Showing posts with label Bhopal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bhopal. Show all posts

Wednesday 21 October 2020

Aberfan.

       In the morning of October 21st. 1966, darkness fell on a small village in Wales, on that day, half the children in Aberfan ended their short lives under a mountain of coal slurry. This was no unavoidable accident, nor some "weird act of god", this was death by industrial quest for profit, and gross neglect of its duty of care. Something that should never been allowed to happen and was avoidable.


 The following extract from Wikipedia:

         The Aberfan disaster was the catastrophic collapse of a collieryspoil tip in Wales on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and overlaid a natural spring. A period of heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which caused it to suddenly slide downhill as a slurry, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it engulfed Pantglas Junior School and other buildings. The tip was the responsibility of the National Coal Board (NCB), and the subsequent inquiry placed the blame for the disaster on the organisation and nine named employees.
        There were seven spoil tips on the slopes above Aberfan; Tip 7—the one that slipped onto the village—was begun in 1958 and, at the time of the disaster, was 111 feet (34 m) high. In contravention of the NCB's official procedures, the tip was partly based on ground from which water springs emerged. After three weeks of heavy rain the tip was saturated and approximately 140,000 cubic yards (110,000 m3) of spoil slipped down the side of the hill and onto the Pantglas area of the village. The main building hit was the local junior school, where lessons had just begun; five teachers and 109 children were killed in the school.
        An official inquiry was chaired by Lord JusticeEdmund Davies. The report placed the blame squarely on the NCB. The organisation's chairman, Lord Robens, was criticised for making misleading statements and for not providing clarity as to the NCB's knowledge of the presence of water springs on the hillside. Neither the NCB nor any of its employees were prosecuted and the organisation was not fined. 
         
 
          This of course was not the first or the last mass deaths from industrial drive for profit, nor will it ever be the last as long as profit is the driving force for industry.
        Sometimes these avoidable disasters hit suddenly and with mass deaths, Aberfan, Bhopal, but other times that same drive for profit kills much slower and over many many years, the asbestos disaster that is still with us today as people still die from the results of working with this slow killer. These deaths are nothing short of industrial murder.
         Avoidable industrial deaths will continue to blight the lives of millions of ordinary working people as long as industry is driven by the capitalist model of profit, with profit comes avoidable deaths. Not until we the ordinary workers take over the production of all goods will the health and welfare of the people be at the forefront of all working conditions.    
         Until that day we will have to live with more Abefans, Bhopals and Mesothelioma.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Saturday 8 October 2016

Capitalism Is Exploitation And Destruction.

 

       Every now and then our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, spout an amazing disclosure, of a large company exploiting its workers. Of course this dreadful revelation implies that all the other companies and corporations are behaving impeccably, regards their treatment of their employees. The latest one for the UK is ASOS, facts are revealed about how shockingly the workers are treated. The nice little scheme devised by the firm who runs their warehouse, called "flexing", means being asked, at times at very short notice, to work overtime, and the extra hours will be paid to you away in the future. Of course refusing to "flex up", can see your job in jeopardy. Not so long ago it was Sports Direct and its policies of zero hours contracts, penalties and intimidation.
        Of course we all know, or should know, the entire capitalist system is based on exploitation. As far as these two greedy arsehole companies are concerned, they are small fry. It is their immediate employees that they try to screw. However, the big boys in the capitalist game, well, they go for anybody and everybody. The general public, employees, the environment, all fair game to be polluted, exploited, plundered and left to stew the mess the corporate greed machine leave behind. Remember Bhopal?
       The entire list of large corporations can all be stood in the court of decent human behaviour and be found guilt. The ravishes inflicted on our planet, the destruction of the entire world environment, causing unpredictable climate change, the pollution being spread across the earth, causing illnesses and suffering, and the extinction of thousands of the planet's species. All this is not a natural phenomenon, it can all be laid at the feet of the greed driven corporate world and the system of capitalism on which it is based.
This from Labour Rights:
Coca-Cola

       Coca-Cola Company is perhaps the most widely recognized corporate symbol on the planet. The company also leads in the abuse of workers' rights, assassinations, water privatization, and worker discrimination. Between 1989 and 2002, eight union leaders from Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia were killed after protesting the company's labor practices. Hundreds of other Coca-Cola workers who have joined or considered joining the Colombian union SINALTRAINAL have been kidnapped, tortured, and detained by paramilitaries who are hired to intimidate workers to prevent them from unionizing.
        In India, Coca-Cola destroys local agriculture by privatizing the country's water resources. In Plachimada, Kerala, Coca-Cola extracted 1.5 million liters of deep well water, which they bottled and sold under the names Dasani and BonAqua. The groundwater was severely depleted, affecting thousands of communities with water shortages and destroying agricultural activity. As a result, the remaining water became contaminated with high chloride and bacteria levels, leading to scabs, eye problems, and stomach aches in the local population.
         Coca-Cola is also one of the most discriminatory employers in the world. In the year 2000, 2,000 African-American employees in the U.S. sued the company for race-based disparities in pay and promotions.
       For more on the companies that make up the world's 14 worst corporate, people and planet destroyers, well known names such as, Nestles USA, Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Pfizer, Kellogs group, and see the true face of the capitalist cancer that is killing the population and destroying the planet, 
Read HERE:
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk