The 2003 anniversary of Union Carbide's disaster in Bhopal witnessed the largest, broadest and most penetrating display of international solidarity for the survivors of Bhopal in the nineteen years they have been fighting for rehabilitation and justice. The more than 65 events in 16 countries sent an unequivocal notice of intent to the Dow Chemical Company: people around the world cannot and will not stand by and allow justice to be buried in Bhopal.

Eleven of the fourteen members of Dow's board received this message directly from Bhopal supporters across the US, who visited the executives at their work places and homes. If the actions brought inconvenience, unease and even - as was observed - fear to individual board members accustomed to concealing themselves behind Dow's corporate veil, then they'd do well to reflect on a few things. They might consider for example, what it's like to be constantly afraid of what the toxic gas sitting inside your body is doing to you - whilst being blind as to how to stop it doing whatever it is that it's doing; or they might think about how life is when you have to daily worry about how you'll feed your family in the evening, given that you don't possess the physical or mental health to earn money; or how it feels to be pouring poison into your child's throat, knowing that there's nothing else to drink. Those same directors might then realise why it is that the survivors of Bhopal will never stop fighting, and why they will continue to draw solidarity from thinking and feeling people everywhere.

In this collection of reports from Dec 3, we're only able to present a few of the events that took place. It doesn't do justice to the efforts of all the people involved, but we hope it can capture something of what occurred. We cannot thank those who took part enough.

 

In the United States, Students for Bhopal organised a 'return to sender' action that resulted in 11 out of the 14 Dow board members having contaminated Bhopal water delivered to the doors of their homes. After a tip off from the local press, none of the Dow officials would answer the door.

Midland, Michigan.

Ryan Bodanyi describes the report he received of the action in Midland, Michigan, epicentre of the Dow universe:

"I spoke with the Ann Arbor folks, and they were enthusiastic about their RTS. They were met outside the CEO's home by all the local television stations and newspapers, the police, and an entire squadron of Dow folks, led by the illustrious Jon Musser. Musser gave them a letter telling them that none of the Board members would come out to take the water. Instead they hid inside as the students (13 of them) held a candlelight vigil in front of each house (Dow CEO William Stavropoulos & board members Pedro Reinhard, Anthony Carbone, Arnold Allemang) and read the testimonial of a Bhopal victim. The police and Dow folks followed the students everywhere they went, and the Dow flunkies picked up the water that the students left on each doorstep--but wouldn't do so on film."

Milwaukee.

A report by Kamayani of AID, Milwaukee, of their visit to the house of James M Ringler, one surviving member at Dow of the Union Carbide board:

Nothing seems right ! well that’s how it looked like till we finally met Member Ringler.

As we started preparing for dec 3, we figured that we would not be able to make a large protest, (as we had initially wanted) because of communications and mis-communications between the local organizers. Anyhow we were four AID milwaukee volunteers on the road at 5 to meet Ringler. And well instead of taking the stipulated one and a half hour drive it took us THREE hours, what with a freeway accident and then losing our way!

In any case by the time we reached Mr. Ringler’s it was around 8:00 pm. Well, so here was one sprawling mansion, but with a dead look much like the cemetery next to it. There was a drive but no gate at the entrance, so we went in to the door. No lights, except a dim glow in the attic and the ante room with it’s satin drapes.

We rang the bell, no response, so we gave u -, "well looks like no one’s in", is what we said - and decided to leave the letter for member ringler, the water sample and the two posters that read:

Bhopal gas tragedy -
first day 7000 dead
to date 20, 000 dead
dow-carbide at least take responsibility now!

Corporate accountabiility only for Americans
not for Dow Carbide victims in Bhopal
Context: Texas asbestos case
(From one of the double standard posters on bhopal.net
website)

But, just as we clicked photographs of us with our biohazard suit (reading - dow carbide factory - “a global toxic hot-spot” says greenpeace - clearup dow!) And all the stuff laid out in front of the Ringler door, the door opened. We were taken by surprise! And this is how it was:

Ringler: Goodbye guys (ringler holding the door open just enough to let us see him)

AID volunteer: we have got you a sample of the bhopal water ...

Ringler : I give you just one second to get off my property!

Volunteer: We will leave the sample...

Ringler : No take it with you...just one second to get off my property! (Door slammed shut)

It all happened in a flash. So we left the posters, and got the water back with us - and tomorrow we will post the water wrapped in the biohazard suit for member Ringler!

The callousness, anger, irritation and most evident the fear - fear of four very ordinary people with a just cause- was evident in member Ringler’s action.

Don’t think we will get any media coverage! we still have our media kit all ready. But as one of our friends said “what was important has been done.....keep ur spirits high...” And believe us we are in high spirits. More as we do more !

kamayani
(For AID - Milwaukee)

Read a press release for the event here.

Princeton.

Harold Shapiro, President Emeritus and Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University, and Bioethics expert has been considered the intellectual heavyweight of Dow's board for 18 years, where he's now Presiding Director. "Harold has superb intellectual credentials. I don't know how much more superb you can get," according to another Dow director, Barbara Franklin. On December 2nd, 2003 this superb intellect decided to take a sample of contaminated Bhopal water, thus symbolically accepting, on behalf of Dow, the contamination related liabilities:

Here's my story. I went up to Shapiro immediately after the question & answer session when there were a lot of people crowding around, including our gang of five.

I began, 'I would like a address a larger question of ethics...' He was very polite and enthusiastic, nodding his head.

'Don't you think that Dow Chemical Company, on whose board you serve should clean up the pollution it left in Bhopal? I want to give you this water, collected by Greenpeace, from Bhopal, it has organichlorines and heavy metals in it, and people die every day because they are forced to drink it.'

I held out the water, he took it. He had no choice. There were too many people nearby.

'Don't you think Dow chemical company should ethically clean up the site?' I asked. His talk had been about ethics and he had said that every issue must be debated before people could see eye to eye and there is always room for compromise.

'Thank you' he said (I think it was for the water I gave him) 'I am not here to talk about Dow Chemical Company'.

Sujit handed over a sheet of paper saying 'This has the testimonial of a survivor of Bhopal.' That distressed him. His smile became plastic and disappeared. He folded it up unhappily. Someone in our gang, Manoj, said 'We have begun a campaign for Bhopal at Princeton and would like to talk to you about it.'

'I am not the person to do it' he said -- by now he looked uncomfortable.

'But you said every issue should be debated' Manoj said. 'Maybe some other time?'

'Okay, okay ' said Shapiro, though not very convincingly.

That's how it happened. The photograph was taken, it has Shapiro in it and probably some people crowding around him, I don't think it got me holding out the water, sorry -- Shapiro took it too quickly you see! Sujata.

Read the press release of the event here.

Minnesota. We at Minnesota started the evening with a candle light vigil. People took turns reading poems and survivor testimonies. The vigil was followed by the screening of the documentary, Seduction of Dr. Loya. There was a discussion after the screening. The discussion focused on actions that can be taken at the University for raising awareness among students and faculty. There was a discussion on whether the university's ethics policy is in line with accepting research funding from Dow. We would like to thank Ryan and ICJB for their support in organizing this event. On behalf of AID-MN, Murali

Sewanee.

Something strangely beautiful happened here...

In the days since some of us learned more about the Bhopal incident from Ryan himself, we scrambled to provide an appropriate outlet of recognition, education, and support to our school on the anniversary of the disaster. We decided to offer a candlelight service leading into a meditative walk. We put up signs, we sent out emails and phone messages, we told our professors, we announced it to our classes, and we prepared.

December 3 came with snow, hail, blistering winds, bitter rain, and a misty fog to the point that few things could beckon anyone outside. The four of us that showed up at 8:30 for the service (three students and our dedicated professor, friend, and supporter) hid in the archway of our quad peering out into the gusts of wind to see if anyone else had ventured past their dorms. As we waited, sachristans (sp?) arrived for practice at the Episcopal church next to the arch we were hiding in.

One of our classmates who knew of our vigil volunteered to ask the sachristans if they would be willing to take a moment to, at the very least, add bodies to the pictures. The chaplain agreed and so we all stood in a circle, candles in hand, in St. Augustine's chapel, a small, meditative chapel that barely fit the 15-20 of us. We lit our candles, explained some about the date, about DOW, and about Bhopal and the thousands of others united in the same fight on the same day. They were
captivated.

The chaplain offered a beautiful prayer and after some reflection and questions, the sachristans went on their way.
After they left, the four us realized an amazing thing had happened. First, Sewanee had had its first participation in the day of action against corporate crime. Second, two sections of campus, the church and the activists/ environmentalists, had been united under one cause, a rare and beautiful event.

The four of us remained for a meditative walk through the tiny space in the chapel as we learned to reflect on our breathing and our impact through and with the motion of our steps. We were invited to attach messages to each of our steps, perhaps what we would want to say to those still suffering in Bhopal. It was an amazing experience.

Sorry for such a lengthy story. It was just so interesting to me that the weather we were blaming originally, pulled us inside the church and united us with another group in this world wide call for justice.

All of these other stories are AMAZING. Congratulations, everyone, and good luck on the rest of your work.

Thank you for including us. Hopefully, this is only the beginning.

Jamey Lowdermilk
Sewanee

Dallas.

Whoo hoo! Yay Dallas! Here's our Bhopal story:
 
There was a group of 5 of us that prepped out for the event and arrived before sundown at 5:30. Thanks to Dallas rush hour, we ran behind but determined that we were Not to be late to our own event. I want to thank drivers Nel and Rachel for arriving safely, despite the speed and yellow-red lights. :)
 
We setup and people arrived around 6ish, allowing us to start our readings at 6:15pm. We had a grand crowd of about 25 actvists from all around the metroplex! (fyi- metroplex=city and surrounding cities, ie: allas/Ft.Worth metroplex...Andrew!) It was getting dark by this time (except for the creepy chemical plants' lights surrounding us), and we had an introduction to our campaign (with background info on the disaster), poetry about corporate injustice, survivors' testimonials, and concluded with our campaign demands. Thank you to our lovely readers- Nel, Danny, Reed, and Rachel. If you'd like any of the text of what we read at the vigil, please let me know and I'll send it to you. I'll be making a website to show pictures of the event, will be DSSC's official Bhopal Campaign site. Anyway, we sat down across the street from the Dow building and watched people inside staring back at us. At one point a guy with a huge cowboy hat and boots walked into the building
and I started worrying but it turned out alright. They didn't call the police or confront us at all.
 
We sat there with our candles lit and relaxed. People were free to do what they pleased, some were in deep thought, some freakin out about the cold, some constantly lighting others' candles (that the wind constantly blew out), but the point is, We Were There. We were there, campaigning for Bhopal, along with 16 different countries, 25 different US campuses- taking action on that very day with us. It was an amazing feeling.

Students from the Sierra Student Coalition and other activists from the Dallas/Ft. Worth "metroplex" held a vigil outside Dow-Carbide's Dallas plant

So here's the coolest news: The land we had used was indeed privately owned, which could have  been a problem. BUT the owner drove by to see what the heck was going on and when our group rep told him about our cause and event, he not only supported our cause but also allowed us to use his land! It was a HUGE empty lot.... and with his blessings, can you IMAGINE what we can do next year, on the 20th anniversary?!    Before we left to meet for dinner at Cafe Brazil (a local coffehouse/diner), we left a packet of background information with our campaign demands for the employees of the facility in their mailbox. During the vigil, so many of them stopped by as they were heading home and asked us about the event. Its rather disturbing how few employees actually know about the disaster.   Cafe Brazil was great, thanks to all who came. The only bummer was that media didn't show for the vigil. However, I've been sending in our press releases to all the local stations and papers, so at least our event was noted, but we're not near finished with this. There'll be plenty of other media later. Also, each of us will continue telling the story of Bhopal, so we're fine.   So that was our Bhopal action. A complete success. Thank you so much for our setup crew, our planning crew, our awesome activists at SMU, UTA, Jesuit College Prep, Highland Park HS, and thank you to everyone that sent their best wishes for us. Countless thank you's to Ryan Bodanyi, student organizer for the campaign and a constant inspiration. Thank you so much Nishant in Austin for your extremely helpful advice for organizing this. (Act Now, Apologize Later!) yours truly, Christina Billingsley

See the press release from this action here.

Much More to Follow - please keep checking....

ICJB members Greenpeace recreate the survivors' vigil in Bhopal outside of Dow's European Headquarters in Horgen, Switzerland, where just over a year earlier Dow's European CEO Luciano Respini fled from the room when presented with a jhadoo by Bhopal survivor Champa Devi.