OTHER ISSUE 4 ARTICLES:

BOBBIES CORNER

THE GREED VS THE PEOPLE

THE CRIMINALS THAT WON'T GET CAUGHT ON TV

AND THE GRAVY TRAIN KEEPS RUNNING

LOCAL ROUND UP

GLOBAL ROUND UP

THE UNREPORTED MURDERS

More than 7 times as many people are killed by corporations breaking the law than are murdered every year. The International Labour Organisation estimates that there are more than 1 million work-related deaths every year. Across the world, work kills more people than war. While murders attract headlines and are the high profile end of police work, the deadliest killers are closer to home, and go about their business largely un-noticed.
Work related diseases kill 10s of thousands in the UK every year. Government estimates say at least 5,000 people will continue to die each year until 2025 as a result of exposure to asbestos. And we KNOW about asbestos, it has been regulated for years - none of us know how many other 'silent killers' we are working with.
Injuries sustained whilst working in Britain account for more than 1,500 deaths every year. The government Health and Safety Executive concludes that management is responsible for the majority of those deaths. Yet employers continue to get away with murder.
- Only 1% of major injuries result in prosecution.
- Only 18% of deaths at work result in prosecution. When companies are prosecuted, they only receive paltry fines. In the North West, the average fine for a workplace death is under £10,000.
"The accumulation of capital has been based on an accumulation of violence. Profit margins and growth rates have been the direct result of painful labour, poverty, brutality, repression and alienation. Violence has been an essential and permanent feature of the capitalist economy." (Jamil Salmi) Despite the evidence that many people die as a result of companies cutting corners to increase profits, bosses are only prosecuted in extreme circumstances. Between 1996 and 1998, there was not one single prosecution of a manager or director after a workplace injury or death in the UK.
In 1987, 28 workers were killed in a construction accident in Connecticut in the US on the 28 April. Since then, people across the world have used this day to fight for improvements in workplace safety. This year the Merseyside Hazards and Environment Centre is using this day to commemorate the dead and to demand that the HSE and the courts take action against those who continue to profit despite the huge scale of deaths and injuries.
Fight for the living - Commemorate those Killed.