Hurricane Katrina - A Question of Class

international | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis

Sunday September 11, 2005 00:42

by IRSCNA - Irish Republican Socialist Party

irscna at irsm dot org

IRSCNA PO Box 8266, Austin TX 78713-8266,

Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America

On behalf of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, the Irish
Republican Socialist Committees of North America have issued the
following statement about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

9 September 2005

We wish to first extend our sympathy to all the victims of Hurricane
Katrina, our condolences to all those who lost friends and family, and
our solidarity with all of the survivors.

There is no doubt that the question of Hurricane Katrina and its
aftermath is a question of class and race. The wealthy and middle
classes, mostly white, were able to escape while the working class,
mostly black, was left to die and the survivors left with an even
greater nightmare.

While hurricanes are a natural phenomenon, their impact on human
communities can be managed to prevent loss of life and even to reduce
the damage caused by the hurricane itself. Hurricane Katrina has
revealed that there was a clear pattern of systemic neglect which
contributed to making New Orleans and nearby areas of the Gulf Coast
more vulnerable to hurricanes and a disaster of this magnitude more
likely. The systemic neglect was a conscious decision based on class
and race, with a quarter of metropolitan New Orleans living under
poverty level, most of whom are African-Americans.

Flood control systems could have been strengthened, especially after a
2001 report from the Federal Emergency Management Agency warned that a
hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the most likely disasters to
happen in the near future (the most likely disaster was a terrorist
attack on New York City, another failure of the Bush Administration to
heed the report's warnings). The Bush Administration, however, chose
to cut flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the illegal
imperialist war against Iraq. To the Bush Administration and the
capitalist class it represents, sacrificing working class men and
women in foreign imperialist wars is of far greater importance than
protecting working class lives in the US.

In 2004, the US Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New
Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush
Administration refused to fund the research. In 1990, a federal task
force began restoring lost wetlands surrounding New Orleans, which
would have reduced storm surge during a hurricane, but starting in
2003 the Bush Administration's policy was to turn this land over to
wealthy developers. For the Bush Administration or anyone else to say
this wasn't avoidable is a lie.

There were deep flaws in how the disaster was managed even before the
hurricane made landfall, both by federal and local authorities. It
was appropriate to order a mandatory evacuation, but what about the
people without cars or money? What about the elderly, the disabled,
or the homeless? While the US government and media have attempted to
lay blame on the victims or survivors for not leaving, all methods of
egress were blocked -- train service, bus service, and plane service
were all halted before Katrina hit.

The poorer sections of the working class, especially those who were
African-American (the population of New Orleans is 70%
African-American), were abandoned to their fate by the capitalist
system and a corrupt political leadership on several levels. Those
that survived were again abandoned when it took nearly five days for
relief efforts to begin, and those efforts began rather halfheartedly
and only after there was mass outrage from people in the US and around
the world.

Members of the media were able to get to areas hit hard by Katrina as
early as Monday, yet it took until Thursday and Friday for official
aid to start arriving. During that delay, offers from other states and
countries were refused by the federal government, condemning countless
survivors of the initial flooding to death by hunger, dehydration, and
drowning. Cuba generously offered to send 1,100 medical doctors
with 26.4 tons of medications and diagnosis kits at no expense to the
US, but this was rejected while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
favored waiting for "the Lord" to come.

We can easily contrast this with how well Cuba handles hurricanes.
Cuba only lost sixteen people when last a powerful category 4
hurricane struck, the highest death toll in forty-one years on an
island constantly hit by hurricanes. Less then two months ago, 1.7
million people were quickly and safely evacuated on short notice in
preparation for Hurricane Dennis. If a third world nation is capable
of such a response, the US has no excuse.

The interests of the capitalist and middle classes were represented by
the voices hysterically condemning looting and calling for the looters
to be shot. For those people, the crime of stealing a television was
much greater than the crime of abandoning tens of thousands of people
to death or the survivors to squalid refugee centers. Are a few DVD
players, which are no doubt insured by the stores in the first place,
really of more importance than human lives? Sadly, the answer appears
to be yes. This is the reality of the capitalist ideology and its
promotion of private property as the most important thing in society.

It should be noted that while Alabama suffered the ravages of the
hurricane, native daughter Condoleezza Rice bought a $3000 pair of
shoes in New York, and while New Orleans drowned, Bush reminded many
of Nero by strumming a guitar.

We hold the capitalist system and the Bush Administration primarily
responsible for the deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina and the gross
neglect of the survivors. We demand that all of the survivors be
treated with dignity and given safe, clean housing rather than being
pushed into squalid, overcrowded refugee centers. We demand that the
US government accept the generous offer from the Cuban government to
send medical aid. We demand that the rebuilding of New Orleans and
other areas affected by the hurricane, such as Biloxi, Mississippi,
includes rebuilding wetlands, increasing the efficiency and safety of
flood management systems, and a real concern for working class
communities, as well as plans for future disasters which includes
quickly and safely evacuating everyone, no matter their income or skin
color.

In conclusion, this should be a wake-up call to all workers that our
lives are of no consequence to those who hold the real power in our
society. The hurricane did more than destroy cities and lives, it
also laid bare the cruelties of the capitalist system for all to see.
It's up to all of us to not forget what we saw and to redouble our
efforts to create a system where human lives always come first.

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Hurricane Katrina - A Question of Class