Thousands of workers in Mandsaur District (M.Ρ.) who produce slate pencils sign their own death certificate every day. While cutting stones to make pencils, these workers breathe in huge quantities of silica, a fatal dust, causing silicosis, an occupational disease for which no cure has been discovered.
According to a report in the Indian Express (Octo-ber 10) about 2,000 workers employed in this indu-stry have died of this disease over the last two decad-es, i. e., approximately, 100 workers a year. Since child labour is used in this industry, most of them die at a very young age. Besides, factories surround the villages near the quarries, thereby exposing the entire population to this deadly dust. A recent medical survey says that 30 people out of 1.000 have been affected. (Financial Express, October 22).
Silicosis is a disease which affects the lungs. It brings about shortness of breath, pain in the chest and a nagging cough.
The deaths in Mandsaur District on account of silicosis reveal that the capitalist will do anything. including murder, to increase his wealth. The working conditions in these factories is very poor, with no ventilation and old machines. A doctor who sur-veyed the problems connected with these factories, described them as death-traps. (Financial Express, October 22.) The stones are cut by a circular shaw machine with unguarded belting, pulley and shaft sys-tem. This is against the Factories Act which only proves that such legal rules are just part of the many ‘Acts’ performed by the capitalists to fool the working class. The introduction of electricity to increase the speed of the shaw machines and the profits of its owners has greatly increased the danger to the workers. Since the workshed is small and without any ventilation, the room is thick with dust. Every person working in the shed (including the children employed to pack the finished product) inhales the harmful dust. The work-ers (about 3,000) who operate the shaw machines, get the disease much earlier thon the others. Medical experts who studied this problem, said that these workers get silicosis within two to three years. (Finan-cial Express, October 22.)
As a result of public pressure, a welfare fund was created in 1976, to which the manufacturer contributes at the rate of 5 paise per pencil sold Workers suffe-ring from silicosis are paid Rs. 100 and relatives of dead (or rather, murdered) workers are paid Rs. 500. But even such low compensations are received by very few workers as can be seen in the case of two co-operative units,
The first co-operative society made no payment in 1976 and 1977. Last year it paid Rs. 2.000 to relatives of four dead workers and this year, Rs. 500 to one. The other co-operative society made no payment in 1976, Rs. 2,000 in 1977, Rs. 3,000 and Rs. 4,100 this year. A balance of Rs. 43,000 remains in these two co-operative socities, earning interest for their members (Financial Express, October 22).
What do the factory owners feel about the de-aths? According to the capitalists, the workers “die from sheer carelessneess” because “they don’t even wear masks”. (Indian Express, October 24.) The truth is that the workers find the masks impossible to use, as the cotton absorbs the dust very fast, making it difficult to breathe.
The only ‘concession’ the manufacturers made last year, as a result of public pressure, was to stop sharpening the finished pencils, which caused a thick cloud of dust. But one co-operative continues to sharpen pencils.
Recently the workers have become conscious of their exploitation and the factory owners have been quick to prevent any agitation from taking place. Their method was to pay the workers large sums of advance money. Sometimes the money is forced on them. (Indian Express, October 24). The poverty of the workers, makes this advance money a debt which can never be repaid for long time. In other words, the wor-kers cannot leave the capitalists to take up employment elsewhere.
The capitalist-landlord government has made no serious efforts to implement its own laws like the Fact-ories Act to help the dying workers of Mandsaur. The reason is simple. The slate pencil manufacturers are very close to leading political figures in M. P. and Delhi. Till March 1977, they supported the Congress and then the Janata. The government’s attitude to do nothing is further stre-ngthened by the fact that many leading politicians of M. P. are closely connected with the pencil manufac-turers. Thus the most simple act of declaring silicosis an occupational disease in the slate industry and pave the way for workers’ compensation has not been done.
Recently, the Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology (GSIT), Indore invented a simple pneumatic system consisting of a suction fan and dust collector, which will remove 95 percent of the dust, eliminating the health hazard greatly. The factory owners have refused to buy it because they can’t “afford” it. (Indi-an Express, October 24).
The truth is not that they cannot afford it but ma-king work easier and healthier for the workers will eat into their profits. As we said in an earlier issue of BLAST (February 1976), ‘if keeping workers healthy is going to eat into the capitalist’s the profits workers might as well remain unhealthy or even die for all he cares!’
If the Janata government in M. P. helps the slate pencil manufacturers in Mandsaur District, the Lok Dal-Congress government in New Delhi acts as the dalal of the multinational corporations (MNCs) of the imperialist countries. It has recently been reported that the MNCs are setting up in poor countries, indu-stries which have been proved to be dangerous to health in their own countries. (Economic Times, November 11.)
One such dangerous industry is the asbestos in-dustry in the United States employing naarly 90,000 workers. Guardian, a progressive publication from the United States has pointed out (August 30) that contact with asbestos causes mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the chest and stomach. This disease is untreatable and incurable. The sym-ptoms of the disease are shortness of breath, chest pain and a nagging cough, putting strain on the hear as well as lungs. Death often comes from secondary infections such as pneumonia, slow su-ffocation or heart attack. A survey in the US has proved that workers in the asbestos industry get lung cancer at rates eight times higher than the general population. Even more dangerous is the discovery that such diseases are not confined to the factory alone. The home too is exposed to it since children come into contact with asbestos dust from their fathers’ clothing. There have been many cases of children dying of mesothelioma. It has been found that deaths caused by asbestos dust amounts to 17 per cent of all cancer deaths The US proletariat knowing the dangers of working in the asbestos factories has boycotted the industry. Therefore the asbestos companies, in their greed for profits, have hired workers in Brazil, Venezeula and Mexico, knowing that these workers do not know that working with asbestos could produce cancer | The governments in these countries know about the dan-ger but that has not stopped them from allowing their workers to be hired for death. Their only thou-ght was the profit they would get.
Workers in Japan too have refused to work in the asbestos industry, so the Japanese MNC’s have hired workers in South Korea and Taiwan.
In India asbestos is imported in large quantities from Poland, the USSR and the United States. Re-centiy. London port workers decided to boycott any Indian ship that carries asbestos in any form. This has resulted in a stoppage of Indian ships coming to London. Indian ship owners feel that the London Port boycott is “out of proportion to the problem”. (Economic Times, November 11.)
Dock workers are not the only people who are exposed to asbestos dust. Seamen in the engine rooms and Auto-mechanics too, face the risk. Mecha-nics who clean brakas using compressed air mighr inhale up to a million particles per cubic of air. (Indian Express, November 29, 1978.)
Our Secunderabad union activists report that in the Sanathnagar unit of the Hyderabad & Cement Ltd., a firm owned by the Birlas, TB is very common.
This firm manufactures machines for making asbestos as well as asbestos sheets and pipes, using fibre stone as the raw material.
We have seen that the capitalists of the world are united in their efforts to make profits out of the death of the asbestos industry worker. This means that the workers of the world too must unite in their struggle against this dangerous industry. The first step in this direction is to organise our-selves in a militant, class-consclous manner.