Workers and their communities the main victims of cyclone Haiyan

The typhoon that struck the central Philippines earlier this month made global headlines with many references to the devastation and the difficulty of bringing relief to those in need. What most media outlets did not analyse was the scarcity of infrastructure that was present before the typhoon or how vulnerable the people were to natural disasters. The reasons are to be found in the massive inequalities that exist in the Philippines where the majority of people earn very low wages while an elite controls huge wealth. It is up to us as workers to make sure that future typhoons do not become such disasters for our brothers and sisters.