Floods in Valencia: capitalism is an unfolding catastrophe

Media across the world have broadcast images and news of dead bodies being swept away by the floods and of people buried under the mud and landslides, as well as of the searches for many other missing persons. Bodies are washing up on the beaches; many villages have no food or drinking water; after one week the water has been stagnating with animal and human corpses, and infections are beginning to spread, with the risk of epidemics. The situation of a stranded population, on the brink of survival, left to fend for themselves, is in some ways reminiscent of Gaza, minus the bombings and the war; and this is all happening in Spain's third largest city, in a European Union country at the heart of capitalism. Whether through war or ecological disaster, capitalism is condemning humanity to its ultimate destruction.

The High Altitude Isolated Depression (known as the DANA in Spain) that swept through the Valencia region on October 30 caused flooding that killed more than 200 people, a figure that will rise sharply once the bodies of some 2,000 missing people have been located. Added to this is the devastation of thousands of homes, roads, railways, telecommunications systems, etc., affecting hundreds of thousands of people, that will take months to repair. This is undoubtedly one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in Spain's history, similar to the floods that took place in the central European countries in 2021; in Bonn, Germany for example where, despite the State's tradition of efficiency and organisation, the population was left stranded; and just like what happened during Hurricane Katrina, in New Orleans in the United States in 2005. But contrary to what right-wing commentators say, this is not an unpredictable 'natural' disaster. Nor is it, as the left of capital maintains, the consequence of incompetent "neo-liberal management". This disaster is ultimately the result of a social system that sacrifices the lives of its workers and subjects the entire planet to the demands of capitalist production and accumulation.

With the accumulation of disasters for several decades (climate change, unregulated urban development, irresponsible management of water resources, neglect of infrastructure maintenance, etc[1]), this system has also entered its terminal phase of decomposition, where all this devastation is accelerated and amplified by other manifestations of capitalist decadence such as wars, economic crises, etc. in a vortex[2] that will lead to inevitable catastrophe. Faced with this situation, the attitude of the ruling class is one of increasing irresponsibility in the management of its own system, with the defence of competing factional interests accentuating the disaster still further.

Nature isn't to blame for the disaster, capitalism is

Many of the victims were workers, forced by their bosses and managers to remain in their workplaces. At Ford Motors, the evening and night shifts were not allowed to leave at the time of the floods, with 700 people having to sleep in the factory and not able to communicate with their families. In the Ribarroja industrial estate, more than 1,000 workers were rescued the next day. Another "lock-in" was in the shopping centres (IKEA, Bonaire de Torrent) where opening hours were maintained and where the employees themselves had to help the customers and other users. In the Inditex factories, the workers did not hear the alerts because they were not allowed to have their mobile phones with them and the managers did not say anything... We also know that this alert was issued by the local authorities several hours after the red weather warnings and the first floods upstream. Employee discipline and smooth running of the business would take precedence over any consideration for the lives and health of the workers. This is the true law of capitalism.

The situation, though on a different scale, is reminiscent of the COVID pandemic four years ago. There too, the cause was said to be "natural" and was met with the familiar response of "who could have predicted such a thing?". But even then, we did point out that this was a predictable disaster because of the worsening global warming disaster and that society did have the technology and know-how to prepare for and prevent its ravages but that resources were being diverted into capitalist accumulation and war. It is appalling and scandalous that at a time when armies have the cybernetic means to remotely detonate a mobile phone, and when spy drones are capable of recording pictures with detailed precision, that the telephone lines suddenly collapsed during the floods in Valencia, including for emergency calls, and that those who had to travel that night had to do so practically blind, without any information, regarding roads and railways that were literally at a standstill, or they had to take secondary roads without knowing whether or not they were flooded.

What use is the capitalist state to us, the workers?

The nightmare didn't end when the rains stopped. The next morning, people found themselves searching for survivors, salvaging what they could from the devastated homes, etc., with virtually no help, no food, no drinking water, no electricity, no telephone, with the road infrastructure washed away and without the appropriate rescue resources (helicopters, bulldozers, etc.). That's why the cynicism and crocodile tears of the regional and national governments that were seen on several occasions in front of the television cameras are even more repugnant than the ritual messages of "solidarity" and promises that "they won't leave the victims on their own" (!), when they knew perfectly well that they were abandoning the victims to their fate.

The fact that they have also devoted themselves to blaming and shooting each other in the foot shows that in this age of capitalist decomposition, so-called traditional state policies are giving way to irresponsibility and "every man for himself". The regional government (of the centre right People’s Party) has indeed shown negligence, but also arrogance and provocation (by, for example, trying to expel volunteers or making them clean up the shopping centres as well as sending home people looking for their missing relatives). But the "ultra-progressive" coalition government of Sánchez and Sumar was not to be outdone. It took them days to deploy the necessary resources in terms of personnel, on the pretext that they had not been "officially" requested by the regional government. This means one of two things: either it left the PP to stew in its own juices despite the human cost it represents, or it is hiding behind administrative niceties to mask its own negligence.

Governments such as those in France and the EU have announced their willingness to help but have not done so because the Sánchez government has not made the necessary "request".

The democratic state presents itself as the guarantor of social health and welfare, as the means for the population to "defend itself" against the abuses of capitalist exploitation, when in reality it is its most energetic defender of these abuses[3]. When protests against the enforced stay at work began to emerge on the night of the flood, the pseudo-communist Yolanda Díaz (also Vice-President of the government and Minister of Labour) made clear that the law supposedly allowed workers to leave their jobs when their lives were in danger, but said she was "appealing" to the responsibility of employers (?). To shift the decision on to the workers[4] at a time of job insecurity is insultingly sarcastic; as is the government's call on landlords to show 'understanding' towards their tenants and to help ease the housing crisis.

The floods also prompted a spontaneous and generous outpouring of solidarity, which was broadcast on television around the world. This initial solidarity was interrupted by the authorities, who feared that the situation would get out of control as a result of the outrage of the neighbouring population which came together in a bid to help; it was then manipulated as an expression of "regionalist support for the people of Valencia" alongside the sound of the regional anthem.

Apart from the stand-off and class solidarity, it was condemned to become a popular and interclassist support of the "only the people can save the people" type. But to believe that "salvation" is possible without eradicating capitalism, its disasters, its wars and its impoverishment from the face of the earth, is a fatal illusion. The only way out of this grim future is to channel the indignation and rage produced by all these disasters into the class struggle, the struggle of the exploited of all countries against the exploiters. As and when the proletariat regains its class identity, it will, by staying on the class terrain, then be able to support the defence of the entire non-exploiting population, thus creating a balance of forces against the bourgeois state.

 

Valerio (November 2, 2024)

 

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[1] For an analysis of this succession of climatic disasters, see our recent article in Spanish on the drought, Sequía en España: el capitalismo no puede mitigar, ni adaptarse, solo destruir

[2] We explain what we mean by this vortex or ‘whirlwind effect’ in our Resolution on the international situation, December 2023

[3] King Felipe VI declared, after the turbulent visit to zone zero where he was pelted with mud by an angry crowd, that the State must be present at all levels, and we have clearly seen how it has exercised the defence of private property, cracking down on those attacking supermarkets in search of food, forbidding spontaneous acts of solidarity, protecting the state officials... And abandoning the population to its fate.

[4] By law, trade unions can also evacuate workplaces in the event of occupational hazards. It turns out that they did not do so in all cases, which illustrates that they too are aligned with the capitalist state.