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Nov. 8 & 15, 2012
workers.org
Workers clean up capitalist-made ‘super-storm’ By Kathy Durkin New York They are often unseen and unrecognized by the television cameras in the coverage of the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. However, unlike the politicians, bureaucrats and agency officials — who give press conferences and gloat about all they’re doing to fix the crisis — it is working people, community members and other progressive activists who are doing the real hard work of cleaning up the damage that was left in the storm’s wake. Union members from at least 13 major labor unions have formed a strong core of the workforce doing the crucial repairs. They are doing everything from fixing
subway lines to patching up homes, and providing and distributing basic necessities. Many of these workers were hit hard by the storm themselves. The Transport Workers Union blog reports, “Working people up and down the East Cost are pitching in. … Firefighters, public employees, utility workers, letter carriers, nurses, grocery store employees, hotel workers and others continued to work through the storm to make sure everyone is taken care of.” In devastated areas of New Jersey, public sector workers with Communications Workers of America “are on the job nearly round-the-clock … clearing and repairing roads and bridges” and helping people get medical attention, reported the union’s
Agency of repression
What is FEMA? By Greg Butterfield New York The Federal Emergency Management Agency has won high praise from politicians and the corporate media for its response to Hurricane Sandy. It’s been said that FEMA’s activities this time around have removed the blot on the agency’s reputation following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, that it is a feather in the Obama administration’s cap, and may even prove pivotal to his re-election bid. People on the ground in affected communities, especially those that are predominately working-class and people of color, tell a very different story. “Where is FEMA?” has been a common refrain from community members, grassroots organizations and alternative media as millions feel the life-threatening effects of power and heating outages, lack of food, water and gasoline, evacuated and closed hospitals, and other unsafe conditions. These crises have been largely ignored by federal, state and local officials, who seem far more concerned with restoring stock markets and slot machines. It’s a good time to recall FEMA’s origins and true purpose, which shed light on why some activists have labeled the agency’s disaster relief programs a “smokescreen.” It’s not just about Katrina — as horrible and criminal as the agency’s behavior was in that crisis. President Jimmy Carter established FEMA in 1979 to exercise broad executive powers under conditions of nuclear war, civil unrest and martial law, as well as natural disasters. Its major undertaking was to create the infrastructure for the U.S. government to survive and assert its military domination in the event of mass rebellion. During the 1980s, under Cold Warrior Ronald Reagan, its mandate grew to include explicit powers such as suspension of constitutional rights and indefinite detention. Oliver North, the infamous warmonger and criminal exposed for running drugs to fund Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries in the Iran-Contra scandal, was in charge of strengthening FEMA’s powers in the early 1980s. His role and the depths of repressive plotting behind the scenes were exposed in a July 5, 1987, article in the Miami Herald entitled “Reagan Aides and the ‘Secret’ Government.” This exposé was precipitated by a power struggle between
the neofascist and more “moderate” wings of the Reagan administration. North oversaw plans to establish FEMA prison camps — allegedly to house undocumented immigrants in the event of a mass border crossing. However, activists widely believed the camps were intended for anti-government protesters in the event of a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union or a U.S. invasion of Central America, or for communities of color in case of mass rebellions against racism and police brutality. Rounding up anti-war activists was one of the scenarios reported in the Miami Herald exposé. The destruction of the Soviet Union and the European socialist camp in the early 1990s brought about a change in tactics by the U.S. ruling class and its political representatives in Washington. More overt repression was now on the front burner in the name of the “war on crime” and fighting terrorism. FEMA-style powers — previously held in utmost secrecy — entered the mainstream with President Bill Clinton’s Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. However, this was just the beginning. After the 9/11 attacks, FEMA was absorbed by the Department of Homeland Security. Many of the repressive powers FEMA was projected to hold have since been implemented and “normalized” under the Bush and Obama administrations’ War on Terror regime, backed up by judicial and bipartisan congressional support. These powers include the Patriot Act, indefinite detention of individuals suspected of “terrorism,” presidential authority to determine what constitutes torture in defiance of U.S. and international laws, and mass roundups and deportations of undocumented workers. Additional examples are the repression against the Occupy Wall Street movement encampments in 2011, the National Defense Authorization Act, and the Obama administration’s assertion of its right to execute U.S. citizens in other countries via drone strikes. The list goes on. Has FEMA changed? The agency was nowhere to be seen in the public housing areas of Far Rockaway, Queens, following Hurricane Sandy. However, Sofia Gallisa Muriente, an activist with Occupy Sandy Relief NYC, saw and photographed armed DHS personnel in military gear carrying out a racist “stop-and-frisk” of three African-American youth.
blog on Nov. 1. CWA members are working 12-hour days, seven days a week to restore phone service, repair downed wires and bridges, reopen airports and more. Working people who don’t have unionized jobs are often helping in their communities but suffering from a lack of income. Many hourly, part-time or temporary workers could not get to work because there was no operating transportation or no safe route, or because the workplace was closed. For them a day’s pay – or even several days’ wages – is gone. These workers are only paid when they are at work, even in an all-out emergency. Some workers even walked long distances across bridges to get to their hourly jobs, just so they could pay the rent. In today’s so-called “recovery,” about 60 percent of jobs offer hourly wages. Many of these are low-wage jobs, and the workers, many of them African-American and Latino/a, have little or no job protections, no paid sick days or personal days – and certainly no compensated days for disasters.
Federal laws have far fewer protections for hourly workers than salaried employees when a catastrophe occurs; they don’t have to be paid if the workplace is closed. That’s why all working people must be given compensation for unpaid days off from work and for damage to their homes and possessions as a result of this crisis. In keeping with its program to support workers and communities hit by this capitalist-made disaster, the People’s Power Assembly says, “We commend the hard working sisters and brothers of the Transport Workers Union, city workers, Amtrak workers, nurses and hospital staff who have labored throughout this ‘super storm’ risking life and limb.” The PPA demands “that the trillions spent on war and occupation abroad be spent on compensating and paying reparations to the thousands of workers who have lost wages, suffered from property damage, and been hurt or injured. This includes small businesses and whole communities.”
New York’s railroad tunnels
Flooded for first time By a railroad worker Nov. 4 — Hurricane Sandy and capitalist disorganization have devastated railroads and transit lines serving New York and New Jersey. The railroad tunnels under the Hudson and East rivers were flooded for the first time since being opened in 1910. These tunnels connect New York City’s Pennsylvania Station with the rest of the country. Hundreds of thousands of people use them every day, riding Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit commuter trains. Tens of thousands ride the Amtrak trains that use these tunnels, too. Building these tunnels and Pennsylvania Station was a tremendous job that took years to complete. It’s not known how many workers were killed building them. Nobody even collected these grim statistics. Back then there were no safety laws or government agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that capitalist politicians claim “hinder business.” The Pennsylvania Railroad bosses actually refused to commemorate the workers who were killed. They instead erected statues of two Pennsylvania Railroad presidents — Alexander Cassatt and Samuel Rea. That’s what the world was like before the Russian, Chinese and Cuban revolutions, the 1930’s U.S. labor upsurge and the Black, Latino/a, Native and Asian liberation movements. Now, workers are pumping out these tunnels and making sure they’re safe to use. Amtrak, which owns the tunnels, was able to start using the south tube under the Hudson three days after Hurricane Sandy hit. As of almost a week later, the north tube continues to be pumped out. So New York City, the capital of capitalism, is now connected to all the states west of it by just a single track. In the 102 years since these tunnels were opened, the capitalists have refused to build any additional railroad infrastructure. The billionaire class can’t even construct a needed railroad freight tunnel under New York harbor, which is the reason the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was
set up by Congress in 1920. Two of the four railroad tunnels under the East River also continue to be closed. Many commuter trains will have to be cancelled. Because of the fantastically high cost of housing in New York City, many workers live elsewhere and must take these trains. The original Pennsylvania Station was a magnificent palace modeled after the Baths of Caracalla in ancient Rome. The main waiting room — which extended from 33rd to 31st Street — was made of travertine marble from Tivoli, Italy. The Pennsylvania Railroad built this station so the wealthy wouldn’t have to take a ferry across the Hudson. Sure, workers could buy tickets. But how many of those many thousands employed in the garment district’s sweatshops could afford it? With the advent of jet travel, the capitalists stopped taking luxury trains. They sloughed off money-losing passenger trains to state government commuter agencies and Amtrak. To make a few bucks, the Pennsylvania Railroad bosses starting tearing down their palace in 1963. Imposing station statues carved by workers were thrown into New Jersey swamps. It was outrage over the destruction of the original Pennsylvania Station that sparked historical preservation laws across the U.S. A transit system’s Ku Klux Klan boss The PATH transit tunnels — which connect Jersey City, Hoboken and Newark with Manhattan — are completely flooded. Workers are pumping them out around the clock. Some service will be shut down indefinitely. This is a tremendous blow to workers in Hoboken, Jersey City and the rest of New Jersey’s Hudson County. Every weekday more than 250,000 passengers take the PATH trains. Among them are New Jersey Transit passengers who take these trains from and to the Hoboken and Newark railroad stations. The PATH tunnels were opened in 1908 and 1909 as part of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad. Twenty workers were killed in 1880 building a tunnel from Hoboken, which was completed 28 years later. The promoter of the Hudson