130 Years of Struggle! Long live the antiimperialist struggle in the Philippines!
On August 26, 1896, a committee chaired by Andrés Bonifacio, a Filipino nationalist leader, was discussing when to launch the armed rebellion against Spanish colonialism. The story goes that Andrés, realizing that the revolution’s leaders were hesitant to launch the armed insurrection, turned to the indigenous and peasant masses.
“What should we do?” Bonifacio asked. “Rebel!” was the people’s response.
This event of great national significance is not a relic of the past, but remains relevant today. For 130 years, the Filipino people have waged an uninterrupted war against their oppressors. First, it was Spanish colonialism that ruled with an iron fist and sought to annihilate the Filipino people, but the armed struggle forced the empire to abandon its colonial holdings in the Pacific.
Unfortunately, that will not be the end of the long struggle for Philippine liberation. Today, it is primarily the United States that supports a series of dictatorial and bloodthirsty governments in the Philippine Islands. Like Spain in the past, which lost its hegemonic position under pressure from the oppressed peoples of every continent, today the United States fights with fire and blood against anti-imperialist rebellions in every country where it imposes its rule.
THE PHILIPPINES TODAY: A STATE IN CRISIS AND DECOMPOSITION
The crisis caused by U.S. imperialism and its war of aggression in Iran has sent prices soaring in the Philippines, exposing a system dependent on imports and foreign debt. The ruling class—the comprador and bureaucratic big bourgeoisie—benefits from deals with foreign companies. Meanwhile, millions of Filipinos working in the Middle East are being forced to return home out of fear of war.
More than 14 million families live in extreme poverty. It is estimated that in the coming months, between 2 and 3 million more will be added to these figures due to inflation. The country lacks domestic production that would make it resilient to shortages, and its oil refining industry grows weaker every year.
Due to the policies of the imperialists, the Philippine economy remains underdeveloped and tied to the interests of foreign monopolies, primarily those of the U.S. For example, the Philippine government pursues an extractivist resource policy that plunders the country’s natural wealth to hand it over to the monopolies. In this way, imperialism obtains minerals, fruits, semiconductors, and other resources.
The country’s foreign debt has reached $99.1 billion, the highest in its history. Meanwhile, the government of Marcos Jr. (son of the bloodthirsty dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos) has lined his family’s pockets through the embezzlement of public funds.Among the government’s standard practices are threats against activists, the deployment of military forces in rural areas, universities, and workplaces, the suppression of any street demonstrations, and kidnappings or disappearances. Most recently, we recall the massacre of 19 people in the Toboso region, including unarmed students and intellectuals.
THE FILIPINO PEOPLE KEEP THE PRESSURE ON IMPERIALISM
After 130 years, the anti-imperialist spirit of the Filipino people remains even stronger. Year after year, a massive popular movement is growing, bringing together workers, peasants, the semi-proletariat, and the petty bourgeoisie… Driven by a burning desire to build a New Democracy, thousands of people are joining the Philippine national liberation movement. The goal? To drive imperialism out of the country. Within this movement, we highlight the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the important role of the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
The NDFP’s crucial task is to unite all the progressive classes of the country in the struggle for its twelve-point program, which includes important issues such as ending semicolonialism and semifeudalism; establishing a People’s Democratic Republic; implementing agrarian reform; securing the rights and self-determination of indigenous communities; and the revolutionary emancipation of women…
In a similar spirit, we in the Spanish Section of the International Anti-Imperialist League (AIL) defend these values for the Philippines and the entire Third World. We are committed to defending the Philippine Revolution. We do not agree with NATO and the European Union’s characterization of Filipino freedom fighters as “terrorists.” Nor do we share the view that the Philippine Revolution is “in decline.” We encourage all genuinely anti-imperialist organizations to show solidarity with it in order to give it greater momentum.
130 years of struggle!
Long live the antiimperialist struggle in the Philippines!
