Environmental disaster in the Gulf
2010John Leslie 2010-05Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
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Station.
These interests are seeking, for example, a “guest worker” program that denies any rights to migrant workers, especially the right to form a union, and gives all authority to the employer and the employer-dominated government.
The Democrats want to slyly channel the outrage against the Arizona law toward gaining support for the version of “comprehensive immigration reform” that Obama endorsed in a televised message to the 200,000 immigrant-rights supporters who rallied in Washington, D.C., on March 21—the Schumer “blueprint.” That blueprint, with its “four pillars,” was spelled out by Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), together with Senator Lindsey Graham (D-S.C.), in a Washington Post article on the eve of March 21. (See Lisa Luinenberg’s report in the April issue of Socialist Action.)
The correct type of response for the immigrant rights movement in this situation was forcefully presented by New York City’s Immigrant ComThe seas are the key to life on this planet. Many in the environmental movement have come to recognize that capitalism is killing the planet, but the killing just turned from slow strangulation to a gunshot.
On April 20, the Deepwater Horizon, a deep-sea oil-drilling rig 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana, exploded, killing 11 and injuring 27. Two days later it sank in 5000 feet of water.
Documents recently released to the media show that BP (formerly British Petroleum) baldly dismissed the possibilities of environmental damage when it applied for its license to drill. And the government regulators entrusted with review of the project likewise discounted any danger.
After the explosion, both corporate and government authorities again downplayed the potentiality of disaster. According to initial estimates by BP, the well was leaking a mere 1000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. As we go to press, according to “experts” and government officials, the well might be leaking approximately 200,000 gallons of oil a day (1.4 million a week). But no one really knows the actual quantity of oil that is escaping.
The well pipe is five feet in diameter and spewing oil at roughly 70,000 PSI. The drilling rig was unable to contain the pressures in this oil reserve—billions of gallons of oil lying 30,000 feet deep in the earth’s crust.
The blow-out preventer, a piece of equipment supposedly designed to shut down the flow of a well in case of an accident, failed to function. BP ignored any alternatives to this faulty technology, or a valve under the sea floor to turn off the oil flow in case of emergency. “The company took their chances in not having the [emergency] valve so (continued on page 3, in “Brazil mega-dam battle rages”)
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(Left) Jose Soberon, Cuban consul general. With a more local perspective, Ontario Coalition Commentary by Mumia Abu-Jamal
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INSIDE SOCIALIST ACTION: Mumia Abu-Jamal — 2 Bolivia climate conference — 3
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