Spanish State: Reportage on the situation in Paiporta

We hereby share an unofficial translation of a report made by Servir al Pueblo on the situation in one of the most affected towns by the DANA.

From Servir al Pueblo, we have reported on previous occasions on the catastrophic and criminal management that the State has made of the effects by the DANA. Since the bourgeois press lies in purpose and stands in service of the imperialists, we have traveled to different affected areas to offer to our readers a real vision of what is happening.

We arrived at one of the meeting points for the volunteers, in the San Marcelino area – a neighborhood that is close to La Torre, a district of the city of Valencia that was very affected. These meeting points quickly became well-known and spread by social media and because people spoke about it with each other. Some volunteers arrived because they had previously met elsewhere; others remained directly there. Some are members of the neighborhood and social organizations, many others are simply neighbors who have decided to help the people. There are hundreds of people at these meeting points, and it is their first experience in politicization. The scene is repeated every day: hundreds of people meet, marching towards south along the road or over the pedestrian bridge, and they form different groups to reach the different towns: Picanya, Massanassa, Paiporta, Benetússer…

A young girl expresses loudly: “Where are you going? Help is needed in Catarroja”, while trying to find volunteers to make her contingent larger. “Everyone needs help. Let some go to Catarroja and others to Paiporta” others respond. All volunteers share information about support and reconstruction tasks: which streets in which towns need food, water, medicine, how to distribute the food, etc. Another girl tells us: “There is plenty of food, but since they are not from here, they leave it in trucks at the entrance of the town. There is a church called Santa María de Catarroja full of food, but it is not distributed. If you go there, go around the houses asking the neighbors what they need.”

Meanwhile, several volunteer nurses distribute safety gloves and give advice to all volunteers. They say: “Be careful with infections, a lot of dirt accumulates, especially with dirty clothes, because water is reused to clean clothes.” The nurse explains that we must take care of our health, because “if we don’t take care of ourselves, who is going to go help the neighbors?”.

The volunteers, “armed” only with their solidarity, backpacks, buckets, carrycots, shovels and brooms, march in columns of hundreds towards south. Many do not have rubber boots, because they have been sold out in all the businesses where they sell them. But the creativity of the masses is almighty, and a way to make improvised rain boots has spread: one can use hiking boots, garbage bags and duct tape.

The San Marcelino meeting point is crowded most of the morning, while many volunteers come and go. From Servir al Pueblo, we march with a contingent of hundreds towards Paiporta, the so-called “point zero” because more than 60 deaths have been officially recorded. The situation is worse than what the bourgeois press says.

Paiporta has not improved its situation after the visit of Felipe VI and the government. The bourgeois press sells the image that there are many police officers and military help, but the reality is very different. Every volunteer can see it: most of the police officers are spotless, only their boots are dirty with mud. Meanwhile, the volunteers are filthy from the head to the feet. The police is in charge of directing traffic, and the military is in charge of operating with their heavy machinery to remove cars from public roads, or removing water from parking lots by using water pumps. Easy and simple work, wow. The indignation is very present among the neighbors. “Look at that bunch of sons of bitches,” a neighbor says. She continues: “without you [the volunteers] I don’t want to guess how it would be the situation.”

The Civil Guard also was present, but just to carry out auxiliary traffic tasks and support the military. They have their suits and even their trucks clean. Any volunteer sees, very obviously, how the fate of the people depends only and exclusively on the people. The phrase “only the people saves the people” has gone viral becomes it is an undeniable truth. Even for people who have never been interested in politics.

The food is distributed at specific points, but there are also volunteers who bring it house to house to the elderly who for any reason cannot move. They also bring them medicine and water. The residents of Paiporta share the food they have with the volunteers they see on their streets.

Cleaning is the most difficult thing. There are mountains of mud and belongings of all kinds, furniture and appliances, piled up on the streets. Volunteers clean the streets, but there are some times when they do not clean, but rather move the mud from one place to another. Until the big trucks arrive and take away the garbage, it is “moving shit from one place to another”, as they tell us. Even in such a situation, the streets are cleaned again and again until the dirt is being slowly removed, and the mud is piled up in mountains at strategic points in Paiporta.

A relatively small group of volunteers, about 50, cleans mud from a school where there are also several homes. It is located uphill, so they clean from top to bottom, using gravity in their favor. In a few moments, disorganized masses become organized masses, and small groups of four to six people clean the street. Broom to broom, shoulder to shoulder. Some go to eat, rest or work (because they come in their free time), but nothing stops. When a volunteer leaves his position, another retakes the position he left. Another neighbor tells to some volunteers: “When everything is over, if you remember me and my house, come to eat.”

We spoke with a neighbor who personally experienced the arrival and expulsion of the King and the government. He tells us the following:

“We knew that [the representatives of the government] were going to arrive that morning, but no one knew when. When they arrived, it was quickly spread. We were resting, sitting and eating, because it would be noon. About 2 p.m., right? Well, the case: We were eating and someone shouts, “Perro Sánchez is coming, the dog is coming!” [Translator’s note: they call Pedro Sánchez ‘perro’, which means ‘dog’]. And we were all running. The television says it was organized but that is not true. It was a moment of helplessness and spontaneous rage by all of us who were there.”

Another neighbor shows us a video he recorded when the King arrived. The video has not been published on social media, he wanted to keep it private. In the video, the King is seen in a short range and some people are shouting: “Leave the palace and get a fucking shovel!”.

The supposed citizen patrols carried out by the fascists, Revuelta [Translator’s note: meaning “Revolt”] and Frente Obrero [Translator’s note: meaning Workers’ Front], are not real. It is mere propaganda at the service of imperialism. They come one or two nights for a while, for “pretending to do something” as one volunteer says. Supposedly, they are to stop looting, but it is pure fascist propaganda and empty words. A young volunteer tells us to “be careful with the Nazis from the Núcleo Nacional, they came,” warning because he heard us talking about politics with a group of neighbors. The Nazis only do easy work, they hide and only come to light when there are several of them since they have fear of anti-fascist attacks.

The way to and from San Marcelino along “the bridge of solidarity” or “the walkway of hope” is full of graffiti that points to Mazón as a murderer and criminal. There are also posters thanking the volunteers, and posters calling for the mobilization on Saturday, November 9 in Valencia at 18:00.

This is just a brief report of what is happening in Paiporta. We have managed to contact and interview the comrades of the Revolutionary Committee of Valencia so that they can tell us more about the situation, and on some questions about the class struggle in the city. We will publish that interview as soon as we can transcribe it.