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20th Anniversary Film Screening and Performance
(click here for the photos, and here for the press release!)

On December 2nd, 2004, performances by an Indian Classical artist, Kaya Collective and Hana Stepanek followed by Atlanta's premiere of the much anticipated documentary, "Bhopal: The Search of Justice". The film was produced by Peter Raymont, Lindalee Tracey and Harold Crooks (The Corporation).

The evening on the 2nd at Emory started with a haunting alap and jod on Violin in an evening rag, “Puriya Dhaneshri” by Amitava Sen, followed by Bhopal: In (their own) words, an original performance art work by Kaya Collective which included testimonials and photographs from Bhopal and live music by Hana Stepanek and Raktim Sen. After the documentary screenings, the attendees stayed late overwhelmed by the realities of Bhopal and lack of responsibility and accountability by Union Carbide, its new owner, Dow Chemical, and the Indian government.

“Just imagine if the 20,000 dead and the 150,000 sick and suffering 20 years later were Americans! Could Dow continue to deny their responsibility for cleaning up the toxic mess that Union Carbide has left which continues to make more people sick and contaminate their grounds and water supply?” charged Taka Ono of Greens of GSU during one of the Q&A sessions.

Alka Roy of Association of India’s Development’s (A.I.D.) chapter in Atlanta continued, “the Indian Government is not without fault in how they have handled this but Union Carbide and now Dow Chemical have been anything but forthcoming in accepting their full criminal and civil liabilities in a disaster they have caused, which has changed the lives and face of Bhopal forever.”

Discussions also veered to the larger context of global justice. “As more and more companies continue to operate globally, it is important that accountability is demanded of them and they are not allowed to devastate local environments and communities. As Bhopalis have said, we don’t want another Bhopal,” Roy commented.

This was the second of a three-day series of events entitled “Bhopal & Search for Global Justice: 20 Years in the Making” that was sponsored at three Atlanta-area universities by a diverse collection of student and community groups, including: Association for India's Development (A.I.D.) Atlanta & Greens of GSU with support from Atlanta Jobs with Justice, Amnesty International, Asian Studies at Emory U., Bengali Association of Greater Atlanta (BAGA), Emory Global Health Organization (EGHO), Indian Classical Music Society of Greater Atlanta (ICMS), Indian Student Association (GSU), International Association for Health & Human Rights (Emory), Khabar, Kaya Collective, Raksha, Rollins Environmental Health Action Committee (Emory), Power of Women (GSU), Student Labor Action Project (GSU), Students for Peace & Justice (GSU) and Women's Action for New Directions (WAND) in solidarity with the survivors of Bhopal and workers world-wide who keep inspiring us.

Read the article in the Hindustan Times!

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Protesting Dow With Amnesty International

We did it! Everyone pulled together & it worked!

On May 11, 2005, there were 12 of us (pretty good for two days notice). Dow-Carbide (and yes they still have signage that says Union Carbide) plant folks knew we were coming or had seen us in the parking lot. They locked the entrance for visitors and the visitor parking lot (which wasn't locked last night or the night before when we stopped by for a visit.)

But we had come with the "fake" contaminated water, a slightly used "jhadoo", Amnesty's report and tons of signs that many worked on late last night, so there wasn't any going back. Only four of us went to make the delivery. The rest headed to Hwy 29 intersection near the plant to demonstrate.

As we were wondering how to get in the plant, a man came towards us. At first it looked like he may let us come by the visitor area but then he was firm and said he couldn't let us get on Dow's premises. So, the “delivery” which lasted about 10 minutes took place behind a chained fence. Govind videotaped the whole thing and Naga was on the camera. Laura and I spoke to the Plant lead/Manager who was sent or came out to deal with us.

He had an official Dow-Union Carbide statement for us (it was a printout from their website). He was very polite, listened to us, took the broom, water, report etc. and promised to take our concerns to his associates. He told us that that was all he would be able to do. This is a fairly small Dow-Carbide plant and has been around since 1973 so the Plant Lead/Manager remembered Bhopal and wanted us to know that he felt badly for what happened and what has been going on.

We went back and joined others holding signs near the highway. Some people stopped and took flyers from us - including delivery truck drivers. We ended by marching back to the plant and around it with slogans. We started with "jhadoo maro DOW ko" and switched to "Justice in Bhopal. Dow Clean up" because it would be understood by others and easier to pronounce for everyone.

One thing we noticed was that some of the signs didn't mention DOW Chemical, for those driving by who didn't know anything it would have been difficult to figure out why we were there. On an interesting note, there was a driving school in the corner where we were standing and the owner came out and spoke to Bindu & took a flyer. Instead of being upset that we were right in front of his signage, he told her that he didn't like Dow and was glad that we were out there.

We have tons of pictures, a video-tape of the whole thing and an audio file of our conversation with the Dow plant lead!

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