MIM Notes No. 202      January 15, 2000

Venezuelan 'natural' disaster shows failure of capitalism

by MC17

Authorities estimate that upwards of 30,000 people have died in Venezuela 
as a result of floods that caused devastating mudslides in December. 
According to the Venezuelan government 23,000 homes were destroyed and 
140,000 people left homeless. MIM reports on this disaster to point out 
that so-called natural disasters impact the poor far greater than the 
rich and are often a product of capitalist destruction of the 
environment.

Mudslides, caused by rain induced flooding, wiped out hundreds of 
mountainside shantytowns throughout Venezuela. Many people were living in 
these precarious homes after fleeing the countryside as low crop prices 
forced them to seek work in Caracas.(1) Ironically, President Hugo Chavez 
Frias was voted into power last year amid promises to end shanty towns in 
Venezuela.

Social Democracy not the answer

Venezuelans voted overwhelmingly on December 15 to approve a new 
constitution championed by the president Chavez. Less than half of the 
country's 11 million voters turned out, in part because of the heavy 
rains and flooding.(2) The new constitution offers a mix of popular 
reforms including wimmin's rights, a higher minimum wage and free public 
education through the university level.

Chavez is a social democrat, someone who appears to be championing the 
rights of the people but who works within the capitalist system to 
achieve greater equality for the oppressed. In the end social democrats 
are unwilling to tear down the system that causes inequality and 
oppression: capitalism. They are too wedded to this system and although 
they may appear progressive because of some reforms they advocate, they 
are on the side of imperialism.

The Archbishop of Caracas, Ignacio Velasco, suggested that the rains in 
Venezuela were divine retribution for Chavez's radical political 
policies. "It would be some wrath of God that took out its punishment on 
the poor," responded the foreign minister, Jose Vicente Rangel.(1) This 
is exactly MIM's point: whether you look at this from a religious 
perspective or a capitalist perspective or an anti-imperialist 
perspective you can't miss the fact that this disaster, and others like 
it throughout the world, disproportionately impact the poorest people. In 
recent disasters in Venezuela, Honduras and Mexico, flooding has 
devastated the poor who live on steep cliffs or flooding plains.

Environmental destruction

Many people argue that recent disasters like the floods in Venezuela can 
be blamed on global warming. MIM agrees with these people that capitalism 
is wrecking havoc on the environment. The average annual deforestation in 
Venezuela over two decades is 1.2 million acres or 1.1 percent a year.(4) 
Lack of forest cover means that rainfall runs off hillsides faster. This 
increases erosion and leads to flooding and mudslides. But for the 
logging companies and other corporations quickly cutting down the 
forests, this fact is unimportant.

But it is important to recognize that the death and destruction that 
comes with these environmental events is entirely preventable, even 
without preventing the destruction to the environment that increases the 
occurrence of environmental disasters. The simple fact that people are 
living in very clear and direct danger because they can not afford to 
live elsewhere is a sign that these disasters are preventable. If 
capitalism did not force people off of their land, if it did not 
impoverish the majority leaving them without safe homes, or if we had a 
logical system of planning which put the needs of the people before the 
profits of corporations, we would not be talking about 30,000 deaths in 
Venezuela right now.

Capitalism is unnatural disaster

One of the world's largest insurers, Munich Re, estimated that about 
70,000 people were killed in over 700 disasters this year.(3) This 
estimate does not include the many who died from drought and famine, also 
considered "natural" disasters by capitalist terms. Munich Re also does 
not attempt to look at who is being killed by these disasters.

MIM looks with disgust at the "natural" disasters of capitalism: half of 
all deaths of children in the world are associated with malnutrition; 1.3 
billion people do not have access to clean water; nearly three-fifths of 
people in the Third World lack basic sanitation; almost half of the 
world's poorest people live on marginal lands.(5) There is nothing 
natural about the death and destruction caused by capitalism but the 
capitalists continue to try to divert attention from the root cause of 
suffering and oppression in the world today.

Interestingly, in the United Nations Development Programme annual 
publication "The Human Development Report," this institution of 
imperialism recognizes the failure of capitalism. In their 1997 report 
they wrote: "The transition from socialism to democracy and market 
economies has proved more difficult and costly than anyone imagined. The 
costs have been not only economic, from the dramatic decline in GDP. They 
have also been human, from falling wages, growing crime and loss of 
social protection. In some countries life expectancy has fallen by five 
years or more."(5)

MIM points our readers to the facts about improvements in life 
expectancy, quality of life, health care, education, rights for wimmin, 
and many other aspects of life in China under Mao as an example of the 
great potential of socialism. Only with a dictatorship of the 
proletariat, truly representing the interests of the people, will we be 
able to abolish the unnatural disaster of capitalism.

Notes:

1. The Guardian (London) 21 December 1999.

2. Weekly Americas News Update #516, 19 December 1999. 3. Reuters, 21 
December 1999. 4. Reuters, 22 December 1999. 5. United Nations 
Development Program Reports. Available at http://www.undp.org/ hdro/.