Grenfell fire inquiry: capitalism is responsible

The recent report of the inquiry commission about the Grenfell disaster, under the direction of Sir Martin Moore-Bick, is damming and merciless in its condemnation of all parties involved in the refurbishment of the building nearly ten years ago. The report clearly establishes that safety regulations with regard to a possible fire were largely ignored. It denounces the complete lack of responsibility of each of the stakeholders and the total absence of any concern with regard to the residents housed in the tower building.

The 68-metre-high Grenfell Tower with its 24 floors was built in 1974. In 2015-16 it was completely refurbished and fitted with new windows and external cladding, mainly to make Grenfell look more attractive to wealthy neighbours. But the people living in the building were worried because during the refurbishment, safety – an issue with which they had long been concerned – did not appear to have been a priority. In the event of fire the only way out was a single concrete staircase that cut through the core of the building. It was the only escape route for a block housing hundreds of people. Those on the three top floors were looking at 22, 23, 24 flights of stairs. Moreover, many of the fire safety devices were no longer monitored, and even declared unfit. Fire safety instructions for residents were nowhere to be found and, according to residents, no integrated fire alarm system had been installed.

An action committee of tenants repeatedly sounded the alarm over fire safety problems with the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO), the agent of the building, together with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) “responsible for the management of fire safety” (the Grenfell Inquiry's final report). The action committee openly accused the KCTMO of criminal negligence. But it turned into a dialogue of the deaf.

When fire broke out at the West London tower block in the early hours of June 14, 2017, instructions were eventually issued, advising people to lock themselves in their flats until instructed otherwise by the fire brigade. "Your new front doors are more than 30 minutes resistant to any fire, giving the fire brigade more than enough time," the KCTMO had told residents in March 2017. In June of the same year it emerged that £300 000 had been saved on the refurbishing works, but at the cost of 72 dead and 77 injured, the worst UK residential fire since World War 2. This is capitalism in the 21st century.

Not enough to blame individuals or companies alone

The recent report of the inquiry commission does not point to the capitalist system, but to the companies, institutions, managements directly or indirectly involved in the refurbishment of the Grenfell building. But it is not enough to blame particular actors, we have to dig deeper. We will then reach the fundamental mechanism of the capitalist economy in open crisis, where competition is pushed to the limit. This is why the article we wrote in 2017 was called Grenfell Tower fire: A crime of capital (ICC Online).

The increasingly fierce competition in the construction sector, as in many other sectors of the capitalist economy, brings with it phenomena such as corruption, indifference, negligence, looking the other way and not treating tenants with any respect. All this together creates a poisonous cocktail where unscrupulous businesses can emerge and “basic neglect of its obligations in relation to fire safety” (as the inquiry’s report puts it) reigns supreme.

At the time of the Grenfell fire the construction sector was characterised by aggressive incentives to investors, the stripping of planning restrictions, low public controls on capital investment, major tax breaks, high financial risks and crucially, when it came to human safety, a ‘look the other way’ system of self-regulation.

This deregulation was one of the cornerstones of the policy of the Cameron government. “The government’s deregulatory agenda, enthusiastically supported by some junior ministers and the Secretary of State, dominated the department’s thinking to such an extent that even matters affecting the safety of life were ignored, delayed or disregarded”. The Department for Communities and Local Government under David Cameron was “well aware” of the risks posed by flammable cladding but “failed to act on what it knew”[1].

But we should not remain on the level of pointing at the particular actors. It is essentially “the mode of production which engenders such disasters from its very entrails[2] From this perspective the Grenfell fire was no accident, or an unfortunate coincidence; no, the conditions for such a disaster were knowingly and willingly created. And we should have no illusions, because under capitalism such catastrophes happen over and over again anywhere and everywhere in the world. Capitalism as a global system does not necessarily apply the lessons it draws from such disasters. For instance,

• after the Grenfell fire, 25 hospitals, care homes and sheltered housing complexes in the UK were likely to have been constructed with combustible insulation. Moreover, dozens of schools seem to have used a flammable construction material in the building even after cladding was banned on residential buildings over 18 meters in height;
• after a fire in Valencia of 22 February 2024, which engulfed two 14-story residential blocks, where ten people lost their lives and 15 were injured, the authorities denied that highly flammable cladding had been used in the construction. Nevertheless, deep suspicion had appeared concerning the materials employed, fed in particular by “the rapidity of the fire, which we've never seen before [and that] within minutes, the building became a death trap”, the Alicante fire chief said;
• ­after a fire at Rajkot’s TRP Gaming Zone in Gujarat in India on 25 May 2024, 27 people were killed. A demolition notice had already been issued to the entertainment zone, following a fire incident in 2023. But the gaming zone was still operating, while storing inflammable materials indoors.

In capitalism there will be no end to the series of disasters, caused by the bourgeoisies’ gambling with the conditions in which people live, work and are educated. Only the working class can solve such problems by putting an end to this whole barbaric system. An organisation of the capitalist left like the Socialist Workers’ Party can of course agree that the deaths and injuries caused by the Grenfell fire “stem from a system that put private profit ahead of everything else - including the lives of poor and black people”. But this is only in appearance, because when it comes down to proposing a means of preventing the outbreak of such catastrophes it mainly limits itself to slogans like “keep demanding justice” and the demand that “the bosses and politicians responsible get jail time”. This will not change anything fundamental, because the system will find new corrupt businessmen and politicians to do its dirty work, and will above all keep engendering disaster like the Grenfell fire.

 

Dennis

 

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[1]Grenfell Tower fire: A crime of capital

[2]ibid