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Communist-Inspired Masses Will Beat Lead Contamination

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Poisoning Flint’s children (and adults) with lead contaminated water adds to the long list of capitalism’s racist and anti-working class horrors. But you probably know that by now.
As few years ago, Flint started getting water from the Flint River instead of Lake Huron to save money. However, the one remaining GM plant in Flint is now getting its water from Lake Huron! Flint River water is highly corrosive causing lead from the city’s antiquated pipes to leach into the water supply. Business as usual!
The city budget was slashed when General Motors closed most of its factories there, laying of over 80% of the workers after stealing billions from the labor of the city’s largely black workforce. To hell with the bosses’ budgets! Lead poisoning can not stand!
Communist revolution is the only way to rectify the situation. Communism relies on mobilizing the masses, not budgets.
The Flint waterway is so corrosive because salt compounds used to melt snow drain into the river. Salt runoff increases the level of corrosive chlorine.
Cities use salt because it is cheap. Communism will mobilize masses to remove snow instead of relying on dangerous salt compounds. The party will prepare those idled during snow storms to help.
There are roughly 7.3 million lead water service lines in the U.S. alone. There is no plan to get rid of them because it costs too much money.
Here too, the party will mobilize the masses—this time to rip out the old lead pipes and replace them with safe ones.

Huge Struggle, but Doable
Communism can mobilize the masses needed because profits, money and budgets will be out of the equation. Collective struggle will be our method; collective good our goal.
We know we can succeed because we’ve seen aspects of it done before. Soon after the Chinese revolution, the Chinese communist party mobilized millions to eradicate schistosomiasis, one of the deadliest diseases known to humankind. It infected 250 million.
To end the plague, the Chinese had to interrupt the life cycle of the microscopic worm that caused the malady. They killed the amphibious snails that played host to the worm’s larvae.
The snails lived near river waterlines often burrowing three inches into the mud. More than a million workers temporarily drained the rivers in the right progression and cleared out the banks. They waged war against the snails for a decade till final victory.
They won despite the devastation caused by years of exploitation and oppression; despite the destruction caused by WWII and the likes of the rape of Nanking by the Japanese Army. The “secret” was mobilizing the masses.
Dr. Joshua Horn, an English surgeon and eyewitness to the campaign, described how it was done: “To mobilize the masses does not mean to issue them shovels and instructions; it means to fire them with enthusiasm to release their initiative and to tap their wisdom.”
Today, unfortunately, schistosomiasis is back in China. The masses were mobilized to get rid of it, but were not mobilized to fight for communism, but instead for socialism. Socialism is state capitalism. Administrating it, the communists became capitalists. Today in China, the profits of these capitalists-imperialists are primary, not the well-being of the Chinese workers.

Lead Pollution Is a Paper Tiger
Cleaning up the mess in Flint will be a huge job, but it is relatively small potatoes compared to eliminating the “snail disease.” In Flint, the locals will also play a key role. They know the physical conditions. Most importantly, they know the relationships between people that ultimately will determine victory or defeat.
Replacing all lead pipes is a bigger problem, but just as doable with millions of hands, hearts and minds.
Our outlook stands in sharp contrast to the bosses’ doom-and-gloom. They may acknowledge the racist and anti-working class character of the attacks, but can offer no solution. Cost, budgets and the need to continue making profits make the task impossible.
But we view the obstacles as “paper tigers.” Real “tigers” because lead contamination destroys lives. We’ll need a tactical plan, organization, Party leadership and years of fierce mass communist struggle to get rid of lead pollution.
In the long run, the battle against environmental lead is winnable, no matter how many miles of lead pipes and tons of corrosive pollutants the bosses’ have unleashed. The masses are incomparably more powerful than the harmful legacy of capitalism. In this way, we can consider the obstacles as like paper tigers.
We will win because a working class motivated by communism is unbeatable.

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