BAYAN USA pays tribute to Ramsey Clark, staunch anti-imperialist, internationalist, and human rights defender who passed away last Friday in New York City at the age of 93. We pay our respects to the Clark family and send our condolences.
The world has lost a great people’s rights defender in Ramsey Clark, who championed the cause of national liberation and self-determination of nations bearing the violent brunt of US imperialist aggression, even when it was unpopular to do so.
Ramsey was a great friend to the Filipino people’s struggle for genuine national liberation, and spoke out against US puppet fascist governments in the Philippines from that of Ferdinand Marcos to Rodrigo Duterte. During the years of the US-backed regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Ramsey denounced the Bush administration’s declaration of the Philippines as the so-called Second Front to the War on Terror, and the subsequent intensification of US military deployment to the Philippines under the auspices of counter-terrorism operations.
Ramsey also denounced the fascist acts of the Arroyo regime against the Filipino people, including the frequent killings of BAYAN activists under Oplan Bantay Laya and Oplan Bantay Laya 2. Ramsey lent his support as an attorney to the cause of the Filipino people’s movement, including endorsing the Permanent Peoples Tribunal versus Arroyo in 2007 and the International Peoples Tribunal vs Benigno Aquino III in 2015.
Ramsey also openly denounced the arrest and detention of Professor Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and founding chairperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), when the latter was listed along with the CPP and the New People’s Army (NPA) as foreign terrorists by the European Union and the US State Department while in exile in the Netherlands in 2007.
Despite his being a former US attorney general, Ramsey was a vocal critic of US foreign policy, US interventionism, as well as a stalwart voice in the US anti-war movement well into his elderly years.
We will also remember Ramsey as a warm solidarity ally who welcomed BAYAN USA members into his home in New York City and listened intently to our updates on the Filipino people’s struggle.
As US imperialist aggression overseas intensifies under the Biden administration, we hope Ramsey’s example and legacy inspires many more anti-imperialists to emerge from the ranks of the American people.
Mabuhay Ang Diwa ni Ramsey Clark!
US Out of the Philippines! US Out of Asia!
Down with Imperialism!
Long Live International Solidarity!