Remember The Holler: Kentucky Flooding and Ohio Trains are One in the Same

Another train crash happened today in Springfield, OH. While initial reports have confirmed that there were no hazardous materials on board, Norfolk Southern now has two train crashes on its hands, with toxic chemicals still absolutely decimating the town of East Palestine.

Organizations like Railroad Workers United have been blowing the whistle for years on the potential dangers of extremely long hours, grueling attendance demands, no time off, lack of maintenance, and more. “This was 100% avoidable,” the organization said. With $3.24 Billon year-over-year as of last quarter, it’s not hard to guess where the profits are going to.

Despite 7oo tons of soil and nearly 2 million gallons of wastewater being collected according to officials, the cleanup will continue to take years.

This in many ways is directly comparable to the flooding in Eastern Kentucky, where last year flood waters displaced thousands of Kentuckians over several towns. While organizations like KFTC (Kentuckians For The Commonwealth) are asking the Biden administration’s Department of Interior to investigate the matter, the same administration that pressed congress to override the right for rail workers to strike just last year, many organizations have been blowing the whistle on the effects of strip-mining for years, with estimates by the Army Corps of Engineers that the Big Sandy Watershed alone could see a 25% increase in flow by 2040.

The coal companies however, aren’t seeing the same consequences with revenue and net income being a 5-year high for companies like Alliance Resource Partners, and likely won’t as long as Joe and Kelly Craft continue to funnel coal money into the pockets of Andy Beshear and other Kentucky officials on a non-partisan basis. However, as Kelly Craft seeks the Governor seat almost exclusively on anti-communism as a platform, it appears the craft family desires to cut out the “middle-man” so to speak.

There is a reality that must be accepted when faced with this information. The monopolies are after profit, and are willing to sacrifice entire towns and the very lives of your fellow workers in order to reap those rewards off the backs of their employees, so they can turn around and pay off the bourgeois government in order to expand those profits even further.

These are not disasters, these are crimes. Wether it’s coal in the south, or toxic chemicals in the north, it is clear that the world is being destroyed by the capitalist class, and it is up to workers to unite so they may save what’s left.