LENIN'S TOMB

 

Sunday, September 04, 2005

With this much blood in the water, what else would you expect to start circling? posted by China

For days, and days, and days, the expendable poor of New Orleans have been begging for someone, anyone, to come.

Be careful what you wish for. It’s not just, finally, Bush and some troops who are ambling into town.

Here come the mercenaries.

I’m sorry, that’s crude of me: firms like Blackwater, the Steele Foundation and Beau Dietl & Associates prefer ‘security consultants’, or even, if you can get the media to play along, the coy ‘civilian contractors’. You know what we’re talking about though: soldiers-for-hire. There are 25,000 of them in Iraq – and judging that it’s them, not army soldiers, who guard the very generals who order that army around, they’re obviously the more efficient killers. And now they’re heading for New Orleans.

It’s a commonplace that violence is at the core of what the state does. The state is, after all, ‘special bodies of armed men’ (and women). But if it withdraws, it loses its monopoly on violence. That’s what’s happened in New Orleans. The social functions of violence have been taken over by people on the ground – the Evil Looters. Some ‘knuckleheads’ are undoubtedly using their new forceful authority to perform despicable acts – they are, recall, replacing the usual ‘official’ (and ongoing) purveyors of violence, and they’ve learnt by repeated example. In fact, though, despite circumstances of unimaginable dehumanisation, even some mainstream commentators note that club law has been conspicuous by its relative absence. And those exercising their new power to commit violence against property are, all too often, keeping not only themselves but their neighbours alive. They’ve shouldered not only the state’s right to violence, but its supposed duty to provide welfare (which to be fair it had long made clear it had no interest in). They are the heroes of New Orleans, though they will never be honoured.

But this kind of brute contracting-out is unacceptable: it has to give way to the more planned kind. If the power over life and death is to be handed over, it can’t be given to the populace. Corporations, however, are another matter. And hence, here come the mercenaries.

The ruins are filling up with gunmen loyal to the corporate bottom line.

Blackwater USA, The Steele Foundation, Kroll Inc, AKE Group, Beau Dietl and doubtless others are all in or sniffing the city, and the numbers, with the demand, are increasing. And unlike the citizens’ desire for food, this is effective demand, backed by cash, and the service will be provided.

The ramifications for ‘public order’ are unthinkable. We already know the population is dispensable, that the police and troops were ordered to stop search-and-rescue and told to shoot-to-kill ‘looters’. We’ve heard the weirdly prurient way the Louisiana Governor described soldiers as ‘locked and loaded’, 'more than willing’ to attack. Now the city will be subject to a public-private partnership in brute force.

It was the media who started it. Terrified for the safety of their correspondents among angry poor, NBC, CNN, CBS, ABC and others paid for ‘security services’ to escort them. In point of fact, rather than attacking the media, the 'bad people' of New Orleans, as Michael Brown, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has vociferously complained, have instead had the disgraceful impertinence to complain to the journalists about being left to die, have sought out cameras and begged for help down the lenses. You could argue that separating yourself from your story with armed men might not be the best journalism, but whatever – NBC et al wanted some muscle on their side.

But what were at first a few jobs for the mercs have now become an opportunity, because other businesses – Hilton is mentioned, and Marriott, and there are doubtless many more – are scared: their property is under threat.

To be sure, the 'security' purveyors might make a few half-hearted noises about helping the desperate, whatever, but when, for example, Blackwater USA says it has ‘joined the ongoing relief efforts … to help assist in evacuating citizens’, what does it mean? Well, it lists the services that are ‘available’ – which include, ominously, particularly given its veterans' histories, ‘crowd control’ – then provides a number to ring if you have ‘a security or evacuation request’. A request, one imagines, backed by dollars.

The Steele Foundation is a bit more explicit about how it can ‘assist clients’: it can provide security and safety ‘at designated client locations’; it can ‘protect client personnel and … secure assets’. It provides a painfully accurate analysis of what’s gone wrong, and a promise about what Steele’s ‘Global Rapid Response’ can do about it.

At a time when federal recovery agencies are staged outside of New Orleans and unable to assist the population due to security risks; at a time when the private security and public law enforcement agencies have been decimated; when companies have been unable to secure government resources; when fuel sources have been depleted and emergency generators are failing; when the downtown area has been cut off from food supplies; when people are trapped in buildings and unable to evacuate on their own, Global Rapid Response(TM) has been able to proactively support clients during the crisis.


So while most of New Orleans has been left to die of starvation, thirst, heat, disease and violence, a few people have some support. Despite the lack of doctors for the dying, there's medicine for business, and while the state won’t even let the Red Cross in to help the dying, because it will ‘keep people from evacuating', the soldiers of fortune can come and go, to minister to their clients.

You know what we're seeing? Another mercenary boss, Bill Vorlicek, director of Kroll’s emergency management group, knows, and tells us without hesitation or dissembling, but with pride.

‘Corporate America taking care of its own.’

Corporate America already had a go at the ‘before’ of a hurricane (though they’re now quite coy about it). Now they’re having a go at the ‘after’, and this time, what they’re about to inflict isn’t only the murderous violence of neglect, of poverty, of unaccountability: this time it’s also the violence of guns.

In the unsentimental world of business there’s no cataclysm that’s not also an opportunity: after all, Halliburton’s dabbing away its tears over Katrina with some of the dollars from its new reconstruction contract. Now in a breathtaking feedback loop, the social chaos caused by governmental neglect has created a truly exciting opportunity for the providers of privatised violence. Their presence, analysis and recent history suggest, is likely to increase the chaos, so increasing the need for their presence. They can’t lose.

Only these people can lose, while Corporate America takes care of its own.

12:04:00 am | Permalink | Comments thread | | Print | Digg | del.icio.us | reddit | StumbleUpon | diigo it Tweet| Share| Flattr this

Search via Google

Info

Richard Seymour

Richard Seymour's Wiki

Richard Seymour: information and contact

Richard Seymour's agent

RSS

Twitter

Tumblr

Pinterest

Academia

Storify

Donate

corbyn_9781784785314-max_221-32100507bd25b752de8c389f93cd0bb4

Against Austerity cover

Subscription options

Flattr this

Recent Comments

Powered by Disqus

Recent Posts

Subscribe to Lenin's Tomb
Email:

Lenosphere

Archives

September 2001

June 2003

July 2003

August 2003

September 2003

October 2003

November 2003

December 2003

January 2004

February 2004

March 2004

April 2004

May 2004

June 2004

July 2004

August 2004

September 2004

October 2004

November 2004

December 2004

January 2005

February 2005

March 2005

April 2005

May 2005

June 2005

July 2005

August 2005

September 2005

October 2005

November 2005

December 2005

January 2006

February 2006

March 2006

April 2006

May 2006

June 2006

July 2006

August 2006

September 2006

October 2006

November 2006

December 2006

January 2007

February 2007

March 2007

April 2007

May 2007

June 2007

July 2007

August 2007

September 2007

October 2007

November 2007

December 2007

January 2008

February 2008

March 2008

April 2008

May 2008

June 2008

July 2008

August 2008

September 2008

October 2008

November 2008

December 2008

January 2009

February 2009

March 2009

April 2009

May 2009

June 2009

July 2009

August 2009

September 2009

October 2009

November 2009

December 2009

January 2010

February 2010

March 2010

April 2010

May 2010

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

January 2011

February 2011

March 2011

April 2011

May 2011

June 2011

July 2011

August 2011

September 2011

October 2011

November 2011

December 2011

January 2012

February 2012

March 2012

April 2012

May 2012

June 2012

July 2012

August 2012

September 2012

October 2012

November 2012

December 2012

January 2013

February 2013

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013

July 2013

August 2013

September 2013

October 2013

November 2013

December 2013

January 2014

February 2014

March 2014

April 2014

May 2014

June 2014

July 2014

August 2014

September 2014

October 2014

November 2014

December 2014

January 2015

February 2015

March 2015

April 2015

May 2015

June 2015

July 2015

August 2015

September 2015

October 2015

December 2015

March 2016

April 2016

May 2016

June 2016

July 2016

August 2016

September 2016

October 2016

November 2016

December 2016

January 2017

February 2017

March 2017

April 2017

May 2017

June 2017

July 2017

August 2017

Dossiers

Hurricane Katrina Dossier

Suicide Bombing Dossier

Iraqi Resistance Dossier

Haiti Dossier

Christopher Hitchens Dossier

Organic Intellectuals

Michael Rosen

Left Flank

Necessary Agitation

China Miéville

Je Est Un Autre

Verso

Doug Henwood

Michael Lavalette

Entschindet und Vergeht

The Mustard Seed

Solomon's Minefield

3arabawy

Sursock

Left Now

Le Poireau Rouge

Complex System of Pipes

Le Colonel Chabert [see archives]

K-Punk

Faithful to the Line

Jews Sans Frontieres

Institute for Conjunctural Research

The Proles

Infinite Thought

Critical Montages

A Gauche

Histologion

Wat Tyler

Ken McLeod

Unrepentant Marxist

John Molyneux

Rastî

Obsolete

Bureau of Counterpropaganda

Prisoner of Starvation

Kotaji

Through The Scary Door

Historical Materialism

1820

General, Your Tank is a Powerful Vehicle

Fruits of our Labour

Left I on the News

Organized Rage

Another Green World

Climate and Capitalism

The View From Steeltown

Long Sunday

Anti-dialectics

Empire Watch [archives]

Killing Time [archives]

Ob Fusc [archives]

Apostate Windbag [archives]

Alphonse [archives]

Dead Men Left [dead, man left]

Bat [archives]

Bionic Octopus [archives]

Keeping the Rabble in Line [archives]

Cliffism [archives]

Antiwar

Antiwar.com

Antiwar.blog

Osama Saeed

Dahr Jamail

Angry Arab

Desert Peace

Abu Aardvark

Juan Cole

Baghdad Burning

Collective Lounge

Iraqi Democrats Against the Occupation

Unfair Witness [archive]

Iraq Occupation & Resistance Report [archive]

Socialism

Socialist Workers Party

Socialist Aotearoa

Globalise Resistance

Red Pepper

Marxists

New Left Review

Socialist Review

Socialist Worker

World Socialist Website

Left Turn

Noam Chomsky

South Africa Keep Left

Monthly Review

Morning Star

Radical Philosophy

Blogger
blog comments powered by Disqus