A "Catastophic Success" A Holocaust Shaped by
Race: editorial commentary
Sept. 3, 2005
liz burbank
In the millions of words written about the Gulf
Coast nightmare, few
commentators have nailed the real
culprit--capitalist racism.
The truth is that this disaster is not a result
of 'mother nature' and
bureaucratic bumbling. As several articles below
document, the disaster was
anticipated. Many studies and an exercise two
years ago called "Hurricane
Pam" almost exactly projected the results of
Katrina. This nightmare is a
crime of premeditated physical & psychological
terrorism designed to erode
the coherence and resistance of the Black nation
and to inflame even worse
racism by portraying Blacks who are being
inhumanly subjected to torture &
treated worse than animals -- as 'thugs'
attacking & impeding their
beneficent white saviors humanitarian efforts
--who as slavemasters always
do, come to the 'rescue' after the fact with guns
trained on the victims for
the benefit of the capitalist's class & race
order.
White supremacist america and its capitalist
empire was built on the blood,
bones and lives of millions of Indigenous people
and Black slaves. The
racist genocide has never stopped, its tactics
just get more sophisticated.
Never cowed or defeated, the Black nation which
grew out of the struggle
against white enslavement, has always been both
the leading political edge
of revolution in this country--and also the
lynchpin capitalism depends on
for super-exploitation and to divide & conquer
the multinational working
class.
People in New Orleans remember history, too-- in
the great flood of 1927,
vast numbers of black men in the city were
rounded up by police and sheriffs
and impounded under armed guard, essentially as a
reserve slave labor force
for the levees if it came to it. Meanwhile
whites-only trains evacuated
the city. As it was, the levees of New Orleans
held up-- because they
released pressure on them by dynamiting levees
below the city-- so the flood
waters drowned out the Cajuns in the swamps. The
bitter popular reaction to
all that was what helped bring Huey Long, the
King Fish, to power.
There's some Bad Blood down there as well as high
water.
The historical political and cultural bonds of
Black national resistance
represents a threat the US has never been able to
conquer: from the fields,
factories, and cities to the battlefields of
Vietnam, Blacks led the
struggle against the unjust, racist imperialist
war and the system that
needs these wars to expand its domination. Black
soldiers brought the war
home and with the powerful the Black liberation
movement led by the Black
Panther Party, it grew into the mighty
revolutionary upsurge of 60-70's
uniting millions against imperialism that
threatened capitalist rule. Now
as the US crusade to establish hegemony of a
global "new world order"
[what they intend to be the fulfillment of their
white christian 'manifest
destiny'] is being defeated by the heroic Iraqi
resistance, the bloodsuckers
are desperate to disperse and destroy what they
fear will become their
gravediggers-- revolutionary opposition and
leadership.
The Katrina holocaust was calculated. This is
why assistance--ambulances,
trucks of water and other essential supplies were
turned away, why no
amphibious military vehicles or boats rescued
people from the Superdome,
which backs right up to the water, why 5 days
late the Federal 'rescue' is
guns, tanks and Martial Law. In the context of
the US history's non-stop
genocidal crimes, subjecting 70% of the
population to terror after first
evacuating property-owners, is just business as
usual. On the Sunday of
"mandatory" evacuation, the people who left were
rich enough and well
enough to get out-- minimally, they could get to
a car. The greyhound bus
terminal and Amtrak had shut down on Saturday
night, so everybody without
wheels was forced to stay. The people who were
directed to the Superdome
were treated like criminals and not allowed to
leave after the hurricane
passed. Right now they are basically prisoners
en route to the Astrodome,
another "prison", in another state, Texas.
What's different this time is that the entire
world is seeing the racist &
hypocritical nature of this 'democratic beacon
that invades other countries
under the pretext of exporting democracy while
treating the oppressed in
the "homeland" with fascistic brutality. People
who have never seen and
thus never understood the barbaric nature of this
system are shocked
--because with class & race privilege such
treatment by the state is
'foreign', 'not american'. Which is true because
american, as Toni Morrison
explained [in "Whiteness & the Literary
Imagination: Playing in the Dark"]
has always been code for white. A Spanish
politician tourist & spouse
trapped in the Dome said to the camera --[some
reporters & cameramen after
days in the midst of the horror seem genuinely
angry willing to go out on a
limb more than usual by airing such
comments]--this is genocide imprisoning
tens of thousands of people without food, water,
sanitation, medical care...
Shortly after the couple was removed by a small
army of troops as thousands
of mostly Black, all very poor people, barely
clinging to life without food
or water for days,watched in despair and anger.
New Orleans is part of the US agenda which frames
and conditions every
single aspect of life everywhere now--part of a
fascist war of terror
against all who impede or resist their goal of
global dictatorship. The
barbaric degradation and dehumanization,
orchestrated by the "Dept. of
Homeland Security", is designed to crush the
dignity, courage, spirit and
survival of the most oppressed. They have
carefully constructed the
conditions for a Black diaspora, degrading the
immense historical
contributions of Blacks in this country to create
a material reality and
portrayal of desperate, dirty people uprooted,
totally impoverished,
forcibly dependent on the state for survival and
thus basically enslaved --
an indigenous refugee population similar to the
Indians-- a portrayal
by which they intend to inspire fear &
contempt--and 'justification' for
a military "state of emergency" -- a police
state.
This is a 'natural act': capitalism in its
relentless, ruthless search for
profit is responsible for the environmental and
financial conditions that
produced the horrendous 90 sq. mile damage and
for the bloodcurdling
brutality of its exploitation of the disaster.
The so-called 'rescue'
methods are part of the plan--to disperse &
weaken Black community and
family structures, herding people like animals
away from their destroyed
homes & lives with nothing, no control and no
hope for the future.
Do not buy opportunist laments of "inadequate
response","negligence" etc.
Just as after 9/11, they are a lie. This is a
crime of commission, not
omission. This unmitigated horror was a
"catastrophic success" for "Homeland
Security's first national emergency test case".
We and the rest of the
world cannot afford to again be lulled into the
arms of this vile
administration's equally predatory democrat
partners. Bush is an odious
figurehead-- but the imperial power is in the
hands that pull his strings.
Let's not again be tricked into the opportunists'
"anybody but bush" trap.
The state terrorist political-economic system is
responsible, not just a
republican regime which will instantly be
replaced by complicit democrats
to fulfill the same bipartisan global
totalitarian agenda . This horror has
and should arouse our deepest emotions of
sadness, anger and compassion,
but let's not fall for the hypocritical
crocodile tears and cynical appeals
for charity to assuage their guilt and ours.
These massive crimes against
humanity must not be exploited and hidden. We
must turn these unspeakable
crimes into political ammunition against the
perpetrators, organize
resistance against this cruel racist system and
rebuild a society based on
justice and peace. Let us stand up and defend
our sisters & brothers on the
Gulf Coast, in Iraq, Africa, Palestine, Haiti,
Iran--everywhere US
imperialism & zionism grinds the people into dirt
for its profits and
power--we face the same enemy,we share the same
profound hopes for
a decent world and future.
Will we stop being distracted and deceived and
allow this depravity to
arouse our humanity and fury, to snap us out of
comfortable denial and
disinterest? Will we finally connect the global
dots of imperialist terror
from Palestine to Haiti, from Biloxi to Baghdad,
from Africa to the Gulf
Coast? If not, what will it take or will we
continue being complicit
"good germans"?
Race: editorial commentary
Sept. 3, 2005
liz burbank
In the millions of words written about the Gulf
Coast nightmare, few
commentators have nailed the real
culprit--capitalist racism.
The truth is that this disaster is not a result
of 'mother nature' and
bureaucratic bumbling. As several articles below
document, the disaster was
anticipated. Many studies and an exercise two
years ago called "Hurricane
Pam" almost exactly projected the results of
Katrina. This nightmare is a
crime of premeditated physical & psychological
terrorism designed to erode
the coherence and resistance of the Black nation
and to inflame even worse
racism by portraying Blacks who are being
inhumanly subjected to torture &
treated worse than animals -- as 'thugs'
attacking & impeding their
beneficent white saviors humanitarian efforts
--who as slavemasters always
do, come to the 'rescue' after the fact with guns
trained on the victims for
the benefit of the capitalist's class & race
order.
White supremacist america and its capitalist
empire was built on the blood,
bones and lives of millions of Indigenous people
and Black slaves. The
racist genocide has never stopped, its tactics
just get more sophisticated.
Never cowed or defeated, the Black nation which
grew out of the struggle
against white enslavement, has always been both
the leading political edge
of revolution in this country--and also the
lynchpin capitalism depends on
for super-exploitation and to divide & conquer
the multinational working
class.
People in New Orleans remember history, too-- in
the great flood of 1927,
vast numbers of black men in the city were
rounded up by police and sheriffs
and impounded under armed guard, essentially as a
reserve slave labor force
for the levees if it came to it. Meanwhile
whites-only trains evacuated
the city. As it was, the levees of New Orleans
held up-- because they
released pressure on them by dynamiting levees
below the city-- so the flood
waters drowned out the Cajuns in the swamps. The
bitter popular reaction to
all that was what helped bring Huey Long, the
King Fish, to power.
There's some Bad Blood down there as well as high
water.
The historical political and cultural bonds of
Black national resistance
represents a threat the US has never been able to
conquer: from the fields,
factories, and cities to the battlefields of
Vietnam, Blacks led the
struggle against the unjust, racist imperialist
war and the system that
needs these wars to expand its domination. Black
soldiers brought the war
home and with the powerful the Black liberation
movement led by the Black
Panther Party, it grew into the mighty
revolutionary upsurge of 60-70's
uniting millions against imperialism that
threatened capitalist rule. Now
as the US crusade to establish hegemony of a
global "new world order"
[what they intend to be the fulfillment of their
white christian 'manifest
destiny'] is being defeated by the heroic Iraqi
resistance, the bloodsuckers
are desperate to disperse and destroy what they
fear will become their
gravediggers-- revolutionary opposition and
leadership.
The Katrina holocaust was calculated. This is
why assistance--ambulances,
trucks of water and other essential supplies were
turned away, why no
amphibious military vehicles or boats rescued
people from the Superdome,
which backs right up to the water, why 5 days
late the Federal 'rescue' is
guns, tanks and Martial Law. In the context of
the US history's non-stop
genocidal crimes, subjecting 70% of the
population to terror after first
evacuating property-owners, is just business as
usual. On the Sunday of
"mandatory" evacuation, the people who left were
rich enough and well
enough to get out-- minimally, they could get to
a car. The greyhound bus
terminal and Amtrak had shut down on Saturday
night, so everybody without
wheels was forced to stay. The people who were
directed to the Superdome
were treated like criminals and not allowed to
leave after the hurricane
passed. Right now they are basically prisoners
en route to the Astrodome,
another "prison", in another state, Texas.
What's different this time is that the entire
world is seeing the racist &
hypocritical nature of this 'democratic beacon
that invades other countries
under the pretext of exporting democracy while
treating the oppressed in
the "homeland" with fascistic brutality. People
who have never seen and
thus never understood the barbaric nature of this
system are shocked
--because with class & race privilege such
treatment by the state is
'foreign', 'not american'. Which is true because
american, as Toni Morrison
explained [in "Whiteness & the Literary
Imagination: Playing in the Dark"]
has always been code for white. A Spanish
politician tourist & spouse
trapped in the Dome said to the camera --[some
reporters & cameramen after
days in the midst of the horror seem genuinely
angry willing to go out on a
limb more than usual by airing such
comments]--this is genocide imprisoning
tens of thousands of people without food, water,
sanitation, medical care...
Shortly after the couple was removed by a small
army of troops as thousands
of mostly Black, all very poor people, barely
clinging to life without food
or water for days,watched in despair and anger.
New Orleans is part of the US agenda which frames
and conditions every
single aspect of life everywhere now--part of a
fascist war of terror
against all who impede or resist their goal of
global dictatorship. The
barbaric degradation and dehumanization,
orchestrated by the "Dept. of
Homeland Security", is designed to crush the
dignity, courage, spirit and
survival of the most oppressed. They have
carefully constructed the
conditions for a Black diaspora, degrading the
immense historical
contributions of Blacks in this country to create
a material reality and
portrayal of desperate, dirty people uprooted,
totally impoverished,
forcibly dependent on the state for survival and
thus basically enslaved --
an indigenous refugee population similar to the
Indians-- a portrayal
by which they intend to inspire fear &
contempt--and 'justification' for
a military "state of emergency" -- a police
state.
This is a 'natural act': capitalism in its
relentless, ruthless search for
profit is responsible for the environmental and
financial conditions that
produced the horrendous 90 sq. mile damage and
for the bloodcurdling
brutality of its exploitation of the disaster.
The so-called 'rescue'
methods are part of the plan--to disperse &
weaken Black community and
family structures, herding people like animals
away from their destroyed
homes & lives with nothing, no control and no
hope for the future.
Do not buy opportunist laments of "inadequate
response","negligence" etc.
Just as after 9/11, they are a lie. This is a
crime of commission, not
omission. This unmitigated horror was a
"catastrophic success" for "Homeland
Security's first national emergency test case".
We and the rest of the
world cannot afford to again be lulled into the
arms of this vile
administration's equally predatory democrat
partners. Bush is an odious
figurehead-- but the imperial power is in the
hands that pull his strings.
Let's not again be tricked into the opportunists'
"anybody but bush" trap.
The state terrorist political-economic system is
responsible, not just a
republican regime which will instantly be
replaced by complicit democrats
to fulfill the same bipartisan global
totalitarian agenda . This horror has
and should arouse our deepest emotions of
sadness, anger and compassion,
but let's not fall for the hypocritical
crocodile tears and cynical appeals
for charity to assuage their guilt and ours.
These massive crimes against
humanity must not be exploited and hidden. We
must turn these unspeakable
crimes into political ammunition against the
perpetrators, organize
resistance against this cruel racist system and
rebuild a society based on
justice and peace. Let us stand up and defend
our sisters & brothers on the
Gulf Coast, in Iraq, Africa, Palestine, Haiti,
Iran--everywhere US
imperialism & zionism grinds the people into dirt
for its profits and
power--we face the same enemy,we share the same
profound hopes for
a decent world and future.
Will we stop being distracted and deceived and
allow this depravity to
arouse our humanity and fury, to snap us out of
comfortable denial and
disinterest? Will we finally connect the global
dots of imperialist terror
from Palestine to Haiti, from Biloxi to Baghdad,
from Africa to the Gulf
Coast? If not, what will it take or will we
continue being complicit
"good germans"?
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