Mexico Earthquakes Capitalism, Nationalism Deadly for Workers

MEXICO CITY, October —The hundreds killed in the earthquakes in Mexico show that capitalism is deadly.
The U.S. Geological Survey predicts as many as 1,000 died in the earthquakes of September 7 and 19 in Mexico. Countless are injured or homeless, and two thousand schools are damaged. Natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes are inevitable, yet when people’s safety is a priority preventive measures can be taken. But under capitalism profits are more important than workers lives.
The earthquakes have affected several states, Morelos and Puebla as well as the Istmo de Tehuantepec in Oaxaca. These are some of the most marginalized communities of indigenous population, who have endured years of oppression and misery. They have suffered social inequality, state violence, corruption and racism. Cities like Juchitán in Oaxaca and Jojutla in Morelos look like war zones due to the devastation. The solidarity of the working-class community is a big contrast to the lack of help from the government. The rebel teachers from the Sección 22 in Oaxaca have been organizing in support of the affected communities.
Under Capitalism, Workers’ Lives Don’t Matter   
In Mexico City, many men and women workers have been killed. They worked under unsafe conditions, just like the earthquake in 1985. Many more are victims of the building contractors who, in order to maximize their profits, use cheap materials in their constructions. One case in point is Colegio Rebsamen, where the administration is, not only  guilty of bad education, but allowed dangerous conditions for its students by colluding with the constructors to endorse the school building. In Xochimilco, in the marginalized zone of San Gregorio, many families lost their homes because of the precariousness of the construction.
These tragedies are examples of how this murderous system works: workers’ lives do not matter. The capitalists’ never-ending drive for profit leads them to create cities in risk zones regardless of the danger, like in Mexico City, where floods and earthquakes destroy the fragile homes of thousands of workers, and their lives. Contamination and stress destroy thousands of lives and leaves hundreds of thousands with a bad quality of life. Capitalism doesn’t worry about having a system to prevent these occurrences, with alarms, secure constructions or a culture of prevention.
Salute to Young Leadership  
The capitalists and their governments can’t fix the tragedy, only workers’ solidarity has saved lives and embraced those left with nothing. The government intervened just to control the organization and solidarity of the working class. The youth have been at the forefront, they know that this system has given them nothing. The marines, army and police have taken control of certain disaster areas, to which volunteers have resisted, but because there was no organized fight back, they weren’t able to stop the government from coming into these areas. The working class has to organize themselves in order to smash this lethal system, no electoral party will do it.
Progressive Labor Party celebrates the thousands of youth who have mobilized to help, it shows the working class potential for social change, even with the whole capitalist system against us. The transformation of the capitalist system can only be realized if we organize a Party that will destroy it and its parasite multimillionaire elite class once and for all. The youth of Mexico are considered the industrial army reserved to fill in the jobs and fight in their wars. They have tried to present them as worthless, interested only on the superfluous, they call them “ninis” (they do not work, don’t go to school…) or “millennial’,” these are racist and anti-working-class insults, which try to hide the fact that capitalism has nothing to offer these youth.
The bosses are also coopting working-class collectivity for their nationalist purposes, turning a good thing into a bad thing. It is on the basis of human need, rather than nationality and ethnicity, that prompted the working class in Mexico to show solidarity and save lives. Nationalism remains a deadly path that seeks to sever our class.
Capitalism Is Not Forever
Capitalism will not last forever, the working class will rise and change this murdering system. We can turn the terror of the earthquake into hope for the future. A future free of oppression, death, profit, and criminal negligence. That is the message that comrades of PLP have been spreading amongst our friends in the support brigades we have participated. Our challenge is to transform the potential of the spontaneous solidarity among workers, into the reality of the power of a permanent organization for communism.