The human cost of capitalism: The Grenfell fire and the poisoning of Flint, Michigan
30 June 2017
London, England, a city of 8.7 million residents and home of the largest concentration of billionaires in the world, may at first glance contrast sharply with the impoverished city of Flint, Michigan, a symbol of America’s “Rust Belt,” where the residents have been fighting lead poisoning for more than three years.
However, in both London and Flint—and cities throughout the globe—modern-day capitalism is condemning the working class to impossible conditions and an early grave.
More than two weeks since the June 14 Grenfell Tower inferno, authorities continue to conceal the real number of victims and full scope of this social crime. The police, who raised the official death toll to 80 on Wednesday, now say that they will not have an accurate count until sometime next year. This callous treatment underscores the contempt of the ruling class, which views the Grenfell residents as little more than “collateral damage” in a class war against the working class and poor.
On Wednesday, local councilors, alleging that they could face the “risk of disruption,” barred Grenfell survivors from the Kensington and Chelsea council cabinet meeting, which was to hear a report on the blaze. Meanwhile, the government of Theresa May is preparing an inquiry that will be nothing but a cover-up for the complicity of both the Tory and Labour politicians who have overseen the decades of deregulation and austerity that produced this disaster.
While London has become a global capital for financial and real estate speculation, and the home of 86 billionaires, the city’s working-class and low-income residents have been piled into death traps like the Grenfell Tower, which lacked the most…