Maui Wildfire: Capitalist Disaster here ♦ The History of the Earth and the Future of Communism here ♦
Maui County gas workers on strike, August 22, 2023
Maui Wildfire: Capitalist Disaster Shows We Need Communism
Wildfires destroyed the historic city of Lahaina, Maui (Hawaii, USA). Hundreds died. This was not a “natural” disaster. Capitalism caused it.
In 2014, the non-profit Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization warned that Lahaina was at high risk. Much of that risk was from drought-parched non-native grasses. These spread widely from disused sugar plantations created by profit-hungry imperialists.
These same bosses abandoned the plantations after World War II when tourism became more profitable. Now people fear that Lahaina will be rebuilt for the tourist industry, like Waikiki. Long-time residents might never be able to return.
The plan recommended by the non-profit was only partly put into practice. “It’s just really frustrating and heartbreaking to see that some things could have been done, but we couldn’t find money,” said the lead author of the plan.
Hundreds died because money “couldn’t be found!” Capitalism only “finds money” for projects that maximize profits for the rich.
That’s why we need communism, a system that won’t run on money at all. We’ll contribute our work to produce and distribute whatever the masses need. We won’t need to buy or sell anything because everything will be shared.
In communism, we won’t have to look for money to make communities safe. Or for anything else. Instead, we will organize ourselves to do whatever work is needed.
In Maui, that might have meant a better emergency response system. Or eradicating the invasive grasses, a legacy of imperialism. We ourselves will determine priorities, not politicians beholden to business interests.
Lahaina survivors showed that we can take care of each other. No official sirens warned them. Neighbors warned neighbors. People helped strangers escape. Afterward, it has been mainly volunteers organizing distribution of food and water. Sharing, not selling – that’s what communism will be.
The Polynesians who settled Hawai’i did not practice private ownership of land. Western capitalists imposed it, starting in 1848. Many Hawaiian families were forced off lands they had farmed for generations. Like European farmers much earlier, they became wage slaves – often on plantations.
The Communist Manifesto also appeared in 1848, amid massive workers’ uprisings across Europe. Communism will abolish private ownership of land and all other means of production.
Wildfires have devastated large parts of Chile, Greece, Spain, Canada, Kazakhstan, and other places besides Maui. How long will we let capitalism create disasters? What can our collectives do right now to bring communist revolution closer?
—Comrades in USA
The History of the Earth and the Future of Communism
The tipping point was in the 1950s, scientists now say. Radioactive fallout blanketed the Earth. We entered the Anthropocene period. Now, human activity is the main driving force of planetary change.
But humanity is divided into classes. Our massive working class, whose only resource is our ability to work. Versus the tiny capitalist class that exploits our labor and is driving us off a planetary cliff.
Which class will dominate the Anthropocene?
We, and generations before, have lived under the tyranny of wealth. Could that ever change? Could workers take everything – everything! – into our own hands?
Everything changes. Even the bedrock of Planet Earth.
A Short History of Our Planet
Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago as a molten fireball. For half a billion years – the Hadean Eon – its outside slowly cooled.
Some minerals started to form solid but unstable slabs. Slowly, larger fragments formed a thin crust. The quantitative changes in surface temperature transformed the nature of the planet.
A new eon – the Archean – began. Earth’s molten core remained, but something new appeared: the rock record.
Over a billion and a half years, continents began to form. Surface temperatures dropped below water’s boiling point. Oceans appeared. We see the first evidence of microscopic life.
The gradual development of life forms gave rise to the Proterozoic Eon, about 2.5 billion years ago. Blue-green bacteria began making oxygen (photosynthesis) and releasing it into the ocean. Oxygen bonded to iron and other elements, creating minerals like iron oxide. Life was changing the planet’s chemistry.
A tipping point came when photosynthesis released more free oxygen than minerals could absorb. Dissolved oxygen gas filled the oceans. It eventually bubbled out into the atmosphere, allowing many more organisms to evolve and thrive.
Free oxygen reacted with methane, creating carbon dioxide. The atmosphere cooled. This probably caused the first glaciation event around 2.1 billion years ago.
The explosion of life forms marked the start of the Phanerozoic Eon, 541 million years ago.
Our Place in Earth’s History
We live in the Quaternary period of the Cenozoic Era of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Quaternary started 2.58 million years ago. If the history of the Earth were a day long, the Quaternary would be less than a minute.
Our human species has only existed for a few hundred thousand years— the blink of an eye. But in that time, we’ve strongly influenced the Earth: its ecosystems, its climate, geology, and even its chemistry.
Nuclear fallout is the marker scientists chose for the start of the Anthropocene. But humans have also created over two hundred new minerals. We added metals and plastics to the fossil record.
Two centuries ago, the capitalist industrial revolution started spewing carbon into the atmosphere. Twelve thousand years earlier, the invention of agriculture reshaped ecosystems and even geography.
Human activity has qualitatively changed Earth. We are part of that change.
Communism: The Way Forward
Blue-green bacteria had no idea what effects they were causing. For a long time, humans didn’t either. But (unlike bacteria) we can analyze, learn, imagine, and plan. We can consciously shape the future, within limits of course.
Capitalists plan to maximize profits at the expense of workers and our environment. The biggest capitalists (imperialists) plan for war, even nuclear war, against their competitors.
We cannot leave them in charge of the Anthropocene!
The alternative is communist revolution for workers’ power. Communism will end the profit system. It will empower us, the producers, to decide what to make, and how. To plan for our future, not for the quarterly balance sheet.
To mobilize our labor and resources to limit and repair the damage. To envision and build the world we need on the ashes of the old.
Communism will run on relationships, not on money. We will work for each other and rely on each other. We will overcome the racist, religious, gender, national, and other divisions created by capitalism.
Everything changes. Things change slowly. Then they can reach a tipping point where things change fast.
The small things we most need to do right now are those that build communist relationships. Converse with one more person (or many) about communism. Get Red Flag to one more person (or many) Ask one more (or many) to share it with others.
Join or build a party collective. Or take on one more responsibility for yours.
We can’t always see results from what we do. But these small steps are the bubbles of oxygen that will change our social atmosphere. That will make communist revolution and communist society a reality.