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Your state (and perhaps your city as well) manages a pension fund for public employees, and it may be invested in Dow. Your city or state treasury may be as well. Find out – and if so, make sure that they use their shares to support the Bhopal Shareholder Resolution.
If YOUR state or city manages investment funds that hold Dow shares, they have a decision to make. Every year since 2004, concerned shareholders have introduced a resolution calling on the company to explain how Bhopal is likely to affect Dow, its reputation, and its finances, and any plan that the company may have to address the concerns of the Bhopal survivors. As with every resolution, all shareholders have the opportunity to vote – in fact, they’re expected to do so, in line with their role as owners of the corporation. As with most votes, it’s a pretty simple choice: a yes or no judgment call. Unfortunately many shareholders choose not to consult their better judgment, preferring instead to vote as management recommends – and you’ve got three guesses as to what Dow recommends. Public fund managers should come to an informed and independent decision about how to vote their shares, and you can help. It’s your tax dollars they’re investing, after all. Public fund managers are often susceptible to public pressure, especially if that pressure comes from constituents in their area. Remember: share voting is quick, easy, costs nothing, and they should be doing it anyway. A vote in favor of the Bhopal Shareholder’s Resolution isn’t only the right choice – it’s an easy one. City and state investment funds hold literally trillions of dollars in publicly traded stock. Obviously, such large shareholders can exert tremendous pressure over a company and the decisions it makes, and bringing that pressure to bear in favor of Bhopal offers us a tremendous opportunity. Although resolutions such as Bhopal rarely approach the 50% threshold required for passage, sizeable votes in favor can nevertheless be a terribly embarrassing rebuke for the company and inspire media scrutiny they’d prefer to avoid. Quite often, corporations will be prepared to negotiate – and even concede some or all of a resolution’s demands – in order to prevent a vote which may prove humiliating to the corporate management. Vision Goals Strategies
Since public investments are made up of tax dollars, information regarding their investments is public. Anyone can request this information by contacting them, preferably by a formal letter and a follow-up call. If that route proves difficult, there are many other avenues to obtain the information including city or state treasurers, elected officials, public employees, and open record requests. It may very well be that public funds in your area have been past supporters of the Bhopal Shareholder’s Resolution – much of the resolution’s previous support has come from just such funds. If you find that they have voted in favor of the Bhopal resolution in the past, you can still ask them to take the next step and support the resolution as an active co-filer.
Now you’re ready to carry out a public campaign:
Contact your champion. Once you arrange a meeting, try to organize as diverse a group as possible to represent your cause. By involving a wide range of coalition partners in the discussion, you demonstrate that your issue has community support. At the meeting, make a strong case for why the resolution is important. Most likely, the official will never have heard about Bhopal before, so you should come prepared with such background information as the Amnesty International report on Bhopal, Clouds of Injustice; the financial report Dow Chemical: Risks for Investors; and a Bhopal film such as Litigating Disaster which lays out the complicated legal issues in a brief and powerful way. Naturally, you should also bring a copy of the Bhopal Shareholder Resolution, and any brief informational sheets that might be useful. Although the official may agree right away – if so, great news! – it’s more likely that they’ll want some time to go over the information and consider it. Leave your contact information, but offer to call back in a week or two and see what they may have decided.
..........• Assess the response
you receive based on your demands. Consult with your coalition members
about next steps. Remember that your campaign will constantly be evolving based on the progress you’re making, and how receptive or stubborn your targets may be. You may need to adapt your campaign demands based on the responses you receive. REPEAT UNTIL YOUR GOALS ARE MET! Like all campaigns, yours might not be immediately successful, but perseverance will pay off!
More
Information ..........• Survivor
testimonials
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Step
One: Research 
Step
Two: Formulate Your Campaign
Step
Three: Find a Champion
Step
Four: Building Support
Step
Five: Assess Your Progress
Step
Six: Share What You’ve Learned
The international student campaign to hold Dow
accountable for Bhopal, and its other toxic legacies around the world.
For more information about the campaign, or for problems regarding this
website, contact Ryan
Bodanyi, the Coordinator of Students for Bhopal.
WE
ALL LIVE 
IN
BHOPAL
"The year 2003 was a special year in the history of the campaign for justice in Bhopal. It was the year when student and youth supporters from at least 30 campuses in the US and India took action against Dow Chemical or in support of the demands of the Bhopal survivors. As we enter the 20th year of the unfolding Bhopal disaster, we can, with your support, convey to Dow Chemical that the fight for justice in Bhopal is getting stronger and will continue till justice is done. We look forward to your continued support and good wishes, and hope that our joint struggle will pave the way for a just world free of the abuse of corporate power."
Signed/ Rasheeda Bi, Champa Devi Shukla
Bhopal Gas Affected Women Stationery Employees Union
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal
This is what the www.studentsforbhopal.org site looked like in early 2008. For more recent information, please visit www.bhopal.net.