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CRISIS OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM ENGENDERS
PEOPLE’S RESISTANCE
Lecture to a Class on Political Mobilization at the Centre for Conflict
Studies, Utrecht University
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
16 May 2012
I would like to discuss how the current crisis of global capitalism has
affected the long-running revolutionary mass movement in the Philippines.
I presume that you can follow my references to my country with the help of
the previous lecture I gave on how I participated in the organization of
the revolutionary movement. Prof. Fumerton has been kind enough to
distribute copies of this to you.
I would also like to give you my reflections on mass movements that have
surged in several countries during the last 18 months. I refer to the
so-called Arab Spring in North Africa and the Middle East, the movements
ignited by austerity measures in Europe and the Occupy Movement, which
started as the mass action to occupy Wall Street. I may make quick
references to other mass movements but time constraint does not allow me
to discuss these at length.
In my discussion of the past and present of the mass movements, I shall
take into account the objective conditions and subjective factors that
determine the character and course of development of a particular mass
movement and that show the similarities and differences of several mass
movements. I shall offer, as the last part of my discussion, a general
estimate on the future of militant activism and socio-political
mobilizations.
Revolutionary Mass Movement in the Philippines
When my fellow students and I organized the Student Cultural Association
of the University of the Philippines in 1959, we advocated a patriotic,
scientific and pro-people system of culture and education. In that
connection, we had the clear intention of developing a mass movement among
students in our university as well as in other universities in Manila and
nationwide and eventually of linking up with a potential mass movement of
workers and peasants against US domination, domestic feudalism and
bureaucratic corruption.
We were determined to carry out the immediate objective of raising the
level of debate from one between the bourgeois liberals and the religio-sectarians
within the university to a higher one between the Filipino people and the
few who benefited from the semi-colonial and semi-feudal ruling system.
Our overriding objective was to continue the unfinished Philippine
revolution of 1896 as well as the armed revolution led by the old
Communist Party, which was defeated in 1950-1952.
In our study circles, we adopted a course on the Philippine revolution
along the general line of struggle for national liberation and democracy
and an additional course on Marxism-Leninism to shed light on socialism as
our revolutionary perspective. We sought to learn from the revolutionary
teachings and experience of Filipino revolutionaries as well as from the
thinkers and leaders of the international communist movement.
We learned from Marx and Engels that the development of industrial
capitalism had opened the way for the working class to take power and
build socialism. We learned from Lenin that the emergence of monopoly
capitalism had ushered in the era of modern imperialism and proletarian
revolution and that revolutions in the less developed parts of the world
could be led by the working class and could bring about not only democracy
but subsequently also socialism.
Lenin pointed out that for a revolution to succeed there must be a
revolutionary crisis of the ruling system which prevents the ruling class
from ruling in the old way, the broad masses of the people desire
revolutionary change and the revolutionary party of the proletariat must
be strong enough to lead the revolution. Mao taught us further that the
chronic crisis in a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country like China and
the Philippines can sustain not only a militant mass movement but also a
protracted people’s war for the purpose of achieving the people’s
democratic revolution.
The student organization which I chaired held its first big extramural
demonstration in 1961. With 5000 students, we rose in defense of academic
freedom and in defiance of the Anti-Subversion Law which the reactionary
Congress was using to witch hunt professors and students like me who had
written anti-imperialist and anti-feudal articles in campus publications.
Subsequently, we linked up with the workers and peasants in mass protest
actions for national independence against unequal treaties and agreements
with the US, particularly those involving US economic domination and the
persistence of US military bases. We also demanded national
industrialization and land reform. We, the student activists, found our
way into the trade unions and peasant associations, as volunteers in
social research, initiators of seminars and participants in strikes and
protest actions.
In 1964 we formed the Kabataang Makabayan (Patriotic Youth), a
comprehensive organization of students, young workers, young peasants and
young professionals. This became practically the spearhead of campaigns to
arouse, organize and mobilize the masses. It promoted the national united
front against imperialism and local reaction. It helped to pave the way
for the reestablishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines under
the guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought in December 1968 and
the founding of the New People’s Army in March1969. It provided these two
revolutionary forces with the nationwide basis for expansion.
The mass protests spearheaded by the Kabataang Makabayan often ranged from
5000 to 20,000 until the First Quarter Storm of 1970. This involved huge
marches and rallies of 50,000 to 100,000 people in Manila every week from
January to March in 1970 against the Marcos regime on various issues. The
protest actions spread to the provinces. We can say that the foundation
for the overthrow of the Marcos regime through gigantic mass actions was
firmly established in 1970.
But Marcos forestalled his overthrow by engaging in brutal actions and by
proclaiming martial law in 1972 in order to impose a fascist dictatorship
on the people. The US and the puppet Marcos thought that they could put an
end to the mass movement for national liberation and democracy. But the
fascist dictatorship unwittingly served to strengthen the armed
revolutionary movement. It forced the mass organizations to go underground
and many of the mass activists to join the people’s army and spread the
people’s war throughout the country.
Ultimately, the Marcos fascist regime fell as a result of sustained mass
actions ranging from 50,000 to 500,000 participants repeatedly converging
in Manila and thousands more thronging provincial capitals and cities from
1983 onwards. The mass actions peaked to 2 million participants on the
Edsa alone in the days leading to the fall of Marcos. The fascist
dictatorship lasted for 14 years because it had the support of the US,
most of the bishops in the Catholic Church and most of the big compradors
and landlords. The counterrevolutionary forces gave up their support for
Marcos out of fear that the entire ruling system might be brought down
with his regime by the growing revolutionary mass movement.
So far until now, the US and local reactionary forces have managed to
preserve the reactionary ruling system. They always try to dress up all
the regimes succeeding the Marcos regime as democratic. But these regimes
continue the anti-national, anti-democratic and anti-people policies of
Marcos and are hated by the people, because of the ceaseless deterioration
of economic, social and political conditions and because of persistent
corruption and repression. The militant mass movement succeeded in
overthrowing the Estrada regime in 2001 and nearly overthrew the Arroyo
regime.
The militant legal mass movement and the armed revolutionary movement have
grown in strength, especially since after the CPP undertook its
rectification movement from 1992 to 1998 to correct major errors in the
1980s and to strengthen the revolutionary forces. The US-instigated
neoliberal policy of imperialist globalization and the US-directed
campaigns of military suppression have inflicted terrible suffering on the
Filipino people and have generated ever more fertile conditions for
people’s resistance.
The current grave crisis of the US and the world capitalist system is
aggravating the chronic crisis of Philippine society. The reduced US and
global demand for the raw-material, semi-manufacture and cheap-labor
exports of the Philippines is resulting in huge trade and budgetary crisis
and a mounting public debt burden. The people are suffering from massive
unemployment, lower incomes, soaring prices of fuel, food and other basic
commodities, homelessness, more expensive but deteriorating social
services and other maladies that aggravate poverty and misery.
The militant mass movement of the workers, peasants, youth, women and
other people is on the upsurge in both urban and rural areas. The New
People’s Army led by the Communist Party is intensifying its tactical
offensives in order to advance from the strategic defensive to the
strategic stalemate in the people’s war. The guerrilla fronts are being
increased. The revolutionary organs of democratic political power are
displacing the reactionary government in the localities. They are
supported by the mass organizations and the broad masses of the people.
Mass Movements in the Last 18 Months Elsewhere
In the last 18 months, militant mass actions have broken out in several
continents and in many countries, as if the whole world were on fire. They
are reminiscent of the 1960s when the youth and working people worldwide
rose up to denounce the US war of aggression in Indochina and raise a wide
range of social and political demands. This time the widespread protest
mass actions are generated by the crisis of the world capitalist system
which has become extremely severe since 2008.
Mass uprisings started in Tunisia on 17 December 2010 and spread to
various countries in North Africa and the Middle East in succeeding
months. The regimes tried harshly to suppress the uprisings but these
persevered and brought down the rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.
Mass uprisings also broke out in major proportions in Bahrain and Syria.
Mass protest actions burst out in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco
and elsewhere.
The bourgeois mass media have referred to the mass uprisings as the Arab
Spring. They have also given so much credit to the high-tech communication
gadgets in the hands of the youth and the internet social networks for the
agitation and mobilization of the people. But to look for the causes of
the mass uprisings, it is much more important to focus on the objective
conditions, especially the socio-economic and political factors.
The worsening crisis of the world capitalist system has brought about the
deterioration of national economic, social and political conditions. The
young people, the working people, and even the middle class have become
discontented with the rising unemployment, decreased incomes, soaring
prices of goods and services, and the rampant corruption and
repressiveness of the long-running autocratic regimes. The self-immolation
of the young man, Mohamed Bouazizi, served to ignite the conflagration in
Tunisia and in the other countries.
The first to be overthrown was Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
on 14 January 2011, and followed by President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February
2011. Both Ben Ali and Mubarak lost their personal grip on the armed
forces under the pressure of the mass uprisings. In Libya, the US and the
NATO undertook a bombing campaign and special operations of several months
to enable the opposition to finish off the Qadaffi regime in October 2011.
Of the fallen rulers, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh lasted the
longest until he quit power on 27 February 2012 under the pressure of the
relentless mass actions. Currently, the US and the NATO are collaborating
with the local opposition and the so-called Free Syrian Army in Syria in
order to overthrow President Bashar al Assad.
In the countries where regime change has occurred, the ruling system
persists and the same exploiting classes remain. The imperialist powers
retain their dominance and control of the armed forces, whether these are
slightly reorganized or drastically reorganized as in Libya. Thus, many
people who rose up against the despotic regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and
Yemen are manifesting their desire to continue what they consider as
unfinished revolutions. In Libya, many people consider themselves betrayed
by the new rulers and robbed of their political independence, oil and
financial resources by the imperialist powers.
For a long period of time before the recent mass uprisings, autocratic
regimes suppressed revolutionary parties of the proletariat and other Left
formations. But despite their limited strength, these have been able to
draw benefits from the mass uprisings and the sharpening of contradictions
among factions of the reactionary classes. The progressive and
revolutionary forces have found a growing space for their political
activity.
But certain Islamic forces of various reactionary types (Salafi, Muslim
Brotherhood and the like) are also drawing political advantage from the
situation more than the secular progressive forces. They are generally
regarded by the imperialist powers as less dangerous and more manageable
than the categorically anti-imperialist and democratic forces. The
complexity of the situation challenges the forces and people who wish to
overthrow the ruling system and achieve social revolution.
As a consequence of the crisis of the world capitalist system, the public
debt crisis became conspicuous in the Europe in late 2009. The countries
most adversely affected were Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain. Their
economic conditions became depressed and the rate of unemployment rose
beyond 20 per cent and among the youth beyond 40 percent. The European
finance ministers decided on creating the European Financial Stability
Facility to bail out the distressed governments in exchange for the
enactment of austerity measures at the expense of the people.
The people of Portugal registered their opposition to the austerity
measures with more than 200,000 marching and rallying on 12 March 2011 in
Lisbon and Oporto alone. Protests were also held in all other major cities
in Portugal to exert nationwide pressure on the government and the
political parties supporting the austerity measures. The prime minister
was forced to resign as a result of the failure of parliament to pass the
austerity measures.
The people of Spain launched their nationwide series of demonstrations
starting on15 May 2011, with 50,000 people in Madrid. The participants
tended to rise from thousands in various Spanish cities in May to hundreds
of thousands in July, and to 500,000 to a million in major cities in
October. Many of the participants called themselves the indignados (the
indignants or the outraged). They contacted each other through the
internet social networks and through the Democracia Real Ya website. They
counted 200 small associations as their base and prohibited members of
political parties from bringing their party banners to the demonstrations.
The so-called Indignant Citizens Movement in Greece started its
demonstrations on 25 May and held them in various Greek cities from May to
July. It held the biggest one in front of the Greek Parliament on 5 June,
with around 500,000. It allowed communists, trade unionist and communist
youth to join the demonstrations but not to bring their banners. On their
own account, the communist formations and their trade unions and mass
organizations of youth, women and professionals launched strikes and
street protest actions in various places in Athens and in all the other
Greek cities. Affiliates of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle
were able to participate in the mass protests.
The protest actions in Greece were much heralded for their militancy
because their pressure caused a crisis in government and because they kept
on arising up to July, then in October and further in 2012 despite attacks
from the police, starting on 29 June 2011 in Athens. The rich tapestry of
people’s resistance included all the mass actions in the major cities of
Greece and several converging points in every city.
The communist and other Left organizations and their united front Syriza
scored high in the recent parliamentary elections because of their
consistent opposition to the austerity measures and the troika of the IMF,
European Union and the European Central Bank that imposed the measures.
These imperialist institutions continue to worry about and maneuver
against the progressive political forces and trends in Greece.
The initiators launched the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US in
September 2011. They were imaginative at choosing the Zucotti Park to put
up their tents and raise the issues against the financial oligarchy and
against the growing disparity of incomes between the overwhelming majority
of the people and the tiny elite. They proclaimed that they stood for the
99 percent against the 1 percent of the population who use the banks and
corporations to exploit the people and accumulate wealth and power. As in
the “Arab Spring” and in the case of the Indignados, they availed of the
high tech gadgets and the social networks to broadcast their cause and
communicate with each other.
Because they made good propaganda, hitting the mark against the most
exploitative and aggressive tip of the US social pyramid, the progressive
forces of the youth, the workers, and various sections of the population
supported the Occupy Wall Street movement and joined in spreading the
Occupy movement to hundreds of US cities. They did not pay much attention
to the prating of the anarchists about leaderless movements and nonviolent
resistance. The important thing to them was that urgent social issues were
being taken up against the US ruling system, and that the methods of
occupying public places and setting up tents were good tactics.
The influence of the Occupy movement spread fast in the US and worldwide,
far beyond the control of the few anarchists who in the first place had
proclaimed that they were averse to forming vertical organizational
structures and that they were for horizontal participatory democracy. The
movement was quite open and did not ban the participation of any group
interested in raising the issues and demands. Thus, the International
League of Peoples’ Struggle, which I chair, decided to contribute to the
undertaking of mass actions under the name of the Occupy movement in many
US cities and countries of the world.
The Indignados Movement and Occupy Movement reached their highest peak in
October 2011. Since then, they have tended to subside. They are not as
militant and as sharp as the mass uprisings of the so-called Arab Spring
which have sought to overthrow anti-democratic regimes and have been
subjected to the ferocious reaction of the rulers. Nevertheless, the
police have harassed, disrupted and dispersed the Occupy activists. The
winter also discouraged camping in tents. The initiators of the Indignados
and Occupy movements have been trying to revive their movements since
March this year.
Left formations in the US like the United National Antiwar Coalition and
the ad hoc Coalition against NATO and G8 have been planning and preparing
mass protest actions against the G8 and NATO in Chicago this May. The
various Communist formations and other Left groups in Europe have been
able to form alliances and launch militant workers’ strikes and protest
mass actions against the governments responsible for the public debt
crisis and the austerity measures, especially in Greece, Spain, Portugal
and Italy. The recent big demonstrations of the Indignados in Spain to
celebrate the first anniversary of their mass movement show its continuing
high potential.
The various Communist formations competing for the role of the
revolutionary party of the proletariat in the imperialist countries still
suffer from the limitations and weaknesses that developed during the
decades of the Cold War, the spread of revisionist ideas, the neoliberal
economic policy and other kinds of imperialist offensives.
The imperialist states in Europe are still shielded from the Communist
challenge by a panoply of parties, including the Christian democrats, the
liberals, the social democrats, and the greens, and by the see-saw of
public sentiment between the relative Left and the absolute Right in
electoral contests. The polarization of political forces will continue as
the socio-economic conditions deteriorate.
The bankruptcy of the neoliberal economic policy has brought imperialist
countries to the worst economic and social crisis since the Great
Depression. This crisis is becoming worse. And the imperialist powers and
the business magnates cannot solve it because they cling dogmatically to
the policy that has brought it about in the first place. Upon the
prolongation and worsening of the crisis, the revolutionary parties of the
proletariat and the revolutionary mass organizations of workers, women,
youth, professionals and other people have the chance to strengthen
themselves in the course of the struggle against those who exploit and
oppress them.
In the third word countries, the anti-imperialist and democratic mass
movements are becoming more militant and stronger in response to the
escalating exploitation and oppression by the imperialists and local
reactionaries. The peoples being subjected to imperialist wars of
aggression, intervention and occupation are becoming more ferocious in
fighting back and in trying to win back their national independence. The
armed revolutionary mass movements for national liberation and democracy
are increasing.
The Future of Militant Activism and Socio-Political Mobilization
The severity of the crisis of global capitalism is now generating and will
continue to generate, militant activism and socio-political mobilization.
The aggrieved working people and the youth have no choice but to protest
and fight against the dire social conditions of rising unemployment,
decreasing incomes, soaring costs of living, homelessness, reduced social
benefits and deteriorating social services, and to demand respect for
their rights, dignity and well-being. They will continue to struggle for
democracy and aim for socialism. They will fight back even more as the
monopoly capitalists and all kinds of reactionaries engage in actions to
suppress or derail the mass movement of the people.
The 1 percent that have the most wealth and power insist on maintaining
the capitalist system and in particular the neoliberal economic policy
which has resulted in the crisis comparable to the Great Depression of the
1930s in terms of gravity and global scope in the destruction of
productive forces. They know no bounds for engaging in debt financing,
increasing the public debt and aggravating the public debt crisis; and for
adopting austerity measures to further shift the burden of crisis to the
people. To protect their narrow interests, they whip up ultra-reactionary
currents like chauvinism, racial discrimination, religious bigotry and
fascism, and they engage in repression, state terrorism and wars of
aggression.
At the root of the crisis is the internal law of motion of capitalism that
drives the owners of capital to maximize their profits and further
accumulate capital by minimizing the wages of the workers. This leads to
the crisis of overproduction, as the real producers of wealth cannot
afford to buy their own products. In their attempt to overcome the crisis
of overproduction and the tendency of the profit rate to fall, the
monopoly capitalist class has resorted to the abusive expansion of the
money supply, credit, and all kinds of financial derivatives in order to
raise their profits and overvalue their assets. All these maneuvers have
led to the catastrophic financial and economic crisis which confronts us
now and in more time to come.
The adoption of high technology means higher productivity. But in the
capitalist system this has served to accelerate the private accumulation
of capital by a few, the reduction of wage incomes, and the rapid
recurrence and aggravation of the crisis of overproduction. Those who
strive to constantly expand the market ultimately shrink it. High
technology has been used to accelerate the creation of one big financial
bubble after another, to speed up superprofit-taking from the
underdeveloped countries, to make the mass media more effective as weapons
of mass distraction, and to produce the deadliest of the weapons of mass
destruction.
The use of high technology by the monopoly bourgeoisie and the financial
oligarchy has brought about terrible suffering to the people. But this
also drives the people to wage mass resistance. And they can make use of
some of this technology, especially in the field of communications, in
order to aid and accelerate their own mass movement against their
exploiters and oppressors.
They have now in their hands the means of communication that can broadcast
revolutionary ideas and information in a matter of seconds to the whole
world, and that can facilitate the mobilization of people for political
action. Their fighting spirit is also raised high by the hope that someday
they shall be in control of the high technology for the purpose of
producing goods and services to serve the needs of the people and not to
serve the profit-making by a few.
The struggle between labor and capital will sharpen in the years to come,
as the structural crisis of capitalism and imperialism worsens. We see
only the beginnings of a powerful mass movement in the widespread workers
strikes and people’s protests in capitalist countries like France,
Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain; in the mass actions for jobs,
in defense of migrants, and against wars of aggression as in the US; and
in the militant protests of the unemployed youth, in the student strikes
for the right to education, and against rising tuition fees and decreased
state support for education as in the US, Canada, United Kingdom and other
countries. The phenomena of mass protests are increasing. The workers and
the rest of the people cannot accept the painful paradox of rising
productivity resulting in mass lay-offs, less income and impoverishment.
The global depression involves the reduction of demand from the developed
countries for the raw material and semi-manufacture exports of the
underdeveloped countries. This is resulting in the massive destruction of
productive forces and the aggravation of poverty in the underdeveloped
countries. Social discontent is widespread and deep-going. It is fuelling
mass protest actions, unprecedented mass uprisings, and the growth of
armed revolutionary movements for national and social liberation led by
revolutionary parties of the working class and in the context of the
revolutionary united front. Social unrest and people’s resistance are
growing in big countries like China, India, Russia and Brazil previously
praised by the imperialists as partners in the exploitation of cheap labor
and cheap raw materials under the neoliberal policy of globalization.
Beset by internal economic and financial crisis and by the crisis of the
world capitalist system, the imperialist powers are still trying to keep
their unity and cooperation at the expense of the underdeveloped
countries, even as they are tending towards protectionism and intensifying
competition with each other economically and politically. A struggle for a
re-division of the world among the imperialist powers is becoming
conspicuous as they compete for sources of fuel and raw materials,
markets, fields of investment, and spheres of influence.
The escalation of military expenditures for war production and wars of
aggression, and the rise of such ultra-reactionary currents as chauvinism,
anti-migrants, racism, religious bigotry, and fascism challenge the people
in imperialist countries and in the whole world to be vigilant and
militant in upholding, defending and promoting their democratic rights and
their struggle for a fundamentally new and better world of greater
freedom, democracy, social justice, all-round development, international
solidarity and peace. ###
See other articles of Prof.
Jose Maria Sison here:
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Press Release
March 26, 2012
Contact: Rhonda Ramiro, Secretary General, secgen@bayanusa.org
PNoy’s “More of the Same” Means More Global Hostility, Poverty, Human
Rights Violations in the Philippines
“Spain sold the Philippines to the US for $20 million, but PNoy is
selling the Philippines to the US for some used F-16s. Simply put: he’s a
sell-out.”
This was the reaction of the Filipino-American alliance BAYAN-USA to
Philippines President Benigno Aquino III’s pronouncement that more US
troops would be welcome in the Philippines and that he was “hoping” the US
would grant his request for excess F-16 fighter jets.
A Sell-Out to the Interests of the 1%
BAYAN-USA criticized Aquino’s continuing efforts to accommodate the 2012
US defense strategy that entails a so-called “rebalance to Asia,”
including an increase in US military presence in the Philippines. The
Secretaries of State and Defense of the US and Philippines are set to
negotiate terms of the increased military deployment on April 30 in
Washington DC. “Instead of protecting the nation’s sovereignty and the
Filipino people, PNoy says he wants ‘more of the same’ when it comes to US
troop deployment and port calls of US vessels to the Philippines. If
Aquino promotes this ‘more of the same’ position in the negotiations with
the US, it will mean more instability, more human rights violations and
more regional insecurity,” stated Bernadette Ellorin, BAYAN-USA chair.
“F-16 manufacturer Lockheed Martin raked in $464,990,000,000 last
year—obviously the big winners of ‘more of the same’ are the corporate
military titans and the other members of the 1% that they are protecting,
such as oil and mining multi-nationals with major economic investments in
the region,” continued Ellorin. “Neither Americans nor Filipinos benefit
from the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent each year on war
mongering, since those are funds that are being diverted away from
education, healthcare, housing and employment that the 99% need the most.”
Cop-Outs to Justify US Intervention
Preceding the negotiations, from April 16-27 the military exercises called
Balikatan (“shoulder-to-shoulder”) will be held in the Philippines; for
the first time, the exercises will be multilateral involving Japan, South
Korea and Australia, as well as the Philippines and over 4,000 US troops.
BAYAN-USA looks with suspicion on the multilateral exercises, especially
in light of the secrecy cloaking the US-Philippine military negotiations,
Aquino’s allowance of the American military’s storage of nuclear weapons
on Philippine soil and use of drones in Philippine airspace, the US’
posturing against rising economic power China, and provocative statements
against North Korea.
“For Aquino to say that the purpose of the Balikatan exercises is to
increase disaster preparedness, strengthen the Philippine military against
possible aggression by China or fallout from North Korea’s rocket tests,
and foster regional cooperation is a cop-out,” said Ellorin. “The
exercises are obviously being used to consolidate American military power
and its alliances with countries in the Asia Pacific who will allow the US
to usher in new bases and thousands of foreign troops in addition to the
660 US troops already operating in Mindanao. The US has made no secret of
its plans to station and rotate thousands of US troops in Asia to put
China and North Korea in check, so Aquino should stop trying to hide his
acquiescence to US intervention.”
BAYAN-USA also pointed out that the notoriously one-sided Visiting Forces
Agreement, which currently governs the terms of the presence of US
military personnel in the Philippines, has done nothing to protect
Filipinos or Philippine sovereignty. In an address to the Philippines
House of Representatives on Feb. 8 this year, Gabriela Women’s Party Rep.
Luz Illagan stated, “Since the VFA was approved in 1999, several
violations of US soldiers have been reported. These include the shooting
of Buyong-buyong Isnijal by American soldier Reggie Lane in Basilan in
2002, the closing of the Panamao District Hospital in Sulu allegedly
ordered by US soldiers led by a Master Sergeant Ron Berg in 2007. We have
witnessed injustice with the acquittal of the [rapist] Lance Cpl. Daniel
Smith after an obvious manipulation between the Philippine and US
governments. Yet again in 2009, a 21-year old Filipina came forward after
having been raped by a US military personnel from Joint US Military
Assistance Group (JUSMAG)/ Balikatan. These are just the reported cases
and probably many more remain hidden from public’s knowledge.”
“What makes Aquino’s excuses even worse is that US troops are already
getting away with these transgressions even under the few restrictions
presently contained in the Visiting Forces Agreement. We can predict that
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
will try to gain even more concessions when they negotiate new terms of
agreement with the Philippines next month. Aquino’s current statements are
foreshadowing what will be negotiated during these talks—an eradication of
any protections whatsoever for Philippine sovereignty,” said Ellorin.
All-Out for Days of Action Against US Intervention
As Filipinos in the US, BAYAN-USA members experience everyday how both the
Aquino and Obama governments– guardians of financial oligarchy– are acting
in betrayal of the broad interest of the Filipino and American peoples. We
are among the poor who were driven out of the Philippines under Aquino’s
and his predecessors’ failed economic policies and forced to move abroad.
We are among the working people in the US forced to carry the heavy burden
of paying for a trillion dollar debt crisis we did not create. And we are
part of the peoples resistance to these intolerable conditions, forging
solidarity among people in the US struggling against the US
military-industrial complex and for economic justice, the Filipino
people’s ongoing struggle for genuine national independence and democracy,
and people worldwide advancing movements for self-determination. BAYAN-USA
calls on all people who believe in peace and justice to participate in the
International Day of Action Against US Intervention on April 16 and
protests against the high-level Philippines-US talks on April 30. Peoples
resistance and firm solidarity are the key to frustrate US interventionism
in the region!
US OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES! - US OUT OF ASIA! - JUNK THE US-RP MUTUAL
DEFENSE TREATY! - JUNK THE US-RP VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT! -
UPHOLD PHILIPPINE NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY! - LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL
SOLIDARITY! - ALL OUT ON APRIL 16 AND APRIL 30!
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