Vol. 80/No. 3 January 25, 2016
UK flooding: Workers bring
solidarity, gov’t cuts funding
Although rainfall has been unusually high, with three storms crossing over the U.K. in December, what has been visited on working people is a disaster bred by capitalist social relations, not nature.
In recent years nearly 10,000 homes in the U.K. have been built annually on floodplains, mostly geared towards working people. “Because there is such a housing shortage then if something gets built, people will move into it despite the flood risk,” Guy Michaels, co-author of a report for the London School of Economics on the effects of floods, told the Financial Times Jan. 1.
At the same time the government has cut funding for flood prevention by 10 percent since 2010. A major flood defense plan for Leeds was vetoed by government ministers in 2011. It was replaced by a cut-down scheme that offered protection only in the city center.
Cold-blooded government calculation of the financial value of each plot of land determines what areas get flood protection. To get funding, each flood defense proposal has to meet a test proving £8 ($11.60) of damage will be avoided for every £1 ($1.45) spent.
In York existing infrastructure wasn’t up to the task. In response, the Environmental Agency took steps that led to the flooding of more than 600 properties.
Widespread anger over inadequate government spending on flood controls has led to growing calls by a number of capitalist politicians for nationalist measures. UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said “we” must “start putting our own people first,” saying Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron allocates too much money to foreign aid.
“Why do we spend money in Bangladesh when it needs spending in Great Britain?” Simon Danczuk, Labour Member of Parliament for Rochdale, a town in Greater Manchester hit by flooding, told BBC Radio Manchester.
“This kind of disaster can happen in many parts of the world. I come from Nigeria where you get even less government help than here, so I wouldn’t say just help people here, people need support wherever they are,” Abigail Ngeewa told members of the Communist League from Manchester on her doorstep in Lower Broughton in Salford. Her home is on the left bank of the River Irwell that flooded Dec. 26.
“When I realized the scale of what was happening I grabbed a few people and we set up an emergency refuge at St. Boniface’s Social Club on Lower Broughton Road, somewhere for people to go get a cup of tea, food and support,” said Vera Winter, who played a key role in relief efforts organized by area residents. “We put it out on Facebook, all kinds of people brought cleaning products, food and so on.”
“The council and police came to our houses telling us to move our possessions upstairs. They said the water was rising fast and we may need to get out,” said Edward Brady, a retired engineering worker whose house backs onto the river bank. “They could have done a lot more to prepare.
“I don’t have insurance. The Salford municipal council is giving us all £500 [$725] and I’m grateful,” he said. “But that only goes a little way towards what I need.”
Some area residents echoed arguments of capitalist politicians who claim the problem is London’s neglect of the economically less prosperous north of England. “It’s part of the ‘north-south divide,’” said Cathleen Cainey, a retired sewing machine operator. “They seem to forget about us up here. We didn’t get sandbags, nothing.”
“What you’re facing is part of the bigger picture of how the capitalist rulers have no solution to the challenges we face,” said Communist League member Peter Clifford. “The solidarity and what working people are achieving here show what we are capable of as a class.”
In Rochdale a group of Syrian refugees responded with solidarity, joining efforts to fill sandbags. “We saw the pictures on TV and wanted to help,” Yasser al-Jassem, a teacher who came to Britain on the back of a lorry from Calais, France, in May 2015, told the Daily Mirror. “I put out a call through WhatsApp and immediately had many other Syrian refugees join me.”
Peter Clifford contributed to this article.
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