Ecology
Toots and June Return to Honor Their Co-Workers
Submitted by Joanna on September 5, 2011 - 9:11pm
On Friday, September 2, in
Ottawa, Illinois, on the site of the old Radium Dial plant a life-sized bronze statue of a young woman holding a flower in one hand and a paint brush in the other was unveiled. She is the symbol of the Radium Girls, the women workers in the watch and clock factories that dotted this area in the 1920s through 1940s. Their job was to paint those glow-in-the dark dials so popular in the day. To do this, management told them to shape a sharp point by licking the brushes soaked with deadly radium. Ottawa was a big center for this industry. Surviving employees Toots Fuller and June Menne presided over the unveiling.
By 1925, manufacturers were aware of the toxic effects of radium, but said nothing to their employees and took no precautions. Many of these workers died agonizing deaths from the effects of radium poisoning. They say that if you pass a Geiger counter over their graves in the Catholic cemetery outside Ottawa it will still tick a warning.
Seven of the dying Ottawa women initiated a lawsuit against the company in 1934. They were dubbed the “society of the living dead,” racing the clock against a slow and cumbersome legal system for their justice. The case eventually made it to the Supreme Court, which ruled in the women’s favor.
Date:
August 5, 2011
One year ago during the month of July/August, the floodwaters that ravaged southern parts of Pakistan have long receded. Though gone are the makeshift tent camps on roadsides but revival of normal life and livelihood still remain a challenge. Thousands continue a daily struggle to support their families and re-establish livelihoods. As a new monsoon season is on full swing, last year’s trauma and economic pain still linger. While last year’s victims struggle to recover, others now worry that changing world weather patterns will cause renewed flooding.
The devastation caused by the 2010 floods was worst in Pakistan’s history; almost 2,000 deaths, nearly 20 million displaced or affected and one-fifth of the country went under water. The deluge inflicted unprecedented catastrophic damage on a country already reeling from the effects of US-led war on terrorism. A year later, the picture is dismal.
The Democrats and the Oil Spill
President Obama and the Congressional Democrats have been stern in their condemnations of BP. Yet their responses to the greatest environmental catastrophe in U.S. history show the Democratic Party’s unwillingness to challenge not only the logic of private profitability, but also the short-term prerogatives of corporate interests.
The President’s June 15 Oval Office address met a wide array of critics. Some questioned his lack of specificity, others the tardiness of his response. But Obama is operating within a box of his own construction. Out of deference to private property and corporate power, he will not entertain discussion of seizing BP’s assets to guarantee that all those harmed are made whole and that the Gulf is cleaned. The $20 billion dollar fund Obama got BP to agree to will not likely come close to what will eventually be needed. The logic of his pro-corporate agenda reduces his options in dealing with even a rogue corporation.
A People Centered Plan for Atlanta's Mass Transit
Submitted by Isaac on April 30, 2008 - 2:49pm
At long last, Atlanta Jobs with Justice has released their excellent study and plan for regional transit centered on the needs of riders and workers. You can download the report from Atlanta JwJ's website or download it directly here. The study is the project of years of research and organizing with the Transit Riders Union - a group of transit-dependent riders and disabled riders - and workers in our transit system, MARTA, who are represented by Amalgamated Transit Union 732. This is in our corner of the ring.
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