Massive protest against crimes of the Valencian Generalitat: for a general strike to bring down Mazón!

On Saturday 9 November, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Valencia to show their anger against the Government of the Generalitat Valenciana (the Valencian local government), and its president, Carlos Mazón, for their criminal actions after the ‘Dana’ flood on 29 and 30 October.

[Originally published in Spanish at comunistasrevolucionarios.org]

Although the official figures counted 130,000 demonstrators, the real figure could well be as high as 250,000. This is despite the fact that Valencia remains unconnected with the most affected area, L'Horta Sud, due to the damage caused by the Dana, preventing or delaying several tens of thousands of people from travelling to the capital.

In fact, the entire route from the starting point of the demonstration, in the Plaça del Ajuntament (the Town Hall square), to the end of the route, in front of the Palau de la Generalitat (Palace of the Generalitat) – about 900 metres away – was completely packed with people, spilling into the side streets.

The demonstration was called days ago by several left-wing and neighbourhood groups, but the tens of thousands of people who were there came not because they were linked to the organisers, but to use this opportunity to express their anger and indignation at those politically and economically responsible for the disaster.

Another demonstration of about 15,000 people marched through the streets of Alicante, and there were also demonstrations in Elche and other towns in the Valencian Country.

A couple of days before the demonstration, it was revealed that Mazón had been eating in the private dining room of a restaurant on the fateful day of Tuesday 29 October. There, he supposedly remained with a journalist until 6 pm, when the first figures of the dead and disappeared were already being counted, before joining the emergency committee of the Generalitat.

The latter, in turn, had rejected all the warnings from the various public and meteorological bodies throughout the day about the extreme severity of the storm (the national meteorological agency AEMT, the hydrographic confederations, the Ministry of Ecological Transition, etc.).

Remarkably, hours before the start of the demonstration, the organisers had appealed through the press for the demonstration to be silent, “as a tribute to the victims”. But that was the last thing the tens of thousands of angry protesters were willing to accept.

From the beginning they were heard shouting: “Mazón, dimisión” (Mazón, resign), “Asesinos” [Murderers], “Ni olvido ni perdón” (Neither forgetting, nor forgiving), “El presidente a Picassent” (The president to Picassent [the largest penitentiary centre in Valencia]), “No son muertos, son asesinatos” (They’re not deaths, they’re murders), “Mientras tú comías, la gente se moría” (While you [Mazón] were eating, people were dying) and “Mazón, dimite, salga del escondite” (Mazón, resign, come out of hiding). And, of course, the masses were heard raising the slogan, “Sólo el pueblo salva al pueblo” (Only the people save the people). 

Sporadically one could also hear “We need a general strike now”, among many other slogans.

The youth made up most of the demonstration, but many workers, elderly people and entire families were present.

Although there were rumours about the possibility of the appearance of right-wing extremist infiltrators who might provoke disturbances to justify breaking up the demonstration, the actions of these little groups were minimal and hardly noticed by the crowd. They tried to burn the flags of the Ajuntament (Town hall) by throwing flares, and were prevented from doing so by the crowd in that section of the demonstration, shouting “Fascists off our streets”, and “Out, out!”

In the end, the government fearing provocations by these thugs could escalate the tense mood in such a large demonstration, the police were sent in to disperse them without great difficulty. This is enough to answer the hysteria in the media and the so-called ‘progressives’ about the extreme right wing capitalising on people’s unrest around the Dana crisis. Once the working class takes a step forward, as it did in this demonstration, one really notices how these thugs lack a social base.

It is worth noting that several thousand more came to the demonstration from other parts of the peninsula beyond the Valencian Country, to show their solidarity with their Valencian brothers and sisters, above all from Catalonia, but also from Madrid, Murcia, Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, Euskadi (Basque Country) and Andalusia.

The Revolutionary Communist Organisation mobilised dozens of comrades from all parts of the state to participate in the demonstration. We put up a big banner that read: ‘Capitalisme criminal’, ‘Lluita pel comunisme’ ‘Sols el poble salva al poble’ (‘Criminal capitalism’, ‘fight for communism’, ‘only the people save the people’).

Our comrades handed out thousands of leaflets with our position, which can be summed up as follows: the cost of the Dana should be paid for by the bosses, not by the working class through public aid financed by our taxes. Rather, all those businessmen who forced their workers to work, causing a risk to life and even loss of life, must be expropriated. And, of course, that Mazón and all those politically and economically responsible be tried and sent to prison.

The social impact of this demonstration has been enormous, despite the fact that the mainstream media has treated it as a secondary event.

“Only the people save the people” has been the most widespread slogan in demonstrations and protests / Image: OCR

Unfortunately, the leadership of key mass organisations, such as the main trade unions, CCOO and UGT, were nowhere to be seen. They have sided with the bosses, the government and the PP in their appeal for calm and quiet.

Shamefully, the CCOO and UGT, together with the bosses, called for rallies in the main cities of the state to honour the victims of the Dana. That is, together with the same bosses who forced their workers to remain at work, preventing them from evacuating on time on Tuesday 29 October.

The majority of the Valencian people will settle for nothing less than the resignation of Mazón and his entire cabinet. It is an incredible scandal that this scoundrel intends to hold on to the Generalitat at any cost, laughing in the faces of his victims: people who have lost family members, their homes, their jobs, and people who have been living in mud and desolation for weeks.

If it were not for the tens of thousands of volunteers who, without direction, without an organisation, simply out of a deep sense of humanitarianism and solidarity, use their free time to help clean up the affected areas and bring food and clothing, the situation would be far more catastrophic. The capitalist state has shown its total incapacity to deal with this catastrophe. 

“Only the people save the people” has been the most widespread slogan in demonstrations and protests. The best way to make this slogan concrete is to organise neighbourhood committees, that coordinate among themselves, with delegates who can be elected and recalled at any time.

Local committees can alone ensure control of the reconstruction of the affected areas from below, could assess the real scale of the damage, so that aid can reach whoever needs it, and could sustain a stable neighbourhood structure that will last beyond the catastrophe of this Dana, ready to organise the fight against any failure of the state and future mobilisations.

It must be stated loud and clear, the whole capitalist regime has united tightly for fear of a popular outbreak of revolutionary proportions in the area, especially after the outburst against King Felipe VI and his entourage in Paiporta on Sunday 3 November.

Distrust of the regime must be maintained, and the struggle must go on / Image: OCR

This is why the central government has already pledged more than €14 billion for the victims (and losses of companies). And this is also the reason why PSOE (the Socialist party) and the government have shamefully refused to demand Mazón's immediate resignation.

They know that the dismissal of this individual would be received as a popular victory and would seal the rupture of broad sectors of the population with the regime, encouraging the feeling that the masses can depose presidents and even ‘crowns’. This is what they want to avoid. They will probably attempt to wait for the popular mobilisation to wane, and only then reach an agreement with Mazón to shuffle him out of office.

Distrust of the regime must be maintained, and the struggle must go on. The idea of a general strike in the whole of Valencia has been hinted at as a measure to force the fall of Mazón and his government. But those who ought to take up this initiative, principally the leaderships of the UGT and the CCOO, are not in favour of it. Their hands must be forced.

That is why those affected, the social, neighbourhood and committed left organisations are going to continue to mobilise, to seek the escalation of the protests, to bring down Mazón's government and the right wing in the Valencian Country. The Organización Comunista Revolucionaria (OCR) stands with them in all their struggles.

Capitalism is culpable!

Place Mazón and his cabinet on trial!