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Katrina hurricane disaster

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Quote from TalkLeft

A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom.Blood
stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers.
"We pee on the floor. We are like animals," said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled
her 3-week-old son, Terry. In her right hand she carried a
half-full bottle of formula provided by rescuers. Baby supplies are running low;
one mother said she was given two diapers and told to scrape
them off when they got dirty and use them again.
At least two people, including a child, have been raped. At least three people have
died, including one man who jumped 50 feet to his death,
saying he had nothing left to live for.

Taken from http://talkleft.com/new_archives/012075.html

US, A Southern US Anarchist Statement on the Gulf Coast

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 poss ble, 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 ountry, 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; visi www.anarkismo.net http://www.anarkismo.netfor an updated list of endorsers

Britain anarchist Class War Federation on New Orleans Tragedy: Natural Disaster and the usual Govern’mental’ bullshit.

The ongoing tragedy that is all over our television screens at the time of writing is nothing short of obscene. TV stations and tabloids blurt out their sickening one liners and sound bites of ‘Anarchy in New Orleans’ and ‘Looters should be shot on site’. Whilst it is still unknown exactly how many people have died in the tragedy the government, through their corrupt and sponsored press, rather than accept their share of responsibility for the growing catastrophe, maintain an on going barrage of fuckwitted hatred and slanderous abuse toward those they are supposed to represent. Yes it’s them again folks…the poor and needy.

So what, we can hear you ask, has the government got to do with what’s occurred. Surely it was an ‘act of God’?

Whilst New Orleans and the rest of the region are no stranger to terrible weather conditions, reports were coming out atleast a year ago about the need for government aid to reinvest into strenghthening the waterways and levees in the canals leading from Lake Pontchartrain which protect New Orleans. The response from the Bush administration to a request for at least $78 million to fund the project was to splash out an extraordinarily stingy amount of $10 million. The excuse behind this? The ongoing cost of running the war of terror in Iraq.

Days before the imminent hurricane was to sweep into the region, public officials were seen on tv calling for people to ‘get on outta here today’! This led to the extraordinary scenes of hundreds of thousands of people jumping into their cars and heading out of the area to safety.

One thing the public officials didn’t address was how the majority of the poor were supposed to join into such a biblical rush for cover. Already poverty stricken and without cars or relatives to stay with out of state, what provisions were set up for the evacuation of the most vulnerable? None. This certainly was a New Testament case Bush style of ‘get outa ya bed and walk’!

Three days into the event with the majority of the poor areas of New Orleans covered in water and thousands dead, the only help people could rely on was their own. Frustrated by the lack of help, people ‘criminally’ took whatever measures they could to stay alive, something the state so readily screams at us is nothing other than ‘looting’.

What is interesting about this whole sordid affair is that in 2005, the number of families living in poverty in Louisiana is close to double the national average. New Orleans has one of the highest poverty rates of any of the largest cities in the USA.

According to a report by Total Community Action, a New Orleans public advocacy group,

'nearly one out of three New Orleans residents live below the poverty level, the majority of who are Black'.

A spokesperson for the United Negro College Fund noted that the city's poor live in some of the most dilapidated, and deteriorated housing in the nation. No surprise then that fewer than 40% of the residents in New Orleans and the surrounding area will have flood insurance to rebuild their lives.

The great rush to help the people of New Orleans is amazing to watch. After all it is happening isn’t it? Isn’t it?

Well four warships have been sent down to lend a hand…they should be there in about three days time! And one can only wonder of what use these warships will be.

One could almost be forgiven for believing that there are those who are rubbing their hands with glee at this appauling catastrophe.

‘Black, homeless, no place to go? Howz about a career in the marine corps son? You KNOW it makes sense!’

Governor Says In Effect "Shoot The Bastards"

"They have M-16s and they're locked and loaded," Governor Kathleen Blanco said of 300 National Guard troops who landed in New Orleans fresh from duty in Iraq. "These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will." As desperate people without food or water scavenge to feed their families, the clueless governor issues a threat.

The Army Corps of Engineers did a computer simulation study last year of the effect of a category 3 hurricane, with winds of 130 MPH, on New Orleans.

It showed a similar level of deaths, devastation and levee breaches. So, officials knew what was looming, sooner or later.

Katrina hit land as a category 4, with 140 MPH winds.

When you don't have any WATER or food, for 3 days, you get desperate. You simply must have safe drinking water. Since your government has failed to take any meaningful action towards your particular situation, you scavenge to feed and hydrate your family.

You are now a "looter". A criminal. Add that to your woes.

And the governor wants you shot on sight, should you scavenge again, by troops fresh back from Iraq, troops who, in the governors own words, "know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will."

Who elected this bitch? Doe she play with a full deck?

There are military posts and bases all around. Where are the military MRE's (Meals Ready To Eat) warehoused and why were they not shipped to the effected areas within 24 hours?

We wage war much better than we save our citizens lives.

See the original at http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/3961.php

Cuba offers medical expertise and supplies

Fidel Castro has made a statement saying that he will send doctors to New Orleans as soon as the Federal Government of the United States is ready to receive them. It is expected that the government of the United States of America will allow people to die, rather than accept those doctors.

See also http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/4093_comment.php


External links

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