Bring Down Bush » Hurricane Katrina: Capitalism Failed New Orleans

Hurricane Katrina: Capitalism Failed New Orleans

The US is the richest and most economically and militarily powerful country in the world and yet over the past week we have watched the destruction of the city of New Orleans and its surroundings and the terrible suffering of its mainly African American working class people. This is not an accident. It is the result of decisions made and priorities decided upon by the rich overwhelmingly white capitalist class who run this country. Their priorities are not the interests of the mainly African American and the poor of New Orleans and of the US as a whole. Their priorities are their own profit and power and control. This is what lies behind the catastrophe of Katrina. It is a catastrophe of US capitalism and the vicious disregard of the rulers of this system for the poorest and most oppressed of the country’s citizens.

This was not a natural disaster. It was a disaster of a system made by the people and the class who control that system. The rich and the upper classes escaped the city. The poor did not. They did not have the means to nor did they have any place to go. The so called free market provided the rich and better off with the means to get out and left the working class and poor without. The majority of the poor are African Americans and along with the rest of the poor they were herded into the Astrodome and the convention centres and held there without water and food. Why was this? It is not hard to figure out. The people who were making decisions, that is the ruling class of this country, the Bush regime and the major corporations and their owners, were focused more than anything else on keeping control. They were afraid of the working class people taking things into their own hands. So they herded them into centres where they could better control them despite the fact there was no food or decent housing. The catastrophe of Katrina is a catastrophe of a system, of the corrupt capitalist system.

This site is dedicated to explaining this and putting the blame for Katrina where it belongs. On this Bush regime and the class it represents. The Bush regime represents the interests of the oil and gas and energy sector of the US corporations. As such it has refused to recognize global warming and the increase in hurricane activity and their strength in the Gulf. They look on the hurricanes as inevitable, an opportunity to jack up oil prices and increase profits, and they do nothing about them. They saw Katrina coming for days and sat and waited knowing they personally were all out of its range.

But not only that they saw it as a further opportunity to loot the country. The right wing Chicago Tribune featured an article in its September 5th edition headed “Big Oil’s Big Time Looting of Nation”. And as a sub heading, “Corporate thieves are being allowed to walk of with billions.” It explained that the big four oil companies last year had profits of $72.8billion, and that they had given 80% of their political bribes in the last two presidential elections to Bush who had rewarded them with most of the $14.5billion tax cuts in the recent energy bill. These are the real looters not the poor folks getting a bottle of water or a loaf of bread to stay alive. These oil companies are looting the entire country with the full backing of their boy in the Whitehouse while poor and working class people in the area affected by Katrina are in unimaginable suffering.

On a world scale Bush, his regime, the corporations and the decaying capitalist system they represent are watching the worlds natural balance toboggan towards disaster in the interests of their profits and power. Scientific report after scientific report explains that global warming is a reality and is mainly caused by the choices made by the profit addicted corporations in relation to what and how they produce. But these reports are ignored by Bush and his regime and their cohorts internationally. So we have Katrina, the cutting back on spending on the levees around New Orleans, the floodings of Mumbai.

Of course part of the catastrophe in the New Orleans area is the related issue of the Iraq war. Bush and his regime recognize but do not openly admit that Peak oil, that is that oil production, has peaked or will soon peak. With this and other factors in mind they exploited, at the very least, 9/11 to get support from the US population to invade Iraq. Financial and military and human resources were switched from increasing the strength of the levees and the protection against floods in the Mississipi delta area to the war in Iraq. The Federal Emergency Management Administration was put under Homeland Security and its focus shifted from preparing for disasters such as Katrina. And when the hurricane hit, the terrible cruelty of Bush’s policies came home to strike at the poor and mainly African-American people of the area.

Bush and his regime and Clinton before him have been looking at the world in the context of the aftermath of the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the rise of China and the threat of the peaking of oil reserves. Their response has been the objective of”Full Spectrum Domination”. That is total domination of every area of the world by US economic and military power. The invasion of Iraq, the attempt to militarily and economically surround China, the attempt to prevent any other super power arise, these are the dominant aims of the US corporations, their profit addicted capitalist system and their boy and his regime in the Whitehouse.

This is not the only objective of this regime in the Whitehouse. It has stated approvingly that Reagan took away part of the gains working class and minorities made in the struggles of the 1960’s. But it has gone on to state that it is dedicated to taking away the rest of these gains and along with this taking away all the gains that were made in the New deal in the 1930’s. Bush made massive tax cuts to the rich and along with Clinton’s welfare cuts for the poor and the lower paid US working people have been under attack. Now Bush wants to dismantle social security. The reduction in living standards for the poor are being transferred to the rich in increased profits. The lack of a social safety net that results is being seen in the aftermath of Katrina.

But it is not only increased profits. Somebody has to pay for “Full Spectrum Domination” in blood sweat and tears. It is not the draft dodger Bush or his relatives. It is those like the tens of thousands of Iraqis killed by the invasion. They are one set of victims. Another are the US youth who joined up the military for an education and instead are getting killed and wounded in Iraq. And along with these there are the poor in the US whose welfare and benefits are being slashed to fund tax cuts to the rich and of course there are now the hundreds of thousands whose lives are being destroyed by Katrina. US corporations see US working people as their first and most immediate source of profits and therefore expendable

Organized working class action to Bring Down Bush and his corrupt capitalist regime.

BringDownBush.org is dedicated to discussing these issues and how a movement can be built in this country to BringDownBush. He has shown that he does not represent the US majority who are working class people instead he represents the US corporations. In building a movement to bring down Bush we give no support to the Democrats. They are also representatives of the corporations and their decaying capitalist system. We are not interested in replacing one corporate regime with another.

Take these steps now:

1. Organize solidarity aid and support for those affected by Katrina and assist in the developing self organization of the working class in the area through work place and community committees of the working people in the area to take control over their own lives.

Contact union locals in the area affected by Katrina and encourage them to organize to receive and distribute aid and to take possession of the resources in the area and contact local people not in the unions to organize democratically elected committees in their neighborhoods to link with the union locals and to take control over their lives and to receive aid and support and to take over whatever resources exist in their areas. In much of the affected area people came together collectively, requistioned food and water from the stores and set up food kitchens. As more information comes out it is becoming clear that the number of such actions of self organization and solidarity of working class people were and are widespread. These collective initiatives showed that the state was loosing control and also show the tendency of working people to take control over their own lives and the situation they faced. They should be supported and extended. They represent the solution to the crisis in the area and the future method of organizing society.

2. Build a movement to BringDownBush, his regime and the class they represent.

This to be done by putting the blame for Katrina where it belongs and putting the blame for the increasingly difficult life of all working people where it belongs. That is on the backs of the corporations and their capitalist system and their representatives in the Whitehouse, the Republican and Democratic parties and in the state apparatus from the Supreme Court, the military tops, the heads of the police and prison systems down. While organizing aid for the suffering people in the New Orleans area at the same time organize mass meetings and demonstrations locally, nationally and internationally against Bush and his regime and against the corporations and their system and representatives. This mobilization should link up with the national demonstration presently called for September 12th. Every union international, every labor council, every union local should target their local Republican Party, Democratic Party and the corporate head quarters near you and mobilize. The union leaders should already be doing this but as usual they refuse to play their role of mobilizing their membership.

3.Build a united working class movement as we mobilize by recognizing that racism still has deep roots in US capitalist soil.

Black people who took food and water from stores were “looters’ according to the corporate media, white people tended to be “finding food to survive”. The majority of those who suffered in New Orleans were African-American, and also the majority were poor. BringDownBush.org wants to build a movement against racism which is also a movement against poverty. In this way a united and more powerful movement of working class people of all races and of men and women can be built. This movement would take up the struggle for the minimum wage to be increased to $15.00 per hour, free health care and free education for all and for the oil companies to be taken out of private hands and taken into state ownership under collective control and their wealth, the market value of the top four alone is nearly $1trillion, to be used to help rebuild the Katrina area and to fund social services for working people.

4. End the invasion of Iraq. Bring all troops home immediately. Support the mutinies of the troops in Iraq and the setting up of soldiers committees in the armed forces.

We oppose any idea that the US invasion is helpful to the Iraqi people. It is an invasion for oil and control in the Middle east and the wider region which is bringing immense suffering to the people of Iraqi, increasing the base of support for the militant islamic groups and resulting in tens of thousands of US youth being killed and injured. It is increasing the suffering of the people of the Middle east and increasing the insecurity of the people in the US. Reports are coming in of mutinies amongst the troops in Iraq demanding they are brought home to help in the areas affected by Katrina. These should be supported and just as workers committees should be set up in the area affected by katrina soldiers committees should be set up in the US forces in Iraq.

5. Bringing down Bush, No support for the Democrats. Build a working class socialist alternative.

Our campaign will be assailed from many sides. What is your alternative will be the question. The Liberals around the Democrats and their shadows in the leadership of the trade unions who also cling to the Democrats because they are terrifed of building a real movement to fight for working class people will say we must support the Democrats or chaos will rule so we must therefore wait for the coming elections. Some on the left will say we cannot call for bringing down a government when we have no clear revolutionary alternative. To them also “order” comes first. We say we want to build a movement of working class people from the bottom up to deal with the problems we face, to bring down Bush and his capitalist regime and to give no support to the Democrats. We support the building of a workers party and we work for this, we support the establishment of a government which will represent working people and not the corporations. But we will not be paralyzed by the lack of a clear and immediately existing alternative from calling for and organizing for the bringing down of Bush. The working class will get an enormous increase in confidence and experience as they move into struggle as a class to solve the problems of Katrina and society in general, as they move to bring down Bush, in these circumstances the alternative can be built. .

12 Responses to “Hurricane Katrina: Capitalism Failed New Orleans”

Roger Says:
September 7th, 2005 at 6:02 am
The hurricane has blown away a lot of cobwebs. The brutality of the state’s indifference to the needs of the working-class population has exposed its true character. It is not there to defend “freedom”, “democracy”, “the American way of life”, or even the needs of the majority of its white English-speaking citizens. It is there to defend the rule of the corporations - in the USA no less than in Iraq. If working-class GIs or working-class residents of US cities die in the process, so be it.

It is remarkable how New Orleans residents have moved towards an explicitly clear appreciation of this. One of them, interviewed on the BBC news, followed up a scathing attack on the response of the administration to the needs of his community with the following comment: “This shows their attitude towards the people who provide the labour that supports the tourist industry in New Orleans.” The discussion has gone beyond even an exposure of white racism. It is not even about race now: it is about class.

If ever we needed a sharp clear program for immediate mass action, it is now.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Lenin showed how just one incident involving the racist treatment of one Jewish officer in France was enough to bring about a revolutionary situation. (See how much more degenerate and corrupt capitalist society has become since those days.) If only there were a workers’ party in the USA today, just imagine what power and moral authority it could have won as a result of this incomparably more outrageous exposure of the rottenness of the capitalist state. And think what a couple of experienced campaigning trade union militants in the New Orleans convention centre or the superdome could have achieved in the last few days by practical example.
Rob Rooke Says:
September 10th, 2005 at 7:05 am
The article above talks about action. At my local meeting last night (Carpenters Union) a number of workers got up to complain about how the Hurricane was mishandled, with some carpenters talking about friends of family that were now evacuees. I called the local in Baton Rouge yesterday and found out our union is sheltering evacuees and have a fund for the same. The only opposition to this resolution was from the Business Agents who argued that our Regional Council would be sending a donation so why should we? In reality they dont want anyone lower down on the carpenters food chain making any decisions, but in the end no=one opposed the motion when it came to a vote. Below is our motion;
The following motion was passed by Carpenters Local on Thurs September 8th 2005
713, Alameda County, California.
“The members of Carpenters Local 713 are in full
solidarity with the working class of Louisiana and
Missisippi in their losses through hurricane Katrina.
We recognise that the massive underfunding by the
Federal Government of the levy system contributed to
this disaster. We further recognise that the poor,
disabled and elderly were disproportionately effected
by this disaster. In solidarity we therefore donate
$4,000 to the Louisiana Carpenters Katrina Relief Fund
in Baton Rouge.”
Vivian Hain Says:
September 10th, 2005 at 12:47 pm
‘Social Class Genocide’ is about what this whole disaster defines for me in every unimaginable aspect, as I see photographs taken of many poor, vulnerable and helpless people laying on a conveyor belt in the New Orleans ‘Louis Armstrong Airport’ and a sad photo of two deceased bodies, placed by a wall in the Superdome, one of the bodies, a very lonely figure of a deceased elderly man still in his wheelchair with a cover over his head…): This was the ’straw that broke the camel’s back’ for me, as I lost it seeing such an unconscionable image of such a perverse and horrible miscarriage of humanity in every way, and to know that this image depicted the ‘truth’ of our Government’s true colors in every way…

I cannot convey in words what I feel about what has happened in regard to the Hurricane relief ‘lack of effort’ from our current governing ‘Republicrit’ Administration, as this image will haunt me forever.

And…. Today….

While driving my old car through my neighborhood in East Oakland where I live, which is the ‘poorest’ neighborhood in my city, where the local government, along with the larger entities who feel that they can make the right decisions for people like me, tend to hide all of us low-income people in the dark, deep armpit of Oakland’s ‘hall of shame’, far away from most practical and ‘affordable’ resources with a lack of these and a local public transportation system (AC Transit Bus System) that not only fails us who can’t afford a car or have an old car like myself that continues to break down, because we live so far out from the rest of the city, which has been drastically been cut, our bus route hours and recently increased our bus fares a whole quarter of a dollar, get this one…)))))))))

I nearly ran smack into the rear end of a discreet-looking white SUV that cut me off, turning right in front of me, when I realized that not only were there 2 big local TV news media vans on each side of me, which prevented me from passing this SUV, but I also noticed that there were several cameramen milling about, filming this cheesy-looking older ‘white dignitary-looking guy with a very conservative type of suit, died hair which looked as if he might have been wearing a toupee (LOL!), anxiously waiting with his hand robotically held out, as I noticed from the SUV, emerged what appeared to be a very nervous, quick-moving young African-American family, who shook this beaurocrat’s hand very quickly and made their way upstairs into an apartment complex about a block from where I live on 85th Ave., which is one of the most notorious neighborhoods with the highest murder rate in Oakland, CA and even in the San Francisco Bay Area…

As I breifly sat there watching this whole event unfold before my eyes, I realized what the ‘big picture’ was… I realized that this must be an ‘evacuee family’ from the Southern USA, who happens to be one of the many families who are being spread out throughout the U.S. for relocation. And, there is the reality… This poor family, new to California under such adverse circumstances and this beaurocrat, making sure he gets his ‘kudos on camera’ for his wonderous deed to this family, finding them housing in California…

I couldn’t resist……

Immediately, the SUV pulled away and still the cameras continued to roll, relentlessly following this familie’s every move up those stairs to their new apartment, so I took the opportunity to roll down my window and say to all of those news people, including the ‘toupee beaurocrat’ from my car:

“You know… You could of placed this family in a much better neighborhood than this, why not?”

All I got from these media clowns and Mr. Toupee was their dumfound silence, as they all looked at me with their mouths hanging open…”

I drove off.

This is so typical of our system to glorify something while smoke-screening the truth…))))))

-Just some ‘food for thought’ for everyone to think about in the way our Government does its ‘business’…..)))))))

-Vivian Hain
Oakland, CA 94621
USA
Julian Silverman Says:
September 13th, 2005 at 5:23 am
This is not only a great idea, it is better than that: it is a necessary
one. The rage steaming out of New orleans is hot enough to spread to millions over the world including here in London.

The problem is that what is needed - obviously - is a complete change of
system. It is capitalism and its rotten state that is responsible. The campaign must not let up on that.

At the same time, putting forward- putting forward anyone at all, even a
revolutionary socialist, even the author himself, will not look to most workers as a viable alternative.

The campaign should not concern itself at this stage with what particular
legislative alternative candidate is put forward etc. but should place demands on the system representation and participation by poor communities in every decision over budget, safety and security questions, housing, welfare. Nothing should be passed without the express consent of delegates elected from these communities. ….the various old administrations, at state and national level, should be recalled and new elections held. If they could do this to get schwarzenegger in on a bogus maladministration issue, they can
certainly do it now. $10.5 billion is not actually enough for the huge
reconstruction needed. But even more important is control over how it is spent. New administrations should be required to recruit teams from the local communities to consult with and follow the instructions of these communities on questions of welfare, housing and general reconstruction, transport, redesign of cities etc……..
Richard Says:
September 16th, 2005 at 2:10 am
I am visiting the UK and saw the pictures on TV of the folks in the senior citizen home in NO who died because no one helped them.

I remember during the 80’s picketing with SEIU 250 in California when they were trying to organize health care homes. There were such horror stories. This social function should not be for profit, privately owned. Old people are not great consumers, they don”t do too much cocaine and buy Guess jeans, so unless they have money they are frequently abandoned in these lucrative businesses whose profit is subsidized by the tax payer.

Bush and the thugs in congress, Democrat and Republicans alike, are criminals and should be treated as such. Milosevic and Hussein are small fry compared to these people.
Richard Says:
September 25th, 2005 at 7:16 am
I was at the San Francisco march today and handed out a lot of the fliers for the bringdownBush website and talked with folks about the need to bring down Bush.

One middle aged woman (not one of the usual suspects that attends these events) asked me if this was the same as impeaching Bush. I explained to her it wasn’t. Rather than impeachment which is a deal between the millionaire politicians about who they think should or should not be in a particular office, the BDB supports forcing these thugs from office through massive pressure from below, through an independent movement of the working class and youth on the streets.

BDB doesn’t believe, I told her, that the Democrats are any better and doesn’t support them but that is not the point. Removing these thugs in this way, against their wishes, would be a tremendous victory for working people and would inject a dose of confidence in to the movement.

She agreed completely with this approach and liked the BDB idea very much.
Patricia Says:
October 22nd, 2005 at 9:39 am
I was wearing my “Bring Down Bush” t-shirt the other day. I got quite a few glances. One woman was pushing a wheelchair and said “yes, yes, let’s get him out”. Another older man shopping with his wife actually engaged me in conversation about Bush. He said “he is the worst president we have ever had, he is just making a mess”. When I told him the t-shirt “slogan” was more than that, that it was an actual website he said, “you mean i can go there on the computer and it say’s stuff?” I told him yes, he said he would remember and his comment was “it is an easy one to remember.”. What I want to do is keep that initial anger fresh, not just let it be another event in this long line of horrible things and we know bush is just a symptom but he is very visible one. The disgust and anger everyone was feeling - this can’t be tied up in a nice package and forgotten.
S. Mola Says:
January 16th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
There is something here which does not make sense to me. How does getting rid of Bush get rid of capitalism? What if Cheney replaced him, or the other officials in the Chain of Presidential succession?

What if we go a Democrat, most of whom are now neo-liberals, which means they support cutbacks, Iraq and Afghanistan occupations, Dept. of Homeland Security, and the Patriot Act?

It seems to me that your correct goal cannot be achieved by bringing down Bush? Infact, a slicker replacement, like Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden might actually allow the class, not it current public face, to survive longer?
erin Says:
January 16th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
To S. Mola, you’re absolutely right about the democrats. They’re like capitalism’s reserve team. Bush could only be brought down if a mass movement of workers and youth came about, and this movement would have to throw up it’s own alternative to the capitalist politicians.

See what you think of the BDB program
Krishworld Politics » Blog Archive » Capitalism and Kathrina - Another response to Gaurav Says:
January 17th, 2006 at 8:34 am
[…] Hurricane Katrina: Capitalism Failed New Orleans […]
mark wright Says:
January 26th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
I still can’t believe the elections in ‘04 but they happened. I feel that how much wealth has the the city of New Orleans created for this country!!
I do believe the city should be rebuilt and build the levees’ in a manor to withstand a category 5 hurricane. Home owners and renters have rights, more people need to start raising more hell about what is right!!
I have never been to N.O. and it is a part of the U.S. , I got pissed when the news was calling people refugees instead of American citizens.
I live in the Ohio Valley area where the steel mills and manufacturing sector have taken a beating by the so-called free-trade agreements, I have heard people say what can we do? First of all spend your money wisely, I see so many people to far indebt they can’t stand up for what is right, how much of the junk people buy at Wal-Mart is made in China. I recently bought a pair of U.S. made work boots for $130.00 dollars, individuals said you could have got a overseas brand at Wal-Mart for 60 dollars. I asked,” Would you let your daughter or son work in a sweat shop.” As a craftsmen I make a good wage through collective bargaining and I’m not spending my money on foreign products where workers are exploited. American people can change certain things in this country through their own buying power. Another thing also is if more individual s’ live within their means they would have less junk laying around their house.
What I can’t understand is why Americans are selling their own country out to communist China? Just recently micro-soft and google are offering their services in communist China but with restrictions? Both companies made enormous wealth here in the U.S. but are now going sell their services to a communist country that will empose restrictions on their buisness, for a quick-easy buck? The steel makers in my area made big profits off the backs of labor but instead of investing in America they took the profits that were meant to upgrade U.S. mills and invested it in communist China!!!
As we sit here and talk about all this stuff communist China is modernizing it’s military to meet ours.
I would rather see America and American citizens do well than communist China, free-trade can never benefit America as long as we deal with communist and repressive countries. If you look at the other side of it and who benefits from it, who gets destroyed by it. How much difference is there between capitalism and communism. What we have in this country today is corporate communism, as American citizens we can fight back through our economic power!!!
I
Gary Gordon Says:
October 21st, 2007 at 8:26 am
Hello Jeremy, Are you still about? Send me an e-mail.

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Hurricane Katrina: Capitalism Failed New Orleans

12 Responses to “Hurricane Katrina: Capitalism Failed New Orleans”

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