Statement from the Labor Party of the Philippines about the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan.

Colleagues on this email list might be interested

in reading the statement below from the Labor Party

of the Philippines about the devastation caused by

Typhoon Haiyan. They have set up a fund appealing

for solidarity for victims.

http://laborpartyphilippines.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=539&Itemid=50

Martin Empson
Treasurer, Campaign Against Climate Change

Trade Union group
www.climate-change-jobs.org 

===

CAPITALISM IS destroying the planet. Now we suffer. The

devastating horror unleashed by the monster-typhoon Yolanda

 (Haiyan) upon the eastern and central Philippines regions is

unspeakable. As of this writing, estimates of the number of

casualties and actual damages are tentative because many areas

 remain isolated, and communications, power, road and port

systems are down.

An initial estimate by the provincial government of Leyte and the

 regional police put the death toll at more than 10,000. Some 70

 to 80 percent of houses and structures along the typhoon's path

 were destroyed. In Tacloban City alone, officials told the media

that the death toll "could go up" to 10,000, as people died en masse

 from surging tidal waves.

We have yet to account for some of our party members, including

the leader of the city's federation of tricycle drivers and operators.

 Another member, a newly elected village official in Southern Leyte,

is still not in contact. We just hope that they have survived the wrath

of Haiyan. There is also little information about Eastern Samar towns

where Haiyan made first landfall from the Pacific.

The massive loss of life and destruction are indeed beyond words

to describe. The death toll will surely climb when actual rescue and

 retrieval operations reach the isolated areas. National and inter-

national aid is coming in, but there will definitely be a catastrophic

 scarcity of most essentials, such as food, water, power, housing

 and medicines. The national and local governments were caught

unprepared to deal with the colossal impact of Haiyan. And we still

 have four or five more typhoons coming this year, according to

official weather forecasts.

The poor--the army of low-income, unemployed and underemployed

people--suffer the most in every disaster. It is because they lack the

means to protect themselves during calamities, and the ability to survive

 and recover thereafter.

Most of the poor, both in rural and urban areas, live in hazard zones

(slums, riverbanks, creeks, coastlines, mountain slopes) that are prone to

both natural and man-made disasters. Their houses are made of light

materials, just enough to cover them from sunshine and rain, but not from

surging floods, landslides or tidal waves.

Moreover, the country's biggest employer, the agriculture sector, is first

to suffer from the impact of both La Niña (floods) and El Niño (long drought)

which are now common phenomena due to climate change, and further

endanger the country's food security and employment opportunities.

Regrettably, the poor don't even know why nature is so unkind to people,

 most especially to them. They have not been informed that today's wrath

 is more man-made than a natural phenomenon. They have yet to under-

stand that it was capitalism that exploited and destroyed this planet beyond

 its limits, creating in effect a destructive fusion of economic, social and

climate crisis.

The Philippines has the highest stake and the strongest case to bring

before the ongoing United Nation's Climate talks in Warsaw, Poland.

Previous climate talks produced nothing, as the process is dominated by

 developed countries that are known for committing something, yet doing

 nothing.

The timing is indeed "tragically ironic," one writer has pointed out. The

19th Conference of Parties (COP19) in Poland opened right after the

Philippines was hit by the Earth's strongest typhoon in recent history,

leaving thousands of dead out of more than 4 million people who suffered

 from what scientists consider a monster storm.

We welcome all international aid and solidarity work coming from

Northern countries. This is the least they could do--put their one cent to

climate emergencies such as in the Philippines. But we demand more.

We want climate justice. Capitalist countries must be held accountable for

 the climate crisis. They must be forced to pay the climate debt they owe to

poor nations.

Capitalist countries, we emphasize, are responsible for the climate crisis.

They emit more carbon into the atmosphere--many times over what the

poor countries do. The greenhouse gases emitted from capitalist industries

drive global temperatures to new levels. This causes climactic reactions like

warmer oceans and rising sea levels, and eventually leads to the formation

of monster typhoons as in the case of Haiyan.

For over a century, capitalists have profited from nature by monetizing it

rather than protecting its rich natural resources. And the poor people and

poor nations suffer the most from the climate crisis created by rich nations.

The Philippines is among the topmost vulnerable countries. In fact, we have

suffered enough from devastating typhoons such as Frank (Fengshen, 2008),

Ondoy (Ketsana, 2009), Sendong (Washi, 2011), Pablo (Bopha, 2012), and

 now Yolanda (Haiyan, 2013). The worst may be yet to come.

What makes the crisis more devastating is that Haiyan struck the Philippines

when Filipinos are still reeling from a recent earthquake that killed hundreds

of people. The monster storm also came when Filipinos are fighting

 massive corruption scandals involving a huge amount of public service

 funds.

Corruption in the Philippines reduces the ability of both the national and

local governments to respond to climate emergencies of this magnitude

because billions of public funds are lost to official scams.

More than that, the ruling class's embrace of free-market ideology since the

1980s has made poor people more vulnerable. The rich therefore are equally responsible and must be held accountable for the peoples' miserable

condition.

Neoliberalism made government rely completely on the private sector to

create employment. Public services such as water and power were privatized.

Prices of goods and services were deregulated. This resulted in massive unemployment and underemployment (close to 30 percent). Social

infrastructure and services are in a poor state. The poverty rate remains

 at 28 percent while hunger affects 19 percent of the population.

Just imagine this number of poor people living in one of the country's

poorest regions facing the wrath of super-typhoons. The post-Haiyan

images will speak more of their miserable situation. They really are in

dire need of immediate aid and rehabilitation. Many have already resorted

to confiscations of available supplies in several stores and malls. We consider

those as justified actions and much better if collectively organized to isolate

criminal elements and individual push for survival. Where the government

fails, the people should collectively rise up.

We therefore warn the government to avoid using force against our

helpless people. The people need food, water and homes to stay in, not a

police force to quell their spirit to survive. In the first place, a government

that fails to eradicate high-level corruption has no justifiable reason to use

 force in suppressing the peoples' desperate struggle for life.