They didn’t have to die

Indian Ocean tsunami disaster

They didn’t have to die

Capitalist system fails millions

People’s generosity shames world leaders

WE WILL never forget the harrowing scenes of death, destruction and
suffering which have affected millions following the Indian Ocean tsunami
disaster. With over 150,000 dead, two million desperate for food and five
million made homeless, the scale of the catastrophe is almost unimaginable.

But alongside sadness at the terrible human suffering, there is anger that
tens of thousands died needlessly. It was a natural disaster but even world
experts agree that thousands of deaths could have been prevented if an early
warning system had been in place.

Thousands died needlessly

Across the globe ordinary people have responded to the disaster with
unprecedented generosity, solidarity and internationalism. In Britain,
individual donations of £1 million an hour were pouring in – over £70 million
has been raised so far.

But this is in stark contrast to the stingy contributions of national
governments, who only increased their initial donations when shamed into doing
so by the generosity of ordinary people.

The Blair government’s pledge is the equivalent of just five-and a-half
days expenditure on the war in Iraq. Bush boasts of giving $350 million in aid
to tsunami survivors but has spent $148 billion on killing tens of thousands
of Iraqi civilians. Not long before the tsunami struck, the US administration
cut its contribution to global food aid programmes!

Capitalism incapable

Capitalism – the profit system that Bush and Blair promote – has proved
incapable of protecting the lives of tens of thousands in the Indian Ocean.
And every day the profit system destroys the lives of millions.

More than one billion children, half the children in the world, are at risk
from war, poverty and hunger. While the capitalist powers spend £712 billion a
year on weapons, one in six children go hungry and one in seven have no
healthcare.

The tsunami disaster has exposed the inadequacies of capitalism and the
desperate need for socialist change.

But the tremendous response of ordinary people internationally also gives a
glimpse of what a system based on need not profit, on co-operation, solidarity
and internationalism would mean for the workers and poor of the world.