Katrina, the hurricane that devastated New Orleans and many other U.S. communities, exactly one year ago was a natural disaster that exposed the unnatural disaster of a combination of American and global policies that are collectively known as neo-liberalism.
Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, the former Liberal Prime Ministers of Canada, were neo-liberals. So too is Stephen Harper, the current Conservative Prime Minister. Gordon Campbell, the Liberal premier of British Columbia and Jean Charest, the Liberal premier of Quebec, are neo-liberals. So is Mike Harris, the former Conservative premier of Ontario. Add Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, and George W. Bush, the U.S. President, to the list of neo-liberals.
There are important policy differences among those politicians. But they share a common vision: A dominant role for private markets and a reduced role for government. Instead of seeing governments as reflecting people’s values through progressive social policy, neo-liberals see government as merely the facilitator for an all-encompassing private sector.
Paul Martin, as Canada’s finance minister during the 1990s, waged an effective campaign to cut the role of government. He cut federal finances as a share of the overall economy to its lowest level in decades, and he supervised a government-wide commercialization initiative that replaced democratic government policies with market dictates.
Which brings us to Katrina, the hurricane that devastated the southern United States one year ago, and which exposed the dangers of neo-liberalism.
“…as Hurricane Katrina vividly illustrated, the decline of the social state along with the rise of massive inequality increasingly bars whole populations from the rights and guarantees accorded to fully fledged citizens of the republic and increasingly renders them disposable, left to fend for themselves in the face of natural or man-made disasters.”
Those are the words of McMaster University Professor Henry Giroux in a powerful essay in the Sunday Star. As Giroux notes, increasing numbers of people – including the poor, black residents of New Orleans, are the collateral damage of neo-liberalism and the globalism agenda. In his new book, Giroux labels this the “politics of disposibility”.
For more on the work to rescue the victims of Katrina, check out the Katrina Survivors Association.
- Michael Shapcott
