You are here
Home ›Tornado Terror and Capitalist Calamity
Images of the destruction caused by the recent onslaught of violent tornadoes resembles that of the victims of American imperialism, completely leveled by bombs and explosions. The similarity continues, the victims of the ruin being composed of the poorest and most dejected from society.
Bombing raids, missile attacks, and destruction as a result of war is a clear act of violence that is easily visible. When it comes to natural disasters, nature is called the perpetrator. The death and debris is the result of an unfortunate accident instead of deliberate killing. This is how capitalist society rationalizes its effects. In both cases the terror from the sky are manufactured catastrophes from the capitalist shop of horrors.
April 25-28, 2011
April saw the greatest monthly record for tornadoes in the United States, with over 875 reported. The previous record for any month was 542. The tornado outbreak that marched across the South between April 25 and April 28 was the deadliest in almost a century, claiming over 322 lives, 237 in Alabama alone. (1)
Over 330 tornadoes touched down during those three days, including 3 that ranked a five on the Enhanced Fujita scale, the most powerful of tornadoes. (2) The storms made their arrival in Arkansas and traveled eastward, with catastrophic damage being dealt in Mississippi, then to Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and dissipating around Kentucky.
Starting from February 1 and ending May 24, over 519 people this year have died in tornado “accidents.” The circumstances of 297 of these deaths are considered “unknown”, meaning the information on whether the death occurred in a house, a mobile home, outside, or a vehicle hasn't been determined. However, of the 222 known deaths, 55% of these occurred in a mobile home. (3)
Tragedy in Joplin
Less than one month after the calamity that raged through the Deep South, another natural “accident” occurred in the small town of Joplin, Missouri on May 22. An EF5 tornado hit the town and surrounding area at 5:41 PM. The storm came and went in less than 20 minutes, but not without bringing with it the lives of over 134 people and leaving the town in a state of complete disrepair. The Joplin tornado is the deadliest single tornado since 1947. (4)
Whole neighborhoods flattened, businesses destroyed, power outages, communication cut, and people trapped under an avalanche of rubble. The screaming winds drowned out the screams of its victims.
Warning: Capitalist Disaster Area
When we see death, destruction, and disaster, capitalists and other assorted fat pockets see a public relations opportunity. Barack Obama and other politicians strike poses on top of the debris of some poor sucker's home and tell the film crew how they have never seen destruction like this ever before. The evening news is filled with reports of communities coming together and giving a helping hand, white-black and poor-rich getting over their differences to help one another. Even Walmart donated a hefty sum of a monumental $1 million (the rich do care).
However, something is different about a tornado strike or hurricanes in comparison to other disasters. Wildfires, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, avalanches... are easily exploited by the bosses and their media spokesmen. The exception that proves the rule would be Hurricane Katrina. Hurricanes come and go, causing “minimal” damage and death. However, “when the levees broke” every charlatan sprouted microphones from their hands and gave their outrage over this public policy “failure.” Some of the more despicable characters blamed it on the New Orleans residents who were so stupid as to not completely evacuate from the city weeks prior, how exactly they were to evacuate and where they would have gone is not answered (nor is it meant to be).
Katrina and the aforementioned disasters are blamed on human error, whether it is by public officials or the victims of the tragedy. This does not lead to a better understanding on why such disasters occurred after a survey of the “solutions” offered by the bosses. Increase federal funding for disaster relief, pump up investment into new Life Saving Technology™, or for the environmentally conscious, purchase recycled goods and use public transport to reduce your carbon footprint.
Tornadoes are something different. The violent winds are personified into conscious beings, who go on rampages and live on destruction. The kind of damage a tornado might inflict can't be known till it touches ground and its path is anyone's guess. Tornadoes are seen as something so outside of human control, that the damage and death is viewed as a given. Images on the television of homes and communities being completely flattened maybe tragic, but nothing unexpected.
The effects of natural disasters are dependent on the social arrangements in which people carry on their lives. Tornadoes are no exception.
Torn from the Same Cloth
One similarity that is noticed is the victims of tornadoes are overwhelmingly the most victimized of capitalist society. The average per capita income of the populations of the most devastated areas of the recent surge of tornado activity is $16,958. (5)
As mentioned previously, the majority of the known victims lived in mobile homes. It is no great discovery to point out that mobile homes are in greater danger of being destroyed than other structures, even by weak EF-0 tornadoes.
What is not asked is why are so many people living in mobile homes, and why in areas that are susceptible to destruction? Reformers see the problem being in the poor quality of the design of the home, thus the solution is to build better quality homes or sell shelters. Others may advocate raising the living standards of the victims, so they can eventually move to better areas. These solutions obviously miss the point, because there is a complete lack of understanding of the social dynamics at play.
Mobile homes are of obvious poor quality and poor design. Why? The only way we can understand is to understand how this is a predictable and necessary consequence of the capitalist mode of production.
Tornado activity is most frequent in the southern United States. The South has historically and remains less developed industrially as the northern United States. An exception to this is the “industrialization of agriculture”, which has thrown many people out of work, depresses the wages of farm work (which is often done by immigrants who are exploited even further by threat of blackmail), and absorbs large amounts of natural wealth such as land and water (the South often experiences “droughts” and public officials urge conservation, which means making sure enough water is available for agribusiness).
A large industrial reserve army exists in the South, and there is little sign they will be called to service any time soon. Their poverty and poor living conditions are imposed upon by the capitalist system. Sometimes, they are referred to by the classist slur “white trash”, which reflects the material reality that capitalism has tossed them out and has no more use for them.
The poverty stricken residents of the rural South encounter other issues that are specific to capitalist production and class society. The clear conflict between “town and country” is exposed in the infrastructure found in rural communities, especially poor rural communities. Roads are few, those that do exist are often in disrepair. Mobile home communities, colloquially known as “trailer parks”, brings together people close together in high concentrations. In case of a tornado or storm, electrical infrastructure can be damaged and made completely inoperable, preventing warnings from reaching the residents. Plumbing and communication can also be rendered useless. Houses turn into coffins.
The rise of the mobile home occurred during the post war boom. Mobile homes, an industrially manufactured commodity, began to be advertised as a cheap alternative to traditional housing, though not as permanent. Even while capitalism was undergoing a new phase of accumulation, the opportunity to depress living conditions was still exploited at every chance. Mobile homes were primarily first used as a temporary solution to deflate pressure on housing demands for workers moving to new areas for employment (and used for this purpose today by Israeli settlers in the West Bank). At the end of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the size of mobile homes began to increase to the point they were no longer “mobile.” The term “manufactured home” is now the “proper” way to refer to them. The increase in size with the corresponding loss in mobility was the first stage in turning mobile homes into permanent housing.
This is a generalized trend that is created by capitalism, the constant push to lower the living standards of the working class and the poorest of society. The present economic crisis has put this on full display. Millions are being forced into substandard housing or into homelessness due to the speculation on the housing supply.
The statistics referenced only cover deaths; they do not make mention of damage. The lowest ranking of tornadoes, an EF-0, is enough to take a mobile home off of its foundation and cause serious damage. It is not an extravagant leap to say that the damage and destruction done to people living in mobile homes (as well as cheap, cookie cutter crafted traditional houses) is far more extensive.
The reality that mobile homes are frequently destroyed or damaged is openly acknowledged by the industries that sell them. An interest group for the manufactured housing industry, the Manufactured Housing Institute, states bluntly on their website:
While many like to joke that 'mobile homes attract tornadoes,' there is no meteorological or scientific basis to thinking that that theory. (sic) In fact, the explanation for the reports of damage to manufactured homes from tornadoes is quite simple: manufactured housing is largely found in rural and suburban areas where tornadoes are most likely to occur (6).
Amadeo Bordiga, in Battaglia Comunista No.24, referred to the conscious effort on the part of capitalists for the destruction of objectified labor as the “murder of the dead.” The example that he gave was of automobile industries designing cars that break down in a few years time, for the purpose of selling new ones. There is little point in selling commodities that will fulfill the consumer's use for a lifetime if your purpose is the reinvestment of surplus value into new and expanded capital, which requires a constant market and constant selling. However, unlike the automobile example, this process involves a murder of the living.
Capitalism is the Culprit
Capitalism cannot offer an answer to the question on how to curb the effects of natural disasters; it cannot even pose the question. Death and destruction caused by tornadoes and other natural disasters have more to do with social relations than weather patterns (not to deny that social relations have an effect on the weather, as the pumping of greenhouse gases into the ozone is without a doubt behind the recent rash of violent weather). Social relations in capitalism are not arranged to the needs and concerns of the people in society, but to the needs of capital and its cancer like growth. Only in a society that can properly ask how this can be solved, will it be solved.
RS(1) "Annual Fatal Tornado Summaries." Storm Prediction Center. spc.noaa.gov
(3) "Annual Fatal Tornado Summaries." Storm Prediction Center. spc.noaa.gov
(4) "2011 Tornado Information." NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. noaanews.noaa.gov
(5) Joplin, MI – Lawrence County, AL – Faulkner County, AR – Monroe County, MS – Dekalb County, AL – Marion County, AL – Franklin County, AL – Tuscaloosa County, AL – Ringold, Georgia – Hamilton County, TN – Bradley County, TN – Cullman County, AL
(6) "Frequently Asked Questions." Manufactured Housing Institute, Modular Homes, Communities, Housing Industry Trade Association. manufacturedhousing.org
Start here...
- Navigating the Basics
- Platform
- For Communism
- Introduction to Our History
- CWO Social Media
- IWG Social Media
- Klasbatalo Social Media
- Italian Communist Left
- Russian Communist Left
The Internationalist Communist Tendency consists of (unsurprisingly!) not-for-profit organisations. We have no so-called “professional revolutionaries”, nor paid officials. Our sole funding comes from the subscriptions and donations of members and supporters. Anyone wishing to donate can now do so safely using the Paypal buttons below.
ICT publications are not copyrighted and we only ask that those who reproduce them acknowledge the original source (author and website leftcom.org). Purchasing any of the publications listed (see catalogue) can be done in two ways:
- By emailing us at uk@leftcom.org, us@leftcom.org or ca@leftcom.org and asking for our banking details
- By donating the cost of the publications required via Paypal using the “Donate” buttons
The CWO also offers subscriptions to Revolutionary Perspectives (3 issues) and Aurora (at least 4 issues):
- UK £15 (€18)
- Europe £20 (€24)
- World £25 (€30, $30)
Take out a supporter’s sub by adding £10 (€12) to each sum. This will give you priority mailings of Aurora and other free pamphlets as they are produced.
ICT sections
Basics
- Bourgeois revolution
- Competition and monopoly
- Core and peripheral countries
- Crisis
- Decadence
- Democracy and dictatorship
- Exploitation and accumulation
- Factory and territory groups
- Financialization
- Globalization
- Historical materialism
- Imperialism
- Our Intervention
- Party and class
- Proletarian revolution
- Seigniorage
- Social classes
- Socialism and communism
- State
- State capitalism
- War economics
Facts
- Activities
- Arms
- Automotive industry
- Books, art and culture
- Commerce
- Communications
- Conflicts
- Contracts and wages
- Corporate trends
- Criminal activities
- Disasters
- Discriminations
- Discussions
- Drugs and dependencies
- Economic policies
- Education and youth
- Elections and polls
- Energy, oil and fuels
- Environment and resources
- Financial market
- Food
- Health and social assistance
- Housing
- Information and media
- International relations
- Law
- Migrations
- Pensions and benefits
- Philosophy and religion
- Repression and control
- Science and technics
- Social unrest
- Terrorist outrages
- Transports
- Unemployment and precarity
- Workers' conditions and struggles
History
- 01. Prehistory
- 02. Ancient History
- 03. Middle Ages
- 04. Modern History
- 1800: Industrial Revolution
- 1900s
- 1910s
- 1911-12: Turko-Italian War for Libya
- 1912: Intransigent Revolutionary Fraction of the PSI
- 1912: Republic of China
- 1913: Fordism (assembly line)
- 1914-18: World War I
- 1917: Russian Revolution
- 1918: Abstentionist Communist Fraction of the PSI
- 1918: German Revolution
- 1919-20: Biennio Rosso in Italy
- 1919-43: Third International
- 1919: Hungarian Revolution
- 1930s
- 1931: Japan occupies Manchuria
- 1933-43: New Deal
- 1933-45: Nazism
- 1934: Long March of Chinese communists
- 1934: Miners' uprising in Asturias
- 1934: Workers' uprising in "Red Vienna"
- 1935-36: Italian Army Invades Ethiopia
- 1936-38: Great Purge
- 1936-39: Spanish Civil War
- 1937: International Bureau of Fractions of the Communist Left
- 1938: Fourth International
- 1940s
- 1960s
- 1980s
- 1979-89: Soviet war in Afghanistan
- 1980-88: Iran-Iraq War
- 1982: First Lebanon War
- 1982: Sabra and Chatila
- 1986: Chernobyl disaster
- 1987-93: First Intifada
- 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall
- 1979-90: Thatcher Government
- 1980: Strikes in Poland
- 1982: Falklands War
- 1983: Foundation of IBRP
- 1984-85: UK Miners' Strike
- 1987: Perestroika
- 1989: Tiananmen Square Protests
- 1990s
- 1991: Breakup of Yugoslavia
- 1991: Dissolution of Soviet Union
- 1991: First Gulf War
- 1992-95: UN intervention in Somalia
- 1994-96: First Chechen War
- 1994: Genocide in Rwanda
- 1999-2000: Second Chechen War
- 1999: Introduction of euro
- 1999: Kosovo War
- 1999: WTO conference in Seattle
- 1995: NATO Bombing in Bosnia
- 2000s
- 2000: Second intifada
- 2001: September 11 attacks
- 2001: Piqueteros Movement in Argentina
- 2001: War in Afghanistan
- 2001: G8 Summit in Genoa
- 2003: Second Gulf War
- 2004: Asian Tsunami
- 2004: Madrid train bombings
- 2005: Banlieue riots in France
- 2005: Hurricane Katrina
- 2005: London bombings
- 2006: Anti-CPE movement in France
- 2006: Comuna de Oaxaca
- 2006: Second Lebanon War
- 2007: Subprime Crisis
- 2008: Onda movement in Italy
- 2008: War in Georgia
- 2008: Riots in Greece
- 2008: Pomigliano Struggle
- 2008: Global Crisis
- 2008: Automotive Crisis
- 2009: Post-election crisis in Iran
- 2009: Israel-Gaza conflict
- 2020s
- 1920s
- 1921-28: New Economic Policy
- 1921: Communist Party of Italy
- 1921: Kronstadt Rebellion
- 1922-45: Fascism
- 1922-52: Stalin is General Secretary of PCUS
- 1925-27: Canton and Shanghai revolt
- 1925: Comitato d'Intesa
- 1926: General strike in Britain
- 1926: Lyons Congress of PCd’I
- 1927: Vienna revolt
- 1928: First five-year plan
- 1928: Left Fraction of the PCd'I
- 1929: Great Depression
- 1950s
- 1970s
- 1969-80: Anni di piombo in Italy
- 1971: End of the Bretton Woods System
- 1971: Microprocessor
- 1973: Pinochet's military junta in Chile
- 1975: Toyotism (just-in-time)
- 1977-81: International Conferences Convoked by PCInt
- 1977: '77 movement
- 1978: Economic Reforms in China
- 1978: Islamic Revolution in Iran
- 1978: South Lebanon conflict
- 2010s
- 2010: Greek debt crisis
- 2011: War in Libya
- 2011: Indignados and Occupy movements
- 2011: Sovereign debt crisis
- 2011: Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster in Japan
- 2011: Uprising in Maghreb
- 2014: Euromaidan
- 2016: Brexit Referendum
- 2017: Catalan Referendum
- 2019: Maquiladoras Struggle
- 2010: Student Protests in UK and Italy
- 2011: War in Syria
- 2013: Black Lives Matter Movement
- 2014: Military Intervention Against ISIS
- 2015: Refugee Crisis
- 2018: Haft Tappeh Struggle
- 2018: Climate Movement
People
- Amadeo Bordiga
- Anton Pannekoek
- Antonio Gramsci
- Arrigo Cervetto
- Bruno Fortichiari
- Bruno Maffi
- Celso Beltrami
- Davide Casartelli
- Errico Malatesta
- Fabio Damen
- Fausto Atti
- Franco Migliaccio
- Franz Mehring
- Friedrich Engels
- Giorgio Paolucci
- Guido Torricelli
- Heinz Langerhans
- Helmut Wagner
- Henryk Grossmann
- Karl Korsch
- Karl Liebknecht
- Karl Marx
- Leon Trotsky
- Lorenzo Procopio
- Mario Acquaviva
- Mauro jr. Stefanini
- Michail Bakunin
- Onorato Damen
- Ottorino Perrone (Vercesi)
- Paul Mattick
- Rosa Luxemburg
- Vladimir Lenin
Politics
- Anarchism
- Anti-Americanism
- Anti-Globalization Movement
- Antifascism and United Front
- Antiracism
- Armed Struggle
- Autonomism and Workerism
- Base Unionism
- Bordigism
- Communist Left Inspired
- Cooperativism and autogestion
- DeLeonism
- Environmentalism
- Fascism
- Feminism
- German-Dutch Communist Left
- Gramscism
- ICC and French Communist Left
- Islamism
- Italian Communist Left
- Leninism
- Liberism
- Luxemburgism
- Maoism
- Marxism
- National Liberation Movements
- Nationalism
- No War But The Class War
- PCInt-ICT
- Pacifism
- Parliamentary Center-Right
- Parliamentary Left and Reformism
- Peasant movement
- Revolutionary Unionism
- Russian Communist Left
- Situationism
- Stalinism
- Statism and Keynesism
- Student Movement
- Titoism
- Trotskyism
- Unionism
Regions
User login
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Comments
Good piece it highlights the insanity of capitalism combined with the cynical disregard of workers safety. There's also the point that where capitalst development has taken place it has been in some of the worse imaginable places possible. Housing built on flood plains, nuclear power plants built on fault lines next to the ocean. There's millions more examples of such disregard for safety. profit drives all.
Great article! I could have been imagining the situation of our people today when disasters have come on us. I felt pity for those people who are really being affected by the said calamity and I would have cry a lot especially when I see some scenario like this as I have been browsing the net. I could not do anything just to ease their pain and trauma that they are now experiencing. It was such a great burden for them to have nothing aside from their clothes on their body. I would do a prayer for them and if I could take out payday loan, I would give them at least an amount of it. I hope we could have a peaceful world with no one is suffering.
CandiceR you are right the suffering of those caught up in these disasters is truly appaling especially when they need not happen. All that is required is that proper infrasrtucture is put into place that can alleviate the disaster. After all there is enough knowledge on how to make bulidings secure in earthquake zones while flood defences can easily be put into place. What stops this is that not enough profit can be made for the capitalists. We need a world where production is put to use for human purposes and that can only happen when the working class on a global scale takes political power. So while I can empathise with CandiceR suffering and take it as an example of compassion unfortunately this is not enough. A peaceful world is possible but not under capitalism.
CandiceR you are too kind. Takecout a loan and give it to the victims of the latest disaster caused by the greedy capitalist system, and Obama, the Republicans, theJapanese government, and all those who govern in the name of profit making, will be grateful to you. If you are happy to pay for their mistakes, they will be happy to let you. Throw in a prayer and they'll laugh up their sleeves! (not in public however). If you are really sympathetic to the downtrodden and desperate, then pray for the overthrow of the capitalist system, which almost alone is responsible for the horrific condition of life on this planet. We can have a world of peace and happiness, but not under a system whose only reason for being is making a profit.
I work as an accountant in italy and there was a mini tornado in sicily last month which caused $$$ millions of damage. That was my first tornado, really scary and I am really glad Im alive