As Anticapitalistas we want to show all our support and popular solidarity to the people affected by the DANA (High Altitude Isolated Depression flash floods). Almost a hundred people have already died after the floods that have affected Valencià, Castilla-La Mancha, Andalusia, Catalonia and Murcia, along with dozens of people who are still missing and a very high level of material damage. We hope that the missing persons will be located as soon as possible and that the reconstruction work will be carried out as soon as possible. However, we cannot leave this as an unfortunate tragedy.
There is no such thing as a natural disaster; it is not water that killed them. No torrential rains occur in a vacuum, they fall on a social and political reality. This is where we must look for, point out and fight against those responsible for this disastrous episode. It is clear to us that governments, companies and fossil capital have a clear responsibility.
Governments
The autonomous government of Carlos Mazón has acted with a negligence for which we demand not only political but also criminal responsibility. In 2023, it dismantled the Valencian Emergency Unit, which they considered a chiringuito (literally a beach bar – an organisation not taken seriously Tr) and handed it over to far right hacks who deny climate change. On the 29th October the Valencian regional government did not implement the level of emergency response that was necessary. The population was alerted to the danger too late despite the warnings made by the meteorological agencies in previous days and on the very morning of the storm. This resulted in hundreds of persons being exposed to extreme risk that was clearly known about. You cannot call this just an error. A series of conscious decisions led to the death of dozens of people. At the same time we witness the difficulties experienced by many neighbourhoods when energy, water and food have been disrupted. Resolving this situation as soon as possible is vital so that the human toll does not continue to increase. Both regional and central governments are responsible for dealing with this emergency.
Companies
Many of the people killed or missing would not have been in the wrong place at the wrong time if it were not for companies forcing them to stay in their workplace, despite the extreme risk involved. Exploitation and profits are more important than the lives of their workers. It always has been, and always will be. Companies should not just be asked politely to not expose their workers. Any legislation on occupational risk prevention remains a dead letter if there is no trade union counter-power with the capacity to impose its authority. What is needed is to move forward in building a trade union power that makes it clear that the working class will not remain in the workplace while the greed of their bosses puts their lives at risk. On the other hand, we must begin to anticipate the economic and employment impact on the region in the near future. The Spanish government has already asked companies to apply for ERTEs (government grants). If we draw lessons from the pandemic, one thing must be clear: any transfer of public money must have strong conditions attached, both in terms of employment and productive transformation. If reconstruction decisions remain in the hands of the same companies that have led us to this situation, we are condemned to history repeating itself.
Fossil Capital
Heat waves or fires, torrential rains and floods like the ones we have seen are directly related to the climate chaos to which fossil capital has condemned us. Events that used to happen every 100 years are now happening every 10, every 5, every 3 years. The responsibility lies with the economic and power structure that imposes a system that compulsively burns huge quantities of fossil fuels. While Repsol (Spanish Oil company) complains about taxes, it records a profit of 3,168 million. While the Spanish government presents itself as the champion of ecological transition, it allocates more than 10.5 billion in public aid to fossil fuel companies. This fossil capital is in excellent health, and as long as this is the case, it will be the working class who will continue to pay the price.
Perhaps we could not avoid the rain. Perhaps we couldn’t avoid much of the material damage either. In fact, we will encounter events like this more and more frequently and with increasing intensity in the future. It is therefore essential to ensure that the consequences are not so tragic and disastrous.
Theoretically, we know exactly how to achieve this. We know that the urban development boom in which a few people amassed millions of dollars in profits was built on flood plains. We need urban planning actions to remove buildings from the river beds, the construction of barriers and re-naturalisation measures, as well as strengthening and multiplying the resources in the emergency units. A proper emergency alarm system needs to be set up. Companies must be forced to stop activity when such alarms are declared At the same time we must move from dependence on fossil fuels and make drastic changes to the structure of production to reduce energy consumption andCO2 emissions. However, we see that none of this is happening.
It is recognised that catastrophe is imminent, that great efforts must be made to avoid it. Everyone says it, everyone acknowledges it. But no action is taken.
Neither climate adaptation nor productive transformation can wait. But year after year we see how an ecological transition driven by the market, competition and the expectation of profit is too slow, too insufficient and too unfair. That is why, now more than ever, it is up to us to continue to move forward in the construction of an ecosocialist alternative.
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