Alison Dellit

Students from more than 60 colleges, universities, and high schools worldwide organised events to mark the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, and to demand that Dow Chemical resolve its legal and moral responsibilities for the “Hiroshima of the chemical industry”.

The events, organised by Students for Bhopal, Association for India’s Development (AID) chapters, the US campus Greens and the Environmental Justice Program of the Sierra Student Coalition (SSC), were the first mass student movement Dow has faced since its production of Agent Orange and Napalm during the Vietnam War.

Many of the protests opposed college affiliations with Dow, including recruitment, investment, and financial contributions.

“Students are outraged”, said Ryan Bodanyi, the US coordinator for Students for Bhopal. “They don’t want their colleges and universities associated with a corporation that maintains its profit margins by poisoning people and blithely standing aside as they die. Dow-Carbide’s callous disregard for the value of human life hasn’t changed much since the Vietnam War, and students aren’t going to be any more forgiving now than they were then. Dow-Carbide should expect these protests to continue and intensify.”

“We’re not going to allow Dow-Carbide to get away with murder,” declared Nishant Jain, one of the leaders of AID’s Austin chapter.

The events, which included several protests at Dow facilities, demonstrations, and educational events, stretched across five continents. However, most of the protests were held in the United States, including a hunger-strike and day-long protest at the University of Texas on December 3, where students demanded the university cease its relationship with Dow; and St. Benedict’s Preparatory High School in Newark, New Jersey, where on the same day, the members of the SBP Environmental Club reenacted the Bhopal tragedy to 650 students, complete with the Grim Reaper and foaming dry ice.

In India, at Delhi University, the student group “We for Bhopal” held a candlelight vigil on December 2 and released the results of it October Fact Finding Mission to Bhopal, presenting them to India’s president and prime minister.

From Green Left Weekly, December 8, 2004.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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