I am writing this article on Sunday, 3 November 2024. It’s been almost five days since the devastating floods that struck Valencia on 29 October 2024. Official reports now cite 270 confirmed deaths, with 1,900 people still missing. But on social media, residents in affected towns and cities describe grim scenes: garages filled with bodies, people trapped in cars swept into heaps in the streets–some of them might have survived the initial flood only to perish in the days that followed from lack of assistance. Many report deceased loved ones, neighbors, and strangers decomposing in homes and on streets. What they describe resembles an apocalypse, and assistance has yet to arrive.
Five days on, social media is flooded with videos of residents reporting that the promised government aid has not materialized. Most of the help that is arriving comes from volunteers: some walking kilometers with supplies and equipment to drain water, farmers coming with tractors to clear the roads of debris, and still others driving hundreds of kilometers to accessible villages loaded with potable water, food, and medicine. Most of the people who lost everything in a mere 20 minutes are still without food or water.
Yes, just 20 minutes, because despite torrential inland rains dumping an year’s worth of rain in just hours, the coastal areas downstream saw little more than a drizzle, so life carried on as usual. The Spanish Meteorological Agency had warned of the severity of this DANA (isolated high-altitude depression) days in advance, yet the government of Valencia–led by Mazón from the Popular Party (PP), which allied with the far-right VOX in the last election–did not raise the alert level or inform residents of the impending danger until it was too late. These climate change-denier parties made dismantling the Valencian Emergency Unit one of their first actions in power, scrapping a unit established by the previous left-wing government to coordinate emergency responses. Such a response could have saved hundreds of lives, as only after five days were fire brigades from other parts of Spain finally allowed to respond, despite being ready from day one, some stationed only a couple of hours away. The staggering dysfunction was made clear when a team of French firefighters, arriving voluntarily and without permission on Saturday, discovered they were the first responders in the area.
Employees who received warnings from family and friends about river overflows upstream were not allowed to leave work. Consequently, when the worst of the flood came, countless people were trapped in their cars on the way home, many of them returning from industrial parks on Valencia’s working-class outskirts, caught at the end of their full shifts. Those workers now still lie trapped in their cars, waiting for rescue–if they survived–or decomposing.
Meanwhile, the areas hardest hit by the torrent are mostly working-class neighborhoods, built on floodplains near the river’s overflow zone. Construction was permitted there for developers–many friendly with politicians–in a region known for government corruption, particularly under the right-wing Popular Party’s administrations between 1995-2015.
This dangerous mix of factors has one common denominator: capitalism.
We know that climate change is driven by major corporations, especially those in fossil fuels, and that the ultra-wealthy pollute more in an hour than most people do in a lifetime. The latest Oxfam report highlights how just 50 billionaires generate more pollution than 155 million people combined.
Capitalism has also allowed developers, enabled by corrupt politicians, to build on floodplains. These areas were once fertile fields that would have absorbed far more water than today’s concrete-laden landscape. They knew the risks: Valencia has suffered frequent floods, including a historic one in 1957 and several more in the now-affected areas. For years, experts have warned about the dangers of building in these zones and of the likelihood of a powerful DANA event in the eastern Iberian Peninsula.
Capitalist employers put profits before their workers’ lives. Testimonies abound of employees spending the night at work, unable to leave until it was too late. A video has gone viral showing a Mercadona supermarket lorry, owned by a tycoon notorious for ruthless business practices, stuck in the floodwaters–though the servile Spanish media pixelated the logo to protect its reputation. The same employer, while making a show of charitable donations for the flood-affected, has forced affected employees back to work since the very next day. The underground car park of the Bonaire shopping center, one of Spain’s largest, is feared to hold many bodies, as the center stayed open despite the red alert from the Meteorology Service. Public institutions like Valencia’s University sent staff and students home hours before, as did the Valencia government, which sent its workers home because of “a high risk for the population”.
Capitalism, too, is behind the rise of parties that further its sociopathic interests. Parties like the PP are plagued by corruption scandals involving their politicians, wealthy businesspeople and extra payments–a list of the (known) corruption schemes is available here from A to Z. The PP party itself stands accused of corruption. Capitalism also fosters monstrous parties like VOX–racist, sexist, and climate-denying–whose shadowy, apparently limitless funds fuel their strategies. One of their affiliate organizations, Manos Blancas, has already filed a lawsuit against Spain’s meteorological agency for reckless homicide to deflect from the criminal negligence of Mazón’s government.
Capitalists will be the ones to benefit from the state’s relief funds while the public pays the price. In the past few days, local police have been more focused on arresting people for taking food and clothing from shops in affected areas (all covered by insurance) than on draining water. Authorities’ cranes have been busier removing volunteers’ cars from flooded areas, with fines imposed, rather than clearing those displaced by the flood itself. On Saturday, hundreds of volunteers, who showed up at a supposed organization point, were misled and redirected to clean shopping centers instead of residential areas. Those defying the Generalitat’s ban to help are now being fined up to €350.
And it is capitalism that, with its lobbies and compliant governments, has deceived the public for years about climate change, suppressing critical voices. Worldwide, climate activists warning of this tipping point are silenced and prosecuted. Right now, 15 Spanish scientists face prison and fines for throwing beet juice in Parliament to highlight the climate emergency. If history is any guide, no responsible businessman or politician will see the inside of a cell for this flood’s tragic toll, however much they might deserve it.