The
hurricane and tropical storm “Harvey” in Texas revealed the
misery and disaster that capitalist “development” spreads at the
expense of public security and people's interests. The same, even in
a larger scale, had happened 12 years ago with hurricane “Katrina”
in the states of Luisianna and Mississippi. In both cases, the
heaviest price of the disaster was paid by the poor strata of these
states, the working class and immigrants.
The
record
rainfall and floods, the
“extreme natural phenomena”, cannot explain by themselves alone
the scale of the destruction. The real cause behind the disaster in
Texas is the policy which, in order to maximize business profits,
destroys natural envirnoment, creates anarchy in construction, builds
huge factories, industries, shopping centers without any fundamental
security plan.
The
Texas disaster reveals the true nature of Capitalism: for the
capitalist system, the security and health of the people, of the
workers, of the masses is not important. What matters in Capitalism
is the profitability of the monopolies, of the large business
corporations, of the capital, at any cost, even by sacrificing
people's lives.
For
the issue of “Harvey” hurricane in the United States, we
republish an article appeared on “Liberation”, the newspaper of
the U.S. Party of Liberation and Socialism:
Twelve
years to the day after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans and
much of the Gulf coast, millions in southeast Texas are suffering the
devastating impact of another huge storm. An unknown number of people
are dead or missing, and tens or hundreds of thousands are
desperately seeking refuge as the flood waters rise to historic
levels. Thousands of heroic volunteers of all nationalities have
joined in efforts to rescue thousands trapped on rooftops and nursing
homes.
The
immediate cause of the crisis is record rainfall, in some places over
50 inches in just a few days. But like Katrina and virtually every
other major natural disaster, the crisis has been worsened by
an abject lack of government readiness.
Hurricane
Harvey has exposed government at every level as being woefully
unprepared to meet the needs of the people. While in ordinary times
this reality is somewhat concealed, in times of catastrophe it is
fully visible and undeniable.
The
fundamental cause of the repeated pattern of government failure is
that under the existing capitalist system governments are organized
not to serve the interests of the people but instead those of the
corporate owners and the super-rich.
The
Center for International Policy, a research and policy group based in
Washington, says “a person is 15 times as likely to be killed by a
hurricane in the United States as in Cuba.” How is it possible that
socialist Cuba, a blockaded country with far fewer
resources, “consistently weathers Category 4 and 5 hurricanes
with relatively few casualties”? A New York Times article
from 2013 reports:
“Cuba would have suffered a great deal more if not for its well-rehearsed storm preparation system. It is a multilevel process that starts with the young. Grade school students practice evacuations; high-school students monitor neighborhoods to identify weak trees and other hazards. … In the event of a storm, the head of every institution — schools, hospitals, hotels — is considered a member of the Cuban Civil Defense force, responsible for the well-being of people around them. … In Pinar del Río, the province most vulnerable, the government deploys large brigades to prepare for disaster. ‘If you have nowhere to go, then there’s the state shelters with food and water and doctors,’ said María Fajardo, a resident.
“Hurricane Tips from Cuba,” New York Times, July 29, 2013.
Houston,
the fast-growing and fourth largest city in the U.S. with a metro
population of 6.6 million , is on low, flat land and vulnerable
to flooding. The current disaster is the latest and worst of four
major flooding episodes in just the past nine years. A major cause is
that the city has no zoning laws, so development is largely
unplanned. So, too, is emergency preparedness.
A
December 6, 2016 article in the Texas Tribune reported: “As
millions have flocked to the metropolitan area in recent decades,
local officials have largely snubbed stricter building regulations,
allowing developers to pave over crucial acres of prairie land that
once absorbed huge amounts of rainwater. That has led to an excess of
floodwater during storms that chokes the city’s vast bayou network,
drainage systems and two huge federally owned reservoirs, endangering
many nearby homes … “
As
the hurricane approached, the mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner,
told residents to “stay in place” citing the fear of
highways becoming clogged with people, and then flooding.
Later, as the flood waters rose, city officials advised residents to
move to the second floor of their homes, and then, if the water
continued to rise, to their roofs, and “wave white towels to
attract attention.”
At
the same time, the governor of Texas, a virulent right-winger, Greg
Abbott, called for Houston residents to evacuate, but offered no
assistance or plan for evacuees. This, too, was reminiscent of
Katrina, when those who had the funds escaped New Orleans in chaos,
on jammed roads, forced to pay sky-high rates for hotel rooms. Those
without resources were left behind, leading to the deaths of more
than 1,800 people, overwhelmingly poor and African American, when the
levees broke.
As
the Texas crisis turned into catastrophe, President Trump tweeted a
self-congratulatory, “Wow – Now experts are calling #Harvey a
once in 500 year flood! We have an all out effort going, and going
well!” Later in the weekend he sent out a book recommendation on
Twitter, followed by an admission that he had pardoned the criminal
sheriff Joe Arpaio as Harvey hit because the TV ratings
would be “far higher.”
Houston
is home to many oil refineries, all of which were shut down in
advance of the storm, in some cases releasing toxic pollutants into
flood waters and the air, affecting nearby communities which are
disproportionately Latino and African American. One chemicals
plant in the northeast edge of Houston, Arkema, is in critical danger
of massive explosion because the electrical cooling systems and
back-up generators have failed.
 |
| Pensioners trapped in Texas care home flooded by Storm Harvey. |
Even
before the shutdown, some oil executives were talking of gas price
hikes when they re-start and gas stocks rose 7%. As always, the
corporate profiteers have only one real objective.
Nearly
600,000 undocumented workers live in Houston. While the governor was
telling Houstonians to evacuate, the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) announced that they were keeping in place internal
checkpoints on major highways. Undocumented workers were thus forced
to choose between the flood and a potential threat of
deportation.
More
than 30% of Harris Country, 444 square miles, is under water and
hundreds of thousands of residences have suffered water damage that
will often require tens of thousands of dollars each in repair costs
– if they can be repaired.
While
Trump staged a public relations trip to “assess” the damage in
Texas, his administration is calling for slashing the federal flood
insurance budget and flood insurance subsidies to homeowners who live
in areas highly vulnerable to floods. If enacted, this would
raise annual insurance costs to astronomical levels, from present
monthly premiums of $100-200 to as much as $2,400.
Presently,
the homeowners insurance covers wind damage, but not water damage.
Many Houstonians have the former, few have the latter.
The
danger in southeast Texas remain acute, with rain still falling,
rivers and bayous still rising and old reservoirs and levees in
danger of failing. But even if the rain were to immediately stop and
the rivers recede, the long-term crisis would only be starting.
Many
months and perhaps more of reconstruction are ahead. The Party for
Socialism and Liberation salutes all those on the ground in Texas who
are engaged in the recovery effort, and we are joining in that
effort.
At
the same time, what is needed more than ever is a mass people’s
movement that demands the federal and state governments provide the
assistance and funds – not crushing loans – for rebuilding what
has been destroyed, in a long-term sustainable fashion.
We
need a new system of political governance. Under capitalism society’s
plentiful resources are marshaled by the government to streamline
profit-making by bankers, real estate developers and corporations
rather than to protect and defend all the people and the environment.
The
people’s needs must come first!
