SWP Statement

Capitalist rule turned LA fires into a social catastrophe

February 3, 2025

Statement by Laura Garza, organizer of the Los Angeles Socialist Workers Party, Jan. 20.

The dog-eat-dog capitalist system is incapable of addressing the crisis now facing working people, small-business owners and thousands of others in the aftermath of the deadly Eaton, Palisades and other fires that have devastated parts of Los Angeles. Thousands are jobless, families are suddenly homeless, many without income and with every possession destroyed. Yet they are still on the hook for mortgages, loans and other debts.

Driven by the insurance companies, real-estate speculators and banks — with a government that serves their interests — this profit-driven system has turned a natural disaster into a social catastrophe.

The Socialist Workers Party calls on the trade union movement to take charge and lead the effort to clean up and rebuild Los Angeles. The first step will be fighting to win a government-funded mass public works program to clear the immense debris from the fires and build thousands of houses, schools, child care centers and hospitals. New roads are needed; the water and power infrastructure must be rebuilt; brush regularly cleared in fire zones; and power lines should be buried.

Building on the surge of solidarity with fire victims that has been demonstrated by workers throughout the area, tens of thousands must now be put to work at union-scale wages to accomplish this. Construction workers, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, laborers and more have to be trained. Firefighters should be hired and trained. The hundreds of prisoners  who are fighting these fires should be guaranteed firefighting jobs upon release if they so choose. As part of unifying and strengthening the working class, the labor movement must champion the demand for amnesty for immigrant workers.

This rebuilding work must be organized under union control and management, a necessary step to ensure it is done safely and without corner-cutting. Left in the hands of construction bosses, insurance companies and their cronies in government, their sole concern will be turning the disaster into a handsome profit.

Southern California Edison, whose power-line explosion is the likely cause of the Eaton fire, should be nationalized under workers control.

The government on every level, with its two capitalist parties, is responsible for the devastation. Now all they do is try to pass the blame by pointing fingers at each other. No preparation, dilapidated infrastructure, no evacuation plan. The labor movement must break from the capitalist parties and organize our own party, a party of labor, to organize the whole working class. This is a necessary step on the road to taking power out of the hands of the capitalists and building a socialist future.