Social media friendly jpegs of each of these demands available HERE
WE DEMAND
- At the government’s expense: People must be housed and cared for until they can safely return to their homes; hotels, convention centers, and other buildings must be provided to people in need of shelter; there must be free communication for people to contact relatives. Immediately, there must be emergency medical care and measures to prevent massive epidemics and needless deaths. There must be no arrests for so-called looting. There must be emergency relief—people must be immediately provided with water, food, medicines, and other basic needs FREE OF CHARGE.
- Extraordinary measures must be taken to distribute needed resources from all stores to people, at government expense—and under no circumstances must those who take the needed resources be shot or arrested
- While all resources must be made available to shelter people, the government must not be allowed to treat people like animals, as they did in Katrina—all shelters must be run in decent, humane ways, drawing as much as possible on the resourcefulness of the people and allowing, as much as possible, people to have a say in how these are being run.
- The situation of the people and their views on the situation must be fully covered in the news, giving the people themselves access to the media and the chance to tell their own stories.
- The needs of all must be met, with first priority to those most urgently in need. There must be immediate, orderly, and safe evacuation. If necessary, events in nearby cities must be cancelled to accommodate people. People must not be evacuated into situations that are going to reproduce disease and danger.
- There must be intense search and rescue efforts in all areas. People must NOT be allowed to die. All necessary resources, including mobilizing volunteers, must be brought to bear on this. The government must not repress people who volunteer or prevent them from helping, but instead, must assist these efforts.
- There must be no profiteering and speculation off people’s misery by the sharks of insurance companies, oil monopolies, real estate developers, etc.
- ICE must be kept away from hospitals, shelters, schools, jails, and other key places during this emergency—and this policy should be publicly broadcast and announced. People should not have to choose between drowning or dying in the floods or losing their children, being permanently separated from loved ones, and hurled across the globe.
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“I’m contributing $500 towards Revcom.us coverage of Hurricane Harvey because I couldn’t just sit and watch the news thinking, ‘gee, I’m sure glad it isn’t me’. Much of the suffering and the deaths that have and will occur should have been prevented. The lack of preparation and sheer disregard for people’s lives is outrageous. Thank you for helping bring this to the forefront. I strongly urge others to donate as well.”
A reader on the West Coast
We strongly encourage readers to check out the Constitution For The New Socialist Republic In North America to get a sense of a natural disaster like this COULD be dealt with in a whole other and much better system.
Floods in South Asia, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Now Hurricane Maria: Natural Disasters, Crises of the System
Updated October 2, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Trump’s Response to Hurricane Maria:
Deadly Racist Contempt for the Lives and Dignity of the Puerto Rican People
Puerto Rico is still reeling. Hurricanes Irma and Maria knocked out power, water, phones, roads, for millions, and 95 percent of the people still have no electricity.
A week and a half after Hurricane Maria hit, 3.4 million people are scrambling every single day for their most basic survival needs—drinkable water, shelter from the elements, formula for infants, food for children, fuel for cars, and cash to buy any of these things.
October 2, 2017
Survivor of Hurricane Irma in St. Martin: “The U.S. Air Force came in... took only the American citizens”
A reader sent revcom.us an interview that was done recently with a high school student who was living in the Caribbean island of St. Martin when Hurricane Irma hit in early September. To this day, various European powers and the U.S. control Caribbean islands—under various terms like “territory,” “commonwealth,” or other phrases that disguise an actual colonial relationship. In the case of St. Martin, the island is actually split—one side ruled by the French, the other by the Dutch. This irrational division of a very small island was done to serve imperialist interests, and as the student reveals in this interview, this division into weak colonial governments greatly aggravated the problems people faced during and after the storm.
The student lived on the French side and went to school on the Dutch side. She and her family evacuated to the Dutch side shortly before Hurricane Irma hit. Following are excerpts from the interview.
October 2, 2017
The U.S. Virgin Islands: Criminally Inadequate Level of Aid for People Devastated by Hurricanes
The U.S. Virgin Islands—St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix—were among the Caribbean islands devastated first by Hurricane Irma, and then two weeks later by Hurricane Maria. Both were Category 5 storms when they hit the islands, and most of the islands’ 100,000 people are still struggling to get the barest essentials, nearly two weeks after Maria hit, yet there’s been barely a trickle of relief, and what little has arrived never reaches many.
October 2, 2017
Puerto Rico: Gutted by Imperialism; Slammed by Maria; Abandoned by Trump
A Major Humanitarian Crisis in the Making
Thursday, September 28, 2017: The U.S. Territory (that is, colony) of Puerto Rico and its 3.4 million inhabitants are still staggering from the blows of Hurricane Maria that hit nine days ago, on the heels of Irma the week before, and on top of a ten-year-long major recession and massive debt crisis caused by U.S. imperialist domination of the Island.
For millions the situation is quite bluntly, desperate, with potential to get much worse. There is almost no electrical power on the Island, other than what can be gotten from emergency generators, which are few and far between to begin with, and for which fuel is almost impossible to find. Even in the capital of San Juan, a children’s hospital reports that children on ventilators are in imminent danger of dying because fuel is running out, and things are worse in smaller cities and rural areas. As of Tuesday, only 11 of Puerto Rico’s 69 hospitals had any power. The electrical system is not expected to be restored to the Island for many weeks, if not months....
September 28, 2017
Puerto Rico: Rising Death Toll, Millions Suffer at the Hands of Imperialism… and FASCISM
Because of Hurricane Maria, the island of Puerto Rico lies in ruins. There is no drinking water, no electricity, at least 80 percent of the crops have been destroyed, and whole sections remain under water. Older people stranded on the 15th floor of housing projects, often ill, slowly dying. Imagine yourself in that situation. It would be—and it is for those in it—a sheer horror.
Because of imperialism, millions of Puerto Ricans face this crisis with a broken-down infrastructure and virtually no help....
September 27, 2017
Mexico: The Earthquakes and the Fissures in the Criminal System
From the blog of Aurora Roja, voice of the Organización Comunista Revolucionaria, México
The earthquakes of September 7 and 19, in addition to their devastating destruction, also revealed the fissures and potential structural weakness of a criminal system which greatly worsened the natural disaster. Two very different forces emerged in the wake of earthquakes. On the one hand, the solidarity and even heroic actions of many thousands of young people, the topos [movement of crack rescuers that arose during the 1985 earthquake], women, workers, vendors, professionals, peasants, and other people who took to the streets, almost immediately, for example, in Mexico City, motivated by the burning and selfless desire to rescue the trapped people, to locate the disappeared and to help the victims.
They came up against another, slower-acting force—indeed the official “aid” has not yet reached several places—with motives that are very different and, in fact, are opposed to the people’s interests....
September 26, 2017
Interview with a Puerto Rican Man Living in the U.S. About Hurricane Maria:
“It is incredible, it is devastating"
We had a chance to talk to C, who now lives in the U.S. but grew up in Puerto Rico and has many family members living there. C has been trying desperately to reach family members in Puerto Rico but has been unable to get through to anyone since Hurricane Maria hit. He had spoken with his mother on Tuesday before the hurricane. She was moved from a nursing facility to his sister’s house. Everyone thought that would be safer for her. But they hadn’t counted on a nearby river rising so fast and high that entire town where his sister lived had to be evacuated.
September 25, 2017
Hurricane Maria Rips into Caribbean Islands Already Devastated by Hurricane Irma
With super-destructive winds as strong as 165 mph, Hurricane Maria slammed into the Caribbean this week—a region that was already reeling from the disaster from Hurricane Irma just two weeks ago. As of Wednesday night, September 20, there are reports that all of Puerto Rico—with a population of about three and a half million people—is without power after Hurricane Maria made landfall there in the morning. A spokesperson for the governor of Puerto Rico said, “This is total devastation. Puerto Rico, in terms of the infrastructure, will not be the same.... This is something of historic proportions.”
September 20, 2017
Mexico Hit by Devastating Earthquake—Again
September 19—Less than two weeks after a deadly earthquake hit Mexico, affecting especially the southwestern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, another powerful quake rocked this country. Today’s earthquake hit especially hard in Mexico City and the surrounding states, in particular Morelos and Puebla. Dozens of buildings collapsed in Mexico City. By Tuesday evening, the number of people who died was reported to be 130.
September 19, 2017
Storm Season:
Capitalism-Imperialism—A System That Never Met a Disaster That It Could Not Make WORSE
The underlying dynamics of capitalism—a system which rests ultimately on the dog-eat-dog competition between different units and groupings of capital, and between different capitalist countries, to accumulate profit—not only mean that profit will always be prioritized over human needs, but also that these powerful productive forces will in many ways be wielded in such a way as to actually worsen natural disasters and their impact on humanity.
September 16, 2017
Behind the Hurricane “Natural” Disaster in the Caribbean: A Brutal History of Colonialism, Slavery, and Imperialist Invasions and Domination
“The Caribbean!” Sun-drenched beaches, blue skies and water, luxurious hotels, and a small army of local people bringing drinks and a smile to tourists relaxing by the pool in places like St. Martin, the Virgin Islands, or Barbados.
“The Caribbean!” A center of finance in countries like the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, or Dominica, where large corporations “headquarter” their business and wealthy individuals park their assets in order to avoid paying taxes.
“The Caribbean”: scene of devastating economic crisis, poverty, and misery in nations like Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
September 11, 2017
Yes, This Arrogant VICIOUS Ignoramus Heads a Fascist Regime in the World’s Most Powerful Country...
As millions of people continue to suffer in the wake of Hurricane Harvey and millions in the Caribbean are being devastated by Hurricane Irma... and as climate scientists warn that bigger and more destructive storms like these are on the rise due to global climate change, caused by greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels—Donald Trump spoke at an oil refinery in North Dakota and bragged about how he had pulled the U.S. out of the “job killer” Paris climate agreement, eliminated a “tremendous amount” of environmental regulations, and gotten the Dakota Access oil pipeline, which will move millions more gallons of oil every day, “open for business.” He even said—in a region going through unprecedented drought—he “didn’t know you had droughts this far north.”
...Now What Are We Gonna Do About THAT? November 4—It Begins!
September 9, 2017
Florida Sheriff Issues Potential Death Sentences for Outstanding Warrants
On Thursday, as Hurricane Irma bore down on Florida, and officials and meteorologists warned that anyone in the evacuation zones should head for shelters at risk of their lives, Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, Florida (east of Tampa), tweeted this message:
“If you go to a shelter for #Irma and you have a warrant, we'll gladly escort you to the safe and secure shelter called the Polk County Jail,” and that “sworn LEO [law enforcement officers] will be at every shelter, checking IDs....”
What kind of fascist shit is this?
Everybody who needs shelter should be allowed in the shelters. PERIOD.
September 8, 2017
Climate Experts Say the Two Hurricanes “should kill any doubt that climate change is real”
As people in Texas are still suffering from devastation from Hurricane Harvey and as Hurricane Irma blasts through the Caribbean region, three climate experts are raising the question: “What is the role of human-induced climate change in these events, and how else have our own actions increased our risks?” Their article, titled “Harvey and Irma should kill any doubt that climate change is real,” appeared today at the Washington Post’s online feature PostEverything.
September 7, 2017
Hurricane Irma, Thursday: Devastation in the Caribbean… Heading Toward Florida
Once Irma became a Category 4 hurricane almost a week ago, the U.S. news media fell in love with the phrase “Hurricane Irma is barreling towards Florida.” If you read most of these stories, it sounded like all that stood between Irma and the U.S. was open seas. They failed to mention that before Irma could reach the U.S., there were many island nations, with a total population of over 35 million people, and with far fewer resources than the U.S., facing this killer storm. And many have been pummeled by Irma in the last three days, while the U.S. media has trained people to cast their eyes overwhelmingly on the possible U.S. impact.
One thing we do know—as with Hurricanes Harvey, Katrina, Sandy, and Andrew and every other major natural disaster, Irma’s path of destruction is revealing and will further reveal the underlying oppressive relations of this system, its complete inability to meet the needs of the people, and its continued destruction of the environment of the planet we call home.
September 7, 2017
Monstrous Floods Kill over 1,000 in South Asia: The Global System Behind the Misery
You would not know from American network news that 41 million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal are right now suffering from the devastation and floods caused by extreme monsoon events. (Monsoons are seasonal heavy wind and rain events that are common in South Asia.) Over the past week, 1,200 people have died and millions are now homeless. One-third of the entire country of Bangladesh is now under water! The whole region of South Asia is in a severe crisis.
August 30, 2017
Refuse Fascism-Houston Press Conference in Crosby, Texas, to Denounce Arkema Inc.’s Responsibility for the Developing Environmental Catastrophe
Arkema Inc. has responsibility for the deepening environmental catastrophe at its chemical plant outside Crosby, putting the health and lives of thousands of people at risk. They are aided and abetted by the Trump/Pence regime, which cut funding for the EPA, eliminated safety regulations, deregulated the oil and gas industries, eliminated limits on greenhouse gas emissions, and more. This is an outrage!....
September 4, 2017
Vice President Pence in Texas Hijacking Compassion... to Serve Christian Fascism
Along with heart-wrenching reports of devastation and death in the hurricane zone, there have been many inspiring stories of ordinary people dropping everything, making great sacrifices and taking big risks to help storm victims. This spirit of self-sacrifice emerges whenever there is a major disaster (it is not a “Texan” or “American” thing!). And it is important—even beyond the vital work of saving and aiding people in need, it gives millions a sense that humanity could do much better than the dog-eat-dog, narrow-minded selfishness that so clearly stamps this society.
But the authorities are, in many ways, moving to hijack the spirit of compassion manifested around this storm to serve the consolidation of the Trump/Pence fascist regime. Specifically, to lure, deceive and coerce large numbers of people into the Christian fascist movement....
September 4, 2017
Interview with Relative of Beaumont Prisoner: Trapped in a Hell of Floodwaters and Inhuman Treatment
While there are some places in areas of the Texas Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricane Harvey that have received at least some aid, many others have received little help—including the federal prison at Beaumont, east of Houston, which has been inundated and where prisoners have not been moved out and are being held under outrageous, dangerous conditions. Revolution/revcom.us talked on Saturday, September 2, with Andrea Hasberry, a Black woman whose husband is one of those prisoners. On Sunday, she posted an email from her husband with the latest on the prisoners’ situation....
September 4, 2017
Interview with Chicano Activists in Houston: “Yeah, we do demand to be treated like humans”
Revolution correspondent Travis Morales talked with several people from the Brown Berets—a Chicano activist group, in Houston this past week. The following are excerpts from the interview.....
September 4, 2017
Some observations from Houston on...A Natural, Environmental, and Social Disaster
by Travis Morales
The correspondence that was posted at revcom.us/Revolution, “August 31: Hurricane Harvey’s Cascading Social and Public Health Catastrophe; Getting the Demands into the Hands of the People,” overall had some good exposure in the first three paragraphs of what people are confronting with the flood and the explosions at the chemical plants. However, I think the sections on what the masses of people were saying was a bit one-sided. This is not the same as Hurricane Katrina....
September 2, 2017
September 1: As People Continue to Face a Dire and Dangerous Situation, a Chemical Plant Fire Spews Out Dangerous Toxins
As of Friday night, while the floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey were receding from some of areas in Houston and the surrounding counties, there were still large areas underwater. Parts of Beaumont, a city of 120,000 people east of Houston, and nearby communities, remained very isolated, and the Neches River is still rising—already eight feet higher than during any previous storm, and not expected to crest until Saturday. The pumps that used to provide fresh water to Beaumont were knocked out by the floodwaters on Thursday, and officials said they did not know when the water system might be repaired....
September 1, 2017
The word from Houston: “People are experiencing some of the worst times in their lives right now”
The following are excerpts from an interview with S., a young Black woman, at a program last night at Revolution Books in Harlem, New York City, on “Hurricane Harvey: A Natural Disaster, and the Crisis of a System.” She grew up in Houston and has been in close touch with relatives and friends there during Hurricane Harvey and the aftermath.
September 1, 2017
August 31: Hurricane Harvey's Cascading Social and Public Health Catastrophe; Getting the Demands into the Hands of the People
Devastation caused by the Hurricane and deluge that has hit the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast continues. New terrors unfold daily as the storm slowly moves east. The mayor of Port Arthur, about 90 miles east of Houston, sent out a message saying “Our whole city is underwater right now”. Nearby Beaumont—a city with about 120,000 people—lost its municipal water supply when massive overflow from the Neches River shut down its main pumping station...
August 31, 2017
Devastation in Texas: Nine Ways This Is a Crime of this System
Why has this hurricane struck with such force? Why are so many people living right in the path of hurricanes and floods? Why weren’t any real plans in place to evacuate people to safety or take care of them during the kind of storm emergency everyone knew was coming? And why, even now, are the authorities unable to prevent widespread suffering and devastating losses for so many thousands of people?
August 30, 2017
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Harvey Day 5: Massive Flooding; Poisonous Leaks: Curfews; Broken Levees
Harvey continues to wreak havoc on the Texas Gulf Coast, and has now begun to inflict serious damage on Louisiana as well. The official death toll has risen to 14, including 6 members of one family who were in a van swept away by raging flood waters. Shelters have been set up all over Houston for people whose homes are unlivable, and thousands are being bussed to Austin, San Antonio, Ft. Worth, and Dallas.
August 29, 2017
Report from Rockport, Hit Directly by Hurricane Harvey: “So much of the town is just piles of rubble...but it’s going to get worse”
Tuesday, August 29—Rockport, Texas, is a town of about 10,000 on the Gulf of Mexico, just north of Corpus Christi. Hurricane Harvey barreled right through and over Rockport, with winds over 130 miles per hour. The small town was flattened, and torn to shreds. Revolution recently had the opportunity to speak to a long-time resident of Rockport, who left just before the hurricane hit and is now back in the town. The following are excerpts from that conversation.
August 29, 2017
Houston, Day 4: Intensifying Devastation for the People, Rising Repression…and More Rain Expected
Monday, August 28—Harvey continues to pour torrential rain on Houston and coastal East Texas, and has begun drenching parts of Louisiana. Widespread flooding on city streets and interstate highways from overflowing bayous, rivers, creeks, and lakes, is a major problem. People are suffering from the devastation, thousands have been made homeless, and serious public health threats could develop. After rocking ashore as a Category 4 hurricane, the storm moved back out into the Gulf of Mexico, and then headed back inland again, bringing more rain with it.
Revcom.us/Revolution talked to a resident of Houston on Monday night.
August 28, 2017
Houston Day 3: People Struggle to Survive the Catastrophe
Hurricane Harvey has been battering the Gulf Coast of Texas since Friday. First with winds topping 130 miles per hour. Then with an almost unbelievable deluge of rain that is predicted to continue for several more days. The National Weather Service described Harvey as “unprecedented.” “All impacts are unknown and beyond anything experienced,” it continued.
August 27, 2017
Voices from Houston: “We don’t deserve to be treated like this”
Revolution/revcom received these interviews from Travis Morales as floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey were inundating Houston, Texas. These interviews took place at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, one of the places those who couldn’t find shelter with family or neighbors were being bussed.
August 27, 2017
What Can We Say About the Role of Climate Change in the Disaster of Harvey?
Revolution/revcom.us is reprinting with permission this Facebook post from Dr. Michael Mann, a Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University with joint appointments in the departments of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute.
What can we say about the role of climate change in the unprecedented disaster that is unfolding in Houston with Hurricane #Harvey?
There are certain climate change-related factors that we can, with great confidence, say worsened the flooding.
August 28, 2017
Border Patrol Message in the Face of Hurricane Harvey:
Immigrants Are “Not Worth Saving”
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) issued a statement on Thursday that its border checkpoints would stay open during hurricane Harvey. At that moment, the projection was that Harvey would devastate the Rio Grande area, which borders Mexico and threaten the lives of people who did not evacuate. For undocumented immigrants living in that area, the CBP action could have been a death sentence.
August 27, 2017
IMPORTANT ALERT
With Trump in charge, he will almost certainly use this crisis to intensify repression against the people, and in other ways push forward his whole fascist agenda. That must be opposed in whatever forms it takes.
There may be the urgent need to mobilize this week in support of the demands on this page, and to defend and support whatever struggles people in the impacted areas mount in order to realize these, or other, just demands. And especially, there will be a need to oppose any measures taken by authorities to repress people.
Update on Hurricane Harvey, Saturday Night: Enormous Destruction Already...but the Worst May Be Yet to Come
Hurricane Harvey tore into the Texas coast late Friday night, just northeast of Corpus Christi. At this writing, it is difficult to determine the extent of damage Harvey has caused. But it is certain that the slow-moving storm has already wreaked enormous destruction on Corpus Christi and smaller coastal towns. And the worst may be yet to come in the days ahead, including in Houston, the fourth-largest city in the U.S.
August 26, 2017
Harvey Hits the Texas Coast: A Natural Disaster, the Crisis of a System
Editors’ note: This article has been updated August 28.
Hurricane Harvey will bring massive amounts of rain to coastal areas reaching as far northeast as the Louisiana Coast, as far south as northeastern Mexico.
Millions of people live in the path of Harvey, a storm the National Weather Service has said is “astounding” in its power. Many of these people are poor Chicano, immigrant, and Black people who have worked on the docks and refineries of the area, or toiled in the rice, cotton, and cane fields, or been relegated to dilapidated urban slums and unincorporated rural colonias.
Updated August 28, 2017
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