{"id":776,"date":"2019-03-05T14:58:09","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T14:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsm.prolerat.org\/?page_id=776"},"modified":"2019-10-20T12:42:22","modified_gmt":"2019-10-20T11:42:22","slug":"capitalism-an-unnatural-disaster","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/capitalism-an-unnatural-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitalism: an unnatural disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article has been reproduced from the <\/strong>Socialist Standard<\/strong><\/em> (December 1998), the monthly journal of the Socialist Party of Great Britain <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Global capitalism’s reaction to the hurricane disaster in Central America shows the\nsystem in its true colours-greedy gold and bloody red. Hurricane Mitch left a trail of\ndeath and destruction in Honduras, Nicaragua and neighbouring countries. Over 24,000\npeople were killed or are missing. Millions of some of the poorest people in the world\nlost their homes and their means of livelihood. International aid agencies gave some help,\nbut it was too little and too late to deal adequately with the problem. Above all, the\nglobal profit system proved woefully inadequate to deal humanely and effectively with the\nsituation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The surviving victims of the disaster need food, fresh water, clothing, medication and\nmany other items. Some of those needs are being met, but not nearly enough. Governments of\nthe richer countries have offered niggardly help. Ordinary citizens, appalled by the\nextent of the tragedy as revealed by the media, have responded more generously to appeals\nby the multi-charity Disasters Emergency Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurricane Mitch and similar misfortunes are presented as unavoidable natural disasters.\nTo some extent, this is true. But it ignores the difficult-to-quantify consequences of the\ndeliberate pursuit of profit at the expense of environmental protection and\nconservation-the emission of poisonous gases, the destruction of forests, acid rain, and\nso on. The severity of the disasters is compounded by the fact that capitalism’s priority\nis to preserve and enhance the profit system, not to preserve and enhance human life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outstanding obscenity is that, even before the latest disaster, the countries\naffected were massively in debt to the richest “economies” in the world. Both\nNicaragua and Honduras were paying about \u00a31m a day in interest on those debts. The\npayments were more than twice what was spent on health and education combined. The best\nthat some of the European governments could come up with was a scheme to offer debt\n“relief” in the form of a moratorium on interest payments and a fund to help\nreduce the cost of future repayments (Guardian<\/em>, 11 November).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are being asked to disgorge a\nfraction of their capital built up over many years by exploitation of the multinational\nworking class. The bankers ponder whether they can afford such generosity, while the\ninsurance industry is worried about its profitability. Experts “believe insurance\ncover, vital for attracting inward investment to develop tourist resorts and protect homes\nand businesses, will become prohibitively high. In some areas it may disappear\nentirely” (Times<\/em>, 9 November).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would the consequences of natural disasters be dealt with in a socialist world? The\nfrequency and severity of such events would be minimised by not damaging the environment\nin the pursuit of profit and not forcing people to live in areas that are prone to really\nunavoidable natural disasters. When a hurricane, earthquake or whatever did occur, help\nwould be organised directly and immediately to meet the needs of the victims. No waiting\naround for funds to be set up, relief costs to be authorised, etc. No question of debt\nmoratoria or cancellation to be considered-not debts would be created. Just the simple\nmeeting of human need. Is that too complex and unthinkable an idea to understand and act\non?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: S.Parker<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This article has been reproduced from the Socialist Standard (December 1998), the monthly journal of the Socialist Party of Great Britain Global capitalism’s reaction to the hurricane disaster in Central America shows the system in its true colours-greedy gold and bloody red. Hurricane Mitch left a trail of death and destruction in Honduras, Nicaragua and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-776","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2563,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/776\/revisions\/2563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}