Fight to Attain a Bright Future

Greetings of Solidarity to the National Federation of Labor Unions-KMU,
July 25, 2012

On behalf of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle I greet and join the National Federation of Labor Unions (NAFLU)-KMU on its 55th anniversary and National Convention on July 25-27. I have always felt close to your federation since my association with the late Ka Bert Olalia in the Workers’ Party, the Malayang Samahan ng mga Magsasaka (Free Peasants’ Association), the Socialist Party of the Philippines and the mass protest actions in the 1960s.

I also associated with Ka Lando in important KMU activities and in the preparation and establishment of Partido ng Bayan (People’s Party) in 1986. He became chairman of the party until he was abducted, tortured and killed during the first Aquino regime. For a long time, I have been following the brilliant record of NAFLU. I am glad that NAFLU is among the ILPS member organizations.

I salute the leaders and members of NAFLU for their victories in the labor movement and the Filipino people’s national democratic movement. Your convention is an opportunity to sum up your experience, draw lessons and define the tasks to further raise your spirit to struggle for the rights and interests of workers and to further strengthen your organization and capability to mobilize members and allies.

I agree and support your goals set forth by the theme of your convention: Oppose labor contractualization, boldly expand and strengthen your ranks! Further advance the struggle for substantial wage increases, national industrialization and genuine land reform!

The workers and the people now suffer extreme difficulties. Unemployment is widespread and dismissals continue. Contractualization is imposed on those who are still employed or are getting employed. Wages are extremely low and far from the level of adequate and decent living. At the same time, prices of basic goods and services needed by the working people ceaselessly rise.

You must arouse, organize and mobilize the workers to oppose the painful and intensifying exploitation and to assert their own rights and those of the entire people. You must denounce and fight the foreign monopoly capitalists and their big comprador and landlord cohorts. Only when these are defeated can true freedom and prosperity be achieved through national industrialization and land reform.

It is in the nature of the imperialists and the local exploitative classes to exploit the working classes and generate economic crisis. However, the neoliberal policy has further accelerated and intensified exploitation of the working masses. It has imposed flexibilization and contractualization of labor, liberalization of trade and investment, privatization of state enterprises and resources, deregulation against workers, children, women and the environment and denationalization of the economy.

The evil consequences of neoliberalism are not only worse exploitation, unemployment, poverty and continuing economic backwardness but also intensification of oppression through state violence and terrorism to suppress non-armed mass protest actions and the armed struggle that has grown stronger due to incessant exploitation and oppression.

Our struggle become more effective, strong and militant when we know the forces that exploit and oppress the workers and the broad masses of the people. The Aquino regime is a puppet of the imperialists and the chief representative of the big compradors and landlords. We must fight and overthrow this regime towards weakening and overthrowing the entire semicolonial and semifeudal system.

I am confident that your convention will bear a General Program of Action and resolutions responding to the conditions of the workers and the country; and advancing the objectives and goals of your federation, the working class and the Filipino people. Elect to your leadership genuine leaders of the workers—who in practice are the bravest, strongest, most persistent and most effective. Beforehand, I extend my congratulations to those whom you will elect.

NAFLU-KMU must fight for the immediate needs of the workers and the people. At the same time, you must perform the long-term task of fighting to attain a bright future for the people—national independence, genuine democracy, social justice, national industrialization and land reform, and strong solidarity with the peoples of the world.

In the long run, we shall achieve socialism, a just society led by the working class. This was the dream and desire of Ka Lando and Ka Bert that the Filipino working classes and people must achieve, following the victory of the new democratic revolution.