Cal Philippines forum builds OUT NOW! movement in the U.$.

Cal Philippines forum builds OUT NOW! movement in the U.$.

UC BERKELEY—February 13, 2002—The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) hosted a forum on U.$.terrorism in the Philippines at U.C. Berkeley February13 with a standing room only crowd of over 60 people.
The event opened with a powerful spoken word piece,
imploring people to get involved in fighting for
humanity. Musical performances by the Filipino
activist band Diskarte Namin interspersed
presentations by speakers from the Maoist
Internationalist Movement (MIM), the Committee for
Human Rights in the Philippines (CHRP) and BAYAN-Bay
Area. This important forum kicked off a growing
movement on campus opposed to u.s. imperialism in the
Philippines. Students expressed their resolve to build
an educational and activist presence in the Cal
community in solidarity with the struggles of the
Filipino people for self-determination.

The speaker from MIM opened up the forum by pointing
out that the 600 u.s. troops deployed and $100 million
in military aid the u.s. promised the Philippines in
January are just the latest round of u.s. occupation
of that country. The pretext for this invasion is the
so-called war on terrorism so the speaker provided
some global context by offering the united states'
definition of terrorism which includes, "The use of
biological agents, chemical agents or nuclear weapons
or devices or use of explosive or firearm, with intent
to endanger, directly or indirectly, the safety of one
or more individuals or to cause substantial damage to
property." Clearly this definition is so vague it can
be used to justify anything. The speaker went on to
argue that in fact the united states falls squarely
under its own definition as a terrorist, offering as
evidence the blockade of food and medicine to Iraq,
killing half a million or more children just to affect
political leadership.

Offering more global context, the MIM speaker went on
to define the various forms of involvement in other
countries employed by the united states. This includes
both direct colonialism and indirect colonialism or
neo-colonialism. Examples ranged from supporting the
overthrow of democratically elected governments, to
financing and arming militias to undermine popularly
elected governments, to direct military aggression, to
arming and financing puppet governments. We call this
military and economic involvement in other countries,
imperialism—the stage of capitalism characterized by
colonialism and monopoly corporations and the export
of capital abroad for higher profits. Being a good
capitalist corporation means bringing home lots of
profits by setting up shop in countries where wages
are very low, there are no labor laws, no
environmental regulations and natural resources are
there for the taking.

The MIM speaker pointed out that the standard of
living in the united states is significantly higher
than in the Third World because of all these profits
brought home. But MIM believes that all peoples of the
world should be equal. This is called
internationalism. Internationalism is opposed to
racism and national chauvinism. Internationalism is
why we in this country, who benefit from the
exploitation and oppression of people around the
world, have a responsibility to support the just
struggles of peoples around the world for
self-determination. The MIM speaker implored the
audience to think about how they could be
internationalists while listening to the subsequent
presentations on the situation in the Philippines.

Speakers from CHRP outlined the reasons for the u.s.
involvement in the Philippines and the people’s
resistance movement to this colonialism. One speaker
discussed the wealth of natural resources, workers and
military positioning that makes the Philippines
desirable. She also addressed the long history of
lackey governments which signed treaties giving the
u.s. rights to occupy Filipino land and further u.s.
interests. The result of these treaties has been
immense poverty in the Philippines.

The CHRP speakers discussed the National Democratic
movement in the Philippines which is seeking agrarian
reforms, national industrialization, liberation from
foreign domination and changes in leadership in the
government. As the BAYAN speaker pointed out, this is
a protracted struggle, it began 100 years ago and is a
fight for self-determination.

This latest invasion under the pretext of fighting
terrorism is just an excuse to attack the people’s
resistance movement. A CHRP speaker described a
meeting with a member of the Filipino government in
July of 2001 when he admitted the Abu Sayyaf is small
and insignificant. As the BAYAN speaker pointed out,
the u.s. military is not needed to fight 60 bandits.
The only reason this Abu Sayyaf gang has not yet been
defeated is that the corrupt politicians are in
cahoots with them, splitting ransom money from
kidnappings.
There has been a strong response to the recent
invasion of u.s. troops in the Philippines. As one
CHRP speaker explained, the National Democratic
movement includes groups for a broad range of sectors
including churches, scientists, labor, peasants,
youth, and many other people. On January 18th, these
groups organized a lightening rally in Manila to
oppose the u.s. troops in the Philippines.

Since then, a broad new alliance has formed to fight
the latest u.s. invasion. This alliance is called OUT
NOW!. According to a BAYAN press release, "OUT NOW!
comprises about 75 prominent individuals, 54 people's
organizations, three regional coalitions and three
sectoral alliances, making it the biggest assembly of
groups and individuals fighting US military
intervention in Philippine affairs."

As all the speakers stressed, the situation in the
Philippines is urgent. People are dying because of
u.s. imperialism. And this latest invasion could turn
into an outright war of aggression. A war fought
against the people of the Philippines who are
demanding their right to peace, food, shelter,
medicine, education, national culture, territorial
autonomy, and self-determination. The people should
have a right to take up arms in self-defense, and this
is what they have done. The people’s movement in the
Philippines represents the interests of more than 90%
of the people, and it is successful and growing.

We in the united states have a responsibility to
demand that the united states end its imperialist
chokehold on the Philippines.