Katrina and Capitalism?

[R_P_A_S]

I know Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster. however the poor preparation and the horrible aftermath are signs that the capitalist system and it's leaders do not care for the safety and social welfare of their poorest cities and people. right? Is there any way I can tie these two together?

I ask because my friend. who has been very skeptical of me and my socialist views recently watched that new Spike Lee documentary "When the leeves broke" or something? I guess it opened his eyes to the real situation. and how bad it was! He was telling me how the government is so fucked up and he was surprised to learn that the Venezuelan, Canadian and Mexican governments reacted faster than the American one.

So now that he has found something that has struck him and hit home regard how fucked up things are in this world. I would like to show him that it wasn't just a natural disaster. but the the Katrina aftermath has a lot to do with Capitalism.

thank you?

[hajduk]

yes man becouse capitalists in America dont give a shit about poor people so they wait that someone else solve the problem like everything else whitch have connection with social problems of poorest and minorities
always happened always will

[spartan]

The slow response by the various emergency services in the USA to the hurricane Katrina disaster is very suspect to say the least. But i do not know enough about this specific subject to know why they would perhaps deliberately not react quick enough and deliberatly make a mess of everything to help themselves somehow. So perhaps someone here could give me a reason for all of this? For what reason if any would the USA politicians have for deliberately being crap and holding back at helping their own citizens in a time of national security?

[Guifes]

Rebuilding poor peoples houses costs money you know. But even more frightning is the fact that cuba offered medical help, which the USA declined.

[Angry Young Man]

I suppose you could say about the fact that they house people in natural disaster zones.

Speaking of natural disasters, this time in the UK, how come when Cheltenham - a 'respectable', white, middle-class town in Glos was hit, there was all of a sudden no such thing as Hull - a working class port in the north?

[spartan]

It's really obvious RR Labour's majority of voters (Or the voters who increasingly decide if a Government stays or goes because they are split between new Labour and the Tories) now are from the White posh middle class areas so Labour does not want to lose votes plus Labour knows that the working class usually votes for Labour anyway even when they fuck them about all the fucking time!

[Comrade Rage]

Capitalism kills cities. It's true. Most of New Orleans will never be rebuilt. Detroit was never rebuilt, why would the government rebuild a city half it's size. This is the same type of thing that we all know of from our inner-cities. The government allows a double doses of crime (gangs and police corruption), and decay (disrepair and poor public services).

There will be no solutions to these problems until the revolution.

[Hiero]

It is not just the slow response and the poor attempt to rebuild.

Lets look at how each class responded to the storm.

The people who were able to escape Katrina were mostly upper class whites. The reasons are socioeconomic. The upper class had access to private vechiles, live in suburbs outside of the city and are more likely to have family connections or money to be housed outside the danger zone.

Thoose who were most affected by the storm were mostly poor people, notably Black poor people. These people did not have access to private vechiles, for generations may have lived in the area so had no family to escape to outside of New Orleans, or had no means to get there. Also if we look at the conditions of structural racism, there is poor public services for black people, so they have little chance of getting a succesfull evacution plan set up before hand.

So that is a basic analysis of the situation from a class perspective. Wealthy White people had access to material goods to succesfully aviod the storm and chaos. Poor people, most notably Blacks, did not have these material possession. Capitalism unequally distributes goods and where one nation or ethnicity holds hegonomy over another nation or ethnicity this futhers inequality through structural racism

Compare this to Cuba. They are able to succesfully pull off an evacution of thousands of people who in the storms path. Cuba does have alot of experince with storms, the also had less people to evacute. However there is more equality, the state distrubtes the material goods which are used in avioding the dangers of a storm. Such as trucks, food, blankets etc.

[Angry Young Man]

Originally posted by [email protected] 17, 2007 06:26 pm
It's really obvious RR Labour's majority of voters (Or the voters who increasingly decide if a Government stays or goes because they are split between new Labour and the Tories) now are from the White posh middle class areas so Labour does not want to lose votes plus Labour knows that the working class usually votes for Labour anyway even when they fuck them about all the fucking time!
Until they see that the working classes are being torn by the Bastard Nazi Perverts(or BNP, as they prefer).

I was ashamed to hear that the BNP had more seats in Yorkshire than anywhere else in the country.

So yea I'd say maybe Labour could try to appeal back to its old audience, the...errrr. labourers. Wow. I wonder if there's a connection there? [/sarcasm][/cynicism]


And Crum, capitalism says it rebuilds cities. Count yourself lucky that New Orleans hasn't been plagued by shopping malls. You go to Meadowhall and it's easy to forget that Sheffield was once one of the most important cities.

[socialistfuture]

spike lee reckons half the problem was that the levees werent maintained.

personally i think part of katrina could not have been avoided but the govt could of responded sooner and not of had a race and class baised response.