“The challenges that face Appalachia are indeed great. To solve them, one must question why our “national interest” still lies in an “above all” energy policy. One must question how so much wealth has been extracted from the Appalachian coalfields while the communities there remain so poor. One must question why the largest consumers of fossil fuels are great militarized nation-states. One must question why such an ecological crisis is occurring. One must question the pervasive influence of the corporate monopoly on the people’s democracy. One must stand up for themselves, their community, their consensus and yes, even their biodiversity.

Today, these questions are being asked. Appalachia is rising.”

The busted tank is owned by Freedom Industries, which uses the chemical for coal processing. Some 300,000 people have been directly impacted by the disaster, forced to wait in long lines at fire stations to receive potable water. There’s been a constant run on stores for the precious resource as well.

This is a story to often told in Appalachia. The Massey Energy coal slurry spill in Martin County, Kentucky (where 306,000,000 gallons of toxic slurry hit the town) and the TVA coal ash disaster in Kingston, Tennessee, are also part of the history of industrial disaster in the region. This history is wrought with class struggle, environmental degradation and corporatism. From the expulsion of Native Americans to the rise of King Coal, the Hawks Nest incident, the labor struggle, the Battle of Blair Mountain and the wholesale destruction of mountain ecosystems via Mountaintop Removal, Appalachia is on the front lines of the war with the politically connected.

The coalfields of Appalachia have long been home to impoverished people, overlooked by the affluent in the United States. Still, the “War on Poverty” has made its way into the Appalachian hills several times. Most famously, US president Lyndon Johnson singled out the region for his “Great Society” programs, and presidents 42, 43 and 44 have all tried to help the region as well. Instead of offering a new way forward, their programs further damage the area.

Much of the “War On Poverty” has been fought via economic engineering, centralizing the economies of West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky (along with parts of Tennessee and Virginia) into the hands of extractive fossil resource industries — notably coal and natural gas. The mechanization of these industries, however, has reduced the labor force. Specialized labor moving to the region has caused short-term booms and long-term busts. Once an extractive resource is exploited and gone,  communities are left to deal with mono economies and irreversible ecological destruction.

The challenges that face Appalachia are indeed great. To solve them, one must question why our “national interest” still lies in an “above all” energy policy. One must question how so much wealth has been extracted from the Appalachian coalfields while the communities there remain so poor. One must question why the largest consumers of fossil fuels are great militarized nation-states. One must question why such an ecological crisis is occurring. One must question the pervasive influence of the corporate monopoly on the people’s democracy. One must stand up for themselves, their community, their consensus and yes, even their biodiversity.

Today, these questions are being asked. Appalachia is rising.

Over the years numerous citizen coalitions have formed. These groups are networking together to ban the exploitation of Appalachia. Groups such as Appalachian Voices, Mountain Justice, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy  (see: ilovemountains.org), Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, and many others, have developed true grassroots movements across the region.  The Appalachian movement is building a sense of urgency around the plight of the weeping mountains, and the people who call them home. Movements work, the line has been drawn: The corporate state or its end — it really is that simple.

Which side are you on?

Dear C4SS Readers and Supporters,

Yesterday, May 20th, many communities, especially Moore, OK, were devastated by an EF4 tornado estimated to be more than 2 miles wide.

As many of you may not realize, Oklahoma is the home of many of the writers and volunteers with C4SS.

With more storms on their way, the families of Oklahoma could use all the support and aid they can receive. Every little bit of aid is important. This is where $5 from everyone makes an impact that can change lives. Anarchist activist scott crow summarizes the situation well, “Note to people doing decentralized relief. Just because the state tells you to leave or you can’t do it doesn’t mean you have to listen. Don’t be confrontational. Be creative. The need is great and the state will fail on many levels.”

C4SS fellow, Trevor Hultner, does a wonderful job of summarizing the events in Oklahoma and the following recovery effort:

Volunteers have put together exhaustive lists of how one can send aid or where they can go to volunteer:

• Interoccupy.net‘s #OPOK UPDATE: OKLAHOMA RELIEF
• Moore.recovers.org‘s The City of Moore Recovers
• Moore Oklahoma Tornado Lost and Found Animals
• Infoshop.org‘s Support Oklahoma
• RYOT.org‘s Oklahoma Tornado Victims Fund

Members of Occupy Sandy have begun collecting resources, and volunteers on their way. The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma has set up a donation service; text the word FOOD to 32333 to give $10 to the Regional Food Bank.

If you want to donate equipment and goods to support the recovery effort, please send them to:

Community Action
c/o Oklahoma Tornado Relief
CSBI Building, E-Wing
1155 E Main
Norman, OK 73071

Priority goods for the recovery effort:

1. Work gloves
2. Backpacks
3. Duffel bags
4. Dust masks
5. Respirators
6. Sturdy shoes
7. Huge tarps
8. Bungee cords
9. Any and all clothes of all sizes

Thank you all for your concern and support. Take care of each other and be safe. And always remember, any (good) thing the state can do, we can do better.

P.S. Any updates, additional information or corrections that need to be added to this post, please let us know in the comments below.

Mientras la catástrofe causada por las lluvias torrenciales que esta semana inundaron a las ciudades de Buenos Aires y La Plata en Argentina se desarrollaba, las rivalidades políticas dieron lugar, como siempre, a intentos desvergonzados de sacarle algún rédito político a la situación.

Debido a que Buenos Aires fue la primera de las dos ciudades en caer en el caos, sufrir destrozos materiales importantes y 6 víctimas fatales, los que apoyan a la presidenta Cristina Fernández de Kirchner se lanzaron al ataque inmediatamente, criticando duramente a Mauricio Macri, Jefe de Gobierno de la ciudad de Buenos Aires y archienemigo político de la presidenta, resaltando la lenta respuesta de la policía, los bomberos y la defensa civil de la ciudad.

El hecho de que Buenos Aires ya había sufrido inundaciones similares en octubre del año pasado dejó claro que desde entonces no hubo mucho progreso en términos de trabajo preventivo infraestructural en la ciudad. Y para colmo, Macri estaba de vacaciones en el exterior cuando comenzaron ambos episodios, lo que reforzó su imagen elitista hasta el punto que algunos lo llegaron a comparar con George W. Bush, que tuvo que interrumpir sus vacaciones en su rancho de Tejas cuando el huracán Katrina chocó en el 2005 contra la costa del golfo en Estados Unidos.

Pero justo cuando todo parecía indicar que la Madre Naturaleza le había otorgado una victoria política como caída del cielo a la casa rosada, y tan solo 12 horas después de la primera tormenta, se desató otra que durante un período de 160 minutos descargó el doble de lluvia que en Buenos Aires sobre la ciudad de La Plata, a 60 kilómetros de la capital y gobernada por el alcalde justicialista Pablo Bruera. Al momento de escribir este artículo, estaban confirmadas 51 muertes en La Plata, y miles de hogares habían sido destruidos o gravemente dañados por el agua.

Poco después de que La Plata se sumergía, se conoció la noticia de que Bruera estaba también de vacaciones en el exterior, y que además había hecho circular por la red social Twitter una foto falsa que supuestamente lo mostraba distribuyendo agua potable a las víctimas del desastre el martes, cuando en realidad llegó al país el miércoles por la mañana. Y como si se tratase de una reverberación espacio-temporal de la historia de Buenos Aires, La Plata también había sufrido inundaciones importantes durante los últimos diez años, el más reciente durante el 2008, y también bajo la administración de Bruera. Los medios también le refrescaron la memoria a la gente respecto a proyectos de infraestructura prometidos pero nunca realizados durante todos esos años, que hubiesen podido prevenir las inundaciones, y que dependían del gobierno central para su financiamiento.

El hecho de que dos políticos que supuestamente se encontraban en extremos opuestos del espectro ideológico evidenciaran niveles notablemente similares de incompetencia y cinismo, comenzaron a canalizar sutilmente la rabia popular hacia el estado en sí mismo en lugar de hacia un partido político particular. Casi podía oírse un eco sordo del ¡que se vayan todos! que estremeció al país durante la crisis financiera del 2001.

Pero más allá de que la gente haya dirigido acertadamente su furia hacia donde se encuentra la causa fundamental del problema, lo verdaderamente notable fue una erupción espontánea de solidaridad a lo largo y ancho del país, en claro contraste con la respuesta lenta y torpe a la situación por parte de los distintos gobiernos involucrados. Todo tipo de organizaciones de la sociedad civil recolectaron fondos, ropa, comida y agua potable para los platenses. Los medios no han parado de transmitir historias sobre vecinos de La Plata que arriesgaron sus vidas para rescatar niños y ancianos.

El único héroe policial fue Alejandro Fernández, de 44 años de edad, que según testigos se lanzó al agua con su bote de goma y rescató a casi 100 personas. Lo más curioso del caso es que Fernández estaba fuera de servicio; lo que lo motivó a actuar de esa manera fue un genuino sentimiento de solidaridad a sus vecinos, en lugar del seguir órdenes emanadas de superiores en una jerarquía burocrática.

Uno no puede sino sentirse esperanzado de que al cooperar directa y espontáneamente de esta manera, la gente dará un paso hacia alcanzar la conclusión más general: que si este tipo de cooperación puede lograr resultados sociales tan superiores al estado bajo las peores circunstancias, pues bien podríamos sustituirlo por aquella en todas las demás situaciones de nuestras vidas. De una vez y para siempre.

Artículo original publicado por Alan Furth el 08 de abril 2013.

Traducido del inglés por Alan Furth.

Because Buenos Aires was first to experience major disruption and material damages, supporters of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner went immediately for the kill, harshly criticizing ideological arch-enemy Mayor Mauricio Macri, of the right-wing PRO political party, highlighting the anger of neighbors at the slow response of the city’s police, fire and civil defense departments.

The fact that similar floods occurred during October last year made clear  there had not been much progress in terms of infrastructural preventive work in the city. And to add insult to injury, Macri was vacationing abroad when all hell broke loose during the two episodes, reinforcing his elitist image to the point where some people compared him to George W. Bush getting caught during his month-long vacation at his Texan ranch when hurricane Katrina struck the US Gulf Coast  in 2005.

But just when it seemed like mother nature had delivered a heaven-sent political win to the casa rosada, and only 12 hours after the first storm, La Plata city, 60 kilometers away from the capital and governed by Mayor Pablo Bruera of the same political party as the president, endured twice as much rain as Buenos Aires during a 160-minute storm. At the time of writing this article, the death toll at La Plata had reached 51 people, and thousands of homes had been lost or heavily damanged.

Quickly after La Plata drowned, it was revealed that Bruera was also vacationing abroad, and that he tweeted a false picture of himself supposedly distributing potable water to the victims on Tuesday, while he arrived in the country on Wednesday morning.  Echoing the story of Buenos Aires, La Plata had also suffered important floods during the last decade, the most recent in 2008, also under Bruera’s administration. On top of that, the media immediately started refreshing people’s memories about promised infrastructure projects that could have prevented the floods but were never performed, and which depended on the central government for their funding.

With political leaders of supposedly diametrically opposing ideologies all of a sudden displaying strikingly similar incompetency and cynicism, collective anger began to subtly shift toward the state per se rather than a particular political party. One could almost hear a faint echo of the “out with them all!” shout that rocked the country during the 2001 financial crisis.

But more than people directing their anger at the right target, what was truly remarkable was the spontaneous eruption of solidarity they showed toward each other, in sharp contrast with the clumsy and slow governmental response. Across the country, organizations from civil society collected funds, clothes, food and drinking water for Platenses. The media haven’t stopped portraying stories of La Plata neighbors who risked their lives rescuing children and the elderly.

The only hero policeman was Alejandro Fernández, a 44-year-old man who pulled out his rubber boat and rescued almost 100 people, according to eyewitnesses in Tolosa. Remarkably, Fernández was off-duty,  acting out of genuine solidarity with his neighbors rather than on orders from a governmental bureaucracy.

One can only hope that by exercising direct, spontaneous cooperation in this way, the people will come a little bit closer to realizing the wider implication: If this sort of cooperation works so much better than the state even in the worst of circumstances, we might as well substitute the former for the latter in all other spheres of our lives, once and for all.

Translations for this article:

• Spanish, La Plata, Argentina: Entre la Muerte y la Destrucción, Esperanza.