United States: the hellfire of capitalism engulfs Los Angeles

At time of writing, six wildfires are raging out of control in and around Los Angeles. At least ten people have perished in the conflagration, and the LA County Sheriff expects that number to rise.

[Originally published at communistusa.org]

Thick smoke envelops most of the city and the sky glows orange. Tens of thousands of acres of land have gone up in flames—as hurricane-force winds of up to 100 mph continue to fan the blaze. Apocalyptic scenes flooding social media call to mind Dante’s description of nether hell’s infernal City of Dis.

Nearly 180,000 residents are under evacuation orders, and over 1.5 million have lost power. Evacuees stuck in gridlock have abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, cutting off critical transportation arteries as thousands more prepare to evacuate. Efforts to contain the fires have failed miserably; the Palisades fire is only 6% contained, and the Eaton fire is 0% contained.

Hottest year on record 

With greenhouse gas emissions hitting a new high, 2024 was the hottest year on record. Surface temperatures averaged 1.6 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels—breaching, for the first time, the 1.5C limit capitalist politicians pledged not to exceed in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. The years from 2015 to 2024 were the ten warmest on record.

Apocalyptic scenes flooding social media call to mind Dante’s description of nether hell’s infernal City of Dis. / Image: CAL FIRE_Official, Flickr

There’s no doubt that the climate crisis is to blame for increasingly intense and unpredictable weather, including the unusually strong Santa Ana winds that are fueling the conflagration. Eleven months ago, an atmospheric river caused devastating flooding and mudslides across Southern California. Today, abnormally dry conditions prevail in the same region.

The climate crisis and the inadequate, negligent response to the resulting disasters share the same root cause: the decrepit and senile capitalist system.

Millions for cops, cuts for firefighters

It hasn’t rained in Southern California for eight months. That didn’t stop Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass from slashing the fire department’s budget by nearly $18 million. Instead, she chose to add $138 million to the already enormous LAPD budget. Incapable of protecting people from disaster, capitalist politicians are preparing to protect their class from the social consequences of their system’s decay and the disasters it produces.

As they’ve gutted funding for fire prevention, California’s politicians increasingly rely on cheap prison labor to put out fires—paying prisoners dollars a day for life-threatening work. One-third of the firefighters combating the LA blaze are prisoners—slave laborers earning little more than commissary money. This is still too low a proportion for the ruling class, and the state is looking to rectify this by sending incarcerated teens to fight fires in a proposed youth offender program.

Hydrants running dry

Not only are fire departments short staffed, but hydrants are also running dry. This is a direct consequence of the 1994 Monterrey Plus Agreement, which privatized taxpayer-funded water facilities and deregulated the market for buying and selling water. The agreement ended the policy of “urban preference” in times of drought, under which California’s water would be first allocated to urban centers for drinking and putting out fires.

Now, the agricultural monopolists in the state’s thinly populated Central Valley get first dibs on water. Despite accounting for only 2% of state GDP, these agro-capitalists consume over 80% of California’s available water. Private control of the water supply is to blame for the fact that—even after months without rain—LA was not supplied with the reserves necessary to fight the impending inferno.

At every level, government officials shirk responsibility. When Governor Gavin Newsom was asked why fire hydrants were running dry in Pacific Palisades—much of which has now been razed to the ground—he blamed “local folks,” his subordinate local officials, for a lack of preparedness.

One-third of the firefighters combating the LA blaze are prisoners—slave laborers earning little more than commissary money. / Image: CAL FIRE_Official, Flickr

The immediate emergency response has been abysmal, but the aftermath will be devastating, too. As the climate crisis rages, private insurers have cut coverage in “at risk” (i.e., unprofitable) areas. State Farm cancelled more than 72,000 California policies in April 2024, including 1,600 homes in the Pacific Palisades where nearly 20,000 acres and over 5,000 structures have been incinerated. Insurance firms charge huge premiums, and do everything they can to avoid paying out on claims. They pick and choose to cover areas where they will earn the highest profits, leaving those with the greatest need unprotected.

Life-and-death struggle

The ferocious blaze threatening to swallow America’s second largest city is a product of the capitalist system in terminal decline. Private ownership and production for profit put the interests of a tiny capitalist cabal ahead of the interests of humanity as a whole. Despite the liberals’ shrill clamoring about “human-driven” climate change, just 100 corporations are responsible for 70% of greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. The same anarchic system is behind the California state government’s criminal negligence and lack of preparation for this entirely foreseeable disaster.

Far from being an inexplicable act of God, there are real culprits to blame. The working-class struggle against capitalism is a matter of life and death. Under a workers’ government, the big banks and monopolies will be expropriated without compensation. With production planned according to human needs rather than for profit, we will launch extensive emergency preparedness plans and begin to mitigate, and eventually reverse, climate change. The RCA is building the revolutionary communist party necessary to make climate catastrophes a thing of the past.