The never-ending drive for profits by the corporate bosses and bankers—wealth that could be used in the interest of the people and protecting the environment—has become more central in the consciousness of those from whom the rich reap their fortunes.
In this drive for profits, the capitalist class, with its media and propaganda resources, attempts to make itself look like the good guys while all the problems in the world are caused by those they oppress and exploit.
More than two years after British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, the oil giant, in response to a Department of Justice lawsuit over damages, issued a memorandum in August blaming blue-collar rig workers in an effort to divert attention from the corporation’s own gross negligence.
In the memorandum, BP claimed that the company’s actions did not constitute “gross negligence or willful misconduct” based on the errors and omissions of management teams. The fault, the company claimed, lay with the workers on the rig, superseding other causes and therefore absolving the company of liability.
Do not be fooled: US and BP are partners, not opponents
Let no one be fooled by this court action between BP and the U.S. government. The two worked jointly in the interest of big oil and one of the biggest corporations on the planet. The memorandum, for example, was initially kept partly secret.
The collusion of BP and the U.S. government can also be seen in the unfolding of events during the catastrophe itself as well as the series of lies that continue to be propagated. Although the legal briefs show the U.S. government as confronting big oil, it is little more than a charade, like the ruling-class elections.
In the end, big oil wins at the expense of the workers who died and were injured, as well as of the environment as a result of the more than 200 million gallons of oil dumped in the Gulf of Mexico. The damages were exacerbated by the hundreds of thousands of gallons of highly toxic dispersant used to conceal the extent of the spill.
Since the disaster, environmental assessments have reported strange foam appearing on coastlines, severe ill health of the dolphin population, other sea species with generations of deformations, dead and dying deep sea coral and the resulting decrease of plankton-eating fish, long-lasting damage to marsh vegetation and illnesses among the population of the Gulf states.
BP has skirted through numerous legal actions. During the summer of 2011, for example, U.S. courts dismissed lawsuits filed by more than 100,000 people against British Petroleum and drilling partner Transocean for the massive cleanup costs of the catastrophe.
The Department of Justice action against BP could have a similar outcome. Even if the DOJ were to win, the fine would amount to at most $21 billion. While this is a substantial amount, it is only a fraction of the amount demanded by the Seize BP campaign initiated by the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition, which called for the seizure of all of BP’s assets, totaling more than $152 billion, for a cleanup that could take decades in the Gulf of Mexico and for compensation for the workers and impacted peoples of the Gulf who were left jobless as the fishing, tourist and other industries collapsed.
A 2010 presidential panel found that the disaster could have been prevented. Such statements and findings are nothing more than diversions from the real solution—seizing BP and doing away with the system where capitalists rule and replacing it with a planned economy in which production of energy and everything else is geared to meeting human needs—with utmost care exercised for preserving a sustainable environment for generations to come as part of that planning process guided by working people themselves.
