Bhopal – Keywords: Left Smashing the cistern: 23 years on Page 3 and Right Page 13 Irvine Welsh Page 8 radical feminist green No 16 / WINTER 2007-08 / £2 THE END NO IT’S IS NIGH! NOT! MAGAZINE OF SCOTLAND’S DEMOCRATIC LEFT EDITORIAL Contents ■ Perspectives No 16, winter 2007-08 LEFT AND RIGHT, SCOTS AND WELSH Eurig Scandrett Sketches from a small s we noted in the last issue of examines the concepts of left and 3world Perspectives, 2007 was a right. In a continuing period of Ahugely symbolic year for the pessimism for many on the left, When will it all end? SNP to become the Scottish gov- this article helps to map out some Scotland and the Union ernment, 300 years after the Act of of the ground that needs to be 5by Ewen A Cameron Union. Again in this issue we gained to tilt the balance away explore the impact of 1707, with from the currently dominant and Smashing the cistern: historian Ewen A. Cameron exam- pervasive neo-liberal political dis- Irvine Welsh ining various interpretations of the course. 8by Willy Maley history of Scotland since the Returning to last year’s Scottish Union. While he makes the point parliament elections, we lamented A new view from that historians are “notoriously the decline of the smaller parties. local government bad at peering into the future,” he The Scottish Greens saw their rep- 12by Maggie Chapman nonetheless underlines the conclu- resentation cut from six to two sion of his piece by arguing that MSPs. However, the adoption of Keywords: Left “Whatever happens to the Union multiple member wards and STV and Right it is vital that we do not fabricate a in the council elections on the 13by Davie Purdy sense of denial about deep-seated same day saw the Greens take seats and long-standing Scottish enthu- in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. Has Cameron siasm for it.” Maggie Chapman, who now rep- killed the BNP? Moving up to date, Willy Maley resents Edinburgh’s Leith Walk 17by Adam Ramsay presents an analysis of the work of ward, reflects on the role of coun- a major contributor to contempo- cils as agents for change. Christmas – cele- rary Scots literary culture, Irvine Adam Ramsay examines the bration or survival Welsh, concentrating particularly phenomenon of the BNP’s rise in 18by Maggie Lunan on his short stories, which best the 2006 English council elections, illustrate the unconventional radi- a rise that stalled the following Diary: party time calism which permeates his work. year. He points out that main- by The Hat This is contrasted particularly stream politicians should react to 19 with another great Scots writer, the BNP in a way that undermines James Kelman, whose work, Willy ■ Letters and them rather than playing to their Perspectives is published four times argues, is succeeded and usurped contributions agenda. a year by Democratic Left Scotland, Number Ten, 10 Constitution Road, by Welsh, who offers “a more (which we may In a post-seasonal contribution, Dundee DD1 1LL. subtle challenge to the state and edit) are Maggie Lunan writes about Tel: 01382 819641 the status quo than the more con- welcome and ALTERnativity, a project against e: [email protected] ventional radicalism represented should be sent consumer Christmas. Lastly, a www.democraticleftscotland.org.uk by Kelman.” to the editor – diary contribution from “The Editor: Sean Feeny Continuing with part two of the contact details Hat” lifts the lid on the problem of Articles in Perspectives are series on key words, David Purdy alongside. birthday party guest lists. copyright. Requests to reproduce any part of the magazine should be addressed to the editor. Copy deadline for the next issue is Friday 29th February 2008. For further information on Perspectives (including advertising rates), or to submit articles or letters, please contact: The Editor, Perspectives, Democratic Left Scotland, Number Ten, 10 Constitution Road, Dundee DD1 1LL e: [email protected] Printed by Hampden Advertising Ltd 73 Robertson Street Glasgow G2 8QD www.democraticleftscotland.org.uk 2 WINTER 2007-08 PERSPECTIVES EURIG SCANDRETT’S have just been participating in activities of poverty, victims of bureaucratic corrup- to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of tion and medical neglect and ongoing contam- Ithe gas leak in Bhopal. The leak occurred a ination and corporate criminality. But at the same little after midnight on 3rd December 1984. It time, many survivors have been active campaigners, remains the world’s biggest single industrial environ- participants in creating a movement for justice to chal- mental disaster, killed 20,000 people and left 100,000 Many Bhopal lenge the corporatisation of India. In the face of an with ill health from the effects of the gas or the subse- survivors alliance of global corporate capital and vested inter- quent contaminated water. ests of state violence, this movement of poor, sick and The gas leak was caused by progressive and system- have been largely illiterate people has sustained a campaign for atic application of capitalist economic logic. The facto- active 23 years for justice, corporate accountability, health- ry was built by US multinational Union Carbide to campaigners, care, rehabilitation and human dignity. produce pesticides for the Green Revolution, which was concentrating agriculture into the hands of the participants ■ Eurig Scandrett is a Green activist and member of large landowners and the agricultural corporations. in creating a Democratic Left Scotland. Operated at arm’s length by an Indian subsidiary with movement controlling share ownership, it was a sister factory to one in Virginia, USA – with a number of key differ- for justice to ences. The Bhopal factory was made with cheaper challenge the materials, used unskilled labour above mechanisation, corporatis- and cut corners in the processes. When it was upgraded to store methyl isocyanate ation of (MIC), the state government granted permission India. despite it being too near to the railway station. As profits from pesticides started to level out, cuts were made in maintenance, staff training, inspections and safety precautions. A series of accidents and gas leaks preceded the 3rd December. On that night, water pen- etrated a corroded valve and started an exothermic reaction, which bypassed safety controls which had been deliberately cut back, were malfunctioning or inadequate or simply switched off. 40 tonnes of MIC leaked into the surrounding bastis where the poor of Bhopal lived. To date, nobody from Union Carbide, or Dow Chemicals which it merged with in 2001, has been held responsible. Dow is currently operating a charm offensive to take advantage of India’s embrace of neo- liberalism. Throughout India, special economic zones are being established to encourage inward investment from foreign capital. State governments from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal to Bharat Janata Party in Gujarat have been competing to collaborate with the neo-liberal project. Dow has recently announced the development of a chemical hub in Gujarat. I’m in Bhopal to set up a project to document the survivors who have campaigned for justice all these years. Survivors’ stories have been told many times, but mostly as victims. Victims of the gas leak, victims PERSPECTIVES WINTER 2007-08 3 People and politics In Scotland, as in the rest of Britain, there is widespread disillusionment with politics. There’s The mainstream parties have lost touch with ordinary people and issues are trivialised and distorted by the media. We are continually told that “there is no alternative” to global capitalism. Yet this is more doing untold damage to our environment, our communities and the quality of our to lives, while millions of people remain poor and powerless because the market politics dominates our society and we do too little to protect and empower them. 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