https://themilitant.com/2020/01/18/australia-bushfires-capitalism-is-responsible-for-social-disaster/
Australia bushfires: Capitalism is responsible for social disaster
article
Vol. 84/No. 3
January 27, 2020
Resident of Cobargo, Australia, area hard hit by bushfires, refuses to
shake hand of Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Capitalist rulers left
working people
on their own as fires raged. figure
Resident of Cobargo, Australia, area hard hit by bushfires, refuses to
shake hand of Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Capitalist rulers left
working people
on their own as fires raged.
Resident of Cobargo, Australia, area hard hit by bushfires, refuses to
shake hand of Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Capitalist rulers left
working people
on their own as fires raged. figure end
The following statement was released by the Communist League in
Australia Jan. 8.
The massive bushfires that have swept south and eastern Australia have
had a devastating impact on the lives of many working people. But the
social crisis
developing in the wake of the fires is the result of the workings of the
capitalist system, which puts the profits of building companies,
investors and
insurance magnates before the interests of working people who have lost
their homes and livelihoods.
The contempt of politicians for working people, including volunteer
firefighters as they struggled to save lives and homes, was epitomized
by the indifference
of the Prime Minister and the NSW [New South Wales] Emergency Services
Minister as they took off for their overseas holidays in the midst of
the crisis.
While there were plenty of signs that warned of the severity of fires
this season, governments did nothing to prepare for the conditions.
There were no
steps taken in advance to organize for evacuations or to provide for
those who had to flee their homes with nothing.
The hot, dry weather conditions and high winds has made the fires more
intense and unpredictable, but the scale of the fires has been
exacerbated by the
massive buildup of forest fuel. State and federal governments, which
rule in the interests of the capitalist class, bear responsibility for
the failure
of management of the forests and water supplies.
Aboriginal leaders explain that frequent low intensity burns are
necessary to prevent the buildup of forest fuel. This traditional
practice was based on
thousands of years’ experience of doing what was necessary to protect
the environment rather than extracting profit. Under capitalism these
methods have
been deemed too expensive. Instead, governments cut spending and
employment in forest and parks services, and tie preventive measures up
in red tape.
Protests called by climate activists in response to the bushfires have
centered on calls for the government to change its “climate policy.” But
every policy
implemented by corporations and bourgeois governments only serves the
interests of maintaining capitalist profit-making and rule.
It is the capitalists’ profit-fueled manufacturing competition that
hastens the poisoning of the earth’s air, water and soil. The effects
are ruinous for
working people in city and countryside. What is needed is to advance a
working-class program to fight to end capital’s exploitation of both
labour and
nature.
The Communist League calls for workers and our unions to fight for
workers control over production to ensure health and safety in the
factories, mines
and energy monopolies, and to control emissions of greenhouse gases,
which contribute to the gradual rise in the temperature of the earth’s
atmosphere.
Working people need to fight for a government-funded public works
program to put thousands to work at union rates to rebuild housing and
infrastructure
destroyed in the fires, and carry out work in the forestry industry and
the National Parks. The federal government must ensure adequate
compensation for
those who have lost their homes and livelihoods and volunteer
firefighters who have had to leave their jobs. We demand that it extend
affordable credit
to working farmers and guarantee their costs of production.
Working people need to organise and act independently of the ruling
capitalists and break from their political parties. The only way we can
prevent future
such catastrophes is by building a movement to fight along a course to
replace the rule of the exploiters with a workers and farmers government.
Cuba’s revolutionary government sets an example of what can be done when
working people are in power. When hurricanes hit Cuba, all the resources
of Cuba’s
people are mobilised. The government organises evacuations so everyone
knows in advance what shelter to move to. “We have one unmovable
principle,” former
President Raúl Castro said, “the revolution will not leave anyone
defenseless.”
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― Sam Harris,
