Hurricanes are often portrayed as natural disasters, but the level of destruction and human loss reflects the economic system present in the impacted locale. In societies building socialism, where the well-being of the people is the principal concern of the state, preventative measures are taken to minimize destruction and fatalities. In capitalist societies, the state is beholden to private industry and maximizing profits is the driving force. We can see this play out before, during and after every single natural disaster that affects our communities here in the United States. Hurricane Helene is one example among multitudes.
Capitalism intensifies natural disasters
It is now known that natural disasters such as hurricanes, droughts, floods, and wildfires are becoming more severe and more frequent as a result of climate change. Hurricane Helene dumped 31 inches of rain in some cities in Southern Appalachia, a rainfall event that happens on average only once every 1,000 years. As a result, dams are overflowing and are at risk of failure, entire communities have been decimated with no access to clean drinking water or electricity and towns have become completely isolated from the outside world as part of Interstate 40 broke off into the river. It will be some time before we know the true extent of the damage and loss of human life. The most disturbing aspect of this is that we have just entered hurricane season and future years are projected to only intensify.
Compounding the issue is how capitalism alters the natural landscape. Forests and wetlands are great at absorbing water. However, they are terrible for producing wealth. When land is a commodity that can be bought and sold, forests are cleared to make way for parking lots, rooftops and non-native grasses. The effect is that rain runs off directly into creeks and rivers, exacerbating the effects of floods. Contrast this with China’s now famous “Sponge Cities,” an urban planning model developed with a landscape ecology perspective designed to manage flooding by strengthening the presence of natural ecosystems within the urban area which acts as a sponge in absorbing surplus rainwater.
The ruling class abandoned the people
In Georgia, even when flooding was not present, communities across the state were badly affected by Helene. A common theme among people we interviewed was the way private housing complexes completely abandoned their tenants in a time of need: “Management told us to go to a hotel…not everyone has the money to just get up and move!” said Kenneth Springer, a Park Valley Resident, when asked about the response by his apartment complex. “We need some type of commitment from management to make sure our well-being will be taken care of.”
Elsewhere in Clarkston, residents of the Woodside Village apartment complex interviewed Saturday evening had been out of power for nearly three days. Recalling the way the apartment complex handled preparations for the hurricane, Hasan, a tenant, explained how management simply left a memo on everyone’s car saying that tenants were likely to lose power and that they should contact Georgia Power. Despite receiving an email from Georgia Power assuring residents that power would be back by 11:45 am on Saturday, at the time of the interview at 4:00 pm, the entire complex was still without power and Georgia Power teams were nowhere to be seen. The situation had become so dire that tenants began collecting twigs and branches left around the complex in order to cook, recounted Hasan.
“They don’t check, they don’t talk to anyone. The government neither,” said Takiba, another tenant of Woodside Village, when asked about how the hurricane was handled.
Under the unplanned economic system that is capitalism, people are left to fend for themselves during natural disasters. There is no centralized planning to ensure that everyone has safe transportation and shelter. Instead people use the limited resources they have to support their neighbors. There are countless stories of working class people providing one another with what limited supplies and support they have to share. For instance, Bishop Marvin Brown, a native of Dublin, Georgia spent his entire Saturday helping his community by cutting away at fallen trees and branches with his chainsaw and checking in on his neighbors.
Socialism is able to adequately respond to disasters
In contrast, Cuba, a country which has suffered over six decades under U.S. economic blockade, the inefficacy of U.S. capitalism becomes even more striking. In the early years following the Cuban Revolution, the socialist government — in response to hurricanes which had always devastated the small island country — established the Civil Defense System in order to track hurricanes, educate the population, quickly distribute communications, and assist in evacuations when needed. In fact, all adults in Cuba must undergo a civilian defense training program that is designed to teach them how to assist in evacuation procedures. (Washington Post)
To this day the results speak for themselves. In 2004, Hurricane Jeanne hit the Caribbean intensely, killing 3,000 people in Haiti, devastating infrastructure and leaving the Haitian people stranded, without food, water and electricity. In Cuba, zero lives were lost. Unlike the Cuban people who liberated themselves of Spanish colonialism and then U.S. neocolonialism through their socialist revolution in 1959, the Haitian people continue to suffer under the yolk of U.S. imperialism.
Disasters expose the priorities of the ruling class
The U.S. government is massively funded, employing millions of people with the military deployed all over the world to protect imperialist interests. Under a socialist government, where the people’s needs are placed before profits, the U.S. military could be deployed to help with restoration efforts after disasters. While, nominally, that is the duty of the National Guard, hurricanes over the years have shown restoration to be woefully inadequate.
In China during the COVID pandemic, police officers distributed food as people quarantined. Following Hurricane Helene, police in the U.S. were deployed to supermarkets to stop “looters.” People have been arrested for taking food and resources they need to survive while capitalists are free to price-gouge working class people in times of crises.
The working class bails out the rich
Following the aftermath of the disaster, it will ultimately be working-class people who have to pay for the damage. Since insurance companies under capitalism are intended to make a profit, they are incentivized to distribute as little financial relief as possible. Instead, people must rely on personal donations to recoup a fraction of their losses. Under a socialist system, the for-profit insurance industry would be abolished. Financial relief would be distributed based on need and if required, new housing would be provided for people if their homes are no longer liveable.
Rather than prioritize rebuilding failing infrastructure, the U.S. government is sending tens of billions of dollars to Israel to continue the genocide of Palestinians. Even as Israel is recklessly expanding the conflict into a potential regional war by launching airstrikes in Beirut, the U.S. government last week agreed to send an $8.7 billion military aid package to Israel.
For the earth to live, capitalism must die
Studies have shown that human induced climate change has already caused irreversible damage to the planet. Unless the capitalist system is overturned, the ruling class will continue to lead us to environmental destruction and abandon working class people along the way. While Hurricane Helene might have been unavoidable, the over 120 deaths could have been prevented with a centralized response. To mitigate the destruction of natural disasters, we must stop prioritizing profit over the environment and needs of the people. Only socialism provides a path forward to properly address climate change.
