|
October 19, 2005
A national protest of workers and victims of asbestos poisoning took place October 15 in Paris to demand criminal proceedings against those responsible.
The protest, called by ANDEVA, the National Association for the Victims of Asbestos Poisoning, mobilised nearly 10,000 supporters, who marched under the slogan, “The Poisoners Must Be Brought to Trial.”
Thousands carried placards saying, “10 Deaths a Day, No One Responsible, No One Guilty! For Justice and to Keep the Memory Alive.” Others carried banners with the inscription, “For a Criminal Trial on Asbestos.”
The silent protest assembled on the rue de la Pepiničre to commemorate the 3,000 victims per year who die of lung cancer linked to asbestos poisoning. The organisers symbolically renamed the street “The Street of the Poisoners.” For many years, the street housed the headquarters of the International Asbestos Association, the French Asbestos Association, and the Industrial Guild of Asbestos Manufacturers.
The national protest was the result of the determined fight of a group of widows in Dunkirk, who, since the beginning of the year, have regularly demonstrated outside the town’s law courts demanding justice for their deceased husbands. After many years of struggle, victims of asbestos poisoning are now obtaining compensation through the civil courts, where employers have been found guilty of an “inexcusable wrong.”
However, these victims of asbestos poisoning by employers around Dunkirk, such as Eternit at Thiant, shipbuilding companies, and the Sollac steel works have seen their seven-year battle for a criminal trial thwarted by the local appeal courts in Douai and Dunkirk. In 2004, the Douai court pronounced the industrialists “guilty but not responsible” for their acts, under the cover of a legal amendment introduced by the Jospin Plural Left government, which ruled from 1997 to 2002. The amendment states that in the event of an industrial or health catastrophe, no one is guilty if there is “no deliberate criminal intent.” The widows of Dunkirk hope to have this interpretation overturned by the Supreme Appeals Court next month.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/oct2005/france-o26_prn.shtml
|
