EDITORIAL
Japan tsunami
Published Mar 16, 2011 3:36 PM
March 15 — Workers World Party would like to offer its sincerest
condolences and concern for the people of Japan, who have lost many lives and
continue to struggle in the aftermath of the worst earthquake, and ensuing
tsunami, on record in the area.
We join with the people of Japan in condemning the Japanese government for its
lack of transparency in its response to the earthquake and tsunami — for
not telling people what is happening and for not preparing people for
evacuation if needed. At the same time, we solidarize ourselves with
Japan’s heroic public service and nuclear energy workers, who have been
working round the clock and, in many cases, risking their lives in order to
protect the lives of others. The country’s nuclear workers are especially
being made to bear the brunt of the dangers of the situation without any relief
and without enough care for their safety.
In Japan, the devastation of the earthquake and tsunami was limited by the
valiant efforts of these workers, along with the country’s highly
developed economy. The number of deaths to date is fewer than the number of
civilians killed by the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the
huge toll of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti — a country that was already
impoverished by neoliberal International Monetary Fund policies.
Bourgeois media reports are now raising the alarm for a nuclear catastrophe in
Japan, as workers scramble to fix cooling systems for five nuclear reactors at
two power plants. This situation should be approached in context. Japan, which
has no oil resources of its own, has extensively developed nuclear power in a
bid to be free of dependence on U.S.-controlled oil. The Associated Press
reports that 30 percent of Japan’s electricity is received through
nuclear power. (March 11).
Our readers should be cautioned that some of the anti-nuclear noise coming from
the U.S. can be seen as speaking for the interests of Big Oil — the
wealthy oil industries primarily from the U.S., Britain and France. The
potential radiation exposure in Japan, even in the worst-case scenario, is not
even minutely close to what was done by just one of the atomic bombs the U.S.
dropped on Japan in 1945.
Nuclear power is being sought by Cuba, Iran, North Korea and other countries.
For now, it is the only viable alternative to reliance on Big Oil for power and
development of the economy. China has been able to develop mainly because it
did not have to rely on oil/gas for power, but has big reserves of coal that it
used instead. For now, Japan will have to switch to gas-based power plants to
temporarily replace the nuclear plants lost to the earthquake.
At the same time, the Japan nuclear plant crisis shows the necessity for a
people’s takeover of the energy industry, both the nuclear industry and
the oil/gas industry. Such a takeover would ensure that the safety and lives of
workers — and the environment - would always come first with regards to
the preparation and consumption of energy for human use.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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