Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM)

For struggle, Solidarity and Socialism in Nigeria

Committee for a Workers' International

Home

Join DSM

Contact DSM

About us

Our Manifesto

Statements

Socialist Democracy

Newspaper of the DSM

Campaigns

NCP

Trade Unions

Students

Women

International

Downloads

email

Socialist Democracy March - April 2005

The Tsunami disaster of December 26, 2004 where over 226,000 were dead, 500,000 injured, two million people desperate for food and five million made homeless is another proof of the fact that capitalism a blind profit system is incapable of protecting the lives of ten of thousands in the Indian Ocean countries. Capitalism is a profit system that destroys the lives of million on daily basis.

Yes, it could be argued that the Sumatra earthquake and the subsequent tsunamis were a natural disaster and therefore has nothing to do with capitalism. But if the Tsunami had occurred in countries around pacific, led by US and Japan, there could have been minimal death and destruction. Reasons: They have a sophisticated earthquake and Tsunami warning system that could give an advance warning of approaching Tsunamis. Again, in the advanced capitalist countries, especially, on the west coast of the US and Japan, technology is used to ensure that most buildings could withstand major quakes.

The need to save money to purchasing, installing and maintaining Tsunami early warning system which is a peanut compared with the needless loss of thousands of lives, property worth billions of dollars and of course, cost of rescue has been the reason by the capitalist governments for not installing it. Meanwhile, the cost of installing it is between $20 - $30 million. Natural disasters like earthquakes are unstoppable but predicting them is within the human capacity, which gives humanity a limited period of time to move human beings and movable property away from the about to be affected zone. But because of greed for profit, capitalist governments internationally have been unable to have global co-operation on the warning system which has the capacity of at least four hours advance warning!

According to January 3 Financial Times for instance, Seismologists at Thailand's meteorological office, who knew of the powerful earthquake within minutes withheld issuing an alert because they feared "damaging the tourist industry". To protect profit, over 800 tourists on the Idyllic beach of Khaolak, Thailand perished! Half an hour warning was enough to minimize casualties in all the affected 13 Asian and African countries.

The generous response and donations of ordinary people, especially from the advanced capitalist countries to the Tsunami victims is very instructive. It is a graphic example of human solidarity and internationalism. In Britain for instance, individual donations per hour is estimated to be one million pound. This solidarity is one of the key factors that forced Bush to increase US aid to Tsunami victims from the initial $35 million to $350 million. Meanwhile, same Bush spends $4.5 billion monthly to prosecute war and killings of Iraqi people.

In order to strengthen its strategic position in the India Ocean and regain its lost prestige over Iraq occupation, US imperialism is hypocritically playing a leading role in the current crisis. It is frantically trying to support governments whose stability is threatened as a result of the disaster. US imperialism will assist these governments and subsequently, get a pay back in terms of bases and facilities for its military preserve.

Again, G8 committee of richest countries of the world- has agreed to a one-year debt moratorium for Indonesia and other affected Tsunami countries. But suspension of the debt repayment is not enough. All the debts acclaimed to have been owed by the poor countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa must be cancelled. The so-called debts are scams and scandalous. For example, Nigeria is said to borrow $5 billion but has paid back $16 billion but still owes $16 billion on same debt!

Apart from making the debt permanent, in most cases, the loans are given to leaders who misappropriate or embezzle them while the poor masses are made to bear the permanent brunt of repayment and lay the basis for their governments for lack of social amenities like good roads, qualitative education, potable water, etc .

The disaster should be an eye opener to the oppressed people of the world that capitalism is much concerned with its short-term profit and cannot plan for the future. This tsunami has further exposed the capitalist governments of the Africa, Asia and Latin Americans that they are incapable to protect local people and ensure basic necessities of life for the majority of world population living in the continents.

We salute the sense of international solidarity, especially of the young people for donation of emergency aid to the victims. However, this relief aid should be coordinated and directed by the elected council of workers without any discrimination between different ethnic, religious caste, etc to guard against corruption and ensure that rebuilding meets the aspiration of the masses. More importantly, there is need to struggle to enthrone an alternative system to capitalism, Socialism - where the means of production are democratically controlled and managed by the elected workers representative where needs of the people take priority over profit.

Socialist Democracy March - April 2005