Many activists and students of labor history know of the infamous New York City’s Triangle Shirt Waste Factory fire of 1911. This was a pivotal moment: 146 workers died from from either the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling or jumping to their deaths. The fire sparked massive public outrage, a historic funeral march of 350,000 people, and the passage of over 30 new labor and fire safety laws in New York that reshaped worker protections across the United States. As a result, fire alarms are required in all residential buildings and businesses. State and local fire codes mandate fire drills as well.
So if you are a believer in the reformist system under capitalism than you would think this was the end of this story: a tragedy in 1911, inspiring a protest movement, and forcing the government to act and put in place laws and codes to prevent such a disaster from taking place again. However, this is not how reform under capitalism works. The system we live under tinkers with the laws and ensures that those with privilege have the resources they need to be safer or to survive, while the working poor are left with less and less in each election cycle, and under each new law.
On September 25 in East Oakland, a 3-alarm fire broke out in a residential apartment building. The fire injured four people from the flames, and two people jumped from the four-story building to safety. 70 residents of the 21 unit complex were displaced as a result of the incident. This isn’t the first time that the building caught fire. According to code enforcement records, a fire broke out on June 7, 2021, in a third-floor unit, displacing two adults and one child. The building has also racked up a long list of complaints and violations – roach and rodent infestations, trash, debris, overgrown vegetation, water leaks, no heat or power in some of the units, and missing smoke detectors and sprinklers.
Here in the United States, there are two Americas. One for the well off, and one for the majority of us who are trying to scrape by in a system created for the poor to fail. Many of the residents of this fire are undocumented and will not have restitution. They have lost all their belongings, and some have life altering injuries. This happens in America where landlords steal, governments fail to protect its citizens, and politicians toy with the laws. What we need is an overhaul; reforms only serve the few, but a new system under socialism could care for all.
