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The following Student Declaration to Dow was issued on May 5th, 2005, and was presented to Dow at their annual Shareholder Meeting. If you're new to the campaign and would like to sign on, contact Ryan Bodanyi. ..........• Read the Press Release In the 20th Year of the Bhopal Disaster, A Joint Declaration To Fight For Justice To The Dow Chemical Company We are outraged. Twenty years ago, on Dec. 3rd, 1984, thousands of people in Bhopal, India, died after a catastrophic chemical leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant. More than 150,000 people were left severely disabled—of whom 20,000 have since died of their injuries—in a disaster now widely acknowledged as the world’s worst-ever industrial disaster. Bhopal is not only a disaster, but a corporate crime. None of the six safety systems at the plant were functional, and Union Carbide’s own documents prove the company cut corners on safety and maintenance in order to save money. Today, twenty years after the Bhopal disaster, those who survived the gas remain sick, and the chemicals that Union Carbide left behind in Bhopal have contributed to an epidemic of cancers, birth defects, and other afflictions. Although Dow Chemical purchased Union Carbide in 2001, it still refuses to accept Carbide’s liabilities in Bhopal—or even admit that they exist. For the past three years, Dow-Carbide has refused to: 1) Clean up the site, which continues
to contaminate those near it, or to provide just compensation for
those who have been injured or made ill by this poison; In light of these facts, we, the undersigned students and organizations, have signed this declaration to mark the 20th year of the Bhopal disaster: We don’t believe Dow-Carbide should be allowed to walk away from what happened in Bhopal. Enron’s crimes may have cost people their retirement portfolios, but Dow-Carbide’s crimes in Bhopal have cost tens of thousands of people their health and their lives. Today, Dow-Carbide seems content to condemn the survivors of Bhopal to wallow in the contamination it left behind. We believe the fact that Dow-Carbide has not acted to stop the ongoing contamination of tens of thousands—for which it is responsible—is inhumane, unjust, and immoral. We are outraged. We don’t want our institutions of learning associated with a corporation that maintains its profit margins by evading its responsibilities to those it has poisoned. Dow-Carbide’s callous disregard for the value of human life doesn’t seem to have changed since the Vietnam War, and we don’t believe students are going to be any more forgiving now than they were then. Until Dow resolves its legal and moral responsibilities in Bhopal, we are committed to: • Educating
our fellow students and our communities about the Bhopal disaster
and Dow-Carbide’s unresolved responsibilities. We, the undersigned students and organizations, are committed to continuing and intensifying our campaign for justice in Bhopal. We are committed to organizing a new student movement against your company, the first since the Vietnam War. We are committed to fighting for justice until Dow accepts all of its responsibilities in Bhopal. You can expect to be surprised by students and supporters of the Bhopal campaign so long as you continue to evade your responsibility in Bhopal. You can expect protests, direct actions, and embarrassment in the media. You can expect students across the world to demand that their institutions of learning sever ties with your company, as they did during the Vietnam War. You can expect this student movement to grow until you fulfill all the demands of the survivors of your disaster. We are committed to the Battle for Bhopal, and we will not rest until justice is done. Signed, Albany Medical College University of Arizona Bard College Bates College Brandenburg University of Technology,
Cottbus, Germany Brown University Sushil Jacob, Political
Action Chair, South Asian Students Association Rahul Kamath, South Asian
Students Association (SASA) University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, San Diego Nirmala Tammineni, President University of California, Santa Cruz University of Chicago University of Cincinnati Sandesh Samdaria Cochin University of Science and
Technology, Kerala, India Delhi University, India Duke University Emory University Flintridge Preparatory High School GAIA (Global Alternate Information
Applications), India Georgia Institute of Technology,
Atlanta Georgia State University Grand Valley State University Sara Smolinski, President,
Biology Club of GVSU Green Festivals Initiative, Chennai,
India Harvard University Pratibha Krishnamurthy-Shrivastava Highland Park High School, Dallas,
Texas Hillsborough High School, Hillsborough,
New Jersey University of Houston Ishaan Kapoor, Association for India's
Development-Houston IIT Madras, Chennai, India University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Indian Institute of Forest Management,
Bhopal, India Indiana University, Bloomington Johns Hopkins University University of Kansas Louisiana State University, Baton
Rouge Loyola College, Chennai, India Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam,
India University of Maryland, College Park Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) Medical College Thrissur, Kerala,
India University of Michigan Deepti Reddy, Co-facilitator,
Environmental Action University of Minnesota University of Nebraska-Lincoln New York University Warren Andrews Northampton High School, Northampton,
Massachusetts University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill University of North Texas Occidental College Penn State University Uma Asher, Association for South Asia
Research Angeliki Vgontzas, Coordinator,
Amnesty International Penn State University of Pennsylvania Portland State University Princeton University Queens University, Canada South Asia Forum - Madison SAPAC (South Asian Progressive Action
Collective), Chicago Khelan Bhatt Stanford University St. Benedict's Preparatory High School,
Newark, New Jersey Stella Maris and Ethiraj College,
Chennai, India University of Texas, Austin Tufts University Tulane University Vellore Institute of Technology,
Chennai, India Vintage High School, Napa, California University of Washington Wheaton College, Norton, MA University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Young Volunteers for the Environment,
Togo
*Neither Amnesty International nor its member chapters endorse boycotts or divestment.
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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.