Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

My City Was Underwater Because of Capitalism

To stop climate change, to win dignified and safe housing for all, and to save the neighborhoods and neighbors we love dearly, we have to destroy the capitalist state and replace it with a socialist one.

Carmin Maffea

September 8, 2021
Facebook Twitter Share
Photo: Anthony Behar/ Sipa USA

After seeing the city that cradled me in concrete, Haitian cuisine, and block parties that blast dancehall, 90s/2000s R&B, and reggaeton, submerged under water — I can’t help but feel heartbreak and rage. My city flooded because of capitalism, and my rage is solely directed at the capitalists and their guard dog state that callously let my beloved city be washed away by sewage water. This anger is not mine alone, and once we are organized, the capitalists will have to answer to the countless hearts seething with despair and vitriol. 

The floods in New York City may have been one of the worst disasters that this city has ever faced. It was a catastrophe that cost people all of their worldly possessions and robbed 41 people of their lives. A catastrophe that took the futures of 41 people, that took away their ability to take a deep breath on a temperate summer’s day, the possibility of kissing their children, or laughing and drinking with friends over a movie or conversation. This tragedy is compounded by the fact  that 11 people found dead were trapped in illegal basement apartments, which are frequently rented out to immigrants for cheaper prices. 

This struck an immediate chord with me. I have an aunt in Canada, a Haitian woman living in similar conditions, because these conditions are the realities of immigrants within imperialist nations. They escape from an extreme poverty created by imperialism and the legacy of colonialism in their home countries for another lesser but still brutal poverty  in nations that don’t value their individual lives enough to provide them safe and dignified housing. If she had decided to live in New York instead of Canada, I question whether I would have had to find her lifeless body submerged in sewage water because capitalism renders our lives precarious in every sense? Will she inevitably one day become a victim of this fate as the hurricanes become stronger and flood cities and neighborhoods further north? 

It is easy to write something like this off as an act of God or simply the end of times delivered by a being we cannot touch or challenge. However, this isn’t an act of God or even a result of humans in a general sense destroying the planet, as people would like us to believe. This is the fault of very specific people who make our lives miserable every day. This is the fault of those who steal and cut our wages for their personal bonuses, those who murder Black and working class people on the street with impunity, and those who drop bombs and place sanctions on semi-colonial countries. This is the fault of the capitalists and their state. This is the fault of the 100 companies who are responsible for 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. This is the fault of not only the Republicans who outwardly believe climate change isn’t real, but also the Democrats who present themselves as pro-environment and at the same time greenlight revving up oil production.

As I skated through Bedstuy on my way to my crappy factory job, after being kicked off of the G train before my stop due to limited service, I saw firsthand what those capitalists were doing to the working class and to the environment. There was trash everywhere on the sidewalks and street, and people were still pumping water out of their apartments and businesses. I saw the distraught faces of those who had lost everything, and their dread of not being able to afford to get a fraction of it back. All while I still had to go to work after a cataclysmic event that never should have happened in the first place.

The floods we witnessed on the streets and in the subways could’ve been avoided if infrastructure was built to redirect water flow. This was raised in  the 2019 FTP protests in New York that demanded money for better infrastructure and free public transit instead of putting 500 new police in subway stations that continue to crumble. Instead, the capitalist state and its dirty coppers beat us in the streets. Capitalism not only caused these floods that left people stranded in the subways and dead in basements; it vehemently ensured the prospect of this happening years before it actually did. 

The capitalist state cannot be reformed to provide what we need; it must be overthrown. The capitalists don’t care if water levels rise and we drown in sewage, as they have their spaceships to fly away from the damage they caused.

 Our fate is in our hands and the enemy is before us. To stop climate change, to win dignified and safe housing for all, and to save the neighborhoods and neighbors we love dearly, we have to destroy the capitalist state and replace it with a socialist one. In a socialist state,  we can democratically plan not only how our neighborhoods are built with our collective safety and well-being in mind, but also an economy that runs on  safe renewable energy.. 

We won’t get there by working with Republicans and/or Democrats who approve the construction of oil pipelines through native lands, or by collaborating with the national bourgeoisie of semi-colonial nations who approve business deals that are deleterious towards the environment. We, as the working class and oppressed, win only through our own international democratic organization as a revolutionary force —  a force that is fully and uncompromisingly intent on ending capitalism and establishing socialism. We absolutely will not allow the capitalists to have our lives and our planet —  the world is ours to win. 

Facebook Twitter Share

Carmin Maffea

Carmin is a revolutionary socialist from New York.

United States

What “The Daily” Gets Right and Wrong about Oregon’s Move to Recriminalize Drugs

A doctor at an overdose-prevention center responds to The Daily, a podcast produced by the New York Times, on the recriminalization of drugs in Oregon. What are the true causes of the addiction crisis, and how can we solve it?

Mike Pappas

March 22, 2024
Former president Donald Trump standing at a podium in front of American flags.

To Stop Trump, We Need Much More Democracy, Not Less

Democrats have been trying to kick Trump off the ballot as an "insurrectionist." Liberals say we have to restrict democracy in order to save it. As socialists, we think they have it backwards: to beat the Far Right, we need a mass movement fighting for radical democracy.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 18, 2024

New Jersey Democrats Attack the Public’s Right to Government Records

The New Jersey state assembly, led by the Democratic Party, just tried to fast-track a bill that would have gutted the Open Public Records Act. This is a reminder that their party is an obstacle, not an ally, in the fight to preserve democracy.

Samuel Karlin

March 15, 2024
President Biden giving his State of the Union speech at a podium in March, 2024.

Biden’s State of the Union: Hyper-Nationalism and Eroding Legitimacy

President Biden’s hyper-nationalistic State of the Union speech focused on selling himself as a defender of democracy at home and abroad. But it’s not enough to solve his — and the whole U.S. regime’s — crisis of legitimacy.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

March 14, 2024

MOST RECENT

A square in Argentina is full of protesters holding red banners

48 Years After the Military Coup, Tens of Thousands in Argentina Take to the Streets Against Denialism and the Far Right

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Argentina on March 24 to demand justice for the victims of the state and the military dictatorship of 1976. This year, the annual march had renewed significance, defying the far-right government’s denialism and attacks against the working class and poor.

Madeleine Freeman

March 25, 2024

The Convulsive Interregnum of the International Situation

The capitalist world is in a "permacrisis" — a prolonged period of instability which may lead to catastrophic events. The ongoing struggles for hegemony could lead to open military conflicts.

Claudia Cinatti

March 22, 2024

Berlin’s Mayor Loves Antisemites

Kai Wegner denounces the “antisemitism” of left-wing Jews — while he embraces the most high-profile antisemitic conspiracy theorist in the world.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 22, 2024

Lord Balfour Was an Imperialist Warmonger 

We should give our full solidarity to the Palestine Action comrade who defaced a portrait of Arthur Balfour at Cambridge University. But the problem for everyone who opposes the genocide against Gaza is how to massify and politically equip the movement.

Daniel Nath

March 21, 2024