Revolutionary Worker #1264, January 16, 2005, posted at rwor.org
The following statement from the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (CoRIM), dated January 1, 2005, is being distributed by A World to Win News Service. CoRIM is the embryonic center of the world’s Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organizations.
The year 2005 has begun under a terrible cloud. The tsunami that devastated the coastal areas of a number of countries in Southeast and South Asia has wiped out huge numbers of people and left even more homeless and destitute. The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement extends its deepest sympathy to all those who are enduring such great suffering.
At the current stage of human development and mankind’s scientific knowledge, earthquakes and tsunamis still represent a terrible menace. But even the means that do exist for early warning are divided very unevenly and unjustly in the world. The ability of the people to minimize the damage caused by natural disasters and to respond quickly and effectively when one strikes is determined to a great degree by the form of organization of human society, in specific countries and in the world as a whole.
Throughout the world as well as in the affected regions, people are heartbroken by the death and suffering and are looking for some way to help. But for the most part the masses are sidelined, allowed only to be frustrated observers of the unfolding human tragedy. The rulers of this world, the imperialists and the reactionary ruling classes allied with them, will use this calamity to appear as the only possible saviors. In reality it is the system they profit from, preside over and enforce that is the principal obstacle preventing mankind from organizing its collective knowledge and energy to systematically combat natural disasters as well as poverty, disease and other ills. The blood-stained U.S. military, now organizing televised deliveries of food relief, is in reality the single most powerful enforcer of the very poverty and backwardness that has so aggravated the death toll from the tsunami.
In the tsunami-stricken areas there is a great need to organize relief efforts on the basis of the cooperative efforts of the people themselves, and we call on the Maoist forces in those regions and elsewhere to contribute in every way possible. We also call on them to expose the hypocrisy and manipulation of the domestic and foreign enemies. So long as the masses are enslaved by the exploiting classes and whole nations are dominated by the ruling classes of a handful of imperialist countries, more tragedies like the one we are experiencing today are inevitable.
While we struggle to overcome this natural disaster, we must continue to aim at the overthrow of the existing ruling classes, cast aside the superstition and ignorance they foster, and unfetter the energy of the people, which is ultimately more powerful than even a tsunami.