News Release
May 11, 2012

References:
Bernadette Ellorin, ILPS-US Chapter Organizing Committee, 347-244-8953
Valerie Francisco, ILPS-US Chapter Organizing Committee, 925-726-5768

Global Anti-Imperialist Movement Convenes US Chapter in Chicago vs. NATO Summit

As thousands are expected to descend upon Chicago this May to protest the upcoming NATO Summit, the global formation known as the International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS), with over 350 member organizations from over 40 countries, will convene a US Country Chapter in the midst of this protest. The founding assembly of the US Chapter of the ILPS (ILPS-US) will take place on Saturday, May 19th, 1-5:30 pm at Centro Autonomo located at 3460 West Lawrence Avenue in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago. The said assembly will be followed by Road to Resistance: Art + Culture + Solidarity vs. NATO, a cultural show (8-11pm) at the same location.

Founded in the Netherlands in 2001, the ILPS is a global alliance of organizations, groups, and individuals from around the world actively engaged in peoples struggles along democratic, progressive, pro-people, and anti-imperialist lines. Since its founding, the ILPS has grown into one of the largest global alliances that actively serve as a campaign coordinating and cooperation center against US imperialist war, aggression, and intervention, with membership spanning across 6 continents.

Bill Doares, a member of the International Coordinating Committee says, “May 19, the birthdate of people’s leaders Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh, will see their legacy of anti-imperialism continue through the founding assembly of the US Country Chapter of the International League of Peoples Struggle.”

The decision to hold the US Chapter Founding Assembly in Chicago was made in order to mobilize ILPS member organizations in the US to participate in the major protest demonstration against the NATO Summit taking place on Sunday, May 20th. ILPS is a convener of the Coalition Against NATO & G8 War and Poverty Agenda (CANG8). CANG8 is the main organizer of Sunday’s protest action in downtown Chicago.

“We must join hands and raise fists with people all over the world who are fighting against imperialism. Wall Street gets its wealth and power by plundering people all over the world. Our peoples’ power depends on international solidarity, linking and raising our struggles to fight imperialism, the common enemy of the global 99%. That’s why it’s so important we are launching a US Country Chapter of the League at this time,” said Kuusela Hilo of Los Angeles, a member of ILPS’ International Coordinating Committee.

The League is united by 17 concerns, including fighting war, racism, the rights of workers, women, indigenous people, migrants, farmers, LGBT people, youth, housing, education, medical care and the environment. It’s Fourth International Assembly last July in Manila drew 50 delegates and observers from the United States.

The Chairperson of the ILPS is Prof. Jose Maria Sison, 73, a hero of the people’s struggle in the Philippines. Prof. Sison, recognized political refugee in the Netherlands and founding chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines and chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, was former political prisoner and torture survivor under the US-Marcos dictatorship before his release in 1986.

The founding assembly of the US Chapter of the ILPS (ILPS-US) will take place on Saturday, May 19th, 1-5:30 pm at Centro Autonomo located at 3460 West Lawrence Avenue in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago. The said assembly will be followed by a cultural night, 8-11pm at the same location. For more information about the ILPS or the ILPS-US assembly in Chicago on May 19th, please send an email to the chapter organizing committee at ilps.us.icc@gmail.com ###

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Email: secgen@bayanusa.org

Two-Plus-Two Equals More Little Brown Brothers to Project US Economic Domination in Asia-Pacific
Clinton, Panetta, del Rosario and Gazmin Reaffirm Commitment to the 70 Year Old Mutual Defense Treaty, Announce Plans to Increase US Military Intervention in the Philippines

“Today’s so-called historic Two-Plus-Two talks simply recycled old history in the time of so-called Benevolent Assimilation: the US once again is taking advantage of the Philippines to benefit US imperial interests, and the Cojuangco-Aquino ruling clique is more than willing to bear upon the Filipino people more US military subjugation in order fulfill their role as the Little Brown Brothers, this time to assist in the US government’s anti-China scare campaign,” said Bernadette Ellorin, Chair of the Filipino American alliance BAYAN-USA.

This was the response of BAYAN-USA to pronouncements made by the Secretaries of State and Defense of the US and the Philippines, who met in the first-ever “Two-Plus-Two” ministerial talks in Washington DC today. In a press conference immediately following the meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin announced their commitment to “broaden and deepen” the countries’ relationship, reaffirm commitments made under the US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty, and promote their mutual economic and security interests in the region.

No Mutual Benefits

Calling the MDT the “cornerstone of our defense relationship,” Secretary Panetta pledged the US’s commitment to strengthening the Philippines maritime defenses, including the transfer of another 60’s era US High Endurance Cutter ship this year. He also emphasized continued training, advising and assistance to the Philippine military, and praised the recent completion of the Balikatan exercises. He and Secretary Clinton, however, made carefully-worded statements about “not taking sides” in sovereignty disputes, alluding to the tensions with China over a territorial clash near the Scarborough Shoal in waters believed to be rich in oil and gas.

“There has never been anything mutually beneficial about the MDT,” said Ellorin. “Additional US troops and advisors have always led to more human rights violations and the trampling of Philippine sovereignty. This meeting merely reaffirms the continued one-sided relationship between the US and the Philippines, where the US benefits and the Philippines loses everything. PNoy is pimping Philippine territorial integrity on the cheap– for used military junk and empty promises of US military back-up.”

TPPA: NAFTA on Steroids

Secretary Clinton spoke of the American’s commitment to promoting “unimpeded commerce” in the region, and Secretary del Rosario boasted of increasing bilateral trade, investment, and tourism exchanges between the two countries. Conveniently, the talks took place less than two weeks before international trade ministers of the world’s largest economies and corporate lobbyists meet in Texas from May 8-18 for a trade summit to discuss the new Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (TPPA). Dubbed the “NAFTA of the Pacific,” the TPPA would ensure US economic and political domination in the region, as well as contain super rival China’s emerging economic power and growth. During the press conference, Secretary Clinton stated her hope that the Philippines would join the TPPA and Secretary de Rosario affirmed the Philippine government’s interest in eventually joining the TPPA.

“It is no coincidence that the US is simultaneously pushing both the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the military rebalance to the Asia Pacific region. The TPPA is much bigger than NAFTA since the US is more desperate to contain China’s rivaling economic growth in one of its key trading regions. Some are even calling it NAFTA on steroids. With the Philippines as a reliable military hub, the US hopes to bully the country into projecting its economic and military dominance in the region,” said Ellorin.

More Covert US Counter-Insurgency Operations

The high-level talks also come on the heels of statements made on the CBS television program “60 Minutes” by Jose Rodriguez, former head of CIA clandestine operations and former lead interrogator, who said the “default option of [the Obama] administration has been to kill all prisoners, take no prisoners.”

“Since the modus operandi for the Obama administration seems to be extra-judicial killings and the Philippines military operations are modeled after the 2009 US Counterinsurgency Guide, we shouldn’t be surprised that the body count under PNoy has already climbed to 67 innocent victims. Now the US plans to add more troops and advisors to the more than 600 American marines already indefinitely based in Mindanao. Will the additional US military training and advisors promised by Panetta mean that the extra-judicial killings of political opponents will spike too?” posed Ellorin.

“BAYAN-USA and many labor, faith, youth, women, human rights and peace organizations have demonstrated for years against increased US militarization in the Philippines and the Asia Pacific region. The outcomes of this latest US-GPH meeting will only strengthen the resolve of Filipinos, Filipino Americans and our allies to demand for PNoy to relinquish the Little Brown Brother role once and for all and uphold Philippine national sovereignty against any foreign bully– be it the US or China. Right now, the US is clearly the biggest and most dangerous obstacle to genuine freedom and democracy in the Philippines and must be stopped,” ended Ellorin.

US TROOPS OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES!
JUNK THE MUTUAL DEFENSE TREATY AND VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT!
STOP THE BALIKATAN EXERCISES!
UPHOLD PHILIPPINE SOVEREIGNTY!
LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!

News Statement
April 16, 2012
Reference: Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, BAYAN USA
Email: chair@bayanusa.org

US Intervention, NOT CHINA, is the Greatest Threat to Peace & Security in the Philippines
Filipino-American Alliance Calls Aquino Gov’t to Junk the VFA, Stop Balikatan Exercises

As today marks the formal opening of the 28th US-Philippine Balikatan (Shoulder-to-Shoulder) Exercises in Palawan, Filipino-Americans across the US, under the banner of BAYAN USA, are joined by their American allies in condemning intensifying US military intervention in the Philippines as the greatest threat to peace and security in the country and the Asia-Pacific region.

US is the Real Bully

Contrary to Washington’s line, the Chinese government is not flexing its military might to bully other countries in the region in order to expand its economic interests. It is the US government that fits said description, as US military’s so-called “rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region” is motivated by the Obama administration campaign to push the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a new free trade agreement akin to NAFTA that would ensure US economic and political domination in the region, as well as contain super rival China’s emerging economic power and growth.

Decades of US military presence in the Philippines in the name of peace-keeping and anti-terrorism have proven that it is the US troops, not China, that are guilty of pointing their own guns at Filipino civilians, raping Filipino women and children, patronizing and encouraging sex tours and increased prostitution, polluting and destroying the environment, requiring the massive displacement of rural communities in order to accommodate their military operations, advising and training the same Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) documented and denounced by international human rights organizations as perpetrating gross human rights abuses in the country, not to the least of which is the blatant violation and disrespect to Philippine national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Under Obama, the Philippines is now being used as testing grounds for US drone air strikes, in line with its historical role as a strategic launching pad and fueling station for US military offensives in nearly all of its wars of aggression. The US is also hyping up anti-China sentiment in the region by intervening in regional territorial disputes over the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal, of which China is a stakeholder, clearly aimed at provoking military aggression with the Philippines at the crosshairs.

Hearts and Minds Campaign

Characteristic of this year’s Balikatan Exercises is the so-called focus on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HA/DR), including a Civil-Military Operations (CMO) component that started in March 12 with an engineering program to construct schools and facilities in the most marginalized areas of Palawan. Reminiscent of the same tactics used by the US military campaign to “win the hearts and minds” of the Vietnamese people and gather popular support for direct US military intervention during the Vietnam War, the HA/DR focus of the Balikatan Exercises is actually in line with the 2009 US State Department’s Counter-Insurgency (US COIN) Guide. The said US COIN guide purports the need for a population-centric approach, or low-intensity conflict (LIC), wherein “the margin of victory will be measured in far different terms than the wars of our past. The allegiance, trust, and confidence of populations will be the final arbiters” as stated by US Army General William B. Caldwell IV in the US Army Field Manual on population-centric COIN.

With a strong Philippine movement for sovereignty and democracy gaining ground, including an armed revolutionary movement popular with the country’s poor and explicit in its aim to fundamentally change the current failing system in favor of a self-sufficient system implementing genuine land reform and national industrialization, the US government is driven to apply LIC tactics to win support away from the cause national liberation and keep the Philippines as its most reliable hub for power projection in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. The US government, and its ruling financial oligarchy, is also driven to maintain the Philippines as a valuable export position for vast natural resources and cheap human labor power in the midst of a worsening global economic crisis it is grappling, but failing, to overcome.

NoyNoy’s Bankruptcy Exposed

The US-Aquino regime is becoming increasingly isolated as its promise of change is exposing itself as bankrupt through Aquino’s inaction and “NoyNoying” over crucial domestic matters of public interest requiring attention. At the same time Aquino unflinchingly steps to the plate to bat for Uncle Sam’s quest to rattle his saber in the region under the deceptive line of defending the region against China.

It is obvious that Aquino is desperate to keep enjoying the spoils of US puppetry by continuing US-funded state repression against civilians who criticize his policies and championing the US government’s initial steps toward direct US military intervention in the country in the face of a raging civil war between those wanting to maintain the status quo, and those wanting to change the system and build a brighter future.

It is in this regard that BAYAN USA calls on all in the US who are burdened by the effects of the economic crisis to hold the Obama administration accountable for its maneuvers to invest billions in beefing up it military presence in the Asia-Pacific region through expanding its network of military bases, facilities, operations, and agreements in the region when it could be investing in jobs, education, healthcare, housing, and social services for the American people. We call on all who are against US wars of aggression to demand the Obama administration withdraw its military presence in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific region. We call on all in the US who have been victimized by US counter-insurgency, including COINTELPRO, and the onslaught of repressive legislation criminalizing dissent and curtailing democratic rights to condemn US counter-insurgency in the Philippines, home to the world’s longest-running armed revolution against US imperialism. Lastly, we call on all who are for freedom to stand in solidarity with the Filipino people’s struggle for genuine national sovereignty and democracy, a mass movement so widespread and historical in its challenge to US imperialist power projection in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

US TROOPS OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES
JUNK THE VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT
STOP THE BALIKATAN EXERCISES
UPHOLD PHILIPPINE SOVEREIGNTY
LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

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!

News Statement
February 1, 2012
Reference: Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, BAYAN USA
Email: chair@bayanusa.org

US OUT OF THE PHILIPPINES! US OUT OF ASIA-PACIFIC!– BAYAN USA
Aquino Aligns with US Military Build-Up in Asia-Pacific, a Threat to Peace in the Region

Filipino-Americans across the US, under the banner of BAYAN USA, express condemnation and disgust over the efforts of Philippine President Benigno Simeon “Noy-Noy” Aquino III to accommodate the “new” US defense strategy that entails a so-called “rebalance to Asia”, including an increase in US military presence in the Philippines. BAYAN USA also denounces the US government’s Cold War-style media offensive against economic rival China as a pretext to justify its gross expansion of US military powers in the Asia-Pacific in order to increase US economic, political, and military investments in the region.

Economically-Motivated

Under neoliberalism, the US economy is largely dependent on the Pacific Rim, particularly because of its export position. In 2010, the 21 economies that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum accounted for 61% of US exports ($775 billion) and 37% of private services exports ($205 billion). The US economy’s export position in the region accounts for nearly 5 million US jobs. But for countries such as the Philippines, the US investment and export position is at the heart of deepening crisis and poverty due to lack of sovereign claim to natural resources and territory. In line with their national interests, countries like the Philippines must wage fierce struggles against US interventionism in order to assert their right to chart their own economic and political paths.

With China’s economic growth threatening US dominion over the region, and with Obama’s push for a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement that would outline a US-dominated free trade zone in the region, the US government has announced it will shift its military focus away from Iraq and Afghanistan and renew its commitment to assert it’s position in Asia-Pacific. It has found a reliable stooge in the Aquino government. Recent negotiations framed as a Strategic Dialogue between top Washington security and defense officials and the Aquino administration have laid the ground work for the consolidation of the Philippines as a key US military base location, serving as a permanent staging ground for US military offensives, storage space for surveillance drones, resupply and refueling station for US warships and aircrafts, as well as rest and recreational facility for US servicemen.

In addition to violating Philippine national sovereignty, Aquino’s compliance in accommodating US saber-rattling seeks to undo the 1991 landmark decision of the Philippine Senate to reject the US bases treaty that essentially shutdown permanent US military bases Subic Naval and Clark Air Field, by once again opening these ports for indefinite and “rotational” basing of US troops and throughout the archipelago.

Aquino Positions the Philippines in the Crossfire

Not only does Aquino government reach an all-time high in the barometer of US puppetry with these negotiations, it is aligning the Philippines with a military scheme that will threaten peace in the entire Asia-Pacific region. The US government, driven by its war-dependent economy, is expanding its military presence in Asia-Pacific region under rhetoric of security in the South China Sea and in particular the territorial dispute over the Spratly Islands, when in fact it seeks an excuse to provoke military aggression and create a war-like situation against China that will boost up it military-industrial complex at the expense of the surrounding countries. Such compliance on the Aquino government’s part will surely position the Filipino people in the middle of the crossfire.

Starting with the Philippine-American War of 1899, which marked the advent of US imperialism onto the global stage at the turn of the 20th century, 113 years US geopolitical strategy in region has left the Philippines with a tragic history and ongoing reality of US military infestation whose social costs have burdened its people with untold pain and misery. From hosting the largest US permanent foreign military bases to succumbing to the onerous US-RP Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT)– the mother of all unequal military treaties and agreements– to the virtually permanent Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), over one century of US military presence in the country has been directly linked to the indiscriminate killings, rape and other sexual offenses, massive displacement of rural communities, waste, disease, and other forms of human rights abuses.

Call for Resistance & Solidarity

As Filipinos in the US, BAYAN USA sees concretely 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. Just as the poor grow poorer in the Philippines under Aquino’s failed economic policies, so are working people in the US forced to carry the heavy burden of paying for a debt crisis they did not create. As peoples resistance to the intolerable 1% escalates amidst the crisis, BAYAN USA joins the call for greater solidarity between people in the US struggling against the US military-industrial complex and for economic equality and the Filipino people’s ongoing struggle for genuine national independence and democracy. This must translate to greater efforts to expose and oppose the US geopolitical strategy in the Asia-Pacific region as a scheme of the purveyors of crisis and war to maintain tight control over the region’s wealth. Peoples resistance and firm solidarity are key in our efforts 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!

Portrait of a Freedom Fighter
A Book Launching of the Selected Writings of Jose Maria Sison Vols. 1-4

Monday, February 13, 7-9pm
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen Street (between Stanton and Rivington)
New York, New York 10002
Trains: F/M to 2nd Avenue or J/M/Z to Essex/Delancey Sts.

In the era of Occupy Wall Street, continuing US war and militarization overseas, and the worst global economic crisis in history, the work and writings of Dr. Jose Maria Sison on socialism, imperialist globalization, and peoples movements for national and social liberation prove to stand the test of time in their relevancy, including the 40+ year demonization campaign of US imperialism against him. Despite his listing as a so-called foreign terrorist by the US State Department, Dr. Sison is a well-respected poet, author, lecturer, former political prisoner, anti-imperialist activist, revolutionary and remains actively involved in peoples struggles against US foreign policy and for democracy. He is currently the international chairperson of the International League of Peoples Struggles (ILPS), a global formation of more than 350 organizations from 40 countries promoting, supporting and developing the anti-imperialist struggles of the peoples of the world. Dr. Sison has been living in political exile in the Netherlands for more than 25 years.

The Selected Writings of Jose Maria Sison, Volumes 1-4 is a comprehensive compilation of Sison’s writings on socialism, imperialism, war and plunder, peace, terrorism, and peoples resistance spanning over 40 years, a period of time in which Sison served as fiery young leader in the Philippine revolution.

Sponsored by ILPS NYC Local Organizing Committee and BAYAN USA

ILPS member organizations in the New York City area include Al-Awda NY, Anakbayan New York/New Jersey, Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST), Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE), Frente Unidos de Inmigrantes Ecuatorianos (FUIE), International Action Center, NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP), NY May 1st Coalition, and Philippine Forum.

News Statement
January 2, 2012

Reference: Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, BAYAN USA
Email: chair@bayanusa.org

Filipino-Americans across the US, under the banner of BAYAN USA, and their supporters condemn the last minute moves by President Barack Obama to railroad the signing of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on New Year’s Eve 2011. In one fell swoop, the White House has not only played a key role in the intensification of political repression in the United States and worldwide, it has ruthlessly exposed its true character of being first and foremost a loyal representative of the ruling 1%.

The worsening of the protracted global economic malaise continues as monopoly capitalism’s crisis of overproduction has spawned the crisis of public debt through its scheme of neoliberalism. While neoliberalism, under the guise of “free market capitalism”, has long-forced semi-colonies such as the Philippines and other parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America into chronic debt and abject poverty, it has now erupted mercilessly against working people in advanced capitalist countries such as the US, Canada, and the members of the European Union. Neoliberalism’s financialization of capital has produced an acute debt crisis in the US that has ushered in record-breaking unemployment, under-employment, housing foreclosures, lack of access to food, health care, education, and other social services for working people in order to pay off a debt not of their own making.

Threatened by the upswing of class rage and social unrest over intolerable structural economic and political inequities, as recently exemplified by the resilience of the Occupy Movement, the ruling 1% believes that the authorization of the US military to conduct warrantless arrests and indefinitely detain anyone—including US citizens—on US soil or anywhere in the world under the guise of national security will somehow quell growing dissent in the US and internationally by invoking fear. However, history has continuously proven that oppressed peoples readily shed their fear, even in the midst of the state’s repressive apparatus, to fight for the basic right to livelihood and dignity amidst a crisis created by monopoly capitalism, or the over-concentration of the world’s wealth in the hands of a minority elite determined to maintain its hegemonic control.

Amidst human suffering, the ruling financial oligarchy continues to tow the lie that it can recover from the crisis by siphoning trillions in public funds to bail out big banks and financial firms to stimulate economic growth, thereby justifying back-breaking budget cuts and austerity measures on working families. In order to seize control of overseas markets and cheap raw materials, the ruling 1% must act through its lackeys in Washington to beef up its military industrial complex by throwing in more public funds to wage endless overt wars of aggression, proxy wars, covert counter-insurgency operations, militarization, and other forms of intervention abroad. In fact, the NDAA was signed as part of a defense spending bill that would allocate over $600 billion more in US tax dollars towards the country’s war machine, now granting it unlimited powers to act domestically. This includes targeting US activists who express solidarity for national liberation struggles abroad against US intervention, as well as support for governments asserting national sovereignty.

The Filipino people got a taste of abusive expansion of military powers, warrantless arrests, and indefinite detentions during the period of martial law under the former dictatorship of US puppet Ferdinand Marcos. But not even martial law, including the illegal detention and torture of thousands of dissidents throughout the Philippines, could stop a growing and fearless peoples movement for democracy and human rights that was decisive in ousting the Marcos dictatorship, reviving civil liberties, and opening democratic space in the country. It was through the people’s fight against US-directed fascist dictatorship in the Philippines that BAYAN Philippines was born in 1985.

It is expected that the minority of monopoly capitalists, in order to survive the very crisis it created and prolong its inevitable demise, will consolidate itself to concoct schemes of political repression to subdue peoples resistance. But this tiny and fragmented front of monopoly capitalists is no match for the broadening united front of oppressed peoples around the world engaged in class struggle for a better alternative. The NDAA and all other forms of repressive legislation will not succeed in quelling the righteousness of dissent for as the long as the global crisis continues . BAYAN USA proudly links arms with working people in the US to build a movement through education, organization, and mobilization that will defeat the NDAA and all other assaults on democracy, human rights, and civil liberties. ###

News Statement
December 23, 2011
 
Reference- Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, BAYAN USA, email: chair@bayanusa.org
 
Fil-Ams to Palparan– Surrender & Face the Law
Arrest Order Turned Manhunt Against Palparan is a Result of Filipino People’s Struggle for Human Rights
 
The recent failed attempt of former Philippine military leader Jovito Palparan to flee the Philippines for Singapore turned all-out manhunt to arrest the retired major general who remains in hiding is not only a clear admission of guilt for the heinous crimes committed against scores of innocent civilians under the former Arroyo administration, but a product of arduous, continuous peoples struggle for the recognition and respect of human rights against an impotent justice system wallowing in a culture of impunity. Filipino-Americans in the US, under the banner of BAYAN USA, and their supporters echo the call for Jovito Palparan to immediately surrender himself to the state authorities and face the law.
 
“Palparan is responsible for hundreds of cases of human rights violations including the enforced disappearance and torture of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno. These are crimes of such heinous nature that he should not be granted any leniency and be immediately arrested and jailed along with his men,” states BAYAN USA founding member Melissa Roxas, a community health worker from the US who traveled to the Philippines and survived violent abduction and torture by Philippine military elements in 2009, in response to the news of the manhunt for Palparan.
 
Before his stint as a Philippine Congressman representing the Bantay Party-List, Palparan was a decorated military general under the former Arroyo administration. He was notoriously known as “Berdugo” (the Butcher) by human rights groups and their supporters for the lead role he played in crafting one of the bloodiest counter-insurgency campaigns in the country’s history– Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL)– with the blessing and support of Washington and tens of millions of dollars annually in US military aid. According to human rights group Karapatan, nine years of OBL under the Arroyo government claimed 1,206 civilian lives through extrajudicial killings and another 206 in enforced disappearances. Justice for the victims remains painfully absent as an overwhelming majority of these cases are unresolved and the perpetrators still at large. Families of the victims still have to contend with a justice system that grants the Philippine military as well as private armies of corrupt politicians a free pass to terrorize civilians, particularly open critics of the government, in order to quell dissent and protect the interests of a ruling landlord bureaucracy.
 
Against this current, it is principally the unflinching perseverance of the victims and their families, along with human rights advocates such as Karapatan, the peoples’ organizations under BAYAN Philippines, churches, lawyers, and progressive partylists to gather evidence and file cases in the domestic and international courts, reach out to human rights groups abroad to shape broad worldwide solidarity against impunity, and build a strong, dynamic people’s movement for human rights and for justice. Nearly a decade later, the fruits of this labor are beginning to appear with the issuance of an arrest order by the Regional Trial Court in Bulacan against Palparan and 3 co-accused in the 2006 dual abduction of University of the Philippines students Cadapan and Empeno.
 
BAYAN USA and its supporters welcome the recent and uncharacteristic turn of the Philippine state authorities to pursue an arrest of Palparan and his cohorts, following the arrest of his former commander-in-chief Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for electoral sabotage. But there remains no reason to assume the struggle for human rights can rest. Now more than ever, the people must stay vigilant in their pressure to the current Aquino administration to exact the full extent of the law on Palparan and his co-accused and ensure due payment for their crimes. This is but a fraction of what the victims and their families truly deserve.
 
“The families have suffered so much and the Philippine government has done very little to help them,” Roxas adds. “The burden has been upon the families, human rights defenders, and people’s organizations to pursue justice.  Finally there is an issue of warrant for Palparan’s arrest.  But as long as Palparan is still at large, trying to evade the law, as long as Sherlyn and Karen still remain missing, the fight for justice will continue.” ###

For Immediate Release
December 2, 2011

Media Contact: Michael Viola
Philippine-United States Solidarity Organization (PUSO)
viola.michael@gmail.com

Seattle, WA – Marie Hilao-Enriquez, chairperson of the Philippines-based human rights coalition Karapatan will be in Seattle on December 10 to commemorate International Human Rights Day. Marie will share her own personal story as a survivor of state-sponsored crackdown on human rights, as well as provide an update of the current situation of human rights abuses in the Philippines. Marie will be speaking at the University of Washington on December 9 and the Filipino Community Center (FCC) in South Seattle on December 10.

Marie is a leading advocate for human rights in the Philippines. When Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972, his regime specifically targeted youth activists for their role in questioning the unjust policies of the U.S.-supported Philippine dictator. Marie was a political prisoner and was able to escape. However, authorities captured, tortured, and killed her sister, Liliosa. Her sister’s unjust death steered Marie in the ongoing struggle for human rights and to seek justice for the families and victims of state-sponsored torture and extrajudicial killings. As chairperson of Karapatan (which translates to “justice” in the Filipino language), Marie helps document cases of human rights violations perpetrated by the armed forces and paramilitary units, assists the victims and their relatives in seeking justice, and exposes the present government for the more than 1,000 victims of extra-judicial killings.

“It is a huge honor to welcome such a celebrated human rights crusader to Seattle. She has a remarkable story of organizing against the Marcos dictatorship and a sharp analysis of the current human rights situation in the Philippines.” says Joaquin Uy from the Philippine-U.S. Solidarity Organization (PUSO), the community-based group organizing Marie’s talks. “Her presentation is especially timely in offering a global reference point for the Occupy events taking place in New York, Seattle, and in other U.S. cities.”

Marie will be speaking about Karapatan’s annual human rights report under the current Philippine presidency and sharing her unique perspective on the Occupy movements sweeping the nation and the world. Her talk is meant to commemorate International Human Rights Day. On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has become a universal standard for defending and promoting human rights. Every year on December 10, Human Rights Day marks the adoption of the Universal Declaration. Governments and nonprofit organizations all over the world celebrate this day’s declaration that “All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms.”###

Friday, December 9, 2011 at 4pm
University of Washington Campus at the Communications Building, Room 226 (CMU 226) by the Padelford Parking Garage
Admission: Free
Extras: Cultural performance and light snacks provided

Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 6:30pm
Filipino Community Center of Seattle, 5740 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S, Seattle, WA 98118
Admission: Sliding scale donation $5-$12. No one turned away for lack of funds.

All proceeds support political prisoners and the struggle for human rights in the Philippines.

PUSO (Philippine-U.S. Solidarity Organization) translates as “heart” in Filipino is a grassroots organization based in Seattle. We organize to improve the human rights situation and to support lasting peace in the Philippines. To this end, PUSO builds solidarity between the people of the Philippines and the U.S.