In the aftermath of the devastating floods in Valencia, Manuel Rojo describes how organising help for the victims became a surge in popular self- organisation. He describes how a three-pronged battle emerged between the Government, the far right and the radical left.
The recent floods in Spain, which took more than two hundred lives and caused massive material damage, were certainly a serious warning about climate change. But they were also, as I will show, about class struggle. The full political impact of the floods remains to be seen.
The most tragic fact is that most of the deaths could have been avoided. Government indolence and corporate greed bore a huge responsibility. Workers were left working in threatened spots, and only got alerts when the flooding was already underway. There are lessons from this for all of us, wherever we are.
Government Delay
The State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) alerted people on 28 October about the possibility of the weather phenomenon in the Mediterranean known as DANA. Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos is a Spanish phrase that means isolated depression at high levels. It usually occurs after Summer, when evaporated waters from the still warm sea meet the cold air currents.
Heavy rains were announced for the next day on TV. The University of Valencia suspended classes, a wise decision that probably saved several lives, but this was labelled as ‘overreacting’ by the regional President, Carlos Mazón, from the conservative People’s Party.
At 6:42, AEMET issued an orange alert warning, less than one hour later, at 7:36, it was upgraded to red alert. At 10:30 emergency services started rescuing people, and by 12:00 several locations had been flooded.
At 13:00, President Carlos Mazón, the person responsible for coordinating such emergencies, held a press conference to claim the storm would abate by 18:00.
Incredibly, Mazón continued his planned schedule as if nothing had happened. Then, for lunch he met with a journalist to whom he was offering a job as head of a public television (incidentally, something that should not normally be allowed to happen, but that’s just how Spain works).
While the floods were getting worse, Mazón, undeterred, continued with his long lunch, until after 17:00.
Finally at 19:30, he arrived at a meeting which was underway to coordinate national and regional efforts. Emergency responses were delayed because he had to sign off on them.
Thousands of People Trapped
In Spain the working day normally finishes between 18:00 and 22:00. But by that time the floods had massively swollen across many areas. Thousands of people were trapped as they made their way home from work.
Thousands of messages desperately trying to contact people, started popping on social media. “We lost contact with my father/wife/friend on their way home. We cannot get hold of the emergency services. Please help us find them!”
IKEA workers got trapped in their building and it quickly became a shelter for others. One truck driver risked his life to rescue people and bring them there.
Mercadona, the biggest Spanish supermarket chain, continued with its deliveries even as the rain was getting heavier. It put its drivers at great risk. Juan Roig, Mercadona’s Valencian boss, would later be confronted by two men raising the fact that the company had put their drivers in danger. Roig sent them away, shamelessly calling them ”assholes”.
Practically no businesses had the good sense to send their workers home, even when they had received the emergency alerts, and the rain was falling in buckets. Some smaller businesses may not have received the alerts, but the big companies knew just what they were doing when they risked their employees’ lives to keep the money coming in.
The most glaring shortcoming was the regional governments sending out SMS alerts to citizens only at 20:00, when the storm was already at its peak. One man claimed on social media that he got the message when he was already stranded at the top of a tree.
The rest is well known. Streets and houses were completely flooded, cars swept away and upended on top of each other. More than 230 people were dead and many still not found.
Solidarity from Below
While national and regional governments were very slow to respond, and squabbled about who was responsible, people on the ground got stuck in to help however they could.
It was a bank holiday in Spain, but this did not stop hundreds of people – individuals and organisations – self-organising. They got hold of materials and brought them to the affected areas. They created search teams to find people and cleaning teams to deal with the mud and debris. They did this every day after the floods, getting their tools and shovels, walking from the main city – on higher ground – to the affected towns below, working in all conditions, returning only at nightfall. They also went hither and thither by foot to keep the roads clear for the emergency services.
The only good thing to come from this tragedy was the huge sense of solidarity. People saw for themselves that neither the government, nor the business owners, nor the police could be relied upon. Only the people themselves would provide help and protection. The regional government attempted to take control of the volunteering, but it didn’t go well. Many of the volunteers deserted after the chaotic first official meeting and returned to the e people’s groups. The regional government’s priorities became clear: the buses sponsored by the Government to the commercial centres first while ordinary houses were still covered in mud.
Police Priorities
The police too came in for much criticism. Volunteers complained of their unhelpful attitude: some took selfies instead of helping.
The main focus of the police was to stop looting. The Guardia Civil published a video which showed them arresting a man who was carrying stolen sneakers. People were infuriated by this, especially as the “thief” was walking barefoot through the mud.
The police have much support amongst the Spanish right-wing parties who shared photos of them working to rescue people. The reality was that looting happened because people who had lost everything needed clothes, shoes, something to eat.
Far-Right Opportunism
The neo-Nazis – like organisations Revuelta, linked to the political party Vox, or Núcleo Nacional – also tried to get in quickly on volunteering and emergency help. Soon after the disaster, they posted on social media what they were doing. They were fast and well organised. Their effort certainly didn’t make up most of it, but their propaganda was by far the most effective.
The far right also spread the usual fake news and hate messages. Their videos showed only Spanish people among the volunteers, and only migrants looting. Other people’s videos have shown their fake news.
The far right esoteric journalist Iker Jiménez and his band moved in immediately to take advantage of the tragedy. They made sensationalist claims, like the assertion that 1,000 corpses were trapped in a flooded parking lot. The rescue teams later proved this to be false.
One populist far right influencer, Rubén Gisbert, was even spotted kneeling in the mud to make his clothes dirty and make it appear that he had been involved in volunteer work.
Protests
King Felipe VI decided to visit the area on November 3rd. The authorities cleared the area of the vital aid work before his visit, where he met the volunteers so that he could be clearly seen.
People surrounded the royal retinue as did President Carlos Mazón and national President Pedro Sánchez. The latter was attacked with a stick and had to flee as his ear had been wounded. The rest were met with jeers and mud throwing.
King Felipe tried to calm the masses. He stopped to talk and show sympathy with two men who wore coded Nazi symbols.
A Neo-Nazi organisation, Revuelta, later claimed responsibility for the protest. Most of the protesters were angry locals but no doubt the far-right had played a role and gave expression to the anti-government anger people felt.
This event and following protests caused division on the left. The moderate left, supporting Pedro Sánchez, dismissed the protest and blamed the far right for agitating and taking advantage of the situation. However, other voices on the left challenged the idea of giving the far right the monopoly of indignation and wasting ourselves defending an out of touch government.
Class Lessons
What happened in Valencia has lessons for us all, in other parts of Europe. The floods were not just one random event in natural disasters.
It showed how class struggle comes to the fore in such events. In a system in which workers’ lives are at the mercy of their employers, the Government and police response to the disaster was to take the employers’ side. On the other hand, Valencians displayed great solidarity and a wonderful capacity for self-organising. If they could show the same flair for self-organisation in their workplaces as they did in cleaning up the chaos left behind from the flood, then they can also run the country and achieve great things.
There have been small signs of an awakening of the left in Europe, for too long immobilised and divided by the rise of the far right. We saw the New Popular Front pushing back against the far right in France. A few weeks before the floods in Spain there were some big protests over housing, reminiscent of the Spanish 15M squares movement in 2011-12.
In my view, disappointment with the populist far right in power may well open up a space for the radical left. It is true that we are seeing, as we did in Valencia, more explicit and vicious forms of fascism, which is dangerous. But what is clear is that both far left and far right are already competing for the space of protest. The rebirth of the left cannot be taken for granted, and it will not happen unless we have the enthusiasm, vision and tactics to build it.