International Black Planet Award 2015 for Dow Chemical on its way to corporate HQ in Midland, Michigan.
Today, 5th December Santosh Rohit, of AidIndia, with Sibylle Arians and Anabel Schnura of ethecon, travel to Dow Chemical’s corporate HQ in Midland, Michigan. They will present the International ethecon Black Planet Award 2015 to board members Andrew N. Liveris (CEO) and James M.Ringler as well as to Dow Chemical shareholders.
A kickoff event, on 1 December in New York, was followed by a Wall Street vigil on Friday 2nd to commemorate the hundreds of thousands of victims of the Bhopal Disaster denied justice by Dow. Next stop today, 5 December, is Midland, followed by further actions at Dow plants in Texas:
“In New York, on December 2, ethecon activists and their US partners of AidIndia and other organizations held a press conference to explain why they travelled all the way from Germany to present the board members and major shareholders of Dow Chemical with the International ethecon Black Planet Award
“The scenery fit the occasion: The massive sculpture of a raging, stomping bull, with an aggressive gaze seeming about to trash whole planet (see photo) is the symbol of the New York exchange on Wall Street, a hub for global profit.
“One of the questions asked was why Dow, and its subsidiary Union Carbide, have been refusing to compensate the victims of the Bhopal disaster for 32 years, while US asbestos victims did indeed receive compensation from the company? The answer is that to Dow Chemical Indian victims are inferior and not deserving of compensation. This is corporate racism!
“At dusk around 6 pm local time. Candles were lit to commemorate the victims of Union Carbide and show international solidarity. The core demands of the activists were: Appropriate compensation of the victims, ensuring the necessary medical care of the victims, as well as the clean-up of the contaminated areas in Bhopal.
“There was live transmission to the demonstrations of the survivors in Bhopal, where many thousands were accusing Dow. Thus, the ethecon representatives were able to take part in the discussions in India – global resistance against global corporate impunity!”
