To fight the fires we need to fight this government
The Australian government and so called opposition are in complete denial about the impact that climate change is already having on the country. While the Prime Minister and government deny any connection between climate change and the current disaster, the Labor Party does everything possible to ingratiate itself with the fossil fuel and mining industry. Australia’s ruling class is especially tied-up with some of the most criminal global polluters.
The scale of the fires now burning Australia is unprecedented. This scale of destruction of ecological systems, animal life and communities has never before been seen. Many communities and stretches of forest and land will burn for months to come, and the risk of a long summer inferno seems eminently likely.
These fires were a predictable consequence of climate change. For over a decade, the cool wet weather fronts that previously brought rains, have been moving further south. This had long been a predicted outcome of the impact of global warming on local weather patterns. There is no guarantee that these rains will return. This is to say nothing of the growing desertification of important river systems and continuing decline of biodiversity, and its impact.
The social impact of these fires is tremendous. Toxic smoke has covered an area as large as Western Europe and in the case of Sydney and now Canberra, the health impacts will likely reach into many years to come. Sydney’s air pollution has been dangerously high for weeks, and Canberra has topped the global rankings for polluted air quality.
As per usual, the neoliberal government and political parties have other priorities. Government spending is for promoting “investment” and making profits, not for fighting fires, and helping ordinary working people and communities.
Fire fighting services are woefully under-funded and under-prepared; often relying on under-trained and under-resourced volunteers. While some firefighters have had to work with paper masks, the government gifts $12 billion dollars every year to the fossil fuel companies. The military is funded for wars in the Middle East and to capture and imprison refugees, but can barely be mobilised with the necessary urgency to evacuate communities under threat of life.
To fight the fires we need to fight this government. Morrison – like his global counterparts, Bolsonaro, Piñera, Trump – have to go! We have no chance of preventing the disastrous impacts of global warming while neoliberals rule our lives.
The cost of these fires is impossible to fathom right now. But we know that there will need to be massive compensation and investment to regenerate bushlands, rebuild homes and infrastructure, improve fire services, and support health affected communities.
The government and fossil fuel industry must pay! We should not have to organise street collections and community fundraisers – the corporations that have caused these fires should foot the bill!
Fight the neoliberal governments destroying our planet!
Day of Action Friday January 10
Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
Signed:
Socialist Alternative (Australia)
Socialist Workers Movement – FITU (Argentina)
Ecosocialist Network (Argentina)
Environmental Defense Foundation (Argentina)
SEP- Socialist Laborers Party (Turkey)
Socialist Alternative – PSOL (Brazil)
Socialist Struggle – PSOL (Brazil)
Feminist Collective Marielle Lives (Brazil)
Socialist Construction – PSOL (Brazil)
PSOL Ecosocialist Sectorial Paulo Piramba (Brazil)
Movement for Change (Lebanon)
The Commune (France)
Socialism and Liberty (Spanish State)
CUP ( L’Hospitalet – Catalunya )
Socialist Tide (Venezuela)
Anticapitalist Movement (Chile)
Socialist Alternative (Paraguay)
Collective Action (Colombia)
Socialist Path (Uruguay)
Socialist Workers Movement (Ecuador)
Inter-professional Association of Free Workers (Belarus)
Independent Union (Belarus)
“Labor Protection” Independent Union (Ukraine)