Tradition of Struggle Inspires L.A. Wildfire Recovery

Among survivors of the January 7 Eaton Fire an idea has taken hold which can grow to challenge the foundations of the capitalist economic system and the class that rules it: “People should take care of each other despite anyone’s inability to pay.”

Thousands have come from communities throughout the surrounding area to give out food, water and clothing. They are staffing donation sites ranging from the Rose Bowl to private homes where undocumented families could feel safe from government persecution. Meanwhile, hundreds of immigrant workers from the Pasadena Jobs Center voluntarily cleared debris from public spaces. President Trump’s vicious lies about migrants being dangerous criminals got cleared away as grateful people brought food, tools and money to support these workers’ noble efforts.

But if the disaster brought out the best in all these people, it also brought out the worst in a privileged few, such as those who contacted fire victims offering cash for their property. Those vultures preyed on the fears of homeowners worried about owing rent while still paying off the mortgages on their burned houses. They weren’t told about lenders who allowed a three-month moratorium on mortgage payments or about disaster grants and low-interest loans people might qualify for. These partial solutions can help homeowners get time to develop better plans for rebuilding or selling.

Groups have sprung up to help in various ways. Churches opened their spaces for town hall discussions about how federal, state and local governments could help. Dena Heals linked businesses that provide health and wellness services with one that trains former gang members as baristas. Altadena Strong! prepared for a March 29 conference on recovery and rebuilding that honors that community’s tradition of diversity and African American home ownership. Altadena Not For Sale used posters, yard signs and press interviews to warn about property speculators and the danger of gentrification.

CLASS UNITY REQUIRES FIGHTING FOR EQUALITY

There is also a growing demand for an investigation into why western Altadena didn’t receive an evacuation order until almost nine hours after evacuation orders were issued just four miles to the east. The 17 people who died in this fire all lived in that western area with a big Black population. Fire officials have said that winds of up to 100 m.p.h. produced fire behaviors never seen before, which made its course hard to predict. Yet, on January 26 the Los Angeles Times reported that well before the evacuation was ordered there were “areas west of North Lake Avenue, which, according to interviews and fire radio calls, had begun burning.”

This area has a long tradition of struggle for equality, including the fight to abolish slavery. In 1889, 2,000 mourners attended the Altadena funeral of Owen Brown, son of abolitionist revolutionary John Brown. In 1970, Pasadena became the first non-Southern city in which activists won a federal order to desegregate its schools. And in recent years there have been spirited mobilizations against police killings and abuses of immigrants. That tradition is often mentioned in today’s calls for a fire recovery that restores the community instead of letting gentrifiers profit off of it.

Another debate over social awareness and morality begins every time some people oppose providing disaster help to undocumented people. That position has been taken by some government agencies and non-profit organizations, which only offer financial assistance to legal residents. This already adds to the shame and fear that hold back many migrants from seeking aid. On top of that, the state Employment Development Department (EDD) announced that unemployment benefits couldn’t go to undocumented workers whose workplaces were burned. At one Disaster Center an apologetic EDD staffer was near tears, saying “my own family members can’t get this help.”

As the facts of the disaster become clearer, more people are rallying around the idea that working people must face this crisis together. For example, the terrible loss of lives, houses, rented housing and businesses also quickly impacted people who worked at those places but lived elsewhere. And the toxic substances in the air and water have affected even those whose homes were saved. One month after the fires, a local water district was still warning people not to drink from its system.

‘HUNGER IS HUNGER!’

And with 9,000 structures burned, many homeowners have had to become renters. They suddenly have come face-to-face with the Los Angeles area’s crisis of unaffordable rents. Now this increased competition for rentals is tempting greedy landlords to raise the amount they charge their existing renters as well as for incoming fire refugees, and almost 2,000 rent vultures have been reported to local and state authorities for exceeding the legal limits on rent increases during a disaster.

What is happening in Altadena and in Pasadena is a microcosm of a fundamental struggle under way across America. The specific issues are about government help for all fire victims, the defense of Black homes and the human rights of migrants. The underlying conflict is about control and profit. Will the few who own almost everything increase their control over the rest of us to profit themselves? Or will those losing economic security inspire a struggle to reorganize society for the protection of humanity and the environment?

Developing such a revolutionary consciousness requires overcoming the old ideas of privilege and division that keep people’s thinking tied to the past. For example, right after the fire some people on social media insisted that anyone whose house or rented space hadn’t burned did not deserve to share in what was being donated. That outdated idea was immediately challenged by other comments best summed up by one resident who called for help to go to anyone who needed it because “hunger is hunger!” Achieving a society where there is no hunger will require uniting diverse groups of Americans ready to imagine and fight for an economy freed from the limitations of capitalist private property.

Published on February 20, 2025
This article originated in Rally!
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