Up to 75 homes, a large apartment complex, a middle school and a nursing home suffered major damage in West, Texas. (photo: NBC36TV/Twitter)
04 May 13
Answer: Both aren't above killing people to attain their goals.
n 2009, Congress considered a bill
that would have strengthened safety standards at fertilizer plants like
the one that recently exploded in West, Texas, killing dozens of first
responders and leveling a nearby middle school and a nursing home 500
yards away. The 2009 safety regulations were staunchly opposed by the US
Chamber of Commerce, multinational corporations' lobbying arm in
Washington. The lobby spent millions to defeat it and labeled it a "key
vote" that year. Even though it passed the House, the bill died in the
Senate before even getting a vote.
Had those new regulations passed, the fertilizer plant
explosion in West, Texas, could have been prevented. But even though
the plant dealt in highly-explosive materials like ammonium nitrate, it
was only inspected once in its entire history, in 1985.
Corporate lobbies like the US Chamber of Commerce prioritize profits
and stock prices above safety of the surrounding community, and
vehemently oppose environmental and safety regulations in all instances
by spending millions of dollars to influence Congress and support candidates who promise to deregulate anything and everything.
The only problem with deregulating environmental and
safety laws for corporations is that it opens the floodgates for
environmental disasters and fatal catastrophes. Corporations successfully lobbied
to deregulate offshore oil drilling in 2002 and 2003, successfully
gaining an exemption from the Bush administration on having to install
acoustic switches that would activate blowout preventers on oil rigs.
Oil companies have to abide by that law in every country where they
drill, except for the United States. The acoustic switch shuts off oil blowouts at the source, plugging the well before the blowout becomes too large to contain.
Even though it would only cost an additional $500,000 to install, business groups opposed the idea of oil companies posting record profits that year
having to pay an extra cost for even such a basic safety measure. Yet
after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the Gulf Coast, BP has had to
pay out billions of dollars
in fines and settlements. Clearly, the business model of
hyper-deregulation is costlier not only in terms of dollars spent, but
in lives lost, habitats ruined, and entire economies upended.
The explosion in Boston was defined as a terrorist
attack, as Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev's actions were done with
malicious intent and claimed 3 lives while seriously injuring hundreds of others.
The two men selfishly chose to end the live of others to make whatever
petty point they wanted to make. But the explosion in West, Texas, was
also done with malicious intent.
Anyone with half a brain knows that it's incredibly
dangerous for a place that manufactures explosive materials to operate
under safety standards that are decades out of date. The wanton
deregulation that inevitably led to that explosion was also done with
selfish intent, as the US Chamber of Commerce chose to allow
corporations to make more money rather than keep the community safe from
harm. By that definition the explosion in West, Texas, was also a
terrorist attack.
Corporate terrorists should be pursued just as much as
religious extremists who commit terrorist acts. And since the US
Chamber of Commerce hasn't released a statement apologizing to the
community of West for their reckless behavior that led to the deaths of
dozens, it can be said that they will continue to commit acts of terror
for selfish economic gain until they're indicted for their complicity in
manslaughter, if not murder.
Carl Gibson, 25, is co-founder of US Uncut, a
nationwide creative direct-action movement that mobilized tens of
thousands of activists against corporate tax avoidance and budget cuts
in the months leading up to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Carl and
other US Uncut activists are featured in the documentary "We're Not
Broke," which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He currently
lives in Madison, Wisconsin. You can contact him at
carl@rsnorg.org, and follow him on twitter at @uncutCG.
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