Some action to take - especially for those who hold any vaguely 'official'
position (i.e.: who have headed letter paper!). This is a long-running but
so far unresolved injustice. I ask you to take some time to read it.

> >PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS VERY WIDELY.
> >
> >
> >Your urgent support is being asked for in a crucial time in
> the Cape plc
> >asbestos miners case. Attached is a lobbying letter for you
> to consider,
> >copying on to your letterheaded paper (where applicable), signing and
> >faxing to the list of Cape shareholders in the second
> attachment, as well
> >as to Leigh Day, the solicitors representing the miners.
> This letter is to
> >try and convince the shareholding companies to get some
> action out of Cape
> >plc who are not moving positively on the issue.
> >
> >Please circulate this as widely as possible and ask people
> to fax or send
> >this to the shareholders on headed notepaper and fax us a
> copy of 020 7490
> >5623.
> >
> >I am also attaching the shareholders' details.
> >
> >Best wishes,
> >
> >Melissa Krausey
> >Leigh Day and Co
> >
>
>
> We the undersigned express grave concern over the following:
>
> 1.    London-based multinational, Cape plc, through its
> predecessors/wholly
> owned subsidiaries took full advantage of the Apartheid
> system in South
> Africa to exploit the thousands of workers at asbestos mines and mills
> in South Africa from 1893-1979. Cape's profits from its South African
> mining operations were brought back to the UK.
>
> 2.    Cape utilised child labour extensively at its mines and mills.
> Children were employed, unprotected, in the most hazardous tasks of
> sorting asbestos with their bare hands and trampling it with
> their bare
> feet.
>
> 3.    Due to the atrocious conditions at the mines and mills,
> thousands of
> South Africans developed the fatal asbestos cancer, mesothelioma, and
> the debilitating disease of asbestosis.
>
> 4.    Cape had no regard for the health and safety of its
> workers, or those
> living near its mines and mills in South Africa, despite being well
> aware of the risks of asbestos exposure, at least since 1931 when
> Asbestos Regulations were first introduced in the UK.  The standards
> adopted at its South African operations were far lower than those in
> place in the UK.
>
> 5.    Cape actively lobbied the South African government and
> various health
> research bodies during the apartheid era to suppress information about
> the risks of asbestos. Cape was instrumental in setting the
> lower health
> standards in South Africa.
>
> 6.    Cape's Barking factory in London was closed in 1968 due
> to the high
> incidence of asbestos-related diseases, its South African operations
> continued for another decade.
>
> 7.    Since proceedings were commenced around 300 of the South African
> claimants have died. Despite settling the compensation claims of
> hundreds of its former British employees out of court, without once
> challenging liability at trial, in July 2000, after a protracted and
> expensive legal battle, the British House of Lords unanimously agreed
> with the claimants that for justice to be done their actions should
> proceed in the British courts.  Cape has aggressively defended and
> prolonged the litigation brought against it by its former
> South African
> workers.  Cape continues to make provision for its former UK
> workers but
> not its former South African workers.
>
> 8.    For example, despite not having a presence in South Africa since
> pulling out of the country in 1979 (leaving behind deadly asbestos
> legacies in the form of dumps and unrehabilitated mines), for
> more than
> 3 years Cape vigorously argued that the actions by the South African
> claimants should be thrown out of the English courts and dealt with in
> South Africa.
>
> 9.    The case is scheduled for trial in April 2002. However,
> to reduce the
> number of uncompensated deaths and to alleviate their suffering, the
> Claimants are eager to settle the matter out of court.  It appears
> highly likely that if the matter goes to trial and the Claimants win,
> Cape plc will go in to liquidation. This will result in
> little, if any,
> compensation to its South African victims and severe job losses among
> its current UK employees.  The longer the action continues, the less
> money will be available to compensate Cape's South African victims and
> the more likely that the company will go in to liquidation.
>
>
> WE CALL ON CAPE PLC AND ITS SHAREHOLDERS - RUTLAND TRUST PLC,
> MONTPELLIER, FIDELITY AND M&G - TO ACT RESPONSIBLY IN THE INTERESTS OF
> ITS WORKERS, FORMER AND PRESENT, TO SHOW RESPECT TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN
> VICTIMS AND THEIR FAMILIES AND TO OFFER A JUST AND EQUITABLE
> SETTLEMENT
> TO THE CLAIMANTS NOW.
>
> IT IS TIME TO END THE INEQUALITY AND INJUSTICE.
>
>
> Signed:
>
> 1) CEO: Roger Feast
>
>     Montpellier Group Plc
>     Lovell House
>     616 Chiswick High Road
>     London W4 5RX
>
>     Tel: 020 8982 4321
>      Fax: 020 8982 4360
>
> 2) Fidelity International Management have changed their name to
> Fidelity Investment International (unlimited co).
>       Oakhill House
>       130 Tunbridge Road
>        Hildenbough
>       Tunbridge
>       Kent
>       TN11 9DZ
>
> CEO "Chief Executive Officer" (They refused to divulge his name)
>
> 3)    M & G Investment Management
>       Laurence Pountney Hill
>       London
>       EC4R OEU
>
>       Tel: 0800 390 390 (Enquiries)
>
>       CEO: Michael McLintock
>
> 4)    Rutland Trust
> Rutland House
> Rutland Gardens
> London SW7 1BX
>
> Tel: 020 7225 3391
> Fax: 020 7225 1364
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
> CEO "Chief Executive Officer" again. (They refused to divulge
> his name)
>

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Dr David Wood
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
[Algorithmic Surveillance and Social Exclusion]

Centre for Urban Technology
School of Architecture Planning and Landscape
University of Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
UK

[log in to unmask]
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