The Workers Movement: Challenges and the Future in the Current Pandemic and Economic Crisis

Dear fellow activists, I am happy to know that the JMS School which was launched in 2010 will be revived and now it is a partner of various organizations that are part of BAYAN-Metro Manila in presenting this discussion on the topic “The labor movement: challenges and future in current pandemic and economic crisis.”

It is good that you have a major emphasis on organizing among the working class because in the Metro Manila region there are many working class people. The labor movement only deserves to face their problems as a result of the pandemic and economic crisis and learn to implement possible solutions in the short and long term.

I. The pandemic and economic crisis

Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was already a serious crisis of the global capitalist system due to the crisis exacerbated by the overproduction of the neoliberal policy and rapid spending for the military and the launching of wars of aggression. Basically, the crisis of overproduction means an increase in capital in the hands of monopoly capitalists and a decrease in the income of the workers and thus a decrease in their ability to purchase the products they produce.

In addition to exploiting the production process by extracting surplus value from the largest share of value created by the workers, the bourgeois state imposes taxes on the consumer masses while lowering the taxes on the capitalists, reducing spending for social services (in health, education, housing and others) and increasing spending for the military and wars of aggression.

In the semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system in the Philippines, the neoliberal policy also further reduced the income of the workers and the government even imposed a large tax on the basic goods that they buy and therefore at the same time the reduction of wages and the increase in the price of things to buy. Despite this, the profits of monopolies, big compradors, landlords and corrupt officials who live in luxury are growing and spending on corruption, military and police and projects that are of no use to the toiling masses are increasing.

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, the Duterte regime did not take measures to prevent it from spreading, but instead allowed half a million Chinese tourists and gamblers into the casino for more than two months. When the lockdown began in March, mass testing and aid were promised to those who would lose their jobs. Instead, what Duterte and his accomplices have done is stealing hundreds of billions of pesos from the public fund, borrowing trillions more in the name of the pandemic and suppressing the masses who are deprived of aid and blamed for reprimands.

Duterte and his allies have terrorized the masses, suppressed the right to free expression, railroaded the state terrorism law and prepared for Duterte to rule beyond 2022 through charter change and the supposed existence of federalism and parliamentarism. The reign of greed and cruelty of a small gang of oligarchs in Duterte’s leadership against the Filipino people is now happening in the Philippines. This results in unrest and further resistance of the Filipino masses against Duterte’s tyrant, traitor, executioner, plunderer and tyrannical regime.

II. Public grievances and lawsuits

There is too much oppression and exploitation of the Filipino people, especially the child laborers. If so, they cannot be stopped from voicing grievances and lawsuits. All over the country, they are doing protest actions. The role of the masses fighting against the regime in the central region of the country is important because it signals the struggle at the national level. At the same time, the armed revolutionaries in the countryside are trying to launch offensives so as to strengthen the ruling party, mass organizations and organs of political power.

Through the legal struggle, the Filipino masses are insisting to stop the militaristic policy of the regime and not block the medical solution to the epidemic, give the promised aid to the masses who have lost their jobs, have an open accounting of the government’s expenses, return to the jobs and other livelihoods that have been lost in the easiest time, hold the thieves and other criminals in the Duterte regime accountable and oust the tyrant Durterte who is admitted to be useless in fighting the pandemic and vendor of Philippine sovereign rights to China.

Every time Duterte speaks in public, the statements are more chaotic and crazy and it is more obvious that he has no plans to fight the pandemic and stop the economic collapse. As the pandemic worsens and the economy collapses, Duterte’s words are pure bluster to hide the blatant theft of public funds in the name of the pandemic and to intensify the blame and intimidation of the Filipino people.

It is the urgent duty of the Filipino people to oust Duterte from power. The Filipino people have rich experience in ousting a fascist dictator like Marcos. They can oust the scumbag and crazy executioner and looter like Duterte. Strengthen and mobilize a broad united mass base of hardworking people, middle strata and conservatives who hate or hate the monstrous crimes of the Duterte regime.

The movement to oust the monster Duterte is once again a great opportunity for the legal forces of the national democratic movement to strengthen. At the same time, it will be decisive to strengthen the people’s democratic revolution through people’s war to ensure that the ousting of one monster will not only produce other monsters and the rotten ruling system will remain but will pave the way for the great advancement of the people’s revolutionary movement. Filipino

III. Just peace and permanent revolutionary struggle

If in the ousting of Duterte, a wide range of patriotic and progressive forces will prevail, it is possible to have a just peace through peace talks according to The Hague Joint Declaration as a framework. It is a big success that there is a Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

Providing the foundation of a just peace will be accelerated if there is a program of real land reform and national industrialization based on self-reliance and with a large supply from the estimated USD 26 trillion worth of oil and gas that is in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea. Will get technology for its rise without fooling Chinese or US imperialism.

Should Duterte be able to keep himself or his puppet in power beyond 2022, it means that he has successfully used force and deception and suppressed the growing ouster movement. In other words, there is nothing the Filipino people can do to win but to participate in the armed revolution that is already underway on a national scale. Thus, Duterte’s victory is only temporary and a great storm of armed revolution will come back and topple him.

Another possibility is that there is a military group that will seize power against the Filipino people. If this happens, the democratic revolution of the people must also be fought vigorously. The best way to easily oust Duterte is to replace him with the vice president as a result of the withdrawal of military support from Duterte for the patriotic and democratic cause. This is better than replacing Duterte with his puppet or a reactionary military group.

Right now, there are many officials within the reactionary military who believe that Duterte has ruined the Philippines because of the excessive oppression and exploitation of the people and also because of his betrayal of being the seller of the sovereign rights of the Philippines to China.. Officials who support Duterte in the treacherous line of serving the two imperialist masters, the US and China, are in the minority. There is a possibility of replacing the insane president with the vice president in accordance with the principle of constitutional succession.

No matter what happens, the broad masses of Filipinos must be ready to fight so that the monsters of the rotten ruling system do not prevail. Were Dutertes not ousted or were replaced by a monster like him, the Filipino people and revolutionary forces will only have a better chance to continue the fight until the total victory of the new democratic revolution with a socialist perspective.