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Title: Abusing Resilience
Author: APS
Date: February 2020
Topics: anti-work, natural disasters, disaster, Bandilang Itim, Philippines
Source: http://libcom.org/blog/abusing-resilience-filipino-face-disaster-01032020

APS

Abusing Resilience

On the afternoon of January 12 the Taal Volcano began spewing ash and

smoke from its ancient caldera. Within hours a massive evacuation effort

was launched to get people out of harm’s way. A comrade was among the

people fleeing the scene. Government offices and schools were

understandably closed due to the disaster, but BPO centers around the

areas most affected by the ensuing ashfall had the gall to call their

workers back to work.

We’ve seen this story before:

A calamity or some other misfortune affects a large area of the nation

and we get reports of people calling in to work being praised for “their

dedication to their jobs” despite the obvious risks. The true story is

most likely that they literally couldn’t afford to be gone that shift.

They might not get administrative sanctions or attendance memos for

being absent, thought that still happens, but they still won’t be paid

for that workday. No work, no pay, right? But, this isn’t to say that

the supervisors and managers frantically calling their employees to work

are bad people. This is bigger than any one person.

When you have someone who lives completely on what they make per hour

worked, they have little choice but to show up for work. This is the

greatest triumph of modern capitalism over the human spirit. I remember

someone calling money “survival notes” because it literally does mean

whether or not you survive in this society. Because we live inside it!

It’s become a very efficient way for the rich business owner and

investor to value profits over human lives.

With slavery, you own the person, end of discussion. In feudalism, you

own the land, you get part of the produce of that land. But with

capitalism? Oh, boy, you not only own the place where they work, you

also own the places where they spend their hard-earned survival-notes

at!

That’s how you get people to show up at work soaking in rainwater after

braving the elements for two hours to get to a job that pays less than a

hundred pesos an hour. That’s how you get people to stay to watch over

what little property they have in the face of a raging volcano. That’s

how you get people to value profit over human lives, most especially if

that life is their own.

So no, it isn’t surprising that there’d be people who’d come to work on

the apocalypse. Capitalism has made our world so absurd that it would

actually make sense.

So here’s to the working-class heroes who instead of going to work went

out to help in whatever way they could, even if it’s something as

natural as getting your family to safety.