Capitalism is quick to lay the blame on the shoulders of their
victims. In that way, Capitalism is able to also pass along the costs
incurred by the aftermath of their plundering. Here in Western
Washington, it is the large timber companies. The Timber Company
clear cuts the forest. In recent times they are responsible for
preparing the land and planting new saplings. But this planting must
wait for about two years. Meanwhile, Western Washington rains
continue pouring down, without regard to whether the land is protected
by forests, or not. Massive mud slides slide down steep hillsides,
covering roads and highways, knocking over all in their path. The
Timber Companies claim that they are not responsible for the weather.
The Victims of these slides, the Public, cover the cost of removing
the sludge from the roads. Property owners are responsible for
clearing their own land and pastures.
The Timber Companies used to own their logging trucks, and hire
drivers, and maintain the trucks, and pay for the many licenses and
permits required. But today the trucks are owned by the contracting
loggers. Each logger is responsible for his own truck, passing safety
inspections, covering all expenses, including his own medical
insurance, liability insurance, sick leave and vacation costs. I
spoke with several drivers a few years ago, when we were having some
logging done, and they said that at the time they needed to make three
trips per day in order to make a living. The travel time, the loading
and unloading time and any interruptions meant that they needed at
least 12 hours per day to make the three trips. And yet, none of the
loggers I spoke with blamed the Timber Companies. They pointed to the
Federal and State governments, claiming that all of the regulations
and laws were to blame.
Not one of these loggers felt it was wrong for the Companies to offer
such meager contracts s. They were convinced that if the regulations
were removed, the Timber Companies would offer the loggers more money.
None of these men were old enough to recall conditions in the logging
camps back in the early 1900's.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/20/18, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://themilitant.com/2018/12/19/workers-face-capitalist-disdain-in-wake-of-wildfire-social-catastrophe/
Workers face capitalist disdain in wake of wildfire social catastrophe
By Jeff Powers
Vol. 82/No. 48
December 24, 2018
SWP member Joel Britton, left, talks with carpenter Tony Worino in his
RV at fire refugee center in Chico, Calif. “How do the rich control
everything and manipulate us?” Worino asked.
Militant/Eric Simpson
SWP member Joel Britton, left, talks with carpenter Tony Worino in his
RV at fire refugee center in Chico, Calif. “How do the rich control
everything and manipulate us?” Worino asked.
CHICO, Calif. — Since firefighters declared the Camp Fire 100 percent
contained, the extent of the social catastrophe that accompanied the
blaze — a product of the dog-eat-dog capitalist profit system — is
becoming clearer. The catastrophe took the lives of over 80 people,
burned 153,000 acres, forced over 50,000 people to flee, destroyed
14,000 houses, and almost completely obliterated the towns of Paradise,
Magalia and Concow.
Many of those who lost their homes and belongings took refuge in Chico,
the nearest town that hadn’t been torched. Shelters and camps were set
up where thousands got housing and hundreds of workers and students
volunteered to provide food and aid.
On Dec. 7 a team of Socialist Workers Party members from Oakland
expressed solidarity and met workers at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds.
It’s the only Red Cross shelter in the area and home to 500 people.
RVs and cars with people living in them dot the parking lot. Carpenter
Tony Worino, 63, welcomed the SWP campaigners into his RV. “My clients
for finish carpentry have all been burned out,” he told us, saying he
would have to move.
“How do so few people control everything and manipulate us?” he asked.
“For the rich we are just consumers.”
“Working people face a dictatorship of capital,” SWP member Joel Britton
said. “But we have the numbers and the capacity to wage struggles to
rebuild a fighting labor movement and fight for a workers and farmers
government.”
We also met Ramiro Ariaz Jr., who is living in a pickup truck. “It’s
hard living here. Lunch was yogurt, a fruit cup and an apple,” he said.
“I applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency three or four
times and they haven’t given me anything.”
FEMA officials made a big deal Dec. 6 about how they were bringing
housing to an RV park outside of Corning. It turned out to be a grand
total of 12 trailers.
Knocking on doors in Chico
We also knocked on workers’ doors in Chico.
“There was only a 1 percent vacancy rate in town before the fire,”
building maintenance worker Kenny Hicks said. “There is hardly any place
available to rent. This is a college town — California State University
is here. When the students vacate their apartments this summer they’re
going to be snapped up by people who lost their homes in the fire. There
will be no place for the students when they return.”
We met Julie Whited at the front door of a nearby house. She was living
in Paradise when the fire broke out. She lost everything. Whited is a
counselor at the Catalyst women’s shelter in Chico, where she’s worked
for 20 years. Friends in town gave her a place to stay.
“I work nights and went to bed at 4 a.m., so I was asleep when my son
called on the morning of the fire,” she said. “I thought it was still
night because it was black outside. He told me I had to leave. I grabbed
a few things and drove out of town.”
“I don’t have renters’ insurance. I applied to FEMA for help. I’m lucky,
they got back to me fairly quickly and cut me a check for $894 for
rental assistance,” she said.
Whited and other workers at the women’s shelter organized to join the
Communications Workers of America union. “After we got the union, my
wages immediately went up. I had been working eight hours a night but
they had only been paying us for five. They said we were sleeping and we
didn’t deserve the money,” she said. “The union got back pay for us,
plus more money per day.” The union is also helping with emergency
relief she said.
Whited and Evan Shuman, an agricultural worker in the neighborhood, got
subscriptions to the Militant. Shuman also bought Is Socialist
Revolution in the US Possible? by Socialist Workers Party leader
Mary-Alice Waters.
A few houses down the street Francisco Bailon, a student at Chico High
School, answered the door. “I’m in the choir at school,” he said. “The
head of the choir from Paradise High asked if we would be part of a tour
he was arranging for high school choirs to tour local towns to bring joy
to people hurt by the fire. Everybody volunteered.”
Rebuilding twisted by capitalism
It will be a long, slow and expensive process before homes in Paradise
are rebuilt. Everything involved will be twisted and distorted by the
profit system.
The land has to be cleared of debris. Builders have to be found and
prices agreed to. There is a shortage of construction workers, many who
used to live in the area. FEMA will never help workers really recover.
In last year’s Tubbs Fire, in the Santa Rosa area, 5,600 homes were
destroyed. So far only 200 have been rebuilt.
Camp Fire began under Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s high-voltage
transmission lines, its likely cause. The lines were built in 1919 above
the resort town of Pulga close to Paradise. The company reported
problems there right before the fire. Some towers on the line were
replaced in 2016, but that one was not.
PG&E has been hit by dozens of lawsuits and judgments of millions of
dollars over responsibility for recent wildfires. The bosses had judged
it better to pay people off than make repairs to aging equipment or keep
areas around wires clear of tinder.
The same thing is happening again with Camp Fire. Recently passed laws
in California allow PG&E to pass costs from legal judgments along to
customers in higher rates. In the last seven years monthly bills for
PG&E electricity have soared 46 percent.
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Working people win gains, dignity in French protests
•‘Militant’: Take story of yellow vest movement to US workers
•US rulers push Beijing for trade and tariff concessions
•New readers of Militant, books: Join SWP in campaigning!
•Workers face capitalist disdain in wake of wildfire social catastrophe
•Kaiser health care workers strike over heavy workload
Feature Articles •Working people in Mosul rebuild lives, culture after
defeat of Islamic State
Also In This Issue •Keep up pressure against Florida prison censorship!
•Puerto Rico unions protest gov’t health care cuts
•Dallas cop charged with murder for killing Botham Jean
•Mosul ‘reading festival’ celebrates return of art, literature
•Sulaymaniyah students protest campus conditions
•Socialist Workers Party Fund Drive (Final)
•Fall Campaign to sell Militant subscriptions and books (Final)
On the Picket Line •Chicago charter teachers win strike for higher pay,
smaller classes
•Shipyard workers in Liverpool organize ‘rolling’ strike actions
Books of the Month •Lenin: ‘I declare war to death on Great Russian
chauvinism’
25, 50 and 75 years ago
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