Valencia floods: People power vs governmental disaster

This week saw one of Spain's most tragic natural disasters unravelling, when torrential rain that followed an extended period of drought caused flash-flooding in the Valencian country as well as in Andalusia and Castilla–La Mancha. At the time of writing, 214 people have died in the floods, but tragically, this number is expected to grow: on Friday, the Valencian government announced that 1,900 have been reported missing, and many places have not yet been reached by the rescue services. The floods are not over either, hitting Mallorca on Saturday, and of course causing harm and damages to the communities that will take years to repair. A public health crisis is also a distinct possibility due to water contamination and mosquito outbreak.

The weather phenomenon that caused the floods is a usual occurence in Spain, as falling temperatures mix together with warm sea air to cause atmospheric instability. In the autumn of 1957, flooding destroyed much of the city of Valencia, prompting the Francoist dictatorship to divert the Túria river to the south of the city. This year, it is the villages to the south of the city that have seen some of the worst flooding. Many of the most heavily-affected towns were ones that received no rain, but without warning were inundated by waters that had burst the river banks upstream. The soil in the Valencian interior, which had been left bone dry by years of drought, was unable to absorb the water quick enough. The effects of climate change, combined with local government corruption and incompetence, has turned this into the deadliest flood in Spanish history.

The Valencian regional government, led by the right-wing president Carlos Mazón, failed to provide an effective or prompt response. Despite the state meterological agency having issued a red weather warning at 07:36 for severe flooding, at 13:00, Mazón downplayed the risk and falsely claimed that the storm would dissipate. It wasn't until 20:12 that his government finally sent an SMS alert to Valencian citizens, who received it when they were already trapped in their cars or grasping onto trees. Disaster relief efforts were also hampered by the Mazón government's prior actions: together with the fascist and climate denialist party Vox, Mazón dismantled Valencia's emergency response units as a cost-cutting measure, despite the region's long history of flooding.

To cover for their incompetence, the right wing chose to engage in some kind of political brawl with Spain's central government. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the People's Party (PP), went as far as to blame the central government for not handling the emergency response appropriately, despite it being under the "sole command" of fellow PP member Carlos Mazón. He also rejected the deployment of firefighters from other provinces and regions for 72 hours. What's more, the local firefighting units have reported that they were not deployed and instead they were told to operate as if there was no emergency to tackle, which meant that out of 28 available firefighter units, only two were immadietely deployed to assist the citizens of affected communities. Several Valencian civic organisations and trade unions, including the anarcho-syndicalist National Confederation of Labour (CNT), have called for Mazón to resign. A demonstration demanding his resignation has been called on 9th of November at 18:00 in the city of Valencia.

As we have seen in other such crises, the communities came together to offer help and assistance to those affected by the tragic events of this week, often bypassing and exceeding the help provided by the government: a pattern common in such situations. The anarchists, of course, call such efforts mutual aid and it is a practice that seems to be the norm in tragic situations, to compliment another norm: that of governments incompetence and ineffectiveness in the times other than maintaining business-as-usual.

Since Wednesday, despite the situation being far from safe, thousands of residents of the city of Valencia spontaneously walked to the affected villages to provide them with basic necessities and help with the clean-up. Although the city councils of Paiporta, Catarroja, Benetússer, Alfafar, Sedaví or Albal called for popular assistance, the Mazón government initially attempted to discourage the volunteers. But after observing the stalwart popular will to help, on Saturday, they moved to centralise aid efforts under its control; this government-directed volunteer program rapidly fell apart.

The Valencian government sent several coaches full of volunteers to clean a shopping centre, one where management had previously trapped their workers. Volunteers were furious as they were under the impression they were going to clean up people's homes, not shops owned by the richest person in Spain. Coaches that were destined for other towns got stuck going through roads that were cut off or were sent to places that didn't need help, highlighting the incompetence of the authorities. In the end, many volunteers returned to their self-organised efforts, which proved to be far more effective. Unable to control the volunteers, on Sunday morning, the Valencian government banned volunteers from travelling to the affected villages, so they could make way for a photo-op by the king, the prime minister and the regional president. Locals responded in kind, by throwing mud at their so-called "leaders", who they hold responsible for the death and destruction.

There was also a response from neighbouring Catalonia, a region also affected by the floods, but luckily to the less serious degree. On Friday, a hundred volunteers gathered at Barcelona's Sants station to travel to Valencia region and do what they can to help communities there.

The coordination of such grassroots assistance is quite dificult, and is conducted by citizens via group chats and social medias, with many local groups such as unions and neighborhood associations creating their own coordination platforms, linking those who need help with those who can provide it.

One of the largest channels is Suport Mutu DANA, set up by a coalition of grassroots activist organisations, such as the Feminist Assembly, Social Centre Terra and local neighbourhood organisations.

Another example is Sporting Benimaclet FC, a small football club that turned their football pitch into a processing centre for dogs, cats, donkeys, horses, etc., and have co-ordinated volunteers to identify, transport, foster and rehome rescued non-human animals from the flooded areas, which include many shelters.

Unfortunately, support isn't only being set up by grassroots activists and local associations, but also fascists. Valentia Forum, a fascist organisation that has a history of organising food banks only for white Spanish people, was being shared as a drop off point for city dwellers willing to donate clothes and food in Orriols, a neighbourhood known as the home of many precarious racialised migrants. They also have two drop off points in Madrid set up by a fellow fascist group.

The right wing is also busy trying to take the advantage of this tragic situation to forward their political agenda and is spreading their usual misinformation about migrants, blaming them for looting, wheras in the real world, many members of the migrant community, together with their more passport-privileged neighbors, are busy helping cleaning up, cooking and running foodbanks. Another distruptive fake news story that appeared was claiming that the water supply for the city of Valencia was unsafe, which resulted in panic buying, which in turn caused shops to run out of stock for certain supplies and bottled water. There is also a shortage of items needed for post-flood cleanup, such as wellies, and these will not be replinished for time being due to the state of the roads.

Meanwhile, the anarcho-syndicalist CGT union is collating the list of employers who violate workers' rights by forcing them to work in this catastrophic situation. This move follows the reports of employers forcing their staff to work in this life-threatening situation. Ikea, for example, trapped its workers in a warehouse while the waters were raising around them, while Uber Eats and Glovo forced their couriers to carry on with their usual delivery circles, and the supermarket chain Mercadona forced its drivers to carry on deliveries in the rapidly-raising waters.

The CGT also released a legal guide for workers, highlighting that they are under no obligation to work in life-treatening conditions and the legal duties of their employer in such situations. A similar guide was released by Valencian CNT, together with a statement condemning the bosses who force workers to risk their lives for profit.■

If you have money to spare, consider donating to mutual aid fundraisers:

Valencians UK donation page in GBP https://checkout.square.site/merchant/ML3FVGAA1Q4T3/checkout/NTCM6LZFUAFXO27O4IU7QICF

Koordinadora Kolektivos Parke (grassroots youth group in flooded slum) IBAN: ES94 3159 0020 2728 45198924

the CGT (IBAN: ES7831590018112755192826) or 

the CNT (IBAN: ES8130250010251400039305).

Emilia Aiguader, Zosia Brom & Mar Soler

Featured image courtesy of Pacopac