Public Meetings: The Gulf oil crisis and the profit system

21 June 2010

Two months after the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which killed 11 workers, the world looks on in shock as the Gulf of Mexico is poisoned with millions of gallons of toxic oil. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are affected. Entire species may be wiped out, and untold damage inflicted on fragile ecosystems. The long-term consequences are incalculable.

This disaster has deep roots in the structure of the American and world economy. BP’s cost-cutting and deliberate disregard of warning signs in the run-up to the explosion; the government’s abject failure to regulate the company; the drive by both the Bush and Obama administrations to expand off-shore oil drilling despite environmental concerns—all of this paved the way for the events unfolding in the Gulf.

Now, the Obama administration—which intervened in 2009 to ensure that BP’s drilling would go forward—has insisted that the company remain in charge of response operations, even as BP has systematically lied about the scope of the crisis, attempted to block independent reporting, and subordinated the response to its own profit interests. The $20 billion escrow fund agreed by Obama and BP will not even begin to deal with the massive costs required for clean-up and recovery.

The Gulf oil spill has once again demonstrated the immense danger to the world’s population from global capitalism, in which giant forces of production—and potentially destruction—are controlled in the interests of profit and private wealth accumulation.

These meetings will discuss the political and social origins of the crisis and explain the socialist response.

Additional meetings times will be announced as they are planned. To request a meeting in your area, contact us.

Meeting details:

Ferndale, Michigan

Thursday, June 24, 7:00 p.m.

Gerry Kulick Community Center

1201 Livernois

(1/2 mile north of 8 Mile Road)

Map

Pasadena, California

Saturday, June 26, 3:00 p.m.

The Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church of Pasadena

301 North Orange Grove Boulevard, Room 21

Map

Portland, Oregon

Tuesday, June 29, 7:30 p.m.

Portland State University

Smith Memorial Union

1825 SW Broadway, Room 258

Map

New York, New York

Saturday, July 17, 3:00 p.m.

University Settlement at the Houston Street Center

273 Bowery (corner of Houston Street)

Classrooms 2&3

Manhattan

Map