A Southern US Anarchist Statement on the Gulf Coast Disaster
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Tuesday September 06, 2005 01:17
by Capital Terminus Collective
The State leaves 100,000 to drown like rats, while people everywhere open their hearts and homes
As many as 20,000 people have been abandoned in the New Orleans Convention Center with no resources and no anticipated relief. Meanwhile, National Guard units with submachine guns and body armor prevent people from taking necessary food from places where it would otherwise go to waste, and call it "urban warfare."
Solidarity with the victims of the Gulf Coast disaster!
Solidarity with those who remain in precarious positions months after the tsunami disaster!
Solidarity with those all across the globe who have lost family or remain in refugee camps due to the disasters which the ruling class magnifies or the wars which it engineers!
As many as 20,000 people have been abandoned in the New Orleans Convention Center with no resources and no anticipated relief. Meanwhile, National Guard units with submachine guns and body armor prevent people from taking necessary food from places where it would otherwise go to waste, and call it "urban warfare."
A Southern US Anarchist Statement on the Gulf Coast Disaster
The State leaves 100,000 to drown like rats, while people everywhere open their hearts and homes
As many as 20,000 people have been abandoned in the New Orleans Convention Center with no resources and no anticipated relief. Meanwhile, National Guard units with submachine guns and body armor prevent people from taking necessary food from places where it would otherwise go to waste, and call it "urban warfare." Under capitalism, there is no such thing as "natural" disasters; horrible and unavoidable events are exacerbated by the callous acts of the ruling class. Examples include: the Irish potato famine of the 19th century, and the Somalian of the 20th, where food was taken by imperialist countries, like Britain and the US, instead of being used to save the starving population; the more recent hurricane disasters in Haiti shortly after the U.S. ousted the only government which might have marshaled any aid to the Haitian people and replaced it with a military junta; the tsunami disaster, which was aggravated by years of IMF and World Bank domination in the region that resulted in severe underdevelopment; and the present situation in the Gulf Coast.
How did the ruling class contribute to this disaster? Having full knowledge that this would be a devistating hurricane season, they chose to sink the 79 million dollars designated to repair the antiquated levee system into the Iraq quagmire. Furthermore, although they knew ahead of time that the hurricane would be at least a category 4 hurricane, and that the levee system could withstand no more than a category 3, the ruling class did not invest any serious resources into evacuating the city of New Orleans and the surrounding area as the storm approached (and rich politicians have the gall to accuse working-class people of carelessly staying in the city)! As we mentioned, their first priority is to mobilize heavily-armed National Guard units who will shoot people that are merely trying to find food, rather than to bring the necessary aid to the estimated 20,000 starving people at the Convention Center who will die if nothing is done (not to mention other people in similar situations throughout the city). The politicians continue lying in a desparate attempt to save their careers, making it increasingly clear that they have no concern for the lives of the people they've abandoned.
In contrast, thousands of people have opened their homes to survivors in an amazing gesture of solidarity and compassion. Despite the State's citation of its ability to channel aid in times of need as a justification for its existance, it has again demonstrated how the constraints of capitalism interfere with its ability to provide any sort of assistance. The incredible display of mutual aid on the part of the people gives further support for the anarchist argument that people can indeed develop a stateless society based on the adage "from each according to ability, to each according to necessity." We hope to see that society become a reality someday, but for now we declare our solidarity with those who have been abandoned, and, in hopes that others will join us, we demand the following:
- That the government immediately commandeer the necessary resources, such as transportation and shelter, in order to evacuate people from the city and ensure that they have adequate accomodations until it is possible to return to their homes or move on
- An immediate end to national guard and police units attacking those looking for food
- Immediate distribution of ALL necessary items (water, food, clothing, etc.) during the process of evacuation
- The immediate resignation/dismissal and punishment of all decision-makers who neglected the responsibility of repairing the levees or coordinating evacuations from the city while it was possible, or who are responsible for National Guard and police units attacking those who are "stealing" necessary items
- No conviction for any who were arrested while "stealing" food or any other necessity
- An end to the price-gouging of oil which is affecting working-class people across the country, by price fixing if necessary
- Adequate aid to all people wishing to rebuild homes lost due to the negligence of capitalist politicians
Solidarity with the victims of the Gulf Coast disaster! Solidarity with those who remain in precarious positions months after the tsunami disaster! Solidarity with those all across the globe who have lost family or remain in refugee camps due to the disasters which the ruling class magnifies or the wars which it engineers!
The Capital Terminus Collective
(Atlanta, GA)
[To endorse this statement, e-mail capitalterminus (at) gmail (dot) com; visit www.anarkismo.net for an updated list of endorsers]
Translations of the statement
Italian
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=1284
Castilian http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=1286
Portuguese http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=1287
Dutch http://www.devrije.nl/archives/00000608.htm
German http://www.fau.org/artikel/art_050903-005008
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Comments (22 of 22)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22I heard yesterday that New Orleans is a relatively cheap place to live, and hence it attracts huge amount of people from libertarian/anarchist mileu. What has been the effect of the disaster on them? Are any of them still in the city?
all the news so far is that a lot of anarchists were out of town, and several were able to leave. I haven't heard of any whom I know that are still there. The local anarchist bookstore reports that everyone is safe as far as they know. However there was a "Funeral for Democracy" march in NOLA a few months ago with a several thousand turn out, so obviously there are still many progressive activists trapped in new orleans.
http://www.fau.org/artikel/art_050903-005008
Overall, I think the statement is very good. However, it has a glaring blind-spot in that nowhere does it mention that the majority of New Orleans, and the vast majority of the poor people abandoned there are African-American.
The explicit and systematic racism of the United States has once again been laid bare as a hundred thousands black people have essentially been left to drown by the state and federal government.
To not state that fact plainly, a fact which is even obvious to the corporate media, does anarchism a disservice.
http://www.devrije.nl/archives/00000608.htm
The inclusion of this phrase as part of a demand in any statement makes it clear that those so stating, whatever else they may be, are not "anarchists."
I would like to give support to the general sentiment expressed in this statement and it shows a strong working class perspective. When disasters happen, out of the tragedy can come great acts of mutual aid and solidarity.
Further, it is completely resonable to demand that the government grant the neccessary resources that they are controlling and have the power to distribute to the people in need. You wouldn't criticize workers for demanding that the bosses give them money to pay their rent or feed their family as the capitalists are the ones with the money? When a worker is injured on the job, you wouldn't criticize the workers for immediatly striking in protest that the bosses knowingly neglected safety measures that could have prevented the injury? By the same logic, the government controlls the resources, they knew very well about the likelyhood of people loosing and their lives and of course we should demand that they turn the food and resources over to meet the people's needs.
Agreeing with the ealier comment though, I would go so far to say that I would not advocate for any anarchist group to distribute this statement. To ignore the huge glaring issue that race plays in this disaster and the state and police forces reaction to the situation is not just an ommission, but given the history of the south's racist elites and the black working class, to not raise the issue of race reflects poor analysis and is a serious political flaw.
Though I'm on the road and not able to catch any newspapers, I imagine everyone on the political spectrum to the left of liberals has some understanding that race has played some type of factor in the devastation and the states response or lack thereof. Have you seen the news reports that people are emailing around depicting whites as having 'found' food while blacks are portrayed as having 'stolen' or 'looted' food? and who do you think the police will shoot at first when they see them carrying away goods to name one example?
With all due respect it is disappointing to see fellow anarchist communists repeat the historically poor analysis around the issue of race, as much of the US Left continues to do. I'm hoping that Capitol Terminus Collective will strongly consider a revisement of their statement.
damn straight. good statement, however, we in NAF couldn't endorse this weekend at our conference because it lacked a race analysis and because we did not agree with the theoretical demands made of the government.
we weren't opposed to making theoretical demands as much as we are opposed to the tone of the demands, which seems to be asking the government to step in and take control of the situation.
i personally would rather see demands that ask for the government to give the people the resources necessary to take control of the situation themselves
I want to endorse the demands made in the statement, provided the facts are correct, though I think the word 'commandeered' could be replaced by 'fairly distributed' and the demand for 'punishment' be changed to 'truth and restorative measures' (if this needs to be included immediately). Because not everyone knows a thing about New Orleans, I do believe the mention of racial issues should be mentioned as well (in the statement).
Hey folks,
Here's an email WSA is circulating.
Dear Friends:
The good folks at the Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights have initiated a campaign to help those devasted by effects of Hurricane Katrina (overwhelmingly low-income people of color).
The Workers Solidarity Alliance (W.S.A.) encourages all individuals, rank-and-file organizations and syndicalist unions to participate in local relief efforts or make a donation to the relief fund that has been set up by our friends at the Mississippi Workers Center. This is a separate fund from their organization which will be used only for the purpose of providing relief to hurricane victims. Checks can be made payable to:
Southern Relief Fund
c/o Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights
PO Box 1223
Greenville, MS 38702-1223
For more information, call the Center at 662-334-1122 or 888-949-9754.
rightsms@bellsouth.net
http://www.msworkerscenter.org/index.htm
******************************
Workers Solidarity Alliance
National Office
339 Lafayette Street-Room 202
New York, NY 10012
tel. (212) 979-8353
www.workersolidarity.org
Another demand which I have heard and that i agree with in full is that big developers and coporations not be allowed in the city and for all reconstruction rights to be given to the city and have them do what they wish with those rights.
Well, shit. I've been so busy defending this statement for being "statist", i hadn't noticed that the author failed to note the role that race played. Yeah, that's a valid criticism.
Well, I stand corrected... I just caught a recent issue of the New York Times by chance on a train and even they had an article specifically discussing the terminology of 'finding' vs. 'looting' and race. But they only did so in the context of proper media policies, not to bring attention to the larger situation. The article did though include poles of people's opinion broken down by race though.
But I have heard that even Opra and Kanye West have said on TV that the governments response, or lack or response, is essentially racist.
So there you go, I stand corrected. It is not just obvious to everyone left of liberals, it is obvious to liberals such as Opra and semi-political rappers like Kanya West. Polls show a majority of black agree too. Just more food for thought around this question.
that;s a pretty mean tone to take, i think
anyways i admit there are several problems with our statement i think.
one of he biggest was that i considered publishing it an emergency. anarchists don't have good structures to deal with emergencies, as this shows.
i expect we'll put out a better statemet/wrap up now that we can look at things, ok? it was a hard situaton, im sorry our statement was not perfect.
besides oprah and kanye west gave their criticism a week ago
I've said already, but will now say publically, that Oliver is to be lauded for taking the intiative with this statement. And, there are lessons to be learned. Of course.
Just a brief thanks to the CTC comrades for their first effort. It's often times tough to write these statements in a hurry and when you're not actually in the affected place. But it was a deecent enough first effort.
Perhaps with the passage of some time and dicussion, a revised statement might be in order.
If i can be of any help, feel free to email me.
I apologize if my comments came off as harsh or mean, that wasn't the intention. I'm not trying to attack the CTC personally. If anything, sadly, I believe many sectors of the anarchist movement would have done the same. It is not a CTC problem, rather it is widespread among white revolutionaries and radicals of all stripes.
The real point that I would like to drive home to all folks, and not just CTC, is unless the Anarchist Communist movement in the US can incorporate a strong analysis of race and build this into our theory and practice in a real way, then we will never become a relevant political force.
Two things never cease to amaze me. One is the insistence that a class analysis and a race analysis are mutually exclusive (a position that is often held by both anarchists and nationalists.) The other is the willingness of revolutionaries to squander their influence and good will with those who should be their comrades, in exchange for scoring a few cheap points in an internet debate.
For the record, the discussion regarding race has been going on within ctc for some time now. Transparently.
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=434&search_text=prole%20cat
i agreed with what Adam said (except where i've already made it clear that I didn't). We DO need a race analysis - the CTC and anarcho-commies in general. It's not that the CTC doesn't have one, but it certainly was a big oversight to leave it out of the statement, as i've already admitted.
I didn't mean to imply otherwise. I wasn't talking about anyone in particular. But i have read quite a bit of theory that attempts to demonstrate that class is more primary than race, or vice versa. In every case, the importance of the oppression deemed secondary, seems slighted. They both matter. I'd say we all (in this discussion) agree on that.
This article in turkish:
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=1349
I really liked this statement and I especially appreciate it written on the fly. I think it's great and there's nothing wrong with DEMANDING that those who own all of the resources (for the time being) lift a finger and do what it takes to help the people. Sure we can argue about a post-revolutionary anarchist society but do you think the starving, abandoned people of New Orleans are really giving a damn about that right now!? Those who have the immediate resources to have a major impact on assisting those in the most need are neglecting to do so and since the revolution probably won't happen in the next week or two I believe that it's OK agitate the ruling class no matter how ideologically degrading it may feel to us.
I'm going to reprint this statement in my Portland-based anarcho-punk newsletter.