Dr PAM ZINKIN LONDON

Fax: 0044 20 77002699

In spite of we are unable to be present at the Meeting in Bangladesh about Health People, of which we have had notice from Dr. Elena Medi, our Organization Medicina Democratica wants to send a written contribution:

Medicina Democratica (MD) is an Organization of Basis, who was born at the end of the sixties years and, in spite of the several changes for the worse we had during all these years, Medicina Democratica has been able to stick to one's guns and has gone on, also if it has always been hard up.

MD isn't an Organization of Democratics Doctors, but it's a Movement fighting for Health-Care and every one can be inside this Democratic Organization. Doctors, Workers, Unemployed Persons, Pensioners are agreed to a Theory and to an application of Public Welfare who firstly doesn't want delegate their health-care to Technical Operators or to Institutes.

People who believe in the Theory of MD wants to participate for their health-care, with a dialectic position with Technical Operators and with Institutes; sometimes fighting specially against Institutes.

To understand better what is the meaning of our fight and of our idea, You have to know that MD has throwed itself into a legal action for one year, against the men who are at the head of Petrolchimico Industry of Porto Marghera, in the area of Venice in Italy.

MD has born to defend health of people, of worker especially for work's conditions and for ambient risks, against the payment of health, for the prevention of accidents and occupational diseases, for the participation of persons concerned, of workers exposed to different risks and of population exposed to pollution.

After that MD has been present in many other questions, but work's surrounding has always been the first interest of MD.

The legal action of Porto Marghera has beginning for the report to the Magistrate made from a worker in pension of Petrolchimico Industry, Mr. Paolo Bortolozzo of MD, responsible of section of Venice, who has worked very hardly to get together informations and facts about workers died for cancer.

Those workers were in a particular department of Petrolchimico Industry and were been exposed to substances cancerous, like MonoVinyl of Chloride ( basic substance for the production of Polivinylchloride).

His epidemiological research, really "crude", has come out much more adequate than that one "charming" of Scientific Institutes. This research of Mr. Bortolozzo was the starting-point of the legal action in course, in which has been committed 31 managers of Petrolchimico Industry for trial for negligent slaughter ( 143 workers died and much more than 3.000 were taken ill) and for disaster slaughter (pollution of Lagoon of Venice).

The legal action is started one year ago and surely it'll last another year again. It's important arrive to a sentence to show that when they don't pay attention to the life of workers and of population, this is a crime and it is necessary punish the crime for it has not to repeat again.

Besides, in this scope, our fight has extended not only against the death's production, but also against the exports of the production of the death.

Countries of the Third World, as they are badly named, are paying much more than the others for the damages of these exports.

For example one of the most big crime of Multinationals has been the disaster in Bophal, where the presage of death was terrible, just because of the kind of production without any safety. (Our Organization has worked about this subject and published a book).

Sometimes, when we believe to obtain one victory against the production of harmful substances and the production of them arrests, we see that production moves in another part of our Country or in another Country with much more compliance or lesser controls, or where the blackmail for employment is the most.

In spite of this, sometime it's possible win. Particularly, we have made a big fight against the use of asbestos. We have obtained many important victories about this question in Italy and in Europe, too, and now we are going to have some results in Countries which are under the excessive power of Multinationals.

MD has given his help to the building of network "Ban Asbestos"; it has organized his Mondial Meeting just one week ago in St. Paul in Brazil. This Country is the third producer in the world of asbestos and now this Country has decided to give up the utilization of asbestos, just of the tenacity of the local Association against asbestos (ABREA).

A very important victory. After that there is another important knot we want put to Your attention, for which MD is fighting for many years and it's the fight to have a good and public National Health Service.

We believe that this fight, as the others against the death's production, has to be a World Fight. We know that the WHO said that public health services are generally much more better than the private services and than the health insurance systems.

In spite of this we see that, in the last years, there is a war against the public health service, especially from the International Monetary System, who is worried to lose pecuniary resources (from Countries to Public Health Services) useful for the development of capital and of profits.

Very often people believe that "Private System is Good", while public system is not functional. This happens in our Country, especially in Region Lombardy, where there is a Right Government, supporter of privatist choices.

All the same the health's general indicators used from WHO relate that Italy is in the second place in the world for the operating of National Health Service and, in front of others West Country, Italian public system is the cheapest.

Certainly we are very critic toward the operating of our Health Services, but not against the conception of public, who is founded upon general fiscality and upon equity in the distribution of treatments and of services.

Just in the last period, during the World Conference in South Africa about AIDS, we have seen how there is a big discrimination in the care and a very serious health-care re-distribution.

It is absent any kind of information, any kind of prevention in front of this ill, that is flagellating Africa and many others Countries starting on themselves developing. It has been demonstrated that Multinationals drugs-manufacturing provide with drugs only if they get a good profit for themselves and they let the production of some drug go (like for the care of malaria, for example, useful to save millions of people), because this production isn't paying, also if it costs a little less.

It's very difficult say what we have to do, but we have to create much more connexions between Countries with minor income and rich Countries, making world politic (of exploitation).

It should be convenient, and we want to introduce it, work to build two kind of network: the first, how we have just said, against death's production, hoping to develop it very quickly, using E-mail, through INTERNET; so we can inform that one of these productions is stopping in one of rich country to move in one of poor country. (We can say the same about the waste toxic material, because every rich and west Country doesn't want them and they are sent in some dump of poor Countries, if they aren't before discharged in the see); the second is the defence or the building of National Health Services equitable and universals.

We can use the same means of communication, but if You are agreed with this proposal, it's necessary have one Association for every Country, like reference.

We believe important organize more and more Association of people, on a international level, to slow down the globalisation, because it is a further concentration of richness for somebody and a big production of poverty and discomfort for most of people.

Milan, October 1st, 2000

Medicina Democratica National Responsible

Fulvio Aurora