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From Bhopal to New Mexico: Environmental Justice Now!

From November 29 through December 3rd, 2004, the New Mexico chapter of AID hosted a week of Bhopal events entitled "From Bhopal to New Mexico: Environmental Justice Now!" The events, most of which took place on the UNM campus but a couple of which were organized in the community, were co-sponsored by the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (SNEEJ).

On November 29th, a screening of Bhopal Express, starring Kay Kay, Nethra Raghuraman and Naseeruddin Shah was held in the Student Union Building.

On November 30th, a public screening of Bhopal: The Search for Justice, a new documentary film by Peter Raymont and Lindalee Tracey, was held.

On December 1st, a panel discussion with Robbie Rodriguez, Organizing Coordinator, South West Organizing Project, Albuquerque, and John Mathias, Volunteer, Association for India's Development - Ann Arbor, was held at the Out Ch'Yonda Theater. Robbie Rodriguez spoke about the groundbreaking effort that SWOP is embarking upon to encourage Intel Corporation to incorporate a promising new technology into its production process. The new Supercritical technology is being developed at national laboratories and applied to a method of cleaning semiconductors that will dramatically reduce water and hazardous chemical use. This process could revolutionize the semiconductor industry and have far reaching benefits for communities, workers and other industries. SWOP plans to use a shareholder campaign and other strategies to move the company to implement this technology in the next three years. SWOP is also seeking short-term commitments from Intel to improve water conservation, implement best available control technologies and state of the art air monitoring systems at all production facilities. SWOP intends to increase the level of accountability and cooperation between Intel, regulating agencies, workers and communities. John Mathias spoke about the current highlights of the Bhopal struggle, the role of the students in the US and around the world, in this campaign and the local actions taken by the Ann Arbor chapter of AID to encourage Dow Chemicals to take responsibility for cleaning up the factory at Bhopal.

On December 2nd, two documentary screenings were held as a part of the "People Before Profits" series: Twenty Years Without Justice and Communities And Environmental Laws, a video which introduces grassroots activists to environmental laws and illustrates the ways that community advocates can use such laws to secure a livable environment. These were followed by a discussion with John Mathias and a representative from SNEEJ.

On December 3rd, outside the UNM Bookstore, a candlelight vigil was held for the victims of the tragedy, including a reading of survivor testimonials.

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Fast and Protest Outside the UNM Bookstore

Here is an account of a first protest on Bhopal Campaign that some of us held on UNM campus in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Upon learning of the recent petition to the Indian government (signed by quite a few people from Albuquerque) and the hunger strike held by Bhopal activists in New Delhi for the same, Bhavana, an AID-NM volunteer and a student at UNM announced that she will join the fast and hold a protest in front of the bookstore on UNM campus, on Friday, June 25. I was inspired by this announcement and signed up for the fast too. Originally the fast was going to be specifically for the current issue to pressurize Indian government to give the No Objection Certificate (NOC). On June 23, Indian government announced that it will send the letter, so we were wondering whether to continue with the event. We decided to go ahead with the fast and the protest anyway, as we thought it would be an eye-opener for many New Mexicans and even Indians.

Bhavana and myself stood in front of the UNM bookstore with a poster about Bhopal Campaign (The terror twins one) from about noon till 6PM. We were joined in our fast by two more people - Shrayas and Midhun although they could not stay for all the time. Shailesh, another student from UNM joined us for all six hours and was holding the poster.

The response was quite good. About 50 people stopped by and signed up to receive updates on future local actions. We distributed about 70-75 quartersheets on Bhopal with Students For Bhopal and ICJB websites on them. A reporter from a local radio channel interviewed us and aired a segment during their 5:00PM news. In fact a couple of persons came after hearing about the protest in the news. Out of 50, approximately 20-25 were either Indian students or people of Indian origin. The rest of them were concerned non-Indians. Most of them knew about the tragedy but almost none knew about Dow's role in all this nor did they know why the issue is still a burning one. One of the ladies who stopped by got extremely emotional after reading about the disaster. One of the common questions from non-Indians was what did we want them to do about it. We mentioned about the letter that 18 members of Congress have sent to DOW and also the recent news about resolution passed by the city of San Francisco. We explained why it is important to build the pressure on Indian Government as well as on the US government to instruct DOW to take the responsibility. Some people frowned at the comparision of Osama bin Ladin and Warren Anderson (including one who said, "You know, OBL is not really a terrorist") but almost everyone understood and supported the cause.

For a first one, I think it was a good response. We hope to do another event when the school reopens in August as well as plan for the Global Day of Action. Bhavana has done the research in finding what kind of activities/research at UNM are funded by DOW. I do not wish to sound overconfident about the response we received as we still need to figure out who all would like to take active part in further planning of the campaign in New Mexico.

Due to lack of time we could not inform a lot of people about this event. We sent emails on AID-NM listserv, India Students Association listserv and Communication and Journalism listserv.. We anticipate a greater response by working with other local groups such as NMPIRG, Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (SNEEJ), and the South West Operating Project (SWOP). AID-NM is planning to continue its collaboration with SNEEJ and SWOP in the future (We organized a panel discussion with Rajendra Singh on community control over water rights in collboration with SNEEJ and SWOP).

Bhavana, who deserves all the credit for proposing this idea for a protest and inspiring me and others to join, will be the main coordinator for this campaign and would take the lead.

Listen to the radio interview on KUNM news!

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