It's Time to Take Back Our Oil and Gas

Nationalize Oil and the Oil Industry
Under Community and Workers Control

Nationalize oil firms, almost half of Canadians say

Montreal — Almost half of Canadians wanted to see their petroleum resources and their gas companies nationalized as fuel prices hit record levels, a new poll suggests.

The Leger Marketing telephone survey of 1,500 people was conducted between Aug. 24 and Aug. 31, the bulk being done before the devastating effects of hurricane Katrina were felt.

n the Leger poll, which was provided to The Canadian Press, 49 per cent of respondents wanted petroleum resources nationalized while 43 per cent said they would like to see the same fate for gas companies.

Quebeckers were the strongest supporters of resource nationalization at 67 per cent, followed by residents of the Atlantic provinces at 53 per cent, Ontarians at 45 per cent and British Columbia at 42 per cent.

Forty per cent of respondents on the Prairies and 36 per cent of Albertans were in favour. Among those opposed, Albertans led the way at 49 per cent followed by British Columbians at 39 per cent.

Quebec led in support for nationalization of oil companies, with 61 per cent in favour, followed by the Atlantic provinces (46 per cent). Alberta was most opposed at 59 per cent, followed by the Prairies (49 per cent), B.C. 46 per cent and Ontario, 41 per cent.

We need to seriously look at the success Venezuala has had with its nationalization under workers control for a model of what to do in Canada with our Gas and Oil Reserves, the majority being in Alberta, and the American Oil companies.

In this case it should not be about the Federal Government owning the resources, but the people, under a Prodhounian share capital model, with workers on the boards of directors and acting along with the public as share owners of the nationalized industry.

First Nations peoples need to have a direct ownership in the resources, which are all situated on their lands and which they have not been compensated for by the Provincial government.

And as the Globe and Mail reported this spring; Crude awakening
The world's thirst is not sustainable as experts predict an imminent decline and fall in oil production. In this seven-day series, the Globe investigates what awaits the world as the reserves dry up.

In this age of Peak Oil, with a decline in reserves that will bottom out in 2010-2020 the price of oil and gas will only continue to rise. Despite the previous two oil driven recessions, 1974 and 1984, that was not about declining reserve stocks, but about at the well head price increases by OPEC. Today with China, India and other newly industrialized (read Fordist automobile production) countries vying with the US for market share of oil and gas, prices will continue to rise. See the Economist article below.

This rise in oil and gas prices has effectively made the Alberta Tar Sands a viable economic operation. While it has put royalties and tax funds into the Alberta economy giving us ten years of surpluses, in actuality Alberta Royalties and Taxes from Oil and Gas are the lowest in the world. In fact we make more money in VLT's and Tabacco taxes then we make off the Tar Sands.

This is the essential reason that our resources need to be taken out of the hands of the State, in this case the Alberta Government, and put back in the hands of the people, us the citizens, the first nations, and the workers who construct, produce and deliver the oil and gas.

The success of Petrocan which the Liberals just sold off the last Federal investment in, proves that a nationalized oil company can weather the storms of volatile markets.

And there is the irony as the Edmonton Sun editorial below points out. That in order to fund its Kyoto targets the Liberals cut their nose to spite their face and sold off the public's shareholdings in Petro Canada as oil prices began to skyrocket.

Clearly we cannot trust politicians whether Ralph or Paul, to keep the public's best interests in mind. It will take real public ownership of our oil and gas resources as well as the secondary, tertiary production, refining and distribution to benefit all of us.

Gas prices ease, but not before new record reached

CALGARY -- Gasoline prices across Canada and the United States are expected to ebb this week from their current record levels, but the worst may be yet to come for the cost of heating oil.

As of yesterday morning, the nationwide average cost of a litre of regular gasoline jumped by 22 cents -- a record -- to $1.26, also a record, according to a weekly survey from M.J. Ervin & Associates Inc. that substantiated earlier anecdotal reports of surging prices.

The sudden and rapid rise in the cost of gasoline sparked calls for government regulation or investigation into the oil industry

The highest prices were recorded in Newfoundland, which also regulates the cost of gasoline. Gander had posted prices of $1.496 a litre, while St. John's was slightly lower at $1.481 a litre.

The single largest increase was in PEI; for free-market prices, the biggest jump was in St. Catharines, Ont., where the cost of gas jumped 35 cents a litre to $1.334.

Drivers in Edmonton were the least worst off in the country. Prices rose by 11.5 cents to $1.098 in the Alberta capital, where lower provincial taxes keep down the cost of a fill-up.

The smallest increase was in Whitehorse, where prices barely budged, rising just 0.8 cents to $1.175 a litre.

From Thunder Bay westward, price increases were much more muted, with no city recording a rise of more than 16.9 cents a litre, well below the national average.

The Edmonton Journal Friday, September 02, 200

EDMONTON - Motorists may have to put up with erratic prices at the pump for a few more days as gasoline supplies remain tight in the wake of hurricane Katrina.

Regular gas prices in Edmonton ranged Thursday from below $1 to $1.29 a litre, an overnight jump of 29 per cent, the greatest one-day price hike in recent history.

This came in spite of a moderation in world oil prices, which have dipped just below record prices of $70 US for a barrel following a steady climb.

About 1,000 trucks blocking roads in N.B. over soaring gas prices

Protest organizer Eric Bijeau said refineries are raking in excess profits and governments aren't doing anything about it.

Crude oil rises ahead of report

Likely to show U.S. stocks fell from Katrina

Edmonton Sun EDITORIAL: Waiting for the Oil Fairy

Ironically, most of our oil and gas resources are "nationalized" in that they belong to the people of Alberta, who license energy companies to exploit them. Albertans will collect over $10 billion this year in royalties. Back in the terrible days of the NEP, Pierre Trudeau imposed his own royalties on Alberta's resource in the form of two confiscatory taxes, and force-fed the industry with massive tax incentives to move their exploration activities away from Alberta and onto remote federal lands.

A slightly smaller number of Canadians (43%) told Leger they'd go one step further and nationalize the oil companies. Presumably this government agency would dispense gasoline at rock bottom prices and basically ignore world market forces. Where the bargain-basement crude would come from is never really answered. Our best guess is the Oil Fairy

Albertans have seen all of this before. The NEP was a partial confiscation of the province's resources. Ottawa's integrated oil agency, Petro-Canada, was supposed to act as Trudeau's "window" on the oil industry.

PetroCan was created with massive amounts of Canadian taxpayers money in several controversial takeovers. Ironically, it was only a few months ago that Ottawa sold off the remainder of its Petro-Canada shares so it could have billions of dollars available to implement its equally controversial Kyoto accord, which is seen by many as another assault on Albertans' oil and gas riches.

My Response to this bit of Son of NEP hype appeared today as well as this editorial.

The Edmonton Sun published my letter to the Editor today.

RE: PAUL Stanway's Sept. 4 column. The real issue in Alberta, from the time of Peter Lougheed until today, is that the people of this province who own the resources do so in name only. Instead of worrying about a new "son of NEP" we should be concerned that this tired old Tory government has failed to secure our resources. They have sold them off to monopoly oil interests for a song. We need to put our energy resources directly under provincial control - that is, nationalize them as they have done in Venezuela and other countries, which get much higher royalties than we currently do.

Eugene Plawiuk

(Petro-Alberta?)-Sun editor comment

And even the Sun website poll shows that Canadians support Nationalization:

Should Canada's petroleum resources and oil companies be nationalized?
Yes. 55%
No. 40%
Not sure. 5%

Total Votes for this Question: 329

As for the Sun's blithe comment about the Oil Fairy lets look at what the much vaunted uber-capitalist magazine the Economist says about that, shall we. And low and behold guess who does not set their oil and gas prices by the much vaunted free market, well the Good Ol US of A.

LEADERS

Oil

The oiloholics

Aug 25th 2005
From The Economist print edition

Oil prices could yet go higher—unless the world's biggest gas guzzlers curb their thirst

THE price of oil affects the cost of almost everything. It helps determine not just the cost of driving to work or flying off on holiday, but also the cost of furniture, food and anything else which has to be transported from factory to shop floor. The past three global recessions were all triggered by a jump in oil prices. Thus, it should be alarming that oil prices have more than tripled since late 2001. So far, though, the world economy has held up remarkably well: global GDP growth is strong and inflation remains modest. How long can this continue?

The optimists point to a host of reasons for why “this time is different” and why high oil prices will not trigger a global downturn. For example, it is claimed that in real terms, adjusted by consumer prices, oil is still cheap. Most businessmen reckon that is tosh: relative to producer-output prices, real crude oil prices are now close to a record high (see article). In any case, the notion that rising oil prices have no economic impact until they hit the previous peak in real terms is ridiculous.

Oil and the global economy Aug 25th 2005 Oil and exchanges Aug 25th 2005 China, United States Oil The New York Mercantile Exchange has information about oil prices. The US Department of Transport announces proposed fuel-economy rules. See also the IMF.

Roll out the barrel

The main reason why high oil prices have so far not kiboshed the world economy is that cheap money has supported spending sprees and housing bubbles in many countries, notably America, which have offset the impact of dearer oil. The two main engines for the world, the United States and China (also the two biggest oil consumers), have both had their growth boosted by lax monetary conditions in the past couple of years. Indeed high oil prices can partly be seen as a consequence of low interest rates. The two most important prices in the world economy are the price of oil and the price of money, and they are linked. If interest rates are abnormally low (in bond yields as well as short-term rates), then as global demand increases in response, oil prices should rise—especially if production capacity is tight, as it is today.

So referring to the recent climb in oil prices as a “shock” is misleading. The market is simply responding to stronger oil demand on the back of a strong world economy. The increases in both global GDP and global oil consumption last year were the biggest for almost 30 years. Rising oil prices may even be read as a signal that global economic growth has been more rapid than existing output capacity can sustain. Normally, bond yields would perform that role. But the bond market has been behaving mighty oddly, with yields falling over the past year. The rising oil price is thus taking some of the job of constraining the world economy away from higher interest rates. From this point of view, a high oil price is quite healthy, a way of helping to prevent the global economy from overheating. A much more efficient solution would be tighter global monetary conditions. But tighter money now risks pushing the housing and borrowing booms into reverse, tipping economies into recession.

Moreover, even if rising oil prices are a natural market response to rising demand, they can still have nasty consequences for slower-growing economies, such as Europe's. Excessive growth in demand in America and China is, in effect, imposing a tax on others by pushing world prices higher than they would otherwise be. Even more serious, with little spare capacity in the oil industry, such rapid growth in consumption leaves the market vulnerable to any supply disruption, like those that initiated previous oil shocks.

This effect is exacerbated by the fact that the economies that are currently growing the fastest tend also to be the least efficient users of oil. To produce one dollar of GDP, emerging economies use more than twice as much oil as developed economies. Many emerging economies, including China and India, subsidise oil. Insulated from the reality of rising world prices, consumers guzzle more oil than if they had to pay full market prices. This, in turn, pushes global oil prices higher.

Such pressures are likely to grow. The IMF forecasts that over the next five years emerging economies could account for almost three-quarters of the increase in world oil demand. China has single-handedly accounted for one-third of the growth in global oil demand since 2000. With China's oil consumption per person still only one-fifteenth of that in America, it is inevitable that its energy demands will increase over the coming years if its income does too. But China's consumption is also being inflated because domestic petrol prices have not been allowed to rise as fast as crude prices. It is time for governments to scrap price controls and subsidies to allow the market's price signals to get through to consumers.

It is easy to point a finger at China's growing oil demand (which has in fact cooled off this year), but America remains the biggest consumer, using one-quarter of the world's output of the black stuff. America uses 50% more oil per dollar of GDP than the European Union, largely because consumers pay less. As petrol prices have hit $3 a gallon in some cities, there has been an outcry from motorists. Even so, petrol remains dirt cheap in America, compared with Britain or Germany where prices are above $6 a gallon. America's heavy dependence on oil not only leaves the economy more vulnerable to a supply shock, it also pushes prices higher for the rest of the world.

Time for a cure

The best long-term solution—for America as well as the world economy—would be higher petrol taxes in the United States. Alas, there is little prospect of that happening. America, unlike Europe, has preferred fuel-economy regulations to petrol taxes. But even with those it has failed abysmally. These regulations have been so abused that the oil efficiency of its vehicles has fallen to a 20-year low. This week, the Bush administration announced proposals for changing the fuel-economy rules governing trucks and sport-utility vehicles, but failed to close loopholes that allow these gas guzzlers to use more petrol than normal cars, a shameful concession to carmakers.

America and China, in their different ways, are drunk on oil consumption. The longer they put off taking the steps needed to curb their habit, the worse the headache will be. George Bush once learned that lesson about alcohol. It is time for him to wean America off oiloholism too.

Here the scion of Capitalism is calling for an INCREASE in TAXES. Whooa. And yet in Canada across the board governments provincially and federally are wringing their hands saying there is nothing they can do about the increases we are facing at the pumps, for home heating and of course for electricity and other utilities that are gas fired.

Gas tax cut call falls on deaf ears
Canadians are wasting their breath calling on governments to cut gasoline and home heating oil taxes, say economists and tax experts.

Ever since the price of gasoline burst through the $1 per litre barrier earlier this summer, pleas and demands for tax relief have been rising with each increase at the pumps. With the exception of Nova Scotia, which is pondering the removal of the provincial sales tax on heating oil, governments across the country have swiftly squelched the idea of lowering fuel levies.

That's because governments are loath to give up any taxing power, said David Perry, an economist with the Canadian Tax Foundation.

Once a tax is removed, "you'll never know when you'll need them again," he said in a recent interview from Toronto.

"Also, if you get rid of a tax, you're throwing the load on other taxpayers. If you drop the tax in one area, you'll have to raise it somewhere else."

There is also the so-called slippery slope argument of bureaucrats who say that once a tax is removed in one area, demand for the subtraction of others would increase, said Perry.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the Canadian Automobile Association, a host of other organizations, and opposition politicians have called for the removal of the goods and services tax from fuel - gasoline in particular.

In Alberta the real increases, price gouging, we experience is in our Electrical bills while we get the joy of having less drastic increases at the gas pump. Since the failed deregulation of Electrical utilities in the province we have seen these companies like their oil company counterparts rack up enormous profits, while consumers are paying more and more.

Canadians being social democrats by and large except for those living in Calgary are open to public ownership of our resources. Unlike those neo-cons whose fetish is for the privatization of everything, we recognize the social benefit of public ownership.

Here in the home of the neo-cons the City of Medicine Hat owns its oil, gas and utilities giving it the lowest utility rates and pump rates in the country. Public Ownership works for the benefit of all even in Alberta.

As in the 1970's and 1980's once again the solution to Peak Oil and the crisis we face is public ownership under community and worker control.

This is something that should be rolling off the lips of Jack Layton and the NDP but sadly is not. Instead Jack has called for yet another commission to look into industry collusion over pricing.

While Bloc Leader Gil Duceppe warns against public ownership, a contradiction that, like the NDP he too is calling for yet another commission to investigate prices at the pump and collusion in the industry.

The Bloc leader also rejected the idea of nationalizing Canada's oil industry, saying it would be too costly and would infringe on provincial jurisdiction. "Natural resources belong to the provinces, and to (nationalize oil) you would have to go over Alberta's head and if we go over Alberta's head it opens the door to bypassing Quebec on hydroelectricity, which as clean energy is an energy of the future," Duceppe said.

There are only seven oil companies in the world so of course there is collusion.

That the so called Competition Bureau of Canada, set up by neo-con PM Brian Mulroney after his Conservative party eliminated FIRA, the Foreign Investment Review Board, never finds collusion is an example of Canada's complying with NAFTA and the FTA which Mulroney signed. Of course they will never find collusion anymore than three blind men could describe an elephant.


Big oil's bigtime looting
Of the world's seven most profitable corporations, four are ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, and Chevron. ExxonMobil is the world's most profitable company, making $25.3 billion last year. It and the other three corporations had combined profits last year of $72.8 billion. ExxonMobil is also the world's most valuable company, with a market value, according to Forbes magazine, of $405 billion. The combined market value of ExxonMobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and Chevron is nearly $1 trillion.

And that was last year. A month ago, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips announced record second-quarter profits of $7.6 billion, $3.7 billion, and $3.1 billion, respectively. Royal Dutch Shell's quarterly profits of $5.2 billion were up by 34 percent over the same period last year. Other well-known companies like Sunoco also had record second-quarter earnings.

If ExxonMobil were to maintain its current pace of profits, it would cross the $30 billion barrier for 2005. The company's chief financial officer, Henry Hubble, bragged in classic corporatese, ''Our disciplined project management and operating practices deliver the benefits of strong industry conditions to our shareholders."

Duceppe's reluctance to embrace 'nationalization', because he fears it would apply to hydro electricty in Quebec, despite being a Quebec Nationalist, and a marxist lenninst at that, is predictable, it is also laughable as he becomes a centrist politician like the rest.

Bloc Quebecois hopes to boost its numbers in the next election, Duceppe says

The Bloc plans to resume its attacks of the government when Parliament resumes Sept. 26 by focusing on the fiscal imbalance, softwood lumber and mad cow.

The high cost of gasoline is another subject over which the party hopes to score some political points.

Duceppe has accused Martin of not having the courage to confront the refineries, which he claimed are making enormous profits.

This is why Public Ownership not State Ownership is needed.

It's an idea whose time has come again, despite the thirty years of neo-con counter-reformation in Canada.

If you wish to support this idea the Socialist Caucus of the NDP is conducting a mail/petiton campaign to get the Federal NDP to move on the idea of Public Ownership and sending the following letter to Jack and the caucus.

To NDP Federal Leader Jack Layton and the NDP Parliamentary Caucus:

I am writing to request that the New Democratic Party of Canada immediately
initiate a major campaign to win:
1. a twenty-five per cent reduction in the retail price of gasoline, then
to be capped at that price, and
2. public ownership of the oil industry in Canada, from oil well to
gasoline pump, under democratic workers' and community control.
Compensation of the current industry owners ought to be in the form of
long term, low-interest-bearing government bonds.

In its September 1, 2005 lead editorial "Gas price increase defies
explanation", the Toronto Star showed that Hurricane Katrina could account
for, at most, an 8 per cent price rise, not the 20 per cent-plus hike that
has occurred. Indeed, the Star did explain the jump as a function of
"company profits or .... price gouging".
That's putting it mildly.
But the most that some politicians in Ottawa and the Toronto Star call for
is "price regulation" and lowering of federal taxes on gas sales.
The obvious immediate and long-term answer is public ownership.
Poor and working class consumers need immediate price relief, which should
be ordered by the government. As for the long term, public ownership is
required because the world's oil supply is being depleted, and current
stocks should be carefully managed in the public interest while every
effort is made to replace oil with environmentally-friendly, alternative
energy resources and systems as rapidly as possible. Commitments to Kyoto
demand it. If consumer prices must eventually rise to fund an energy
transition, the money should go into the public purse, for use in the
public interest, not into private pockets.
Public ownership of energy resources, total transparency and
accountability, and genuine democratic management are needed now to grapple
with our share of one the world's gravest crises. Regulation of the oil
barons just won't cut it.
It's high time that Big Oil in Canada become a public asset, under
democratic public stewardship, put to work for a safe, clean and
sustainable energy and transportation future.
I look forward to your acknowledgement and response to this appeal.

In solidarity,

Send to:
laytoj@parl.gc.ca, blaikb@parl.gc.ca, daviel@parl.gc.ca, godiny@parl.gc.ca, angusc@parl.gc.ca, broadbent.e@parl.gc.ca, chrisd@parl.gc.ca, comarj@parl.gc.ca, crowdj@parl.gc.ca, cullen@parl.gc.ca, desjab@parl.gc.ca, juliap@parl.gc.ca, martipd@parl.gc.ca, martito@parl.gc.ca, masse.b@parl.gc.ca, mcdonough.a@parl.gc.ca, siksab@parl.gc.ca, stoffp@parl.gc.ca, wasylj@parl.gc.ca



NEW

Petition:

To NDP Federal Leader Jack Layton and the NDP Parliamentary Caucus:

We, the undersigned, request that the New Democratic Party of Canada

immediately initiate a major campaign to win:

1. a twenty-five per cent reduction in the wholesale and retail prices of

gasoline, home heating oil and natural gas, then to be capped at those

prices, and

2. public ownership of the oil industry in Canada, from oil well to

gasoline pump, under democratic workers' and community control.

Compensation of the current industry owners ought to be in the form of long

term, low-interest-bearing government bonds.

Name Signature Address

Phone / E-mail

1._______________________________________________________________________________

2._______________________________________________________________________________

3._______________________________________________________________________________

4._______________________________________________________________________________

5._______________________________________________________________________________

6._______________________________________________________________________________

7._______________________________________________________________________________

8._______________________________________________________________________________

9._______________________________________________________________________________

10.______________________________________________________________________________

11.______________________________________________________________________________

12.______________________________________________________________________________

13.______________________________________________________________________________

14.______________________________________________________________________________

15.______________________________________________________________________________

Stephen Harper Man of Steel

Tories readying for possible snap election

Meanwhile, a wave of firings were reported within the Conservative party on Tuesday. About five key organizers were let go, and another dozen or so pink slips could be coming, according to various news reports.

Mr. MacKay, former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, said the dismissals were simply part of a planned organizational restructuring and "nothing to be alarmed about."

When is a purge not a purge? When Stephen Harper plays Man of Steel. Taking a page from that other famous Man of Steel, no not Superman, Joseph Stalin (Stalin=Steel) Harper fired more staff this week.

Is anyone working for the CPC in Ottawa? (Conservative Party of Canada, not the Communist Party of Canada, though you could be forgiven for getting confused) Since those that haven't been fired have quit.

That's about ten staff that have hit the road since the Tory Putsch to overthrow the minority Liberal government failed in June.

Harper tells caucus to prep for early election

Harper has refused to talk about the staff changes.

"I don't think Canadians care," he told ATV News. "I have a huge staff. We have been making changes according to a plan. And I think what Canadians care about are the policies."

Deputy party leader Peter MacKay warned against reading too much into the changes. Reports of up to 15 firings are also too high, he added.

"We have made some changes ... upwards of five or six people who had left for various reasons and this is not a wholesale change or major shakeup," MacKay said.

"This is part of a planned reorganization as I'm told and these changes are nothing to be alarmed about."

Those let go included a Harper adviser and two researchers, according to a Tory strategist.

The firings follow a series of departures this summer, including the party's former chief of staff, Phil Murphy, and its head of communications, Geoff Norquay.

And ever the faithful dog Mackay wags his tail to his masters voice, perhaps he hopes to be the Parties Kruschev.

Latest results show the Tories (at 26 per cent support) lagging behind the Liberals (at 38 per cent, nationally). Mr. Harper has said he is confident of the party's support.

Gee now could that be the reason for the purge that wasn't. .

But there is also concern within the party that the old Canadian Alliance wing is too dominant and the former Progressive Conservative wing is being pushed aside. The Conservative Party was formed from the merger of the two former parties. Earlier this week, The Globe and Mail reported that there is dissent within party ranks, especially among candidates in Quebec and Ontario.

Gosh golly gee, do ya think?

All thats left (pardon the pun) of the old PC's is Peter Mackay, woof woof, the guy who sold out the PC's so he could be PM. Blew that too. Then he got in the doghouse with his ex, Belinda when she crossed the floor to the Liberals. That left NO progressives in the Conservative party.

For truth in advertising perhaps the CPC should change their name to the Conservative Party of Calgary, cause thats the only place they get their support from.

MPs don't share Harper's election ardour

HALIFAX -- Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's call for an immediate general election caught some in his own party offguard at a national caucus meeting Wednesday. Harper had said on the eve of the meeting that he was confident of his party's electoral strength, despite several polls that indicate Prime Minister Paul Martin and the Liberals are edging towards majority support.

Gee what polls is he reading? Must be the ones from the Western Standard and the Tory blogs.

But Harper added, "Poll numbers don't matter."

Right polls don't count thats why he fired his staff. Clearly anyone who opposed Harpers politically correct Vision thingee was purged. But of course he can't purge his MP's, as much as he might like too.

A member of the Conservative caucus who spoke anonymously said any election speculation from his party was false bravado. "It's a game of political chicken, isn't it? The first one who blinks in a minority government situation and all that. It's not serious," he said. Liberals were laughing over what Public Works Minister Scott Brison termed the ultimate political game of Truth or Dare."I think there's too much testosterone flying around that caucus," Brison said, speaking in a phone interview in responding for the Martin government.

Harper spent the summer on the BBQ circuit looking goofy, and he thinks he was a success.



Like Uncle Joe he is suffering from delusions of political granduer precox. And anyone who tells him differently is going to get purged. He is the the Right Man a Tyrant in his party and goof to the rest of us. Harper is the biggest liability the Conservatives have. Thank goodness, if they actually had a real leader the Liberals would be in trouble.

A Paradox called Katrina

The Head Lines say it all.

DID NEW ORLEANS CATASTROPHE HAVE TO HAPPEN?
Times-Picayune Had Repeatedly Raised Federal Spending Issues

New Orleans: Loss of wetlands opens floodgates to disaster

"Katrina's Real Name is Global Warming"

Federal Government Wasn't Ready for Katrina, Disaster Experts Say
The slow response to Katrina and poor federal leadership is a replay of 1992's mishandling of Hurricane Andrew
by Seth Borenstein

Why Thousands May Die

Biloxi Newspaper Rips Relief Effort, Begs for Help


And the music plays on:

New Orleans Is Sinking Lyrics
The Tragically Hip

Alright!
Bourbon blues on the street, loose and complete
Under skies all smoky blue green
I can't forsake a dixie dead shake
So we danced the sidewalk clean
My memory is muddy
What's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking man
And I don't wanna swim

Colonel Tom, what's wrong? what's going on?
You can't tie yourself up for a deal
He said, Hey north you're south shut your big mouth,
You gotta do what you feel is real
Ain't got no picture postcards, ain't got no souvenirs
My baby, she don't know me when I'm thinking bout those years

Pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire
Sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire
Picking out the highlights of the scenery
Saw a little cloud that looked a little like me

I had my hands in the river
My feet back up on the banks
Looked up to the lord above
And said, hey man thanks
Sometimes I fell so good, I gotta scream
She said Gordie baby I know exactly what you mean
She said, she said, I swear to god she said

My memory is muddy
What's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking man and I don't wanna swim

Swim!

It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
REM

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane and Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn - world serves its own needs, dummy serve your own needs.
Feed it off an aux speak, grunt, no, strength, no, Ladder start to clatter with fear fight down height.
Wire in a fire, representing seven games, a government for hire and a combat site.
Left of west and coming in a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck.
Team by team reporters baffled, trumped, tethered cropped.
Look at that low playing! Fine, then. Uh oh, overflow, population, common food, but it'll do.
Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed
dummy with the rapture andthe revered and the right, right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign towers.
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn.
Locking in, uniforming, book burning, blood letting.
Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate.
Light a candle, light a votive. Step down, step down.
Watch your heel crush, crushed, uh-oh, this means no fear cavalier.
Renegade steer clear! A tournament, tournament, a tournament of lies.
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it. (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
It's the end of the world as we know it. (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it. (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I dreamt of knives, continental drift divide.
Mountains sit in a line, Leonard Bernstein.
Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam book neck, right? Right.
It's the end of the world as we know it. (It's time I had some time alone)

It's the end of the world as we know it. (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it

As thousands left New Orleans in advance of Hurricane Katrina we have to ask; Who was left behind, and why? While those with vehicles left New Orleans thousands who could not, the poor and disabled, the sick and elderly were left behind. There was no evacuation plan for them. Martial law was declared in Mississippi, too late to save those unfortunate enough to have been left behind. Unlike New Orleans there was no mandatory evacuation. Instead in the aftermath of the destruction of Biloxi by Katrina the state declared martial law to protect the casinos from the survivors. Greyhound buses quit running on Friday in New Orleans, the last plane left Sunday. The state officials did not commandeer or place under martial law any and all forms of transportation for the folks left behind. Of course not, the majority of them were black.

CNN: Heartbreak and destruction in small towns and large
I truly believe that apart from 9/11 this is one of the most significant events that has ever hit this country. Anybody who tells you this disaster is going to be rectified in a matter of months hasn't seen the situation. People are carrying their children, trying to get them to safety. A woman coming down to the police, close to hysterics, saying, "My elderly mother is in a building over there, she needs dialysis. She can't get it. She is dying. Can you help me?" And the police had to say, "There is absolutely nothing we can do. We don't have a precinct house. We don't have communication. There is absolutely nothing we can do for you."
New Orleans has fast become a refugee city. Thousands and thousands of people are seeking shelter on the highway overpasses looking for some sort of help, some sort of information. They are screaming out to us and anybody around for water and for help. They are looking for information and for a way to get out. On the highway overpasses and underneath the highways as well, people are trying to find a spot for themselves. Prison buses are streaming by to evacuate prisoners and a lot of people are very, very upset that they aren't getting help, but the prisoners are.


The frightening thing is watching the news, as the objective news reporters at the heart of the disaster dispassionately interview survivors, or show aerial shots from helicopters of people waving to them from roof tops. Why don't they get down there and help you ask yourself. Why are the reporters whining about lack of access to passable roads, no communications, etc. Why aren't they helping? Because they are the simulacrum of capitalism, the reportage of the dispassionate survival of the fittest ideology on our TV screens. The State had emergency plans, sure, but not plans that included those that needed them the most the poor and vulnerable. They had no plan to mobilize all transportation means to evacuate all the people, hence the sardine like cramming of people into the New Orleans Super dome Stadium. Now when that collapses they are shipping these same folks all the way to Houston to stick them in another Super dome Stadium.

Survivors evacuate New Orleans as looting rages

Meanwhile, thousands are feared dead in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Nagin, when asked how many people died in the hurricane, said: "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands." While Lt. Kevin Cowan of the state Office of Emergency Preparedness said it is too soon to confirm how many died, he noted there were likely many who had not been rescued from their roofs and attics. "You have a limited number of resources, for an unknown number of evacuees. It's already been several days. You've had reports there are casualties. You all can do the math," he said. The death toll has already reached at least 110 in Mississippi. Nagin, whose pre-hurricane evacuation order cleared the city of half a million out of the storm's path, estimates that 50,000 to 100,000 people remained.

The first reports in the aftermath of Katrina were about looting. Looting my ass, people left behind were gathering bottled water, dry clothes, food that was already going bad. People helped people, even CNN reported that so called looting was for essentials. Survivours don't loot they survive. As the Band song The Night Yhey Drove Old Dixie Down
says: "take what you need and leave the rest."

Folks who got out of New Orleans said they were glad to be alive, they said that this gave them a new perspective on life, that there was more to life than property, as they watched their homes and belongings sink beneath the floodwater. Well that was soon replaced by concern of the 'authorities' about looting.

Survivors evacuate New Orleans as looting rages
The evacuation began as New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered the entire police force to abandon search-and rescue efforts and concentrate on putting a stop to widespread looting and violence. "They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas - hotels, hospitals, and we're going to stop it right now," Nagin said. Dozens of carjackings were reported, including a nursing home bus and a truck carrying medical supplies for a hospital.

Those left behind, abandoned to fend for themselves by these same authorities, are now taking matters into their own hands and are trying to get out of New Oreleans as it sinks beneath the flood waters of broken levees.

Looting became the redistribution of wealth for those left behind, from each according to their abilities to each according to their needs..

Those left behind to die, have nothing to lose they are in effect walking dead men. Whose property are they looting, no-ones the property owners long left the city to the poor, elderly, sick, and disabled. The city is now the vast vault of the dead and undead, truly the New Orleans of Anne Rice.

A boy ran out from a petrol station on Lee Circle clutching boxes of chocolate bars, followed by an elderly man carrying all the cigarettes his arms could hold. He flashed a half-toothed smile and declared "Everything's cool", offering a pack as a gift. On the corner of Loyola Avenue and Julia Street, just a few blocks from the French Quarter, people emerged from abandoned buildings as the sun began to heat up the floodwater and turn the air to hot soup. Nine out of 10 of these remnants were black. All were destitute, dressed in rags, and carrying what was left of their possessions in plastic bags. They had survived the hurricane and the floods and a terrifying night, and now they were wandering the streets, looking for a way out.

'It's like a war zone here. There was shooting and looting'
As toxic waters rise, the desperation and fear grow
Julian Borger in New Orleans
Thursday September 1, 2005
The Guardian

Mississippi relies heavily on taxes from casino gambling, and the concern is that all the riverboat casinos are gone, money the state needs for it's budget is gone. There's another paradox of Katrina, she exposed the frailty of the so called low tax regimes that rely on gambling to fund state services. Katrina lifted the casinos off their barges and landed them on main street in Biloxi, ripped open; their river of coins flowing out. The Republican Governor of Mississippi waxed eloquently in pure Southern Red Neck, 'we are gonna get them looters' he said. Not to be any less a red neck the Democrat Governor of Louisiana also called for an end to rescuing the victims and the need to restore 'law and order'. How about rescuing the poor, sick, elderly that capitalism left behind. Nope forget them, we are going to protect our profits.

AP reported:
Looting broke out in some New Orleans neighborhoods, prompting authorities to send more than 70 additional officers and an armed personnel carrier into the city. One police officer was shot in the head by a looter but was expected to recover, authorities said. A giant new Wal-Mart in New Orleans was looted, and the entire gun collection was taken, The Times-Picayune newspaper reported. "There are gangs of armed men in the city moving around the city," said Ebbert, the city's homeland security chief. Also, looters tried to break into Children's Hospital, the governor's office said. On New Orleans' Canal Street, dozens of looters ripped open the steel gates on clothing and jewelry stores and grabbed merchandise. In Biloxi, Miss., people picked through casino slot machines for coins and ransacked other businesses. In some cases, the looting took place in full view of police and National Guardsmen

The National Guard Belongs in New Orleans and Biloxi. Not Baghdad.

Where was the Bush Administration? Where were the Army and National Guard, southerners and reporters repeatedly asked? Why they were all in Iraq of course, making sure that America was safe from terrorists. And just as ineffectual there as at home.

Nearly 650 Iraqis Die in Stampede, Official Says
BAGHDAD - Nearly 650 Iraqi Shi'ites died in a stampede on a Tigris River bridge in Baghdad on Wednesday, panicked by rumors a suicide bomber was about to blow himself up, an Interior Ministry official told Reuters Most victims were women and children who "died by drowning or being trampled" after panic swept a throng of thousands of people heading to a religious ceremony, the official said By 2:15 p.m. the death toll had risen to 647, with 301 injured, the official said.Television images showed people clambering down from the bridge to escape the surging crowd and piles of slippers left behind by the crush of people,

Two days after Katrina landed and the Federal Government in the US had yet to mobilize national disaster relief. What it did do was release troops to stop looters, which was as effective as their defence of Iraq from insurgents.

CNN and other News stations were in the heart of the storm and its aftermath and there was no pending rescue from the military. Reporters viewed the disaster with the shared frustration of the survivors, where was the rescue operations? There was no plan to rescue those left behind, only a plan to evacuate those who could afford to leave. The national guard was not sent in to rescue those so callously left behind, they were sent in to defend the remnants of private property. Cuba got hit with just as bad a storm this summer, and had less deaths because they evacuated everyone. In America it's dog eat dog, survival of the fittest down and dirty capitalism.

Katrina revealed the unspoken class war in America.

Nasty, Brutish -- Society's Net Snaps

Every-man-for-himself ethos serves Americans poorly in times of crisis when people must pull together by Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail

Katrina was a predictable storm, one of many that hit this summer. They are getting bigger and nastier. We are watching climate change happen before our eyes courtesy of cable television news.

UK's Chief Scientific Advisor: Global Warming May Be to Blame for Katrina

While the Bush Administration has finally admitted that there maybe something to this climate warming thing, it's not as crucial an issue as making a profit is. Producing green backs means producing green house gases.

Meanwhile in Europe half the continent is being flooded and half is burning with wildfires.

Fire and floods sweep Europe in summer of intense weather

VIENNA -- Fire and floods have engulfed Europe this summer, as a drought in Spain and Portugal transformed swaths of woodland into a massive tinderbox and torrential downpours carved a trail of destruction through Alpine valleys and impoverished Balkan villages Entire sections of the Swiss capital, Bern, have been submerged. Blazes flare up as others are snuffed in Portugal and Spain. And dozens have been killed in a third straight summer of extreme European weather that has people asking: Why? ''People wonder, 'Hey, what's going on with our climate?' “said Dale Mohler, the director of international forecasting at AccuWeather.com.

Apologists for capitalism like Bjorn Lomborg, the Danish author of the Sceptical Environmentalist says there is no proof that human beings are to blame for global warming. He is right, it's not human beings its the economic/political/technological system we created called capitalism.

And as capitalism demands we ignore global climate change and its impact, in order to continue with business as usual, Mother Nature has a way of reminding us she does not give a hoot about capitalism or us if we ignore her.

UPDATES: I am adding updates of information that is relevant to the crisis and the thesis of this article to the 'Comments' section of this article.

The Filling and Bursting of Bourgeois Civilisation

Amadeo Bordiga

The floods in the Po valley and the confused debate over their causes and over the responsibility of organisations and public bodies that did not know how to carry out protection work, with all the disgusting mutual accusations of “speculating” on misfortune, puts into question one of the most widespread false opinions shared by all the contenders. This is that contemporary capitalist society, with the corresponding development of science, technology and production, places the human species in the best possible position to struggle against the difficulties of the natural environment. Hence the contingent fault of the government or of Party A and B, which lies in not knowing how to exploit this magnificent potential at hand, and in the erroneous and culpable administrative and political measures. Hence the no less classic: “Move over, I want to take over now!” If it is true that the industrial and economic potential of the capitalist world is increasing and not diminishing, it is equally true that the more virulent it is, the worse the living conditions of the human mass are in regards to natural and historical cataclysms. Unlike the periodic spates of rivers, the spate of frenetic capital accumulation knows no perspective of a “decrease”, of a falling curve from the hydrometer readings, but only the catastrophe of the river banks bursting.

Yesterday
The relationship between the thousands of years long development of man’s production technique and relations with the natural environment is very close. Primitive man, like an animal, gathered and ate wild fruit using a simple grasping action and, like an animal, fled headlong from the disruption of natural phenomena that threatened his life. As the artificial production of products for consumption and the accumulation of reserves of these products and of tools forced him to settle, so too they forced him to defend himself from such threats as the weather[1] and natural devastation. Such a defence, not unlike that against other groups competing for the best site, or predators on the accumulated reserve, could only be collective. From these collective needs arose, as we have seen many times, class division and exploitation by rulers. In Marx “the capitalist mode of production ... is based on the dominion of man over nature.”[2] It also presupposes the war of nature on man. A too generous and lavish nature would not be the favourable environment which capitalism could spring from. “It is not the mere fertility of the soil, but the differentiation of the soil, the variety of its natural products, the changes of the seasons, which form the physical basis for the social division of labour... It is the necessity of bringing a natural force under the control of society, of economising, of appropriating or subduing it on a large scale by the work of man’s hand, that first plays the decisive part in the history of industry. Examples are, the irrigation works in Egypt, Lombardy, Holland, or in India and Persia where irrigation by means of artificial canals, not only supplies the soil with the water indispensable to it, but also carries down to it, in the shape of sediment from the hills, mineral fertilisers. The secret of the flourishing state of industry in Spain and Sicily under the dominion of the Arabs lay in their irrigation works… One of the material bases of the power of the state over the small disconnected producing organisms in India, was the regulation of the water supply. The Mahometan rulers of India understood this better than their English successors. It is enough to recall to mind the famine of 1866, which cost the lives of more than a million Hindus in the district of Orissa, in the Bengal presidency.” It is well known that similar famines have raged recently, despite the tremendous potential of world capitalism... The struggle against nature generates industry; man lives on two sacred Dantesque elements, nature and art (the third is God). Capitalism generates the exploitation of man from industry. The bourgeoisie will not be revolted by violence against God, nature and art. Very modern high capitalism shows serious cases of retreat in the struggle to defend against attacks by the forces of nature on the human species, and the reasons are strictly social and class ones, so much so as to invert the advantage derived from the progress of theoretical and applied science. Let us wait then to blame it for having increased the rainfall intensity with atomic explosions or, tomorrow, with having “messed about” with nature so much as to risk making the earth and its atmosphere uninhabitable and even to make the skeleton explode by priming “chain reactions” of all the elements in nuclear complexes. For now let us establish a social and economic law for the parallel between its greater efficiency in exploiting labour and the life of men and the ever decreasing efficiency in the rational defence against the natural environment, in the widest sense. The earth’s crust is modified by geological processes which man increasingly learns to distinguish and decreasingly attributes to mysterious wishes of angry forces and which, within certain limits, he learns to correct and control. When, in pre-history, the Po valley was a huge lagoon through which the Adriatic Sea lapped the foothills of the Alps, the first inhabitants, who evidently were not lucky enough to beg “amphibious craft” from self-interested American charity, occupied pile-dwellings rising above the water. It was a “terramara” civilisation of which Venice is a distant development; it was too simple for a “reconstruction business” to be based on it with contracts to supply timber! The pile-dwellings did not collapse during floods: modern brick houses do. However, what means exist today to build raised houses, roads and railways! They would suffice to protect the population. Utopia! The sums do not tally, while the account of 200 billion lire for repair works and reconstruction is quite in order. In the past, the building of the first embankments dates back to the Etruscans. The natural process of mountainside degradation and the transport of material suspended in river waters from the mountains at flood time has formed a huge, fertile lowland region over the centuries. This convenience assured the settlement of agricultural peoples. The subsequent populations and regimes continued to raise high embankments along the banks of the large rivers, which were insufficient to stop huge cataclysms when the river shifted its course. The shift of the Po near Guastalla onto a new course, which was until then the lowest reach of the Oglio, dates from the fifth century. In the thirteenth century, the great river abandoned the southern distributory of the huge delta, the present-day secondary “Po di Volano”, in the reach near its mouth and adopted the present course from Pontelagoscuro to the sea. The frightening “shifts” have always been from south to north. A general law assumes a tendency for all the world’s rivers to migrate northwards for geophysical reasons. However, in the case of the Po, this law is evident due to the great difference between its north and south bank tributaries. The former rise in the Alps and have clear water either because they pass through large lakes, or because they do not have a maximum regime during periods of heavy rainfall, but instead during the springtime melting of glaciers. Therefore these rivers do not carry mud and sand deposits into the course of the main river when in flood. However, from the south, from the Apennines, the short and torrential right bank tributaries with their huge variations between maximum and minimum flow pour down the debris of mountain erosion, filling in the right bank section of the Po’s channel, which every so often escapes this damming by turning North. Chauvinism is not required to know that the science of river hydraulics arose from this problem: for centuries the problem has been posed of the utility and functioning of embankments, or the connection with the problem of the distribution of irrigation water via canals, and finally of river navigation. After the Roman works, information is available about the first canals in the Po valley in 1037. After the victory of Legnano,[3] the Milanese built the Naviglio Grande to Abbiategrasso, which was made navigable in 1271. With this arose capitalist agriculture, the first in Europe, and the great hydraulic works were undertaken by state bodies: from the canals and basins of Leonardo, who also provided norms for the river regimes, to the Cavour Canal, begun in 1860. The construction of embankments to contain rivers raised a major problem: that of raised rivers. While the Alpine rivers, such as the Ticino and Adda, run largely between natural banks, the right bank tributaries and the Po below Cremona are raised: this means that not only the water level, but also the bed of the water course is higher than the surrounding countryside. The embankments save it from being flooded and a collector canal runs parallel to the river to collect local water which it carries to the river downstream: these are the great reclamation works, and as they approach the sea, the transfer of water to the river is performed mechanically so that the districts which are below not only the river, but also the sea, are kept dry. The entire Polesine is a huge low-lying area. Adria is 4 meters above sea level. Rovigo is 5 meters: there the Po’s bed is higher and the Adige’s even more so. Clearly a breach in the embankments would turn the whole of Rovigo province into a huge lake. There is a major debate among hydrologists as to whether the rise in the beds of such rivers is progressive. French hydrologists said yes a century ago while the leaders of Italian hydrology opposed them, and the matter is still discussed in congresses today. Nevertheless, one cannot deny that the river load and its deposition extends the mouth out to sea, even if this does not collect in the final reaches of the river’s bed. Because of this incessant process, the gradient of the bed and the water surface can only decrease and, according to hydrological law, the speed of the current equally falls: hence the need to raise embankments seemed historically endless and unavoidable. The disastrous nature of the breaches occurring is also progressive. The availability of modern mechanical means has contributed in this field to extending the method of exploiting large areas of the most fertile land, keeping them dry by continuous pumping. The risk to the tenants and workers worries a profit economy, but the damage caused when the works fall can be balanced against the fertilisation by the invading mud on the one hand and the economic factor on the other: carrying out works is always good capitalist business. The classic reclamations by alluviation were widespread in the modern period along the entire Italian lowland coast: river water was alternately allowed to flood into and deposit in the great basins, the level of which rose slowly with the double advantage of not letting useful and fertile soil wash out to sea and of providing ever greater security from flooding and future danger. This rational system was found to be too slow for the requirements of capital investment. Another tendentious argument was and is drawn from the continuously rising population density which cannot permit a loss of fertile land. So almost all the old polders, carefully surveyed with precision by the hydrologists of the Austrian, Tuscan and Bourbon regimes, have been destroyed. Clearly, if today one had to choose from the various radical solutions to these problems, not only would one clash with the incapacity of capitalism to look to the distant future as regards the handing down of installations from generation to generation, but one would also clash with the strong local interests of farmers and industrialists who have an interest in not having various zones eroded and who play on the attachment of poor people to their inhospitable homes. Since a while back, new solutions have been proposed to create “lateral channels” for the Po. This type of study is always unpopular because the results forecast are uncertain, something which creates great annoyance in business circles. One solution, on the right, consists in a cut from Pontelagoscuro to the valleys or lagoons of Comacchio: the artificial canal would cut about one third off the length of the present river course to the sea. Such a solution clashes with the big investments in Ferrarese reclamation works and with fish farming, so it would be resisted. But the solutions with more foresight and which perhaps are more in conformity with natural processes call for the reuniting of the Po and Adige courses between which lies the lower Polesana, creating in its Thalweg,[4] presently criss-crossed by small water courses, a huge collector and, perhaps, in the final count, a side canal for one if not both rivers would encounter no less resistance. In the bourgeois period, such a study does not lead to positive research, but to two “policies”, right and left, as regards the Po, with the related conflict between speculating groups.

Today
There is discussion as to whether the present catastrophe, in which some have already seen the natural formation of a large stable swamp and a shifting of the Po’s course with the total destruction of the north bank, is due to exceptional rainfall and the complicity of natural causes, or to the inexperience and the error of men and directors. Indisputably the succession of wars and crises have caused decades of neglect in the difficult service of technical inspection and embankment maintenance, dredging of river beds where necessary and the systematisation of high mountain basins, the deforestation of which caused greater and more rapid rain water run-off during high water and greater flows of suspended material to the river courses on the plain. With the bad trend that now prevails in science and official technical organisation, it is even difficult to collect and to compare udometric data (amount of rainfall on various dates in the basin which feeds the river) and hydrometric data (water levels at the hydrometers, maximum flow) with those of the past. Offices and scientists with self-respect now offer replies in line with political requirements and reasons of state, that is, according to the effect that they will have, the figures having been massaged in every possible way. One can also well believe the current of criticism which states that not even the observation stations destroyed during the war have been replaced, and it is also credible that our present technical bureaucracy works with old maps, passed along copy by copy, dragging along slowly over the drawing tables of the lazy technical personnel, and that it does not update the surveys with new altitude surveys, which are difficult, and with operations of geodetic precision, which allow one to collate the various data of the phenomenon. It lives in masses of maps which are in line with approvals given in circulars in terms of format and colour, but do not give a tinker’s cuss for physical reality. The figures handed out here and there for the popular press don’t add up, but it is too easy to blame the journalists who know all about nothing. It therefore remains to be seen – and those movements with wide support and plentiful means could well try to do this – if the intensity of rainfall really was the highest in a century of observation: it is correct to doubt it. The same goes for the hydrometer readings for the maximum levels and flows: it is easy to say that the historical maximum was recorded at Pontelagoscuro at 11,000 cubic meters per second but now has presently risen to 13,000. In 1917 and 1926 there were very large maxima of much lesser consequence, always in spring, up to 13,800 cubic meters per second passing through Piacenza. Let us say without dwelling further on the matter that the rainfall was certainly not of unheard of proportions and the chief responsibility for the disaster lies in the long lack of necessary services and in the omission of maintenance and improvement works, which is related to the smaller public budget for such works and the way money was spent compared to the past. It is a matter of providing a cause for these facts, which must be a social and historical cause, and it is puerile to bring up again the “bad management” of those who were or are at the helm of the Italian ship of state. Besides, this is not a uniquely Italian phenomenon, but occurs in all countries. Administrative chaos, thieving, the penetration of speculation into public decision making are now denounced by the conservatives themselves, and in America they have been related to public disasters: even there ultra-modern cities in Kansas and Missouri have fallen victim to badly regulated rivers.[5] Two mistaken ideas underlie a critique like the one we have just mentioned. One is that the struggle to return from the fascist dictatorship within the bourgeoisie (the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie has existed since it won freedom) to the external multiparty democracy had as its aim a better administration, whereas it is clear that it had to lead, and has led, to a worse administration. This is the fault common to ALL shades in the great block of the CLN.[6] The other incorrect idea is the belief that the totalitarian form of the capitalist regime (of which Italian fascism was the first great example) gave overwhelming power to the state bureaucracy against the autonomous initiatives of enterprises and private speculation. On the contrary, this form is vital for capitalism’s survival and that of the bourgeois class at a certain stage. It concentrates counter-revolutionary powers in the state machine, but renders the administrative machine weaker and more open to manipulation by speculative interests. Here we need a historical sketch of the Italian administrative machine from the epoch of the achievement of national unity. Initially it worked well and had strong powers. All the favourable conditions contributed to this. The young bourgeoisie had to pass through the heroic phase and to make sacrifices in order to seize power and to affirm its interests. Therefore the individual elements were still prepared to offer their all and were less attracted by immediate hidden gain. Further resolute enthusiasm was needed to liquidate the resistance of the old powers and of the rusted state machines of the various parts into which the country was originally divided politically. There was no notable division into parties as the sole party of the liberal revolution governed (virgin in 1860, old slag in 1943) with the clear acquiescence of the few republicans and with the workers’ movement yet to appear. The swindles began with the bi- party transformismo of 1876.[7] The skeleton of the bureaucracy coming from Piedmont following close on the heels of the military forces of occupation enjoyed a real dictatorship over the local elements and the aristocratic, and clerical, opponents were repressed by emergency powers... as they were guilty of anti- liberalism. Under such conditions, a young, conscientious and honest administrative machine was constructed. The bureaucracy suffered a twin attack on its uncorrupt dominance with the capitalist system’s development in depth and extension. The great entrepreneurs of public works and of productive sectors aided by the state emerged in the economic field, while in the political field, the spread of corruption to parliamentary business became such that every day “the people’s representatives” intervened to impinge on the decisions of the executive system and general administration, which previously had functioned with scrupulous impersonality and impartiality. Public works, which previously had been put in place by the most competent, who were naively pleased to have a regular salary as government functionaries, and who were wholly independent in their judgements and advice, began to be imposed by the executioners: we mean the classical Carrozoni[8] began to do the rounds. The machine of state expenditure became decreasingly useful for the community, but all the more financially burdensome. This process accelerated during the Giolittian period[9], but nevertheless increasing economic prosperity made the damage less obvious. This system, as its political masterpiece, slowly entangled the emerging workers’ party. Precisely because Italy has an abundance of labour power and a lack of capital, all sides call on the state to provide work, and the MP who seeks votes in an industrial or agricultural constituency does the rounds of the ministries hunting for the panacea: public works. After the First World War, the Italian bourgeoisie, even though they came out “winners”, saw the favourable wind of the heroic period change too drastically and so there was fascism. The concentration of the policing strength of the state along with the concentration of the control of almost all the economic sectors simultaneously allowed it to avoid the explosion of radical revolts among the masses and to assure free speculative manoeuvring for the well-off class, on condition that the latter formed itself into a single class centre within the framework of government policy. Every medium or small employer was compelled to make reformist concessions, called for during the long struggle of the workers’ organisations which (as usual) they destroyed, stealing their programme, so that while a high degree of capitalist concentration was favoured, the internal situation was pacified. The totalitarian form allows capital to set in motion the reformist trick of the previous decades, latching on to the class collaboration proposed by the traitors of the revolutionary party. The leadership of the state machine and abundant special laws were clearly placed in the service of business initiatives. The technical legislation – to return to our starting point, dealing with rivers – which around 1865 had produced several masterpieces, was now reduced to a total hotchpotch open to all possible manoeuvres, the functionary being reduced to a puppet of the large firms. The hydrological services were precisely those clashing with the famous idea of private initiative. They require a single institution and full powers – they had a very long tradition. Jacini wrote in 1854. The civil problem of the waters found in Giandomenico Romagnosi an immortal writer of treatises.[10] All in all, bourgeois administration and technology had even then class goals, but they were serious, while today they are mere bagatelle. This led to the bad trend which has caused the degradation and not the improvement of the hydraulic defences in the Paduan plain, starting from a process not concerning just one party or nation, but the centuries long ups and downs of a class regime. In short, if once the bureaucracy, independent but not omnipotent, laid out its project on the drawing board and then called in bids from public works “enterprises”, compelling them, refusing even the offer of a cup of coffee, to complete them rigorously, thus at most the selection of the funded works was made according to general principles, today the relationship is inverted. The weak and servile technical bureaucracy lets the enterprises themselves draw up the plans and approves them almost unseen, and the enterprises obviously select the profitable works and drop the delicate operations which require more diligence and offer less chance of repetition in the future. This does not happen because of morality, nor even because in general the functionary gives way to competition and large bribes. It is that if a functionary resists, not only does his workload increase ten-fold, but also the interests against whom he clashes mobilise against him with decisive party influence in the higher echelons of the ministry that employs him. Once the most capable technician gained promotion, now it is the one most able to move in such a system. When single party fascism gave way to the multi-party system unknown even in Giolittian Italy, even in the constitutional model of perfect England, and so on (where we have never had ten parties declaredly ready to govern according to the constitution, but at most two or three), things went from bad to worse. They were supposed to restore the experts and the honest men with the Allied armies. What a silly hope so many had: the new changing of the guard has produced the worst of all guards, as on the Po embankments. It is symptomatic enough in diagnosing the present phase of the capitalist regime that a senior official in the Ministry of Works let slip that the flood surveillance services worked well right up to the fatal moment: the only moment for which they are paid a regular salary. This is the style of modern bureaucracy (for some the new ruling class! Ruling classes arrive with gaping mouths, but not with a failing heart). No less interesting is what Alberto de Stefani wrote, entitled “The Management of the Po”.[11] After outlining the history of measures taken, he cited the judgement of authors in technical journals: “One can never insist too much on the need to react against the system of concentrating the activity of the offices exclusively, or nearly so, on the projection and execution of major works.” De Stefani did not see the radical implication of such a critique. He deplored the neglect of conservation and maintenance of existing works, while new works were being planned. He cited other passages: “One spends tens of billions (and tomorrow hundreds) for extensions after systematically grudging and withholding those small amounts required for maintenance and even to close breaches.” That seems to have happened on the Reno. An economist of De Stefani’s calibre scrapes by with saying: “We have too little conservative spirit due to too much uncontrolled fantasy.” Is it thus perhaps a factor of national psychology? Never: of capitalist production. Capital has become incapable of the social function of transmitting the labour of the present generation to the future ones, utilising the labour of past generations in this. It does not want maintenance contracts, but huge building deals. To enable this, huge natural cataclysms are insufficient – capital creates human ones with ineluctable necessity, and makes post-war reconstruction “the business deal of the century”. These concepts have to be applied to the critique of the base, demagogic position of the Italian so-called workers’ parties. When speculation and capitalist enterprise are given the capital to invest in hydraulic works which is now committed to armaments, capitalist enterprise (except to cause a crisis among the pseudo- reds of the metallurgical centres, if the business were really to be undertaken) will use that capital in the same way: cheating and speculating at one thousand percent, raising their glasses high to the coming if not of the next war, then of the next flood. The huge river of human history also has its irresistible and threatening swellings. When the wave rises, it washes against the two retaining embankments: on the right the conformist one, of Conservation of existing and traditional forces; along it priests chant in procession, policemen and gendarmes patrol, the teachers and cantors of official lies and state-schooling prate. The left bank is that of the reformists, hedged with “people’s” representatives, the dealers in opportunism, the parliamentarians and progressive organisers. Exchanging insults across the stream, both processions claim to have the recipe to maintain the fast- flowing river in its restrained and enforced channel. But at great turning points, the current breaks free and leaves its course, “shifting” like the Po at Guastalla and Volano onto an unexpected course, sweeping the two sordid bands into the irresistible flood of the revolution which subverts all old forms of restraint, moulding a new face on society like on the land. Battaglia Comunista No.23, 1951
[1] Publisher’s note – it actually says “meteore” (meteorites) in the original Italian. We cannot believe that Bordiga and his comrades could have been stupid enough to write this – even humans today cannot defend themselves against meteorites, and it is not just because of the irrationalities of the capitalist system! We therefore have assumed that a mistake was made and the original intent was to make some reference to “meteorologico” (meteorological) phenomena. [2] Capital, Vol I, Chapter 16 (The English edition of 1887). The following quotation is from the same section [3] In 1176 the Lombard Communes defeated the Emperor Barbarossa at Legnano. [4] Line where opposite slopes meet at the bottom of a valley. [5] Floods in June and July in Kansas and Missouri caused dozens of deaths and left many homeless. [6] Comitato di Liberazione Nazionalea the antifascist front towards the end of the second world war, going from the Communist Party to the monarchists. [7] On 18 March 1876, the last “destra” government fell and the “sinistra”, based on regional interests, took over. There was, however, little political difference as the two parties transformed into two almost identical schools of thought. [8] Platonic and wasteful body or enterprise, especially public. [9] Roughly 1901 to 1914. [10] La proprieta fondaria e la poulazione agricola in Lombardia (Milan, 1854 - not 1857 as in the original). Stefano Jacini (1872-91) agronomist, head of the Inchiesta Agraria e sulle condizioni della classe agricola (1884). Minister of public works under Cavour (1860) and again in 1864 and 1867. Gian Domenico Rornagnosi (1761-1835) jurist and philosopher. Considered to be the main inspiration behind the juridical and administrative system adopted by the Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946). [11] Alberto De Stefani was the Minister of Finance and the Treasury from 1922 to 1925 when he was removed after pressure from financial and industrial groups. He remained a fascist and was tried after the war for this, being acquitted. The article quoted was published in Il Tempo (Rome) on 21 November 1951. It reiterates what he had previously written when still a minister: “As one reads on, one will see the path taken since the Kingdom’s foundation to the present of the various legislative attempts, of citizens’ sacrifices and their real value, of the excellence of provision and execution, of the defectiveness and deviations which the interest of the state and nation sometimes had to suffer because of the upper hand gained by political or particular or special interests.” (L’azione dello Stato per le Opere Pubbliche 1862-1924, Rome 1925 p. vii)

Murdering the Dead
Bordiga Archive
Antagonism