Tornadoes rip through South

The tornado outbreaks in the southern midwest and southeast states of the U.S. between April 25 and April 27 were unusually fierce and deadly. At least 339 people — and possibly more than 400 — have died. Thousands were injured by the storms and hundreds are missing. Many are homeless as whole areas were razed and completely devastated.

There are reports of over 425 tornadoes occurring over a four-day period, 259 of them on April 27, with 16 states reporting funnel clouds. This is the third deadliest tornado outbreak in the country since the Tristate outbreak of 1925 and the Tupelo-Gainesville outbreak of 1936.

A debate is going on now about the relation of the fierce and prolific tornadoes to climate change. The right-wing suggests that the effects of a warming earth due to pollution and other human causes cannot be as bad as once thought. Such a position is full of fallacies and is blatantly ridiculous, especially given all the evidence of how climate change affects earthquakes.

The storms have no prejudice. However, in the U.S., the dry line — the point at which a tornado forms where different air currents meet — is at the intersection of race and class. The most vulnerable are the poor and dispossessed of the working class, which because of the history of the U.S. are disproportionately oppressed nationalities. Whether oppressed nationalities or not, poor working people will be saddled with the effects of the tornado outbreak for a long time to come.

While President Barack Obama visited Tuscaloosa, Ala., the hardest-hit city, eager not to repeat the criminally negligent, slow response of the federal government after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the reality is that a capitalist society is fundamentally ill prepared to give the type of response necessary during times of devastating storms.

While the U.S. is materially prepared, the priorities of capitalism and imperialism and the organization of society are such that many will be left behind.

Intersection of social storms

For instance, according to a study done in 2008 by Northern Illinois University meteorologist Walker Ashley, the area with the most tornado fatalities is southeastern U.S. This is partly because, according to Ashley, “Mobile homes make up 30 to 40 percent of the housing stock in some counties in the deep South.” Ashley believes that 50 percent of deaths from tornadoes are people who live in mobile homes. (New York Times, April 29)

Alabama suffered more than 200 deaths. Tuscaloosa accounted for 70 or more, with the city faring the worse with widespread damage and death.

More than half of Mississippi counties were affected, as well as parts of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas and Georgia, along with reports of tornadoes as far west as Texas and as far north as New York.

Many parts of the South that suffered are some of the poorest in the country. Mississippi is the poorest state with the lowest per capita income; Arkansas ranks second, Alabama eighth, Tennessee fourth and North Carolina ninth, according to a CNN report from September.

In Mississippi 22 percent of people are listed as impoverished. All the states listed above, with the exception of Virginia and New York, have poverty rates at 16 percent or higher. The poverty rate in New York state is about 13 percent.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics illuminates even more the economic degradation of the areas in the storm’s path. Mississippi has an unemployment rate of 10.2 percent, North Carolina 9.7 percent, Tennessee 9.5 percent, Alabama 9.2 percent, and Arkansas 7.8 percent. These are official unemployment rates, measured by those who filed for unemployment and not taking into account the many who have dropped out of the labor market altogether. These numbers do not reflect the devastating unemployment in Black and Indigenous communities, which face the highest unemployment rates in the country.

People without homes, insurance, jobs or who live on the brink — teetering just above the threshold that separates official poverty from being not so poor — will be left to figure out how to get on with their lives at the mercy of the free market for jobs, a place to live and every necessity of life.

The states will give a bare minimum of relief for a short time. But many of the areas hit, locally and at the state level, have instituted cutbacks. Forty-four states have projected deficits for fiscal year 2011-2012 and proposed cutbacks will dig deep into the social wage.

Workers, the oppressed, the unemployed and youth are left to fend for themselves under the conditions of capitalism. The capitalist state is not organized to provide for people’s needs. This has become more evident now, as austerity is being enforced at all levels.

It is important to fight against all cutbacks, for more resources, and ultimately for the type of society that will be organized to provide for the needs of all workers and the oppressed instead of profits for the capitalists.