Opening speech from the Communist Workers Party of Spain

The experience of the communists in the struggle to protect the people’s lives and infrastructure from natural and technological disasters. Highlighting the responsibilities of the anti-people strategy of the EU – governments - capital and the organization of popular solidarity

Contribution of the PCTE to the ECA Teleconference

April 6, 2025

 

Dear comrades,

As you know, we suffered on October 29, 2024 a big tragedy in our country, a climatic phenomenon called DANA (the Spanish acronym for Isolated Depression at High Levels, also known as “cold drop”). This phenomenon, although it has always been common in the
Spanish Mediterranean coast, is increasingly more violent. It caused the flood of several regions in the Eastern part of the country, especially in the province of Valencia. The number of victims is horrifying, and it has continued to increase until recently, reaching 233
dead people. Thousands of houses, cars, and infrastructure were also affected.

As the PCTE exposed the day after the tragedy in the statement of its Political Bureau: there are people to blame. Even though such climatic phenomena are natural, both their greater frequency and intensity and their human and economic consequences have been
caused by decades and even centuries of capitalist policies and interests.

There are one million and a half houses built in flood-risk areas in Spain, built on lands that, although they do not usually transport water, are actually part of river ecosystems and do have an essential role in them. Many of these houses were built either during the Francoist dictatorship (between 1962 and 1975) or in the time of the Spanish real-estate bubble, in the 1990's and 2000's (a time when the real-estate sector had a massive growth). In both periods, the speculation on land and housing for the development of the growing tourism business in Spain had a huge relevance for an economic sector that is highly profitable for capitalists. The goal of the laws on land, management plans, and the intervention of public administrations in Spain never was guaranteeing the construction consistent with the needs of the social majority and harmonious with the natural environment we live in. On the contrary, the role of the State and the superstructure, as well as the European Union, has served to guarantee the private profits in the growing capitalist development in our country.

On October 29, 2024, amid the catastrophe, the interests of capitalist profit were once again put over the lives and health of the working class. On October 29, 2024 the priority was that companies could continue their production. This caused many workers to lose their lives at their workplace or on the road back home. Again, as it had already happened in 2020 with the Covid pandemic, predating capitalism is shown unmasked, and it is ensured that its accumulation and profits remain unaffected.

Since the morning of October 29, the State Meteorological Agency warned the competent administration about the risk of the DANA and the floods. For decades in our country, this climatic phenomenon has been well known, its risks have been well known, and its dire
consequences have been well known. However, nothing was done on October 29. There were no emergency warnings to the population until 8 o'clock in the evening, when floods were everywhere and most of the lives had already been put at risk. No preventive measure
was taken that day. But prevention had neither been seriously adopted in the previous decades in spite of the previous floods and the technical reports warning about the risk.

The next day, a wave of rage and solidarity spread over Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha, and Andalusia, but also all over the country. The neighbors of the affected areas were isolated for days because of mud, their telecommunications were cut off, meanwhile every
institutional assistance arrived late. In this scenario, the collective organization of neighbors was decisive to join forces in what was the priority — guaranteeing survival by managing food and drink, looking for missing and deceased people. At the same time, thousands of
people came on foot from the less affected areas in order to clear the streets, clean houses, bring food and water, and prevent the spread of diseases. Against the incompetence of the institutions, this was a beautiful teaching on the creative role that workers can potentially have if we unite.

Our Party carried out an enormous campaign of donations. We collected enough money to mobilize several teams composed of members of the PCTE and the CJC who moved to intervene together with the comrades from Valencia, who had been working for days. In those days, the slogan “only the people save the people” became more real than ever.

Our Party, despite our little organized presence in the area, positively assesses the work made in this catastrophe. In accordance with the growth of the Party and its greater experience in the management and intervention in times of crisis, the decisive capacity of
our members in this kind of situations also increases. Likewise, we could observe how other brother parties have had a decisive intervention in similar developments in other countries.

Since the first moment, the various governments —the central and the autonomous ones— passed the buck for the responsibility about what had happened. Both blamed the other one for the management of the DANA and put their political interests over since the very
morning of October 29. Meanwhile, the affected working-class families were witnessing this appalling performance from their ruined houses. The negligence, not only about what happened that day, but also about the very development of capitalism in the coast of Spain, is multiple.

All these characterizations could be applied to the existence of other natural disasters in our country, such as earthquakes, the volcanic eruptions in the Canary Islands, and especially wildfires. Every year, our country loses hectares of fertile soil and many families lose their
houses or have to move because of the spread of wildfires that could have been prevented. 

The complete lack of political willingness creates the background for these natural disasters to endlessly happen: lack of prevention, lack of fire-fighting equipment, lack of laws. In short, there is a lack of means to prevent wildfires and other disasters while we need
decades to recover from their consequences.

Society exists by interacting with the natural environment it lives in. This important issue has been widely discussed for decades by communists. When natural disasters happen, this discussion strongly arises again, because the terrible consequences of them evidence the intrinsic relation they have with the development of capitalism.

In its Manifest-Program, the PCTE approaches this issue and concludes that the seizure of political power and the means of production by the working class will change the way it actually interacts with the environment. The central planning of the economy will take into
consideration the need to develop productive forces in a harmonious way with the environment and the diversity. The anarchy characteristic of capitalist production causes the destabilization of ecosystems and puts the continuity of life at risk. Socialism will ensure the meeting of social needs, including among them the protection of the environment and the biological diversity, since they are a wealth for all the people and the survival of humankind depends on their preservation.

From all our experience we conclude that:

● The anarchic development of capitalism is a historical risk for the health and the lives of the working class
● The governments at different levels, as the managers of capitalism, have neglected this issue in order to guarantee the accumulation of profits for companies
● Under capitalism, the interests of the capitalist production are always put over the lives of the working class
● The natural and climatic disasters may have natural causes, but their consequences depend on the capitalist policies and interests
● The popular solidarity and rage right after a natural disaster should be organized, and the Communist Party should be a decisive actor in these situations
● Only socialism will guarantee the meeting of social needs and the protection of the environment