2011 years of the international chemical
Andrew Ure (1778-1857)
Giorgio Nebbia
Let me introduce Dr. Andrew Ure (1778-1857), chemicals and goods of prestige in England in the first half of the nineteenth century, the author of numerous treatises and an encyclopedia of industrial products, anticipating that "science" in the service the capitalist factories, ready to minimize the grounds for any claim, by workers and citizens, recognizing the right to health.
Its history is important because the 'ineffable Dr. Ure, "as he calls Marx's famous thirteenth chapter of the first book of" Capital ", has created countless followers who are still prepared to minimize the hazards factory, the effects of pollution, the damage caused by radioactive substances.
Over the years he lived Ure England was subjected to strong social turmoil. The laws of time --- England had just emerged victorious from the wars against Napoleon and his industry was growing, thanks to a vibrant entrepreneurial class and the raw materials taken from the rich colonies --- that allowed boys and girls and young women worked to ten hours or more per day in the mines and mills. The girls and boys, with their little fingers, were well suited to quickly resume the threads which were broken in the new fast machines for spinning, weaving, the children were in the midst of the tanks products chimici per il lavaggio. Ancora peggiori erano le condizioni nelle miniere di carbone dove i piccoli operai spingevano pesanti carrelli in mezzo alla polvere, all'umidità, in promiscuità con gli adulti.
Per i piccoli lavoratori non c'era tempo per l'istruzione; arrivati stanchi a casa, trovavano stanze fredde, poco cibo, genitori tristi e arrabbiati. Alcuni imprenditori avevano organizzato delle specie di ricoveri in cui bambine e bambini dormivano e ricevano un poco di cibo e così potevano essere più puntuali sul lavoro la mattina; in premio la domenica potevano seguire lezioni di catechismo che insegnavano anche la riconoscenza e la fedele devozione ai datori di lavoro.
In queste condizioni si è formato un movimento, that we might call the rights of child workers, which stood at the head of the British Parliament to pass a law limiting the working hours of children and women. Imagine! if such a law was approved, the cost of labor would increase and this would have clipped the wings that Britain was taking off to the conquest of world markets, according to the moving words of the weekly "Economist".
Because these misguided defenders of children were not silent, the Industrial Association of British gave the task to a person known and prestige, in fact, Dr. Ure, to refute the arguments of opponents. Andrew Ure in 1835 published an entire treatise, entitled "The philosophy of manufactures "(only partially translated into Italian), which showed what they were false allegations of exploitation, with accurate scientific measurements showed that children working in factories were healthier, taller and even more happy with the guys who did not work and maybe they went to school and played free. Needless to say, the movement of workers' rights won, were passed legislation restricting the hours of work, which required better hygienic conditions in the factories and, in spite of Dr. Ure, the rights to health prevailed selfishness and greed.
Again minizio the twenty-first century, leading scientists and scholars, "grandchildren" of Dr. Ure, write texts and organizing campaigns to combat environmental protest movements that spring up here and there in Italy. Those who protest do not know --- explain these diligent defenders waste dump --- that few things are perfect and safe such as landfills and in fact on the ground above it can build soccer fields and amusement parks. Some companies organize tours to the incinerators scattered across Europe to demonstrate their safety and perfection to the mayors who are preparing to authorize the construction of a waste incinerator in their town against the will of the people. Other companies conducting campaigns in favor of nuclear power to erode the credibility of those who do not want and they do not want landfill of radioactive waste. Other campaigns are still organized to illustrate the goodness and benefits of foods derived from genetically modified organisms. These initiatives are "perfect" using all the sophisticated tools of persuasive advertising, together with the authoritativeness of famous names that open fractures even in the same movements of protest or environmentalists.
The fact is that the protest in the name of protecting the health of the environment and eco-terrorism is not as fools who say "no" to everything, in any form of scientific and technological developments that are willing to stay silent if the 'incinerator or power line or not is central in their common, but in the neighboring municipality. History of the protest movement ecological --- except, of course, individual instances of short-sighted selfishness of criminal infiltration or municipal landfill or speculating on the sale or procurement of land --- is nothing more than a page long struggle for the conquest new rights: in this case the right to health for themselves and for future generations, the right to have a clean environment from poisons. History shows that in many cases --- as happened in the days of Dr. Ure --- The protest was directed against the facts and real dangers that were minimized or kept hidden by governments or companies. And every time I won the challenge, the world has become better.
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