What
Do the Tragedies of the Kiss Nightclub, the “Mountain Tsunami” at
Mariana, and the Spread of the Zika Virus All Have in Common? ... The
Unbridled Pursuit of Profit and Exploitation by the Capitalist
System!
The
Right to Abortion Must Be Discussed!
By
CCR- Section of the RCIT in Brazil, February 2016,
www.thecommunists.net
In
January 2013 there occurred a tragic conflagration at the Kiss
Nightclub in the city of Santa Maria in the state of Rio Grande do
Sul, Brazil in which 230 people died, as we reported in our article
at the time. [1] On November 5, 2015 a “mountain tsunami” of 62
million cubic meters of iron ore slime destroyed Bento Rodrigues, a
sub-district of the historic city of Mariana in the state of Minas
Gerais, when the dam restraining the sludge burst. [2] The huge flood
of toxic refuse, the byproducts of the mining and extracting
operations, swept into Rio Doce, a river in the southeast of Brazil,
which forms the border between the states of Minas Gerais and
Espirito Santo. With a length of 853 km, the course of the river is
the most important watershed entirely within the Southeast of the
Brazil. The toxic leach residue contaminated the full length of the
river and flowed into the Atlantic Ocean, causing what has been
called the largest environmental disaster in the history of Brazil.
As a result of the mining disaster the river is technically dead.
Experts say that it will take decades for it to recover. Thousands
became homeless; hundreds of fishermen lost their livelihood; tourism
in the region was severely impacted; lives were destroyed. The
company that caused the disaster is Samarco, a powerful multinational
subsidiary of the Vale do Rio Doce corporation, which itself belongs
to the Anglo-Australian monopoly BHP Billiton.
The
Zika virus, transmitted by the bite the mosquito Aedes
aegypti, although rarely involving
complications for its bearer, is evidently linked to congenital
microcephaly affecting the fetus when acquired by pregnant women.
[3] Microcephaly is a birth defect in
which a baby’s head is smaller than expected when compared to
babies of the same sex and age. Babies with microcephaly often have
smaller brains that might not have developed properly. [4] During
the first half of 2015, there were confirmed cases of the disease
from states in all regions of Brazil. With milder symptoms than those
of dengue and the chikungunya fever (diseases also transmitted by
the Aedes aegypti mosquito),
the Zika virus was initially ignored by health authorities. However,
with its rapid spread throughout Brazil, and its incursion into
countries throughout Latin America, and the reporting of cases now
from Europe, it no longer was possible to pretend that nothing was
happening. As long as the contamination by the Zika virus was only
limited to the poorest sections of the population, it could be
treated as something localized; but as it started to spread, even
residents of the richest neighborhoods of large cities became
vulnerable.
At
the beginning of February of this year, the World Health Organization
(WHO) declared that the fight against the Zika virus should be
considered a public health emergency of international concern. This
is the same WHO which was recently criticized harshly for ignoring
the extent of the danger of Ebola virus that killed thousands of
persons in Africa. As the 2016 Olympics are scheduled to be held in
Rio de Janeiro later this year, the Olympic Committee of the United
States (USOC) said its athletes should consider not competing in the
Olympic Games in August, but only hours later the USOC denied having
made this comment.
While
the tragedy of the fire at the Kiss nightclub was the result of
corporate greed which bribed public officials to ignore the
building’s safety infractions, and the colossal disaster in Mariana
followed the same script, the spread of Zika virus in Brazil and the
rest of the world is primarily related to the lack of proper sanitary
conditions in the poorest neighborhoods and slums, i.e., it is
clearly a problem that originates with social inequality. But the
municipal, state and federal governments of Brazil prefer to blame
the citizens for their “carelessness in not eliminating mosquito
breeding sites.”
The
national and global repercussions of the threat of an epidemic-like
spread of a disease causing microcephaly in fetuses and babies yet to
be born has brought to the forefront debates on abortion never seen
before in Brazil. In recent days attempts have been made to open up
the discussion on permitting abortions in cases beyond what is
already allowed by law: when rape is involved or when anencephaly,
development of the fetus without a brain, occurs. An appeal in this
matter is being prepared for presentation before the Supreme Federal
Tribunal. [5] The Catholic Church and other conservative religious
bodies have spoken out against such an easing of the restrictions on
abortion, but the trend is that this time the
discussion will go beyond the moral question. In a statement on the
impact of the crisis on women's rights, the High Commissioner of the
Law of UN Women, Zeid Al Hussein, called on countries affected by the
virus to enable women to have access to contraception and abortion.
Medically
supervised abortion in Brazil has been “permitted” for many
years, but only for the well-to-do families which, when they want it
for their daughters, can afford to pay between 5 and 20 thousand
Reals in specialized clinics, while thousands of working women and
young people must resort to backyard improvisations. The website of
the newspaper O Globo estimates that between 7.5 and
9.3 million women interrupted pregnancies in Brazil between 2004 and
2013. Although it affects thousands and cost the public coffers at
least R$ 142 million annually abortion continues to be treated as a
matter to be avoided in political campaigns for the presidency, and
most candidates, even those considered progressives, seek to evade
the issue.
We
in the CCR, the Brazilian section of RCIT, defend the right of women
to decide about their own body. Preventing women from having autonomy
over their bodies is a brutal form of oppression. In our manifesto
(Chapter V, entitled “Joint fight for women's liberation!”) we
make it clear what we think on this issue when we say that “in the
history of mankind, class-based economic systems existed from the
beginning side by side with forms of political oppression (by the
state) and social oppression of specific groups (for example, women,
youth, etc.). The oppression of women is therefore deeply rooted in
class society throughout history and can only be eliminated with the
abolition of class exploitation. Therefore, the struggle for women’s
liberation is invariably and closely linked with the struggle for
socialism.”
[1]
http:
//elmundosocialista.blogspot.com.br/2013/02/the-tragedy-in-santa-maria-rio-grande.html
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