this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024
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The Great Famine was caused by British capitalists who, before and during the crisis, prioritized profits over the Irish people's welfare. British landowners forced Irish farmers to rely on the potato, making them vulnerable to disease. High rents, taxes, and lack of investment left Irish farmers impoverished. During the famine, British merchants continued exporting food from Ireland to England, and the British government’s inadequate aid policies worsened the situation. This exploitation and neglect led to the deaths and emigration of millions of Irish people.

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[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 20 points 3 months ago

"Surely the free market will fix this"

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 17 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

“but plagues are acts of god and are impossible to predict—“ NO that’s basically the equivalent to if i removed 80% of your white blood cells and then claimed innocence when you develop an infection 😐

people that aren’t oppressed by capital tend to be infinitely more resilient to natural disaster.

[–] then_three_more@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And then, a century later we did this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943

An estimated 0.8–3.8 million people died, in the Bengal region (present-day Bangladesh and West Bengal), from starvation, malaria and other diseases aggravated by malnutrition, population displacement, unsanitary conditions, poor British wartime policies and lack of health care. Millions were impoverished as the crisis overwhelmed large segments of the economy and catastrophically disrupted the social fabric. ... The financing of military escalation led to wartime inflation. The British "inflation policy" during World War II, which aimed to reduce the consumption of the poor to make more resources available for British and American troops, had played a major role in exacerbating the famine. This policy, along with other economic measures, led to a "forced transfer of purchasing power" from ordinary people to the military, and led to the diversion of food supplies and resources to support military operations, especially in the context of the ongoing war with Japan. Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister at the time, has been criticized for his role in exacerbating the famine, Critics argue that Churchill's refusal to divert food supplies to Bengal, despite the urgent need, and his decisions regarding war priorities significantly worsened the situation. Churchill's government did not prioritize relief efforts adequately and was also slow to respond to the crisis

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

ANOTHER W FOR FREEDOM BABY 🦅🦅 RAHH🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧BEST SYSTEM IN THE WORLD 🫡🫡🫡 SEE YALL IN THE NEXT ONE

[–] witty_username@feddit.nl 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Wait I thought the yanks were the freedom one. The uk was order and civilisation right?

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 8 points 3 months ago

🇬🇧NO SURRENDER🇬🇧 GOD SAVE THE KING 👑✋🏾 KING BILLY'S ON THE WALL!!!🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

[–] gmtom@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Hey the potatoes started the famine we just made it several orders of magnitude worse.

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 4 points 3 months ago

There wouldn’t have been a famine if the population wasn’t forced to be reliant on a single crop. It would have just been a regular run of the mill crop plague.

[–] rambling_lunatic@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I've come to see the Great Famine as the free-market capitalist equivalent of the Holodomor. The more I learn about either, the more parallels I see.

[–] spujb@lemmy.cafe 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

yeap. no clue how much this means in reality but the Holodomor didn’t even have a plague as an excuse it was just straight up man made

[–] rambling_lunatic@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

In both cases, the powers that be created a situation where the populace was very vulnerable, leaving them in a position where one bad harvest was all it took. In both cases, the elites then proceeded to make the situation worse because of a combination of immense incompetence and intentional imperialist shenanigans aimed at squeezing out wealth and putting down the rowdy colonized folk.

[–] slacktoid@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago

Thats what they did with every colony. We need the British to issue a global apology.