For five days and counting….
Ten thousand workers in the Philippines are expected to be among the dead in just one city, with hundreds of thousands left homeless by a fierce typhoon bringing winds of over 200 miles per hour. NGOs are flooding the affected region, but if this is a repeat of the recent experience in Haiti — after the devastating 2010 earthquake — most of the aid promised by the big imperialist countries will not be delivered, and what is delivered will mostly be spent in the donor countries.
Young soldiers carrying M-16 assault rifles were sent by the government to “restore order,” accusing angry hungry people of “highjacking” relief vehicles. Food and water are slow to be distributed and dead bodies are piling up, endangering public health.
The “super typhoon” was known to be coming, but evacuation was mismanaged because the government was calling it a “storm warning” instead of a “tsunami” — a word which carries much more significance in the area.
Capitalist greed is solely responsible for this unnatural disaster. Storms are increasing in intensity due to global warning, with an 11 percent upsurge expected by the end of this century, causing sea levels to rise. Capitalists don’t want to eat into their profits by limiting carbon emissions and other protection for the environment. (Full analysis next issue)
DHAKA, BANGLADESH, November 11 — Another one of capitalism’s unnatural disasters — extreme poverty and exploitation — drove 30,000 angry garment workers into the streets here in a mass strike that shut over 100 factories. The workers who produce clothing for billion-dollar corporations like Walmart, the Gap and Sears are demanding a 260 percent increase of the $38 monthly minimum wage to $100. The government offered $67 which the bosses rejected as “too high,” which government official admit hardly meets a basic diet.
The cops used tear gas and rubber bullets against the workers but the latter fought back, stoning the cops, blocking key highways and roads, smashing vehicles and factory windows.