Statement of BAYAN-USA on May Day 2010

The recent passage of reactionary and anti-people legislation in Arizona coupled with the pending Schumer-Graham Immigration Reform Bill in Congress illustrates the US immigration system’s continuing assault on civil liberties, human rights, and drive to undo the hard-won gains of the Civil Rights Movement. Both pieces of legislation breathe new life back to the defeated Sensenbrenner hate bill of 2005, posing a clear threat to both the documented and undocumented alike, and underscoring the need for unity in struggle, especially in lieu of divide-and-conquer tactics being waged by the proponents of SB 1070 and Schumer-Graham.

Arizona’s SB1070 pulls the hood off of the racist core of current immigration reform proposals and parades their hateful tactics out in the open. By criminalizing undocumented immigrants, legalizing racial profiling, and imposing militarist law enforcement, SB 1070 seeks to test out elements of Schumer-Graham and initiate a dangerous pattern of implementing it by way of state-by-state enactment. This devious approach charts a path towards the “Sensenbrenner”-ization of US immigration policy regardless of Congressional will, voter approval, or the people’s widespread demand for legalization.

Both SB 1070 and the Schumer-Graham Bill bank on the falsehood that fundamental problem with today’s immigration system is the presence of illegal immigrants, undesirable beings who not only burden to society, but also threaten national security. By addressing immigration as primarily a security issue and not a socio-economic one, the US government is automatically starts from an incorrect framework. By dichotomizing legal immigrants as good and undocumented immigrants as bad, the US government– by way of its immigration system– whips up hatred, racism, and anti-terrorist hysteria in order to justify passing off criminalization and militarized law enforcement as comprehensive immigration reform.

SB 1070 and Schumer-Graham prove that the current laws, not the presence of illegal immigrants, are the real threat to national security. Schumer-Graham’s so-called “four pillars for immigration reform” are built on a minefield of scapegoating immigrants for society’s ills, exploitation, and exclusion. It pushes a national ID system that blatantly violates basic civil liberties, privacy rights, and constitutional guarantees; the unfair and unjust criminalization of undocumented immigrants; the implementation of a temporary worker program that will embolden illegal recruitment and worker exploitation; and increased border security that will lead to thousands of more innocent deaths of men, women, and children in search of better lives at the extreme cost of US taxpayers.

Such a plan is inherently destined to fail because it does not recognize nor address the real problem– that massive migration to the US is a direct result of deepening global poverty and joblessness caused by neoliberalism. Like many other client-states to neoliberalism, the Philippines hosts a domestic economy starved, denationalized and oriented to rely on the aggressive export of cheap, surplus labor to rich countries like the US to keep afloat.

As the world’s foremost proponent of neoliberalism and since the formal abolition of slavery, the US government has maneuvered foreign labor importation in service of the interest of big business to maximize profitability by building an underclass of cheap, desperate, and willing workers. By sowing fear in immigrant labor with reactionary immigration laws, big business is assured it can continue to drive down wages and forego labor standards when employing immigrant workers. It is a fact that immigrant workers contribute richly to the US economy by providing high quality labor and paying billions in taxes, even though undocumented workers are exploited and get nothing in return.

Moreover, the proponents of Schumer-Graham across the country have waged an offensive against the genuine mass movement for legalization and humane immigration reform by maliciously dividing immigrant rights coalitions across the country in an attempt to co-opt, isolate and mute-out the growing anti-Schumer-Graham Bill movement. But even with the ruling elite’s money in their pockets, these opportunist efforts ring hollow and will fail without the support of the people.The only way to fight divide and conquer is by waging the broadest and firmest unity in struggle.

This International Workers Day and beyond, Filipinos will take to the streets across the country to stand in solidarity will all other immigrants in US in demanding an immediate repeal of SB 1070 and call on state governments to not follow suit with passing similar state legislation. As the second largest Asian immigrant community in the US, numbering up to 4 million, including at least 1 million who are undocumented, Filipinos will surely be targets of hate and abuse if the pillars of Schumer-Graham are implemented. Vigilance against SB 1070 and Schumer-Graham must start with the struggle for unity. In addition, the struggle for full legalization for the over 12 million undocumented immigrants presently in the country and for the swift reunification of families broken by forced migration must also be advanced in contrast to the deceptively-vague rhetoric from the Obama administration for so-called comprehensive immigration reform. As victims of over 100 years of immigration legislation patterned on xenophobia and exclusion, Filipinos call for US humane immigration reform that is just, pro-people, inclusive, and values the contributions of all immigrants.

REPEAL SB 1070 IN ARIZONA! NO TO THE SCHUMER-GRAHAM IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL! LEGALIZATION NOT DEPORTATION! STOP DIVIDING FAMILIES! FAMILY REUNIFICATION NOW! IMMIGRANT RIGHTS ARE WORKERS RIGHTS!

April 24, 2010

Reference: Kuusela Hilo, Vice Chair of BAYAN-USA, (818) 395-9207, vc@bayanusa.org

Daya Mortel, Southwest Regional Coordinator, sc@bayanusa.org

Through Performance, Students and Community Members Call for

Clean and Fair Elections and an End to Oplan Bantay Laya in the Philippines

University of California, Los Angeles – Community members and students called for clean and fair elections in the Philippines and an end to human rights violations with two events on campus–Fowler Out Loud and Power in Numbers.  AnakBayan Los Angeles, Habi Arts, and Sisters of GABRIELA, Awaken (SiGAw), all member organizations of BAYAN USA, collaborated with students Diane Valencia, Lorenzo Perillo, and student groups Samahang Pilipino and members of PAGaSA to present an evening of performance.

During Fowler Out Loud, SiGAw performed excerpts from their show Pasanin Mo Pasanin Ko: Bridging the Struggle of Filipinas. Members addressed the issue of violence against women through narratives, poems, and song.  Terrie Cervas, SiGAw member and Vice Chair of GABRIELA-USA, stated, “Here in the US, Filipinas face multiple forms of violence, such as rape, discrimination, sexual harassment and more.  Filipinas back home face similar forms of violence and they also suffer under the violence perpetrated by the government.  Over 200 women have fallen as victims to the human rights violations committed by the administration of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA).  It’s because of the repressive government and depressed economy that over 3,000 Filipinos leave the country everyday, majority of whom are women.”

UCLA students similarly explored the issues of human rights injustices through dance at workshops conducted with Habi Arts co-founding member and Filipina-American torture survivor Melissa Roxas.  The workshops resulted in a collaborative piece with Melissa, choreographers Lorenzo and Nico, and UCLA dancers.  The final performance presented was a movement piece that expressed the profound effect of human rights violations on individuals and the community.  The dance was accompanied by narration and projected images of victims of human rights violations in the Philippines.  Roxas stated, “our aim of the collaborative piece was to speak about human rights injustices by pushing the boundaries of traditional dance.  For many of the students, this was the first time that they were learning about the human rights situation in the Philippines and it was also the first time they were learning to dance and move beyond the confines of traditional dance.  I was told by the dancers that they were profoundly moved by the whole process.  It also provided an opening for what I hope will be a continuing conversation about the human rights situation in the Philippines.”

The Fowler Out Loud event ended with a People’s March, with audience members and performers chanting and marching along a path marked by signs exposing election related fraud and violence in the Philippines.  People poured into Moore hall, the venue for Power in Numbers. BAYAN-USA organized Power in Numbers as a national concert tour, aimed to build awareness and opposition to the election related violence that has intensified with the approaching May 10 elections in the Philippines.  Organizers also called on audience members to spread the word and get out the vote for progressive partylists and senatorial candidates, such as Liza Maza, Satur Ocampo, Anakpawis, GABRIELA Women’s Partylist, and Kabataan Partylist.

The Los Angeles leg of the Power in Numbers concert featured the talents of musicians E.K.H, K.See, Divine Daughters, Shining Sons, L.U.V, and DJs ET and Em-One. The event also featured the UCLA premiere screening of “Sounds of a New Hope,” a documentary film by UCLA alumnus Eric Tandoc.  The film chronicles the life of Filipino-American MC Kiwi and the growing use of hip-hop as an organizing tool in the people’s movement for national liberation and democracy in the Philippines.

AnakBayan Los Angeles member, Nikole Cababa stated, “The Los Angeles concert was held at UCLA to inspire students and the local community to put international pressure on the Philippine government to conduct fair elections and refrain from using violence to suppress democratic rights.”

GMA’s administration has received widespread criticism for rampant human rights violations from the international community, which recently included groups such as the World Council of Churches. Investigations by UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston have linked enforced disappearances, torture, and other gross human rights violations to the Philippine military, with no persecution of the perpetrators by the GMA administration. The Armed Forces of the Philippines has implemented Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL), a counter-insurgency program that the government touts will defeat the armed revolutionary movement by 2010.  In reality, OBL stands as the Philippine government’s bloodiest and most vicious counter-insurgency program to date, targeting both the revolutionary armed struggle and the legal democratic movement.

Currently the Philippine government receives the largest amount of US military aid in Asia. BAYAN-USA has initiated a campaign, calling for the end of U.S. military aid to the Philippines.  During thePower in Numbers concert, audience members signed postcards in support of the campaign, which call to uphold human rights and democracy.  The postcards will be delivered to Congressman Howard Berman, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.  BAYAN-USA calls on all concerned community members to support the campaign and urge Congressman Berman to end military aid to the Philippines. More information can be obtained by contactinginfo@bayanusa.org.

STOP THE KILLINGS!

END OPLAN BANTAY LAYA!

END U.S. MILITARY AID TO THE PHILIPPINES!

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April 23, 2010

Reference: Claudia Alexandra Paras

Pinay sa Seattle-GABRIELA USA Chair

pinayinfo@gmail.com/206.859.7525

Pinay sa Seattle Celebrated Earth Day, Connecting Land, Life and Building Sustainable Communities

Seattle, WA. On April 22nd, members and allies of Pinay sa Seattle-GABRIELA USA attended an urban farm tour with 2 Brown Chicks Family Farm in Skyway. This event was a celebration of Earth Day and served as an opportunity to increase community consciousness of third world organizing and sustainable living.

In 2006, the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University released a study on personal wealth. It documented that the wealthiest one percent of the world owned 40% of the global wealth as of 2000. This was in stark comparison to the poorest 50% of the population who owned less than one percent. Given these realities and the vast inequities in our world, sustainable living is not just a trend, but becoming a necessary step towards advancing equality in our global resources.

Boo Torres and Joanne Alcantara, owners of 2 Brown Chicks Family Farm, shared their vision during their tour stating, “We wanted to create an urban farm that people could replicate and see doing for themselves. We come from third world values, using resources wisely and creating profits that can be used for community work and movement building.”

During the tour, members of Pinay sa Seattle-GABRIELA USA, the Philippine-US Solidarity Organization (PUSO) and Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites (CARW) learned about rain harvesting, raising city chickens and organic food production. Chera Amlag, member of PUSO, stated, “I came to learn about raising chickens. I believe that we need to get more connected with where our food comes from. As we advocate for the farmers, workers and people of the Philippines, it is important that we too have a sense of the seasons and the struggles that they have in feeding and caring for their families.”

###

This past weekend we were able to attend the 16th Annual Northwest Filipino American Student Alliance Conference at Portland State University. We had a great time presenting a workshop, screening a video update of AnakBayan Seattle, performing a cultural and kickin’ it on a boat!

The following videos are footage of our Cultural Show and Organization Video that we shared with the NWFASA Conference. Enjoy!

watch?v=kB9WLtQoVUs

watch?v=kT47D4_cd38

Reference:
Raquel Redondiez, Chair of GABRIELA USA
gabrielawomen@gmail.com

GABRIELA USA Celebrates First Year Anniversary Launching National IVOW Campaign

Hosts Gabriela Women’s Partylist Nominee, Emmi De Jesus in New York

New York, NY—One year ago, four organizations: BABAE San Francisco, Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE) New York, Pinay Sa Seattle and Sisters of Gabriela Awaken (SiGAw) Los Angeles came together to establish an overseas chapter of GABRIELA Philippines—the largest progressive women’s alliance in the Philippines. With the depreciating conditions of the Philippine economy and neoliberal political leadership under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, migrants, largely women, have been exiting the Philippines at an alarming rate. This is the impetus for establishing progressive women’s organizing outside of the Philippines. GABRIELA USA was a landmark formation that reflected the quickly changing conditions of the Filipino people with a stern and militant resistance from Filipino women in the diaspora.

One of the major efforts of GABRIELA USA this year was to launch the national IVOW campaign- a comprehensive campaign that addresses violence against women (VAW) as issues of sex trafficking and prostitution, domestic violence, rape, incest, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, sexual discrimination and exploitation, limited access to reproductive health care, and violence as a result of political repression. The campaign, which launched in February 2010, urges people to take a stand and commit to ending violence against women. GABRIELA USA asserts that violence against women is becoming varied in its forms, inflicted by numerous perpetrators from intimate partners, family members to limited access to basic needs of the family and state violence. Under this banner, GABRIELA USA invites communities to acknowledge the inequalities in the lives of women and children as violence to then stand against the problems that are slowing women’s advancement.

In New York, FiRE has accumulated more than 700 signatures and photos of people from all nationalities, class backgrounds, genders and sexual orientations that have vowed to end VAW. FiRE members have traveled up and down the Eastern seaboard to educate Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike about VAW. This past year, FiRE has also strengthened their ties in supporting KABALIKAT Domestic Workers Support Network by organizing different cultural projects and a research project about the conditions of Filipino domestics in NYC. FiRE has seen an impressive growth in membership and will be looking towards building a strong and united Filipino sisterhood against imperialism and VAW.

In San Francisco, BABAE celebrated 5 years of political organizing and carried the iVOW campaign with fervor at their event. Along with college workshops, forums and conferences, they have enlisted several organizations including Kappa Psi Epsilon to the campaign and will continue to spread the word at the upcoming SF Walk Against Rape. BABAE members created, produced and performed their first full theater show that addressed issues of domestic violence, a culture of silence and family dynamics in the Filipino community. BABAE has increase 80% since the formation of GABRIELA USA and look towards building stronger ties to the LGBTQ community there.

Pinay sa Seattle launched the IVOW campaign on Februrary 19, 2010 with with a cultural show also titled IVOW that partnered with Cambodian and Japanese progressive organizations on the themes of violence against women. Audience members participated in the IVOW campaign by writing their vow to end violence against women. The show was a success with over 100 people in attendance and requests that the show be done again. For International Women’s Day, Pinay participated and helped plan a city-wide IWD march that was held on March 6 where women and community members marched with IVOW placards that addressed pressing issues affecting women and children.

Sisters of Gabriela, Awaken (SiGAw), the newest of the four GABRIELA USA member organizations, has also taken strides to expand the Filipino women’s movement in Los Angeles. In the past year, they launched their campaign through internally studying the VAW orientation and collecting photo vows of allies and members. They have conducted interviews with a handful of migrant and working class pinays about their migration experiences and VAW to understand the local manifestations of the campaign in their community. SiGAw has steadily held writing workshops, with help from Professors Lucy Burns and Michelle Cruz Skinner, as well as Melissa Roxas. Roxas is a FilAm activist who survived torture and abduction in the Philippines. SiGAw’s writing resulted in a cumulative show called Diwang Pinay. Its theme was focused on Filipinas migrations stories and their experiences of various forms of violence,  highlighting the violence committed against women in the Morong 43, a group of healthcare workers in the Philippines who are illegally arrested and detained.

GABRIELA USA’s next major efforts will be to organize and mobilize women organizations from different backgrounds and communities to attend the Montreal International Women’s Conference (MIWC) to confer about strategies and issues that can usher in a “Global Militant Women’s Movement in the 21st Century.” Also, GABRIELA USA will join the broad movement to pressure the Obama administration for comprehensive immigration reform with legalization for all.

The need for Filipino women’s organizing continues to be necessary with elections drawing near in the Philippines. Pre-election violence has already risen with the Maguindanao Massacre in Mindanao and continuing human rights violations. As the Philippines looks forward to the end of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s presidential term, Filipino women must come together to demand genuine leaders and government representation from the most oppressed classes. In this spirit, GABRIELA USA fully supports the upcoming candidates for the GABRIELA Women’s Partylist, including Emmi de Jesus and urges all migrants abroad with Philippine citizenship to vote for pro-people candidates.

With the economic crisis steadily worsening, GABRIELA USA commits to the ongoing struggles of Filipino women in the US, especially those who are bearing the brunt of unemployment, lack of access to social services, anti-immigrant policy and discrimination. GABRIELA USA looks forward to building solidarity with other women’s struggles and movements in the US and around the world, in hopes of unity between all working women. We vow to fight violence against women in its various forms. One year of women’s organizing in the US has taught us many lessons, one of which is the relentless punishment of capitalism and imperialism, which gives us strength to stand together to to expand and grow to challenge those problems.

Unite to Fight Violence Against Women!
Vote for GABRIELA Women’s Partylist!
End U.S. Imperialism Now!

###

For Immediate Release
Contact: Raquel Redondiez, GABRIELA USA Chair,gabrielawomen@gmail.com,
415-244-9734

In Solidarity with  Women Worldwide, GABRIELA USA Launches iVOW on the
Centennial of International Working Women’s Day
Voices of Women against Violence Against Women (VAW) to Address
Culture of Silence on VAW within the Filipino Community

On March 6, 2010, GABRIELA USA participated in the World March of Women, joining women from over fifty countries to stand for women’s rights. In the Philippines, over 200 women’s organizations are mobilizing with GABRIELA, sacrificing a day’s wages to demand human rights and a pro-people women’s voice in government.  The calls for the World March of Women are resisting poverty, militarization and violence against women. GABRIELA USA, an alliance of Filipino women’s organizations in the United States, marched with women around the world to call for all communities to take a vow to fight violence against women and children.
In the Philippines, poverty and lack of job opportunities has forced 10% of the population to work abroad in temporary jobs with no security, as undocumented workers or as permanent migrants. The vast majority of them are women who are forced to leave the country despite the increasing number of cases of abuse, maltreatment and mysterious deaths of Filipino women migrants in other countries.

In the 9 years of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration, state violence has been a main feature on top of the many problems that plague Filipino women. In February 2010, 43 health care workers, 26 of whom are women including a doctor, nurse, midwife, and two pregnant women, were illegally arrested and continue to be illegally detained and tortured. Most of the health care workers volunteer to serve communities with no access to health care due to the high rates of export of the nation’s migrant health care workers. Women usually carry this responsibility and responded to this need by volunteering their time. Clearly, GMA’s administration takes no note of the rising need for health care and of the women responding to this need.

In the US, the reach of the economic crisis affects not only women’s worsening work conditions, or skyrocketing unemployment and financial instability, but is also seen in the exacerbation of domestic violence. Recent studies show rising stress over economic problems resulting in rising rates in reported domestic violence cases. Simultaneously, the budgets for domestic violence services and shelters are being cut back, most notably in California where statewide funds have been completely withdrawn. The attack on women is three fold, in their workplaces, their homes and even by the state.

To respond to these conditions, GABRIELA USA has launched a campaign called Voices Of Women to Fight Violence Against Women. The campaign mobilizes women and men alike to stand up for women’s rights to jobs, reproductive rights, safety, access to health care and education, and self-determination. In a nationwide educational effort, GABRIELA USA organizations in New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles have already initiated community discussions and forums to move communities to sign on. To take a vow to fight violence against women and get involved in this campaign, contact gabrielawomen@gmail.com.

No to Violence Against Women and Children!
Free the 43 Health Workers in the Philippines!
US Troops Out Now!

###

Various students and youth belonging to the ANAKBAYAN Philippines (Sons and Daughters of the People), League of Filipino Students and Student Christian Movement of the Philippines, together with the National Union of Students of the
Philippines and College Editors Guild of the Philippines,  join in solidarity with the students, youth and education sector across the
United States of America in the March 4 Nationwide Day of Action to
Defend Education. The picture is clear everywhere. It is
the people who bear the brunt of rescuing big capitalists in this
great recession, with the increasing slash on social welfare funding
including education.

In the US, the anti-students and
anti-people policies like the policy of 32% tuition hike passed by
the University of California Board of Regents last November 2009
deserve the strongest condemnation of the youth. Most affected also
are the peoples of color and the students from working families who
are still struggling with their outstanding mortgages.

Similar cases of tuition hikes have
also been experienced in other states, all blaming cutbacks in
government funding.

Last year students, workers and faculty
in the State University of New York (SUNY) and City University of New
York (CUNY) also militantly defied Governor Paterson’s ill-willed
proposal of $698 million education budget slash which were to
directly effect a raise in tuition fee for SUNY up to $620/school
year, $600 for CUNY and $400 for community colleges.

In Europe too last November, there had
been massive workers-supported students strikes like the mobilization
of about 250,000 all across Germany in the clamor against the
introduction of tuition increases and curriculum revisions.

Students in Austria and even in
Scandanavian countries decried the bail-out for the banks and held
walk-outs and “university occupations” in resistance to the
European Union’s Bologna process  which is to drive education more to
serve imperialism.

Student movements in Asia Pacific
especially in Indonesia, India and Korea had also agitated  against
the worsening condition of the youth with the state abandonment of
education.

We therefore commend our fellow youth
and students in California, New York City and throughout the US for
their courage to stand up inside the “belly of the beast”.

Cut-backs on state funding is
abandonment of government’s responsibility and an outright attack to
the people’s most basic right to education. It paves way to tuition
and exorbitant fee increases, academic staff lay-off, cramped up
rooms, and a host of other infringement as commercialized regime on
education is imposed in various levels.

To delude the public, the government
use as an excuse the “nominal increase” in education funding
which is always lopsided and unproportional to number of new
entrants.  The more obsene is the use of the  argument that higher
education is no longer a right and therefore with the use of the
“globalization mantra” everyone is urged to pay for their
education. Education is a commodity with a price-tag.

In the Philippines, the myth of the
“liberal education” instituted from the American direct
colonialism in our country up to current regime, is unmasked as an
ensuing and worsening education in crisis that is colonial,
commercialized and fascist in character.

The global recession only further worsened
the Philippine education sector for in truth, the  current Arroyo
regime has been ruthlessly attacking our basic right and with all
servility imposes the policies of imperialist globalization that has
led to worsened commercialization of education. In the tertiary level
from 2001-2008 alone, the Arroyo regime presided over the 70%
increase of the  national average tuition and an allotment of measly
1.8% of GDP given to the entire education budget, pathetically way
below the international standard and among the lowest in the world.
This attack is done side by side the enriching of international
usurers as the government favors foreign debt servicing and
militarization in the annual national budget.

What happens to the youth who cannot
continue their education? They are added to the battalions of reserve
labor force or unemployed or join the cheap semi-skilled work-force
who are most exploited  in times of capitalist crisis.

Faced with such attacks on our
fundamental rights, we have no other option but to fight back. This
is a lesson we have learned through decades of fearless struggle, and
a lesson we will continue to uphold until we are victorious.

Once again, we Filipino youth raise our
fists in solidarity with you in the continuing struggle to end the
foreboding annual budget cuts and tuition increases. We must join our
hands in resisting the onslaught of imperialism against our education
and the youth’s future.

Education is a right, not a
privilege!
Long live international
solidarity!