PARIS
Occupation protests Abbott death drug
A group of 70 people from four Paris-based groups occupied
the French headquarters of Abbott Laboratories for almost four
hours on April 13. They were protesting Abbot's complicity in
executing the death penalty.
Abbott Laboratories, based in Chicago and Toronto, produces
the anesthetic Sodium Thiopental or Penthothal. This hypnotic
is pumped into the veins of death-row prisoners in the United
States as the first stage of lethal-injection executions. Then
two killer drugs--Pavulon produced by Organon and potassium
chloride produced by Roxane--finish the victim.
The four groups whose members took the action in France are
the International Concerned Family and Friends for Mumia
Abu-Jamal/France, Scalp-Reflex, ACT-UP/ Paris and the Leonard
Peltier Support Group in France.
The activists carried out civil disobedience as a warning to
the three labs that they will be held accountable for their
complicity with the death-dealing process. The lab was also
warned that it cannot hide behind the excuse that it has no
means of tracing how its drugs end up in U.S. execution
chambers.
Julia Wright, coordinator of ICFF for Mumia Abu-Jamal in
France and spokesperson for the groups, held a telephone
conversation with Abbott's public-relations spokesperson, Vice
President Kathy Babbington, in Chicago. The conversation was
broadcast to protesters over a loudspeaker. Babbington tried to
defend Abbott, saying Penthothal was a "good drug" and the
company could not control its "misuse." Protesters answered by
shouting, "Boycott Abbott" and, "No justice, no peace."
Wright, who had also introduced herself as African American
writer Richard Wright's daughter, informed Abbott's
representative that the company could be held accountable by
international standards for indirect participation in the
execution process. She insisted Abbott track and account for
how the hypnotic drug is used, and that it refuse to sell the
drug to states that execute prisoners.
--John Catalinotto
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