Hunger strikes: fasting for justice The hunger strike has been used effectively by the Bhopal survivors and their allies. The first major fast was in 2002. It begand with three people, was taken up by another in the USA and grew into a rolling hunger strike involving more than 1,000 people around the world. The great hunger strike of 2002 1) The Delhi dharna In June 2002, in temperatures that touched 140 F, three people sat down outside the Parliament building in Delhi to begin an indefinite fast. The three hunger strikers were Tara Bai and Rashida Bee, both victims of Carbide's gases, and Bhopal activist Satinath Sarangi. Below: Rashida, Sathyu and Tara begin their fast
The reason, the Indian government, acting through the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI, India's equivalent of the FBI) had decided to reduce the long-standing and unanswered criminal charges against Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide. Anderson had been charged with culpable homicide, a criminal offence carrying a minimum sentence of two years in jail. The government proposed to amend this to a charge of committing "a rash and negligent act", which in the opinion of the survivors, would have reduced the deaths of 20,000 people to the level of a road traffic accident. The three strikers pledged themselves to get this decision reversed. In the west the hunger-strike is often regarded as a petulant, self-destructive gesture: "It was their choice to stop eating, they can always choose to start again". In India the "fast unto death" is not so perceived. Rather it's noble defiance, a stand made in extremis, as a last response to an intolerable situation, when everything else has been tried and no other hope is left. Mahatma Gandhi used it as a political weapon to stop the communal slaughter that followed the partition of India. He called it satyagraha, which means "holding to the truth". It is an expression of total commitment. Having said this, the concept of satyagraha has been abused in India by politicians who embark on token fasts in order to gain publicity and have to be noisily persuaded by their followers to stop. The fasts by Bhopalis have not been stage-managed. They have caused genuine anguish to friends and allies, who feared that the hunger strikers might die. This fear was large in the mind of this website's editor during the 2002 Delhi hunger strike. In an urgent plea for support sent out via email, he expressed his worries thus:
But why risk your life on a hunger strike? At the time of the Delhi dharna, as it was called, seventeen and a half years had passed since "that night", when Carbide's poisons turned Bhopal city into a charnel house. Little had been done for the survivors. The company and its ex-CEO had never had to face cross-questioning in a court of law. Both had been absconding from Indian justice for ten years. Union Carbide was refusing to share medical information it held about methyl isocyanate (it is still refusing). Worse, the abandoned and derelict factory had been left full of lethal chemicals which were leaking into the drinking wells of surrounding communities and poisoning a new generation of Bhopalis. While Carbide and its new owner Dow refused to accept any responsibility for cleaning the factory, Indian politicians turned a blind eye, the factory was allowed to go on killing, and the pleas of the Bhopalis for help were simply ignored.
The Delhi hunger strike attracted support from all over the world. The poster below was used in a vigil outside the Indian High Commission in London on July 16, 2002. Other actions took place across the United States and in places as diverse as Toulouse, Venice and Cape Town. July 16 2002 actions around the world The matter was to be heard in the Bhopal court on July 17. The day before the hearing the government conceded the hunger strikers' third demand that 'compensation' money held by the Reserve Bank of India would be given only to the survivors for whom it was intended and would not be distributed to gain political favour in non gas-affected parts of the city. On the matter of Anderson they did not budge. A day later, on July 17 the CBI went ahead with its application in the Bhopal Magistrates Court. However the Court accepted a counter-submission from the survivors' organisations and adjourned the case until 27 August. After the adjournment was announced, the hunger strikers broke their fast with orange juice. Immediately on the far side of the world, a fisherwoman, skipper of a shrimp trawler in San Antonio Bay, Texas, took over the hunger strike The full story of the Delhi dharna can be read here The Worldwide Relay Hunger Strike - 17 July - 27 August 2) The Seadrift hunger strike by Diane Wilson As the dharna in Delhi ended, the hunger strike was taken up in the United States by Diane Wilson, a Texan shrimpboat skipper who had a long and distinguished history of fighting polluting corporations. She had campaigned successfully against Formosa Plastics, which along with other huge petrochemical complexes, was dumping highly toxic waste into the Gulf of Mexico. As the shrimp and seals died, so Diane's neighbours and fellow fishermen in the town of Seadrift were struck down with inexplicable cancers.
Diane had been to Bhopal and was a strong supporter of the survivors' struggle. She began a 30 day fast outside the Dow (previously Union Carbide facility at Seadrift), well supported by networks like Code Pink and the Unreasonable Women. Explaining why she was taking this action, Diane said:
Diane's hunger strike ended on August 27, a happy day for the Bhopal survivors. The Indian government had failed to change its mind but the judge case threw out the application to reduce Anderson's charges and instead ordered the CBI to stop wasting the court's time with frivolous motions. He instructed the Indian government to apply without further delay for the extradition of Warren Anderson from the US. Delhi hunger strikers Rashida Bee and Satinath Sarangi were at the Johannesburg eco-summit when news reached them. Sathyu, who had been quite ill after the Delhi fast, asked the present writer to relay to Diane the advice that she should break her fast gently, with a little fruit juice and possibly soup. To which Diane replied, "Goddamit, I'm a Texas fisherman. I've just eaten a pizza and now I am going to have a burger!"
A couple of days later she took the banner off her truck, scaled the Dow fence, climbed up a tower, and unfurled it before handcuffing herself to a railing and waited to be spotted.
Incredibly, so lax were Dow's security staff that for several hours Diane's presence went entirely unnoticed. In the end she had to attract their attention. Dow overreacted by helicoptering in a black clad SWAT team with boltcutters who manhandled Diane from her perch and handed her over to eagerly awaiting local cops. She was subsequently charged by Dow with criminal trespass, an offence carrying a possible two year jail sentence. At Diane's trial she was not permitted to say why she had entered the Dow facility, nor point out the irony that she was in the dock for having drawn attention to Dow's failure to produce its 100% owned subsidiary Union Carbide for trial in India. A full account of Diane's Seadrift hunger strike is here
3) The worldwide hunger strike More and more people joined the rolling hunger strike for Bhopal. By August 27, when the court victory resolved the issue, more than 1,000 people around the world had fasted in support of the survivors. The Worldwide Relay Hunger Strike - 17 July - 27 August Members of the Tamilnadu Women's Cooperative fasted in batches over the whole period. Other people signed up for 1, 2 or 3 days. We did not encourage people to undertake long fasts. Many women in Bhopal fasted. See their pictures here. In Venice (Italy), Deputy Mayor Gianfranco Bettin and members of his team went on hunger strike between 13 to 17 July in sympathy and solidarity with the hunger strikers in New Delhi. In Venice (California) environmental activist Jodie Evans mobilised her group, Bad Babes & Their Buddies which she described as "a group of women educated in non-violent direct action available to the greater community." Jodie then flew out to join Diane in Seadrift.
Information about fasting If it becomes necessary for us to fast again, please follow this advice:
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