The Working Class Responds To Hurricane Harvey

The Working Class Responds To Hurricane Harvey

By Joseph Kishore
WSWS.org
August 31, 2017

The official preparation for and response to Hurricane Harvey
have been characterized by a stunning level of incompetence
and indifference from the lack of a coordinated evacuation and
emergency housing plan, to the completely ad-hoc character of
rescue operations.

As Houston and other parts of Texas drown and the death toll
mounts, various government officials, from the White House
on down, have spent much of the past several days patting
themselves on the back.

“You have been terrific,” Trump told the governor, the head of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency and other officials in Texas
on Tuesday, hoping that no one would notice what was happening
around him.

The flooding, however, has produced an overwhelming response
from workers in Texas and throughout the region, who have rushed
to volunteer for rescue operations, using their own equipment and
receiving nothing in return.

The New York Times, which generally refers to the working class
only to disparage it, wrote on Wednesday that “the response to
one of the worst disasters in decades has been, in many ways,
improvised.”

The article continued: “Recreational vehicles—airboats, Jet Skis,
motorized fishing boats have rushed to the aid of people trapped
in their homes, steered by welders, roofers, mechanics and
fishermen wearing shorts, headlamps and ponchos. The working
class, in large part, is being saved by the working class.”

Perhaps thousands have participated in these efforts to save those
stranded in their homes, often traveling great distances.

Many of these rescues have been coordinated by means of an online
map, "houstonharveyrescue.com" put together early this week by a
local software developer.

Individuals and families needing assistance are able to register
on the site.

Thousands have done so in the first few days of its operation
and the site reports as of Wednesday night that nearly 5,000
have been “marked safe.”

A report in Quartz notes that:

“The army of rescuers, who can also register on the site, can then
easily spot the neediest cases. A team of 100 phone dispatchers
follows up with those wanting to be rescued, and can send mass
text messages with important information. An algorithm weeds
out any repeats.”

The response of workers raises broader issues.

Hurricane Harvey, like Hurricane Katrina and many other disasters
in the US and Internationally, has exposed the class reality that the
media and the political establishment attempt to cover up.

As always, it is the working class and poor of all races
and ethnicities, that are the hardest hit.

It is they who are either without insurance or face insurance
companies that refuse to cover damages.

It is they who will see the media and ruling class politicians
depart as the flood waters recede and the major industries
resume operations.

No small part of the reaction of the media and political
establishment to the disaster is motivated by fear that it
will spark social unrest, serving as kindling for a conflagration
arising from the immense contradictions of American society.

At the same time, the response of workers to the hurricane
expresses a basic class consciousness and solidarity that the
ruling class works so hard to undermine.

Contrary to the claims promoted in particular by the Democratic
Party, that American society is driven by racial hatred, the
emergency operations have involved white, black and Hispanic
workers on both sides in the boats and in the stranded houses.

The response makes a powerful case for independent workers’
organizations and workers’ control, not only of the basic industries
and means of production, but of all essential resources and
services.

Workers have a much greater understanding of what needs to be
done than those who currently determine government policy, the
corporate and financial aristocracy and beyond it the top 5 or 10
percent of the population.

If workers had been involved in decisions over how to allocate
resources, the level of preparation for the hurricane itself would
have been far more advanced.

Trillions of dollars would be allocated not to bailing out Wall Street
and financing the American military machine, but to building social
infrastructure.

The flooding, after all, was neither unforeseeable, nor unforeseen,
it was just not planned for.

The destruction of the fourth largest city in the United States
is one expression of a general phenomenon.

In a million different ways, the basic requirements of a modern
mass society preparation for natural disasters, the distribution
of food, the development of health care and education systems,
not to speak of ensuring a livable income for all of humanity,
come into conflict with the subordination of society to the
dictates of profit.

The domination of the stock markets ensures that all is sacrificed
to the quarterly corporate figures.

The case for socialism is inextricably bound up with this.

Economic planning is made not by utopian dreams,
but by the concrete demands of social development.

In every aspect of social life, the working class must take matters
into its own hands, through the organization of workers’
committees in factories, workplaces and neighborhoods to assume
control over the production and distribution of resources.

These organizations must begin with the needs of the working
class and be democratically controlled by the working class.

They must take ever greater responsibility for unifying workers
and organizing their common struggles against the capitalist
class and its political representatives.

The establishment of genuine democratic control over production
and economic organization is the necessary basis for the
development of a rational plan to replace the anarchy of the
market and ensure that all decisions are based on social need.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/08/31/pers-a31.html