8/9/2019 The Gulf cGulf crisis: beautiful planerisis: beautiful planet versus deadly profit system

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Its like a nightmare you cant wake upfrom. This is how Danielle Brutsche de-scribed the plight of Gulf of Mexico resi-dents at a May 30 rally in New Orleansdemanding that the government take con-trol of managing BPs disaster.

The horror grows day by day as the cover-up by BP and its government co-conspira-tors is peeled away. It started with the deathsof the 11 workers who were victims of the

April 20 explosion and now threatens wholecultures, both ecological and human theunique ways of life of fishers, shrimpers, andthe Gulfs other inhabitants.

There are actions that can and must betaken to help those cultures survive. But canthe area and its people truly be made whole?

And when and where will the next profit-driven catastrophe strike? And how couldanyone reasonably expect that the govern-ment, whether run by Democrats or Repub-licans, will someday stop being at the beckand call of the corporations?

The crisis in the Gulf is an argument withterrible force for a fundamental change inhow people produce and distribute what weneed and how we interact with nature in theprocess. It is an urgent argument forsocialist

feminist revolution.

A corporate atmosphere of

heedlessness and deathThe march of oil and chemical companiesinto the Gulf has been wreaking havoc fordecades.

In the infamous cancer alley near themouth of the Mississippi, at least five townsfounded by African Americans before or afterthe Civil War have been turned into ghosttowns. Chemical facilities overran the areas,poisoned them, and then paid the suffering

residents to relocate.Meanwhile, oil companies were destroying

the wetlands, creating about 10,000 miles ofnavigation canals that eradicated forests,marshes, and neighborhoods. Invading salt-

water kills vegetation, displaces wildlife, andincreases erosion. It is contributing heavily tothe loss of one football fields worth of land inLouisiana every 45 minutes.

Today, the angry spotlight is on BP. But BPsabhorrent practices are just business as usualfor the corporations that carelessly control thefate of everyone from Honda workers in Chinaand miners in Virginia and Colombia to Viet-namese American fishers and French-speak-ing Native Americans on the Gulf Coast.

The cost to women and children is espe-cially harsh. Around the world, women are

The only solution is revolution

The Gulf crisis: beautiful planet

versus deadly profit system

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extra-exploited as workers while also bearingthe burdens of finding clean water for theirfamilies, caring for the injured and disabled,and holding things together in conditions ofpoverty and crisis. In the Gulf, the health risks

of the oil and the chemicals BP is using to fightits spread are magnified for pregnant womenand their fetuses and for babies and youngchildren.

Commentators on the Gulf crisis havepointed out that male-dominated corporationstoday have reached a point of extreme aggres-sion and risk-taking. At BP, after current CEO

Tony Hayward took over, many of thecompanys female executives took off, appar-ently repelled by a heightened emphasis on

profit-making at any cost.Especially in a time when the whole capital-ist system is under extreme stress, like today, itbreeds a corporate culture of smash, grab, takethe money and run. The answer does not lie inshifting the gender and colors of the obscenelypaid people in charge or letting huge corpora-tions persuade us they are serious about goinggreen. The answer is for working people totake charge, restore a balance with nature, andmake sure that every last person is safe, secure,

and happily productive.

Lets start now to makethe change the planet needs

To move toward this goal will take the build-ing of a mass movement for socialism. In themeanwhile, the residents of the Gulf and theecosystem there cannot be abandoned. Beloware ideas of what we should be fighting for(find more at murderedgulf.wordpress.com):

Seize BP and its assets immediately! Nation-alize the entire energy industry under thecontrol of its workers.

Halt the use of dangerous chemical dispers-ants to fight the spread of oil. Use the highest

safety standards and maximum protection forworkers involved in the cleanup. Seek com-munity input and call on scientists with noties to the energy industry to advise on meth-ods of cleanup and restoration. Ensure health-care for all of the affected Gulf residents.

Hold the heads of BP criminally responsiblefor the deaths in the explosion and the dam-age to the Gulf and its people.

Stop all offshore drilling immediately, in-cluding current projects, and ban deepwaterdrilling permanently.

Take urgent measures to move to energysources other than oil. Create jobs throughample funding for expanding and runningmass transit systems nationwide.

Establish an agency in the Gulf that canlaunch a massive program of public jobs atunion-scale wages, oversee the cleanup,

rebuild the areas ecology, and distributefinancial relief to fishers and other workersand small businesses. Give authority overthis agency to assemblies of affected workersand communities, including local tribes, thatare independent of government and bigbusiness.

End war and its terrible consumption of oilin pursuit of oil. Redirect Pentagon funds to

jobs and the environment.

Issued by:

Radical WomenNew Valencia Hall, 625 Larkin St., Suite 202, San Francisco, CA 94109

415-864-1278 radicalwomenus@gmail.com www.RadicalWomen.org

Freedom Socialist Party4710 University Way NE #100, Seattle, WA 98105

206-985-4621 fspnatl@igc.org www.socialism.com6/10