION CARBIDE TO QUIT INDIA: Graffiti scrawled on the walls outside the the abandoned pesticide factory calls on Union Carbide to quit India. The anti-Carbide forces are getting their wish allright, the corporation is finally leaving. But instead of being publicly booted out as an undesirable element, it is artfully erecting a facade of corporate concern and consience in the form of an hospital, and from behind this edifice, it is slyly slipping out of the country, slithering away from charges of criminal liability being leveled against it and its executives in the country's courts. **THE HOSPITAL TRUST: "They are trying to sever their last link with India on a `humanitarian' note and it just smells." -- Ward Morehouse. In October 1991 the Supreme Court of India upheld a citizens' appeal of the final settlement of $470 million in the civil action against Union Carbide. While this ended one phase of litigation, the court also reinstituted criminal cases against Union Carbide India Ltd. (UCIL), Union Carbide Corporation Eastern (the Asia-regional office in Hong Kong, UCC-E), and Union Carbide Corporation (UCC--the parent company). Criminal charges were also reinstituted against nine executives, including Warren Anderson, UCC CEO at the time of the accident. While the revival of the criminal case was good news, the court also provided Carbide with an escape valve. It suggested that the company finance a hospital for 500 victims. The hint was not lost on Carbide, which wasted little time in establishing a trust, to be overseen by the former Solicitor General of the UK, Ian Percival. It then proposed to sell all of its assets in India to finance the trust. This was fought tooth and nail in the courts by those who argued that once Carbide sells its assets the government would lose its only leverage to bring people like Anderson to trial. Recently, however, the Supreme Court ruled that such a sale was legal and legitimate, and Carbide is proceeding quickly, putting on the auction block its controlling interest in eleven factories that manufacture 560 million batteries and 10 million flashlights a year, dominating the Indian market for these "essential consumer products." According to UCIL officials, all of UCC's controlling interest in UCIL should be sold off within three to six months. In other words, by the time the tenth anniversary rolls around, Carbide will be completely out of India, and the government will be initiating construction of the Carbide-financed hospital (my bet is with a ceremony on the day of the anniversary). [Note: Carbide constructed the business logic for this sale two years after the disaster when it sold off its global battery business to Ralston Purina. While the Indian government, citing pending Bhopal litigation, prohibited Carbide from selling its battery operations in India, it layed the groundwork for Carbide to claim that it makes perfect business sense to sell the business as soon as possible]. ***TOXIC WASTE: One issue that the company has to deal with is the toxic waste on the Bhopal factory site. It is not clear what the extent of toxic contamination is in or around the factory, but the company is concerned enough that it has brought in both the Indian government and corporate environmental auditor Arthur D. Little and Associates to assess the situation. Says a UCIL official: "It is only to ensure that UCC doesn't leave a place where later on someone will say we left toxic remnants...To prevent such charges in the future, this precaution is being taken abundantly." 2.1.3 THE TRANSNATIONAL TIDAL WAVE: There is no doubt that Carbide executives must be kicking themselves and pulling their hair out while jumping up and down--holding their breaths in order not to scream out in frustration. Such disapppointment would stem not from the inadequate compensation or health care that the victims of their double standards are receiving, nor from the fact that their company escaped virtually all legal liability for the disaster. Rather, it must be very difficult for them to pack their transnational travel bags and get out, while all of their corporate bretheren are getting in. If it weren't for Bhopal, Carbide, which has been in India much longer than most TNCs, and commands a vast distribution network, would have been ideally situated to take advantage of the massive liberalization, privatization and globalization of the Indian economy--an event corporate execs. have been fantasizing about for decades. ***FOREIGN INVESTMENT: Direct foreign investment (DFI) in India has increased since World Bank imposed policies designed to eliminate foreign debt and "modernize" the economy began in 1980. The most radical increases have been since 1990, when liberalization-based economic reform designed to open up India to the global economy really took off. DFI (calculated in terms of approved projects) jumped from US $67 million in 1990, to $1.5 billion in 1992 and $1.2 billion in 1993. Power, oil refineries and food processing account for more than half of all investment proposals. Companies such as Motorola, Hewlett Packard, General Electric, GM, 3M, Honeywell, Kodak, Cargill, DuPont, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, C. Itoh, Marubeni, BASF, ICI, Asea Brown and Boveri, Royal Dutch Shell, McDonalds, Pepsico, and Coca Cola, to name a very few, are rapidly increasing investment in neoliberal India, buying up formerly state-run enterprises, or setting up new production facilities in order to take advantage of an highly educated workforce and extremely cheap labor. They are both using India as a platform to produce cheap exports, and catering to a middle class consumer market that conservative estimates place as larger than the entire population of Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands combined (that's roughly 100 million people, only one-ninth of India's entire population!). Just a couple of examples: McDonalds reportedly plans to enter the market with 31 outlets and has bought land to breed lambs for "lamburgers" that will service Hindu burger eaters. Cargill sees India as one of the worlds great future exporters of sunflower oil. Mitsubishi is exporting fish back to Japan, building a petrochemical facility with BASF and selling cars. General Electric set up six new companies in India in 1993 alone, to provide capital services and consumer finance, while manufacturing plastics, refrigerators, lighting, xray machines and washing machines. It is planning on getting into manufacturing aircraft engines, power turbines and locomotives, while looking for a television station to pair with its US subsidiary, NBC. "Our vision is to make GE India a billion dollar company by 1996 and increase it by a couple of billions by the end of the century" says GE India's President and CEO Scott Bayman. Ashish Kothari reports in the Public Interest Research Group's "Alternative Economic Survey" that pesticide production is one major area of DFI in India. Players include Dow, DuPont, ICI, Ciba Geigy, Atochem, Kumiai and Mitsubishi. As a DuPont official told the Economic Times of India, "In Japan, the average use of pesticides per hectare is 10 kg., in India it is 450 gm. Considering that India is an agricultural economy, the industry has ample scope to grow." So while Union Carbide's pesticide plant in Bhopal has been closed for a decade and the company is quitting India, the pesticide industry is poised to explode.... ***ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROLS? What has the impact of the Bhopal tragedy been on this tidal wave of investment? It depends upon who you ask. Carbide will tell you that in India, Bhopal has been forgotten. ICI will tell you that the Bhopal disaster heightened their safety consciousness. While they don't operate in India, Waste Management International says that corporate concern for liability after Bhopal has generated more business for the "environment industry" and contributed to a rise in environmental and safety standards. On the other hand, after Bhopal, DuPont got a clause written into their proposal to build a nylon plant in Goa (one that's been resisted by the community there for more than a decade) that absolves it from all liability in case of an accident (!); DuPont also regularly publishes environmental advertisements in the Indian press. George Fernandes, the MP who kicked Coca Cola and IBM out of India in 1977 only to watch them walk back in in the 1990s, says Bhopal has made little difference on the governmental level. Satu Sarangi agrees, suggesting that if something like Bhopal happens tomorrow in India, "the story will be no different." If anything, he argues, it has made corporations more cunning and media savy in how they handle things. Abdul Jabbar says that after 10 years "there have been no solutions." Sarangi, Jabbar and other activists in New Delhi and Bhopal speak of heightened community and worker awareness and concern around industrial developments. They also suggest that the radical escalation in foreign investment will lead to more Bhopals, especially since the government seems to be intent on undermining existing environmental regulations in order to attract transnational corporate investment. While there were a spate of environmental regulations and controls promulgated in the 1980s, some of which were products of the gas disaster fallout, many of these are now being rolled back. According to Ashish Kothari, prohibitions against siting industrial facilities in ecologically sensitive zones have been eliminated, and protected areas are being "denotified" so that cement plants, oil refineries and dams can be built. While it is difficult to prove, environmental deregulation in the forestry, fisheries, mining and industrial sectors is being promoted at the behest of national and transnational corporations. This is part of a broader trend of derugulation promoted by World Bank/IMF Structural Adjustment Programs. Kothari explains that most other economic and political controls on foreign investment have already been abolished, leaving the the TNCs' guns trained on the environment ministry--virtually the only institution that stands between the TNCs and India. In sum, much of the progress that might have been made in the wake of Bhopal, is being rolled back in the name of free trade. ***ANTI-CORPORATE ORGANIZING: The good news is that no where in the world are people so mobilized against the transnational tidal wave as in India. International action around the Bhopal anniversary comes in the context of this growing protest. In New Dehli, E. Deenadayalan points out that action now against a company like Carbide helps send a signal to the TNCs and government at a moment when the economy is opening up. I would imagine, although this is for something for people in India to confirm or deny, that the tenth anniversary would fit into the broader spectrum of activities now going on in the country. For example: When I was in New Delhi there were multiple demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of people against GATT, from the left, from the right-wing Hindu fundamentalists, from the students etc.. I also attended an anti-GATT rally organized by the Bhopal womens group [Their slogan: "We are the women of Bhopal. We are not flowers. We are flames!"]. Farmers in Karnataka State have ransacked Cargill's seed operations and come out in mass to demonstrate against Cargill, TNCs and GATT (a half-million people at the last demo). Fisherfolk and fishworkers from the National Fishworkers Forum pulled off a one-day national strike earlier this year, and threaten to initiate and indefinite strike and blockade of ports untill their demand for a withdrawal of all joint ventures is met. In Goa, community organizers have kept DuPont from transfering an obsolete nylon factory from the US to a site surrounded by small agricultural villages for more than a decade. In 1993 Cargill was forced to abandon plans for a salt factory in the area where, in 1930, Mahatma Ghandi began a crusade to make India independent in salt production; at the time, this Salt Satyagraha became a symbol of India's struggle for independence. Today, people in India are beginning to say that this is the first time since their struggle against British colonialism that their indpendence has been seriously threatened; some are beginning speak of the rising oppositon to liberalization, privatization and globalization as the beginnings of a new Independence Movement. In addition, the progressive, grassroots, non-party oriented groups that have fought against the Narmada Dam, the pollution of the Ganges, and the selling off of the country's fisheries, among others, have formed a National Alliance of Peoples Movements to build a common agenda that counters globalization and promotes just and sustainable development. 2.2 CARBIDE INTERNATIONALLY: I don't know very much about Carbide's operations in the rest of the world. I do know that they are investing in China, and have apparently built a polyetheline plant there. As of 1990 the company derived one- third of its sales outside the United States. It would be important to build an up to date picture of the corporation's operations around the world prior to the 10th anniversary. ***FINANCES: While Carbide's stock dropped due to the Bhopal settlement, overall its financial performance in the 1980s was magnifcant. Stock bought for $1,000 in 1980 sold for $2,993 in 1990. In 1992 it was the eighth largest chemical company in the US, and the 88th largest US corporation overall, with revenues of more than $6 billion. I have ordered financial and other information from the company, but it has yet to arrive. ***CARBIDE IN THE US: In terms of Carbide in the US, many community groups are active in protesting environmental, health and health and safety problems created by the company. I assume that Chris Bedford and Ward Morehouse will be putting together some sort of analysis on the state of Carbide's operations in the US and I urge people to contact them if they are interested in obtaining such information (see contact list). It is certainly important to recognize that since the gas disaster Union Carbide has turned increasingly "green." It is a leader in Responsible Care, the chemical industry's greenwash initiative, and it has quite a slick advertising program. It should be assumed that the company will come on strong with an environmental PR blitz in the lead-up to the anniversary. 3. LINES OF ACTION: A growing number of plans for activities seem to be springing up around the world. One suggestion from Gary Cohen in the US is to create a very loosely coordinated "World Day of Action to Fight Toxics and Corporate Power" around the Bhopal anniversary. I think that this is an excellent idea in that it would lend coherence and strength to the diversity of activities planned, and potentially allow groups around the world to articulate some common demands. I also think that activities should by no means be limited to the day or week of the anniversary, but rather should be developed during the three months prior to December 3, 1994. This is the time frame that Carbide will probably be using to put their "spin" on the signifcance of "ten years later." Please note that many of the plans are being created by members of the International Coalition for Justice in Bhopal, a loose affiliation of organizations that have been working on this issue for a decade. For more information please contact E. Deenadayalan in Delhi or Ward Morehouse in New York. 3.1 INDIA: My understanding is that there will be a series of activities in Bhopal, as well as a number of activities in other parts of the country. 3.2 SOUTH EAST ASIA: People I have been in contact with in Hong Kong from DAGA and ARENA tell me that a number of events, protests and other activities are being planned throughout SE Asia. Depending on the political climate in the given country there will either be demonstrations and public forums (ie. panels, videos, etc.), or just public forums. 3.3 NORTH AMERICA: Various activities and protests are currently being discussed and include dovetailing some actions with the release of the Medical Commission's report in September. Communities Concerned about Carbide, a grouping of US communities living in the shadow of Carbide plants, has decided to undertake a "Citizens Grand Jury Investigation" of Carbide, to culminate in a set of public hearings in November; this will be done in collaboration with other groups in the US. CCC is also considering bringing community activists from Bhopal to the US on a tour and to meet with communities affected by Carbide plants. Various other protests are being discussed. 3.4 LATIN AMERICA: I do not know if any activities are planned in Latin America. 3.5 EUROPE: The final session of the Permanent People's Tribunal on Industrial Hazards (an event that has held sessions in Bhopal, Japan and elsewhere) is scheduled for late November in London. This event is being coordinated by the UK Bhopal Support Group. I do not know what's going on in the rest of Western or in Eastern Europe. 3.6 AFRICA: I do not know if any activities are planned in Africa.