The recent High Level Isolated Depression (DANA) that hit the Valencian Community left devastation in its wake and dozens of flooded towns. Faced with the emergency, thousands of people are flocking to the affected areas, driven by solidarity and the desire to help. Social networks have been key in this spontaneous mobilization, with people self-organizing to bring food, clothing, and collaborate in cleaning up the destruction left by the storm.
The majority are volunteers, many of them young people who self-organize through Telegram, WhatsApp or Facebook groups. From various points in Valencia, starting points have been established to coordinate travel to the affected areas, and information is even shared about the distances they will have to travel on foot.
Ladies and gentlemen, these are people from Valencia who go to the DANA area to help.
I couldn’t be more proud of my supportive people.In times like this we only have to help each other, since politicians, with their protocols, are slow to act.
Class solidarity ✊ pic.twitter.com/w1RH4ccrHA— José Vico 🔻🇵🇸🇿🇦 (@josevico4) November 1, 2024
The Generalitat Valenciana, one of those most responsible for this catastrophe that has already left more than 200 deaths, hundreds missing and tens of thousands without electricity, water, food or housing, has issued a message on social networks to ask that accidents be avoided. travel by vehicle to these disaster areas, since they are generating traffic jams that make access for emergency services difficult.
However, volunteers have created “columns” of people led by coordinators, who specify in Telegram messages what to bring: “water, non-perishable food, brushes, buckets and candles (since some areas are still without electricity) “.
The magnitude of this capitalist social crime is reaching historic levels in the Spanish State. The response to this crisis cannot be left in the hands of the decisions of the same governments and businessmen responsible for the catastrophe. The president of the Valencian Generalitat Carlos Mazón and the Spanish president Pedro Sánchez and the vice president Yolanda Díaz, of SUMAR, did not take a single preventive measure. They did not force the stoppage of non-essential activities. They sent the notices to cell phones after the work started time, when the water was already claiming the lives of dozens of people. As they did during the pandemic, they sent thousands to work in full red alert to safeguard the benefits of the usual capitalists. A situation in which the bureaucratic directorates of CCOO and UGT did nothing either.
The solidarity of Valencians has no limit. This is people with help crossing Valencia to reach Paiporta on foot to bring food, blankets, shovels, water and everything they have been able to gather.
— Noah Gresiva (@NoaGresiva) October 31, 2024
Another enormous show of solidarity with the migrants who cook in the streets of Valencia to support those who need it.. Solidarity between workers and oppressed always springs up in situations like these.
A group of migrants from different origins, including Afghanistan, Syria, Georgia and Venezuela, housed in a social resource in Picany, have taken the initiative to cook and distribute meals for people affected by the recent floods in various areas of Valencia.
The hotel in which they reside has been flooded on its ground floor. There are around 200 people who are there sleeping, without water or electricity, but they have spoken with the owner of the shelter to be able to use the food that was in the pantry of the dining room of the facilities and cook for everyone and for whoever needs it.
Immigrants cooking for those affected by DANA in Valencia. The Nazis from Calliu or the Argentine Mr Liberal who goes by Spanish will not tell you this. pic.twitter.com/DlPZXadOSU
— Noah Gresiva (@NoaGresiva) November 1, 2024
Throughout the day, migrants dedicate their time and effort to this immense solidarity work, demonstrating their desire to collaborate with the population in a time of emergency. The preparation and delivery of food has become a point of union between the migrant community and residents of the affected areas, highlighting the power of solidarity and mutual support in difficult times.
A journalist from El Mercantil Valenciano was able to talk to some of these people, including two women, one Afghan and the other Syrian, while they were preparing a huge popular salad. “We left Afghanistan because the Taliban came and when we got here we almost missed it because of a waterspout,” explained one of them, while her daughter translated everything for the journalist.
They are two migrant women from Syria and Afghanistan. They are cooking in Valencia for those who need it after the DANA floods. This is solidarity and not the charity of the rich. “Those who eat together stay together” they say in the film The Old Oak by Ken Loach pic.twitter.com/Vlmg77A0bJ
— Fonsi Loaiza (@FonsiLoaiza) November 1, 2024
A great example that the hate speech of the extreme right against the migrant population is nothing more than that, hate. Faced with the catastrophe of this social crime perpetrated by capitalists and their governments, solidarity resides in the working class and the oppressed.
In the face of catastrophe, as always, it is popular solidarity that appears and self-organizes to be on the front line of relief efforts. It is necessary to strengthen and coordinate this solidarity, so that a great movement can develop that demands an emergency plan that responds to the magnitude of the crisis and puts our lives before the profits of the capitalists.
As our colleagues from the Revolutionary Current of Workers (CRT) point out in a recent statementit is necessary to “demand that the union leaderships organize solidarity and call for strikes and mobilizations for a plan that includes the reinforcement of all civil emergency means, paid leave, control of the workforce over the suspension of activities, suspension of rents and mortgages and urban replanning that adapts to climate change. We need a reconstruction plan under the control of the workers and affected people and at the cost of extraordinary taxes on large companies and banks.”
One of the ways to join these tasks is the Telegram channel Valencia volunteersin which there are already more than 14 thousand registered. Those who wish to join these groups can do so through the link: https://t.me/voluntariosladanavalencia
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
