[Marxism] USLAW on Katrina and the war

["acpollack2@xxxxxxxx" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxx>]

Subject : USLAW Statement on "Katrina: The War at Home and the War Abroad" 

Date : Tue, Dec 06, 2005 10:54 AM 
  
[Note: The following statement was adopted by the National Steering
Committee of USLAW at its December 3-4, 2005 meeting in Chicago.]


<bold>US LABOR AGAINST THE WAR STATEMENT:

Katrina: The War at Home and the War Abroad 


</bold>(December 3, 2005)


A central point in the USLAW founding Mission Statement calls for the
"redirecting of the nation's resources from military spending to
meeting the needs of working families for health care, education, a
clean environment, housing and a decent standard of living based on
principles of equality and democracy." 


We believe that providing for the well-being of our people is the first
principle of national security. Hurricane Katrina was a disastrous
natural event, but the massive tragic impact of the storm was largely
the result (and failure) of political processes, not merely the
inevitable consequence of a natural disaster. Protecting our citizens
from natural disasters is simply not a national priority for the Bush
Administration.


Three months after Hurricane Katrina struck in September of 2005, the
relationship between the war in Iraq and the devastating implications
of what we call the war at home, against our own people, is crystal
clear.


<bold>Funding for War, Not for Social Programs


</bold>Since Katrina struck more than $15 billion has been spent
fighting the war in Iraq, while the US and Iraqi death toll continues
to grow dramatically. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast
residents are without decent housing, jobs and any hope for the
future.


While federal funding during the past several years was cut for levee
protection, as well as for all the social programs needed by people in
New Orleans and Mississippi, at least $1.7 billion of Louisiana federal
tax dollars, including $151.6 million from New Orleans taxpayers alone,
was spent on the war in Iraq, pre-Katrina. As billions in tax money
continue to flow into Iraq, Congress is seeking to pay for
reconstruction while avoiding even deeper deficits by cutting social
programs for the poor across the US.


The LA and MS National Guard had more than a third of their troops in
Iraq and much of the badly needed vehicles and equipment was
unavailable in New Orleans because it was in Iraq. Meanwhile, as the
flood waters were rising, citizens spent days sitting on rooftops,
dying in abandoned nursing homes and hospitals, and warehoused in
athletic field houses that were operated more like prison camps than
emergency rescue shelters.


In June 2004, Emergency Management Chief for Jefferson Parish, LA said:
"It appears that the money has been moved in the President's budget to
handle homeland security and the war in Iraq and I suppose that is the
price we pay".


Requests for additional $250 million for Army Corp of Engineers levee
work in the Delta went unmet prior to the hurricane.


<bold>Profits Flowing from War and Disasters


</bold>Just as the US government has privatized much of the war in
Iraq, enriching the Halliburtons and Bechtels profiteers of the world,
so too after Katrina we see the Halliburtons and Bechtels receiving
huge no-bid contracts to build camps for rescue workers, to rebuild
military installations and the oil industry, and to begin the
reconstruction of the entire region. Small local businesses have been
left standing in line. Even the notorious Blackwater Security firm that
has made a fortune in Iraq and Afghanistan was on the ground patrolling
the streets of New Orleans within a week of the hurricane.


Sadly, corporate America now has a deep investment in war and disaster
-- it's good for business. The stock market rose slightly following
Katrina even though energy costs were catapulted to new highs. What's
good for business in this case is not what's good for the country and
our people.


The under-funded and flagrantly mismanaged Federal Emergency Management
Agency has itself been declared a disaster area. FEMA has been
militarized as a neglected subsidiary in the Homeland Security
Department. Millions are spent promoting the War on Terror with
flashing neon signs asking the public to beware of suspicious looking
people, while FEMA is weakened in its ability to respond to both
foreseeable as well as unpredictable national emergencies.


If ever there was a role for the public sector, it is in preparing for
and responding to natural disaster. But, just as 9/11 was used as a
pretext by Bush, often with some Democratic support, to undercut our
civil liberties and militarize our Federal budget, Hurricane Katrina is
being used as an opportunity to promote the right-wing agenda of
privatization, school vouchers, no-bid contracts, and removing minority
set asides and affirmative action in Federal contracts. 


It took a national campaign, with strong union backing, to force the
Bush administration to restore the wage protections provided by the
Davis-Bacon (prevailing wage) Act for Federal spending in the Gulf
reconstruction, after initially removing them. The Republicans see it
as another opportunity to push the country deeper into the private
profit-seeking abyss?or as rightwing ideologue Grover Norquist has put
it, to "shrink government down to the point where I can drag it into
the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."


<bold>Attacks on the Public Sector and Workers' Rights


</bold>At the same time the US government has set the stage for a
massive privatization of Iraq, undermining their large public sector
and setting the stage for foreign corporate control. While debate rages
about whether Bush and Congress had correct intelligence about WMD in
Iraq and political leaders claim the US should stay in Iraq to help the
Iraqis create a democracy, the real motives of the war remain
unchanged: control of Iraq's oil resources, the removal of Hussein as
political opponent of US policy in the Middle East, and the
establishment of a permanent military force in an Iraq governed by a
compliant regime.


In Iraq, the massive reconstruction funds have gone not to the poor and
unemployed, but rather to foreign contractors and imported workers.
Sadly, to this day, Saddam Hussein's anti-union law remains on the
books and unfettered labor rights, the cornerstone of any democratic
society, remain an unfulfilled aspiration of Iraqi workers. Under
Bush's massive privatization plans, the right to organize independent
unions is far from assured in a future Iraq. Working people in both
Gulfs need good jobs at good wages with their rights as workers
protected.


One of the fundamental questions to address right now is in whose
interest will New Orleans and the devastated Gulf Coast area, as well
as Iraq be rebuilt? How will the hundreds of billions of taxpayer
dollars be spent and who will make the decisions? In the US we have all
witnessed decades of "Urban Removal" in which poor neighborhoods are
leveled and rebuilt for more prosperous and generally much whiter
interests. In Iraq we see a devastated nation deeply in debt and
dependent on US and international financial support, including the IMF
and World Bank, in order to recover. The average Iraqi is vehemently
opposed to privatizing the economy.


In both Iraq and New Orleans we need massive public works programs such
as seen throughout the US during the New Deal, not overpriced corporate
contractors. Local people, both black and white, need good jobs at good
wages, under safe working conditions with their rights as workers
protected. They need to be fully involved in all the planning decisions
about the future of their communities.


<bold>Racism


</bold>Lastly, and very profoundly, the issue of racism permeates our
government's policies in both areas. Iraqi civilian deaths are not even
counted -- in New Orleans black corpses were left to rot and citizens
were sheltered under conditions the Reverend Jesse Jackson compared to
the holds of slave ships.


The death and destruction of the Gulf had a distinctly racial character
based on years of racial oppression and the resulting inequality,
leaving the largely African American population of New Orleans with a
28% poverty rate. Iraqis still suffer from 50% plus unemployment almost
3 years after the invasion. 


Although the administration announced it was waiving affirmative action
requirements for federal contracts for the rebuilding, military
recruiters have been seen increasing their activities in all the areas
where displaced Gulf Coast families are living. The message: Black
people are good enough to fight in foreign wars but don't deserve a
fair shot at rebuilding their own communities. The message to Iraqis:
your life does not have the same value as an American life.


In a further parallel, while many thousands of unemployed Gulf Coast
workers are desperate for work, private contractors are bringing in
large numbers of undocumented Mexican and Central American workers, and
subjecting them to abuse, dangerous working conditions and crass
exploitation. Meanwhile, despite massive unemployment in Iraq,
Halliburton and others are bringing in thousands of African and Asian
workers who are being paid 45 cents and hour and our subject to
continual mistreatment and oppression.


<bold>Katrina Solidarity


</bold>USLAW will speak out publicly about the links between the
disaster in the Gulf Coast and the war in Iraq, will participate in
public forums on these issues and will seek in other ways, consistent
with our basic mission, to support people on the ground in the Gulf
Coast to rebuild their lives and their communities.


USLAW supports the efforts of the People's Hurricane Relief
Fund/Community Labor United and other community-based groups and
organizations led by people of color in the Gulf that seek to rebuild
their communities on pro-people principles.


We Support Gulf Coast Community Demands for: 


* The right of the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, with
government support, to return to their homes and their communities and
participate fully in reconstruction.


* Those most affected by Hurricane Katrina must be part of the planning
process for the rebuilding of their communities, which includes
representation on all boards that are making decisions on spending
public dollars for relief and reconstruction. 


* Good jobs, at good wages and under safe working conditions, for the
displaced workers and residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast as
they rebuild their communities.


 * Transparency in the entire reconstruction process. 


* A massive influx of public funds to reconstruct the Gulf Coast using
the 1930s New Deal model.


(*People's Hurricane Relief Fund:
<color><param>0000,0000,00FF</param>http://cluonline.live.radicaldesigns.org
</color>) 


<bold>Conclusion


</bold>We have deep and fundamental problems here in the US that need
to be addressed. The war in Iraq has been a costly and deadly
diversion. We need to leave Iraq and the Persian Gulf, support the
Iraqis' efforts to reconstruct their nation on their own terms, and use
the billions of dollars from the war effort to create massive
rebuilding programs to benefit the poor and homeless on the Gulf Coast
and other underserved areas of the US. 


If there is one silver lining to these disasters at home and abroad, it
may be that the winds that swept through the Gulf in the U.S. and winds
of war in the Middle East will sweep through the White House and
Congress and lead to a radical change in the political landscape of
America. 


USLAW is committed to being fully involved in promoting and making that
change. 


----------


US Labor Against the War

* mailing address: PMB 153, 1718 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.
20036

* email: info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

* website: www.uslaboragainstwar.org  

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