- Presentation of the issue by its editor:
Determined to support the cessation of all harmful economic activities but certainly not that of social criticism, eager to deliver the results of a hectic investigation in Rouen the day after the fire at the Lubrizol chemical plant , Z has released a new issue, a dive into government industrial risk management, as a foretaste of the state of disaster. To reflect on our common destiny and support the journal in these difficult times, order it with us or at an open bookstore, and don’t forget to subscribe here.
Editorial of the issue “ Black smoke and yellow vests » :
Is it wise to go out on the street ? Should we flee the city ? What type of mask is most effective ? Are we a « person at risk » ? Where are the tests that would assess the situation ? Will yesterday’s life take its course or will it be forever changed ? So many questions posed by the Covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020, which were experienced in Rouen a few months earlier.
On September 26, 2019, in the early morning hours, a thick black cloud hovers over the city: the Lubrizol factory, stuffed with chemicals, is on fire. The streets are almost deserted. No one knows precisely the consequences of what is happening, starting with the authorities who, however, do not hesitate to « to reassure » in defiance of reality. Fifteen days later, around ten of us disembark in Rouen for a few weeks in order to conduct a collective investigation. Like the Covid-19 pandemic, linked to deforestation, rampant urbanization and globalized flows, Lubrizol in its own way represents the primacy of consumer society over the preservation of habitable living environments. And at a time of danger, social inequalities explode: the well-off go into exile in their country houses, while the most deprived are made to feel guilty and overexposed. Maintaining economic order remains a priority which is only taken into the background, when it is, once it is already too late.
Finally, these events are echoed by what they tell us about the massive and invisible effects of pollution on our health. Produced largely by the petrochemical industry, it kills « in normal times » several million people a year in the world and is one of the explanations for the explosion of cancers and chronic diseases such as obesity, asthma and diabetes. Diseases that happen to be among the « co-morbid factors » of the victims of Covid-19. However, if the rulers are today able to house billions of individuals for months on end, we will probably only have to rely on our forces to impose the ban on carcinogenic, toxic and mutagenic substances in production chains. or the gradual dismantling of all these factories that climate chaos literally makes explosive.
To give substance to these future struggles, let us listen to the voices of the rebels of Lubrizol, that of a researcher who makes recognition of occupational diseases in the face of impunity of employers, those of « Travellers » who are fighting for decent housing, that of a determined labor inspector or those of chemical and logistics temporary workers in yellow vests.
Because we don’t want to choose between health and freedom, when we risk losing both.
- « Black smoke and yellow vests », review Z, May 2020, 15 euros.
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