The Grenfell Tower catastrophe seems to me to mainly have happened because of capitalism, because capitalism means profit above all else, including an inherent callousness in regard to human life.

The image text in its entirety:

'It is time to explain how a cladding panel with a core of solid petrol found itself on the market for use on the walls of people's homes.

Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) was first invented in the 1960s. A German company realised that bonding the metal to plastic made it easier to work and cheaper to produce, and it was initially used in furniture. From the 1990s onwards, it became a popular choice for building facades: providing the elegant curves and crisp finishes modern designers craved.

There are several large manufacturers of ACM in operation. One would ultimately sell the cladding panels on Grenfell: Arconic. This is a company with deep roots, having been spun out of Alcoa, which traces its own history back to the Aluminium Company of America - a giant beast of the American materials sector which was founded in 1886 when the inventor Charles Martin Hall discovered the process of smelting. Alcoa provided the metal for the spacecraft used in the first moon landings, US military hardware from the battlefields of World War I to the bomber jets which rained death over the Middle East in the early 2000s and drinks cans which litter the environment all over the globe.

The panels were sold for use on Grenfell by the European arm of this company, AAP SAS, which is based in north-eastern France. The fire safety risk of these panels was discovered in 2004. They could have been taken off the market then. But no one then was willing to risk corporate profits for basic fire safety.'

The page is from Peter Apps's excellent 'Show me the Bodies', about the Grenfell Tower catastrophe.

#book #capitalism #PeterApps #Grenfell #death

I've just started reading Peter Apps's sober, riveting, and horrifying book 'Show Me the Bodies', a non-fiction book about the Grenfell Tower fire.

'The Grenfell Tower fire killed seventy-two people, including eighteen children. It ripped families apart, traumatised an entire community, destroyed 129 homes and caused damage that, for many involved, can never be repaired. It is the most serious crime committed on British soil this century.'

https://bookrastinating.com/book/486770/s/show-me-the-bodies

#PeterApps #Grenfell #book #reading #NonFiction #scandal @bookstodon

Just started #reading #PeterApps book, having followed the #GrenfellTowerInquiry via the BBC Radio #Podcast of the same name.

"Grenfell was the result of a series of choices, the sum of state neglect and corporate wrongdoing across a variety of areas, the epicentre of myriad defects in our social fabric. More than anything, it was the result of political choices".

Hoping for inspiration for personal involvement in action/activism to work towards change.

#Grenfell