Yearly Archives: 2005

Christmas for Corporations

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diane_teeEvery day looks a lot like Christmas for corporations looking for subsidy handouts from local governments. Author and activist Greg Leroy describes the “Great American Jobs Scam” in which corporations seek subsidies from state and local governments, giving little in return.

Then, an update on the saga of fisher woman Diane Wilson. She’s recently been arrested at a Tom Delay fundraiser and sent to jail for at least four months. Her crime: calling attention to Dow Chemical’s responsibility for cleaning up the enormous environmental,health and economic mess its subsidiary Union Carbide has left behind in Bhopal, India.

Finally, a holiday reflection from Dr. Jody, in the Corner Office at Corporate Watchdog Radio.

Links, References

Book: The Great American Jobs Scam

Addresses for Potential Holiday Correspondence
regarding Bhopal and Diane Wilson

Dow Chemical CEO
Andrew Liveris
CEO
Dow Chemical
2030 Dow Center
Midland, MI 48674


Political Prisoner Diane Wilson
Sylvia Dianne Wilson (CR# 65510)
Victoria County Jail (Calhoun County inmate)
101 North Glass
Victoria, TX 77901

Note: All mail to Diane Wilson
is read by prison security.

Environment and Human Rights: Chevron in Ecuador

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Chevron’s accountability for the legacy of environmental destruction and health impacts from oil exploitation by subsidiary Texaco in the Oriente region of Ecuador from 1964-1992. We speak with Cristobal Bonifaz, lead attorney in the Maria Aguinda Salazar v. ChevronTexaco class-action lawsuit filed in Lago Agrio, Ecuador (after navigating US courts for a decade) in May 2003 by 88 Ecuadorians representing 30,000 indigenous community members and settlers, and currently in the inspection phase visiting the 627 unlined pits where toxic “formation waters” (which accompany oil when extracted) were dumped.

We also speak with leslieloweLeslie Lowe, director of the Energy and Environment program for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors with more than $110 billion in assets whose members filed 3 shareholder resolutions this year at Chevron related directly or indirectly to the Ecuador environmental and human rights problems. Ms. Lowe visited the affected regions in March of this year as a member of a delegation of Chevron shareholders–including the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS–the largest US pension fund) on a fact-finding mission.

Finally, Corporate Watchdog Radio correspondent David Poritz, who runs a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in Ecuador called Esperanza that brings shoes to the affected communities as well as bringing students to the region to give them a first hand experience seeing the contamination, speaks with ethnobiologist Dr. Estella de la Torre in the Secoya community of San Pablo, where she does research.

Links:

Oil Spread Upon the Waters of Ecuador May Return Harm for ChevronTexaco Shareholders (pic) (part 1 of 3-part article)

Asphalt Jungle: Did Oil Drilling by Texaco Create Environmental and Social Harm in Ecuador? (part 2 of 3-part article)

Ecuadorian Attorney General Tells ChevronTexaco Shareholders Remediation Agreement May Be Invalid (part 3 of 3-part article)

New Document Alleges Tie Between Chevron and Human Rights Abuses in Nigeria
 (part 1 of 2-part article)

Lack of Human Rights Policy Concerns Chevron Shareowners in Light of Unocal Merger
(part 2 of 2-part article)

21 Years After the Bhopal Chemical Disaster

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21 years after the Bhopal chemical disaster of Dec. 3, 1984 at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in India, justice has never been served. Though the diisaster caused the death of more than 20,000 people, Union Carbide has never stood trial for manslaughter. The suffering of hundreds of thousands of survivors continues without relief. We hear the perspectives of a Bhopal resident, US college students, US investors, and grassroots leaders. Guests include: Sathyu Sarangi, Lois Gibbs, Gary Cohen, Diane Wilson and Jayanthi Reddy.

This program is offered to broadcasters throughout the world. Please feel free to download and broadcast for noncommercial stations – and please let us know if you do! Commercial licensing also available.

More information:

Students For Bhopal

Bhopal.Net

Environmental Fugitives – Diane Wilson and Warren Anderson

Extra Audio Feature, ,

bannerontowerAn audio log of fugitive Diane Wilson’s quest to find fugitive Warren Anderson and “talk some sense into him.”

Diane Wilson and Warren Anderson are both fugitives. Fisherwoman Diane Wilson has been charged with criminal trespass for hanging a banner at a Dow Chemical/Union Carbide facility that said “Dow – Responsible for Bhopal”. She received a six month jail sentence for that, which she is due to serve.

Warren Anderson was the CEO of Union Carbide back in 1984 when the Carbide plant in India spewed toxic gases into the surrounding community and killed more than 20,000 people. He visited Bhopal shortly after the incident, and agreed to return for any legal proceedings. After leaving, he was charged, along with Union Carbide, with manslaughter for those thousands of deaths. However, Anderson and Carbide have refused to return to India to face trial. In the eyes of the Indian courts, they are fugitives from the law.

Wilson has pulled a similar maneuver to Anderson’s. For now, she has refused to return to Texas to serve her sentence. Instead, on November 15 she began a search for Warren Anderson – to discuss their common fate, and to “try to talk some sense into him.”

More Information on Dow Chemical and Bhopal

Note to News Media: You are encouraged to broadcast this interview in whole or in part, or to link to this webpage from your site. Please credit Corporate Watchdog Media, and contact us if you would like a higher quality feed.

101029Diane Wilson autobiography: An Unreasonable Woman, Chelsea Green Press, 2005.

Also see:
• Video interview with Diane Wilson
• Documentary on Bhopal – Twenty Years without Justice

John Harrington on Money, Investing and Democracy

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harringtoncol200Investor John C. Harrington, author of The Challenge to Power: Money, Investing and Democracy, speaks about the potential and limitations of socially responsible investment strategies, the foibles of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the need for big picture strategies. Harrington is the founder of Harrington Investments and a cofounder of Working Assets and Progressive Asset Management.

This program also includes excerpts from interview with Robert Monks and recent protests over forest devastation by Victoria’s Secret. Jay Mankita sings his new song, The Barons of Walmart.

The Challenge to Power: Money, Investing and Democracy (2005, Chelsea Green Press).

CWR: Video: Protesting Victoria’s Other Secret – Catalog Waste Destroys Forests

Sea Change Blog, ,

Kimberly-Clark, Victoria’s Secret and Xerox Asked to Stop Destroying Ancient Forests for Disposable Paper Products

San Francisco – Leading international environmental organizations coordinated efforts today at more than 350 protests and events across the U.S. and Canada, calling on companies to end the destruction of North America’s largest ancient forest, the Boreal. As part of an International Day of Action to raise awareness about threats to the Boreal, the groups demanded that companies such as Kimberly-Clark, Victoria’s Secret, and Xerox stop using paper that comes from Endangered Forests in the Boreal in their tissue products, catalogs and copy paper. In addition, advertisements began running in the New York Times and online with FoxNews to highlight the importance of this critical forest.

LEARN MORE AND TAKE ACTION

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