The Towering Racist Inferno: Disaster Capitalism in Cali
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive
editor Glen Ford
"Every disaster will be exploited by George Bush's breed
of capitalists and by a much older, larger crowd of racists."
To download a copy of this commentary in MP3 format, click on the mic at right.
We are indeed in the age of what the brilliant writer Naomi
Klein calls "disaster
capitalism." It is a fundamentally predatory mode of behavior by the rich,
and the government that serves the rich, in which every disaster is viewed as
an opportunity to press the envelope to accomplish that which is illegal or
would be viewed as immoral in "normal" times. The disastrous events of 9/11
provided the excuse to move the United States closer to a full-blown police state,
domestically, and to launch a general war of aggression, internationally.
Certainly, 9/11 was a god-send for the Bush regime, although a disaster for the
rest of the planet.
Just four years later, while Washington's global offensive
was becoming mired in the sands and cities of Iraq, the Katrina catastrophe
offered up another cornucopia of opportunities for the vultures whom George
Bush represents. A Black metropolis was quickly emptied, labor laws dumped into
the Gulf Coast bays and bayous, public education replaced with privateers, and
public housing bulldozed. Everywhere in the nation, neglected, failing
neighborhoods signal future profits for the gentrifiers - quick cash for the
most unproductive members of society. Were the Bush men happy about 9/11 and
Katrina? Damn right, they were! These scavengers also revel in mass death in
Darfur, which provides them "humanitarian," diplomatic and military
opportunities to dominate the Sahel region of Africa. The list of welcome
disaster opportunities can fill several books, in addition to Ms. Klein's.
"Border agents and local
lawmen embarked on a depraved public policy, whose predictable result is to
further endanger the most vulnerable residents of the fire zone."
Then comes the first of many Great Fires in southern
California. Immediately, the
Border Patrol breaks the rules by mixing with
local police and rescue workers. The conflagrations, they hope, will "smoke
out" many of those illusive undocumented workers. Border agents and local
lawmen embark on a depraved public policy, whose predictable result is to
further endanger the most vulnerable residents of the fire zone. Under
the guise of protecting the "public" against "looters," they set up checkpoints
designed to catch immigrants fleeing the flames, and invade San Diego's
Qualcomm Stadium to check the papers of brown-skinned evacuees, threatening
volunteers that try to intervene. In essence, these agents of disaster
capitalism imposed their own layer of state terror on an already terrifying
situation.
Meanwhile, it is left to the Mexican Consulate to oversee
relief to immigrant male farm workers, who are served by only one
shelter in all of the huge county. Mexican firemen cross the border to help
fight the flames, while the state of California complains that much of its
National Guard is busy in Iraq. The owners of large farms refuse to allow their
workers to evacuate, placing their cash crops above the value of throwaway human
lives.
The fires will come again to southern California - global
warming assures it. But even more threatening to the social fabric of the region
and the nation is the certainty that every disaster will be exploited by George
Bush's breed of capitalists and by a much older, larger crowd of racists intent
on adding misery upon misery, feeding the flames of eventual societal collapse.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.
Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
{mp3}055x_gf_cali_disaster{/mp3}
This week’s featured authors are Alyosha Goldstein and Simón Ventura Trujillo. Goldstein is Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico. Trujillo is Assistant Professor in the…
The ongoing conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region has been fueled by support from the United States. It is yet another proxy war which has brough great suffering to thousands of people.
Had it been fully implemented the Hawkins-Humphrey full employment bill would have been a boon to U.S. workers. Any talk of reviving it is now moot, as the industrial economy of the 1970s has been…
The U.S. mined a million tons of guano on a Haitian island without paying a cent to the Haitian authorities. Other countries have sold the product for hundreds of millions of dollars.
The late Nehanda Abiodun was an African American revolutionary who exemplified the movement to end national oppression and the criminalization of a people.
