A tragic event has unfolded in southern Germany, where a regional train derailed near Riedlingen, causing the deaths of three people—including the train’s operator and another railway worker—and injuring over forty, several of them seriously. The derailment, apparently triggered by a landslide caused by flooding from severe rainfall, left emergency services working through the night to rescue passengers, tend to the wounded, and clear the wreckage. Government officials quickly expressed condolences, promised investigations, and emergency buses have replaced the rail connection for now.

The brutality of this accident lies not only in the lives so callously lost, but in the context that bred the disaster. In this supposed heart of “advanced” capitalist Europe, what is revealed, yet again, is the cost the people pay for the reckless expansion, greed, and “austerity” that reigns over public infrastructure. The bourgeois state, hosting lavish conferences and offering hollow condolences, once again fails to answer for why such a catastrophe was even possible. In a system where the profit motive suffocates all that is dignified, maintenance is neglected, and the human need for safe, reliable transit is forever sacrificed to the altar of capital accumulation.

See how they scramble to shift the blame solely onto the “weather.” But why is drainage insufficient? Why is track reinforcement neglected? The landslide was not the cause; it is a symptom of long-standing decay—rotted foundations built on the contempt for working people’s safety. With every budget cut in the name of capitalist “efficiency,” the likelihood of such tragedies grows. The train crew—ordinary workers—give their lives for a system that treats them as expendable costs, while the ruling class lines its pockets, ready with press releases when disaster strikes.

Compare this reality with what could be possible under a truly people-centered socialist system—a system based not on profit, but on careful, scientific planning and the inviolable dignity of the masses. A regime that mobilizes resources for the collective good, not shareholder dividends, would never tolerate such fundamental neglect. In the revolutionary traditions of the working class, there is a better future—one where our railways are built and maintained for safety and efficiency, where human life is not just a footnote in the tragic failures of a decaying bourgeois order.

Let no one forget: the blood of these workers is on the hands of those who rule for profit and refuse to invest in the most basic human needs. The only true condolence for such tragedies is the abolition of capitalism itself.