BAYAN-Canada co-sponsors Festival of Resistance
Communities celebrate human rights in Toronto

TORONTO – Antiimperialist and progressive organizations commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the 10th year of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders with a cultural event dubbed Festival of Resistance on December 7 at the United Steelworkers' Hall in Toronto.

Addressing activists, human rights advocates and supporters from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Palestine and Colombia, Bayan Canada in Toronto representative Ramon Grajo scored the "indiscriminate attempts …" of the current Philippine government under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo "to behead the people's movement."

The Bayan Canada statement said "…whoever has publicly opposed GMA's anti-people, pro-globalization policies can be deemed enemies of the state, vilified as communists, threatened and harassed through texting or phone calls, through radio or shadowy men, then murdered or disappeared."

Also present was visiting Colombian trade union leader, Jesús Lorenzo Brochero Erazo of Sintracarbon, the union representing workers in the Cerrejon coal mine, one of the largest open pit coal mines in the world. Erazo focused on Colombian union and social movement opposition to the 2008 Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

Just last November 21st, the Stephen Harper government signed Canada's free trade agreement with Colombia. Earlier on June 7 this year, barely a week after the two countries concluded trade negotiations, a union member was murdered in Colombia. The International Centre for Trade Union Rights cites that by September 2008 there had already been 40 unionists assassinated in Colombia, compared to 38 over the same period the year before.

Speaking for the Tamil community was Anne Satkuna, active member of the Steelworkers Union Local 1998. Since the 2004 Tsunami, Anne had traveled several times to northern Sri Lanka, witnessing the sufferings of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) there. She has been advocating for immediate International intervention to put an end to the humanitarian crisis facing Tamil IDPs and speaking against the use of internationally banned cluster bombs by the Sri Lankan Air Force.

Country presentations were interspersed by cultural performances. Members of the Filipino Migrant

Workers' Movement (FMWM) of Migrante Ontario did a dance interpretation of Aking Pangarap and
Panawagan, dealing with the plight of migrant workers. The Philippine Advocacy Through Arts and Culture

(PATAC) rendered musical numbers depicting the human rights situation in the Philippines and the
Filipino people's anti-imperialist and democratic struggle. Palestinian activist and spoken word artist
Rafeef Ziadah addressed issues of racism, and women and children in war while Colombian and

Tamil performers employed indigenous and traditional forms – musical instruments and dance - to
deliver their messages of struggle and hope.



Human rights under the Macapagal Arroyo administration

Citing statistics from the 2008 report of Karapatan, the Alliance for the Advancement of Human Rights in the Philippines, Bayan Canada in Toronto pointed out that "in the first three quarters of this year, … 9,709 people were subjected to threats, harassment and intimidation; 112,812 to indiscriminate firing; 137,190 to forcible evacuation and displacement; 2,172 to hamletting; 5,562 to food and economic blockades; plus 5,527 to reckless endangerment due to the forced use of schools, medical facilities and religious sites and other public places for military purposes." Even two Catholic bishops have been threatened with the charge of "incitement (sic) to rebellion" by the Secretary of the Department of Justice. These show that "the GMA regime is waging a war against the Filipino people, its movement and their leaders. "

Bayan Canada in Toronto went on to say: GMA is guilty of willfully implementing pro-globalization policies of trade and investment liberalization, and deregulation - signing various trade pacts and agreements with Japan, pushing forward WTO requirements ahead of schedule, implementing an expanded value added tax, failure to re-regulate the oil and water interests, attempting to strip migrant workers of rights, etc.

All these actions "dictated by the US and its partner imperialists like Japan and Canada," open up the country further to imperialist looting and destruction and to increase payment of odious international debts. GMA is also guilty of allowing US troops into the country in violation of the constitution, and of persistently pursuing charter change in order to extend her rule and rewrite the constitution to remove any pro-people measures it might have to please her American masters. In other words, GMA is not only guilty of violating the civil rights of many individuals; she is guilty of violating the rights of the Filipino people to development, self-determination and democracy. (Public Information Committee, BAYAN-Canada in Toronto)

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Migrante-Ontario member organizations:
Filipino Migrant Workers Movement; AWARE; Philippine Advocacy Through Arts and Culture (PATAC); Damayan Migrant Education and Resource Center; Migrante Youth; Migrant Workers and Family Resource Center - Hamilton; Pilipinong Migrante sa Canada (PMSC) - Ottawa; Pilipinong Migrante sa Barrie (PMB) - Barrie