On February 3rd, in a small village on the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania called East Palestine, a train derailed (specifically, 51 of the 150 cars). Five of these cars were carrying 115,580 gallons of vinyl chloride, a carcinogenic which is extremely flammable. Due to the nature of this chemical, the crew released the chemical and burned it after three days. Both the governor of Ohio and Pennsylvania ordered an evacuation, which was lifted on February 8th. However, 43,000 animals have died in the area.

Who could trust the government in a post-chernobyl world? The EPA is here to assure us that this is a safe place, no cause for immediate concern. But the key word here is immediate, which is the only time-frame capitalism has any time for. Experts at Texas A&M University found instead that if the concentrations of the chemicals continue for the next few months, there could be serious long-term health effects. In the meantime, such chemicals may cause headaches, lung irritation, eye irritation. It goes without saying too, the level of carcinogens are elevated. Fortunately, the EPA has not measured such chemicals inside of people’s homes, but experts are unaware of what the long term effect will be on these people’s health.

Social media ran with the hysterics as the grifters came over, behaving obnoxiously and spreading misinformation, for in our society every act of antisocial behavior seems to be rewarded. The political authorities of course used this as an opportunity to talk about anything other than the crisis. Trump visited the place, offering out his own brand of “Trump Water.” JD Vance, a senator from Ohio, somehow used the crisis as an excuse to appear on talking head shows and refer to the environment and racism as “fake problems.” Pete Buttigieg, a member of the Democratic party, has responded the way any ruling government does to a disaster: let’s not talk about politics, let’s not talk about causes, let’s unite as a nation and fix this!

But it is politics that is to blame. The crew had little time to react and reacted in an appropriate manner. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have stated in their report "We have no evidence that the crew did anything wrong".

We immediately see the failure of capitalist “regulation” that refused to mark this as hazardous. While electronic rail brakes were required for trains in 2015, the previous presidential administration axed those rules, and the current one had made no moves to reinstate them. Though such brakes alone would not have prevented the derailment, they certainly would’ve decreased the number of cars derailed.

On that topic, we should be stunned at the number of cars. The train was over 150 cars long, clocking in at over a mile and a half! Capital, which is by its nature short-sighted, rewarded such a measure. Norfolk managed to liberate itself from 30% of its staff by making these measures. In the future society, they will look back puzzled at how we allowed the love of money to end the livelihood of 30% of an organization while simultaneously embarking on an organizational strategy known to be unsafe. Today the bourgeoisie says it does not want to deal with the “logistical nightmare” of making trains safe. Tomorrow, communist man will be horrified that when they read about our ruling class’s worldview.

It is natural and expected that an industrial society should experience catastrophes now and again. But lately it feels as if we are experiencing more than our fair share. Only communism can save us from this world rife with disaster.

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