Disasters: Now And Forever

During an intense storm on Wednesday, a tornado touched down in Brooklyn. Needless to say, this is a rather extraordinary event, and the implications are vast. It seems obvious that catastrophic weather resulting from climate change is a part of our present and a potentially large part of our future, whether we like it or not. While it is important to fight the causes of climate change, it is just as important that we be able to deal with its consequences effectively. Working on disaster preparedness certainly seems strategically advisable for anarchists, given that virtually everyone who would be in a position to predict such things says that catastrophic weather will be an increasingly common part of our lives in the years to come (to say nothing of the plethora of other possible sources of disaster.)

Folks from the Curious George Brigade have been doing a lot of work on this front recently. They're efforts include a good zine entitled "Insurrectionary Mutual Aid," a series of well-presented workshops on disaster response using Hurricane Katrina as the primary case-study, and now a local collective that is working to create a viable anarchist response to disaster in New York City. All of these efforts seem very wise to us here at the Center, as they incorporate a well-formulated strategic approach to climate change along with a number of creative tactics.

One tactic the Curious George folks have employed that we find especially interesting is the creation of a government-sanctioned Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), a neighborhood-based citizens group that is in charge of disaster response in their area. Behold the litany of benefits:

First, it gives the people who start the CERT team access to tens of thousands of dollars in federal government money for everything from printing to training to equipment. This is a potential bonanza for cash-strapped anarchists who often need help with precisely these things. Second, the CERT team is officially responsible for responding to an emergency in their area in the first 72 hours after it occurs. That gives them a lot of influence over the course of events at a time when the state is at its weakest and property is most easily expropriated. Third, it gives the "team members" an opportunity to interact with their neighbors in a potentially useful way even if a disaster never takes place. The relationships that can come out of those interactions would certainly be useful in a disaster, but they might be just as useful when you want to turn that empty lot down the block into a community garden. And if all that wasn't enough, you also get windbreakers and clipboards. Picture you and your friends arriving at the scene of some disaster, clipboards in hand and CERT windbreakers wrapped around your shoulders, announcing to the confused crowd: "Alright folks, we're going to need food and water right away, so somebody please grab a crowbar and follow us to the Wal-Mart..."

Of course the CERT thing is just one idea, and if ever there was something that needed to be tailored to its specific locale, it would be disaster organizing. Innovative, locally-minded organizing for disaster response seems like an exciting and fruitful direction for anarchists take, so we at the Center will return to this theme in the future. Even just making a plan with some friends would seem to be a step in the right direction, but tactics such as those employed by the Curious George Brigade seem to offer even more potential.

For some really good insight into the potential created by disasters, Harbringer 5, besides being one of the very best pieces of CrimethInc. writing, is all about disasters and what they can mean for anarchists. We recommend it wholeheartedly, even for those without any interest in disaster organizing.