Agrarian revolution advances in Central Luzon
The peasant masses in Central Luzon have achieved considerable victories in advancing antifeudal struggles.
In Nueva Ecija, in particular, the various campaigns to reduce land rent, fight usury, raise the wages of farm workers, reduce rent for farming equipment, and raise the farmgate prices of tomatoes, rice and other products, have begun to acquire a province-wide character.
More than 4,000 farm workers in 13 barrios of three towns benefited from these campaigns.
The agrarian struggles are most vigorous in a cluster of six towns in the province. In one of these towns, eight peasants occupied nine hectares of land. For years, the revolutionary movement ceased to exist in the area and agrarian struggles ground to a halt. When the mass organizations were revived, however, revolutionary work, especially antifeudal struggles once more gained momentum. Usurious lending rates were reduced by over 50% after the peasants launched a struggle against the local merchant-usurer who used to impose around 30% monthly interest. Three adjoining barrios mobilized for this struggle.
Tractor rentals were also reduced from P2,000-P2,200 down to P1,800 per hectare. Seventy peasants tilling up to 70 hectares of farmland benefited in November 2003.
In two more towns in this cluster, 3,150 farm workers enjoyed wage increases. From P1,200 per hectare for a 15-man planting team (14 farm workers and a foreman), wages were raised to P1,400-1,500 per hectare in eight barrios. Farm workers working in at least 2,000 hectares of farmland benefited from the wage increases.
Some 100 members of the Pambansang Katipunan ng mga Magbubukid (PKM) collectively set up a broad irrigation ditch in one village, providing water for up to 100 hectares of farmland.
In Nueva Ecija and other areas of Central Luzon, anti-militarization struggles go hand in hand with agrarian struggles. Because the reactionary military defends landlords and other exploiting classes, the peasant masses simultaneously wage mass actions to oppose the violence and havoc wrought by the AFP at the onset, in the middle and during the concluding stages of antifeudal struggles.
Other provinces. In Bulacan, peasants advanced the struggle to reduce transport costs for string beans, increase the price of charcoal, occupy abandoned lands and oppose evictions by landlords. They have also organized peasants to launch pangangapa (the local term for the practice of catching fish or shrimp with bare hands), raise the wages of fishpond caretakers from P3,000 to P4,500, and wages for laborers who construct small dikes and embankments for fishponds from P120 to P150.
In Pampanga, Aeta slash-and-burn farmers launched struggles to raise the prices of their products. There is likewise an ongoing campaign to cultivate rice in upland areas.
In one village, peasants succeeded in retaining their right to stay in land that they had long been occupying, even if a high-end subdivision had already been set up on part of the land. Meanwhile, there is a continuing campaign to rehabilitate land buried in lahar as a result of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991. From the previous 80 hectares, up to 200 hectares have now been cleared of sand and being readied for tilling. A number of villages have also been waging a struggle against sand quarrying which has dried up water sources for farming.
In Tarlac, a number of tenants have succeeded in raising their share of the harvest from 50% to 75%, aside from having their other demands met. Peasants also took over the lands of an absentee landlord. Another group of 100 peasants occupied a piece of abandoned land. Farmers also refused to pay for a piece of residential land that a landlord had merely grabbed from its owner. Peasants also successfully resisted the seizure of a pisqueria or communal fishery.
Fifty-six families in Zambales staged an organized reoccupation of 480 hectares of land seized by the landlords from the masses. Farmers continue to employ bayanihan (mutual aid) to expand clearings in order to raise production and improve the masses' livelihood. Poor peasants successfully negotiated with small landlords against an attempt to close down an access road leading to their farms. A group of farmers occupied four hectares of an absentee landlords' land, transforming it into a communal farm tilled by 22 peasants. Another group of peasants also occupied lands owned by two landlords.
In Bataan, Aetas waged a successful struggle to raise the prices of their products. In several areas, the propagation and dispersal of upland rice seeds and taro for planting has been initiated. Peasants set up an irrigation system by constructing a small dam in order to bring water to upland farms. Another group of 15 farmers thwarted attempts to evict them from their occupied lands.
In Aurora, agrarian revolution is being launched by employing suyuan (labor exchange) in clearing, carrying out communal farming, and occupying abandoned lands. Three-hundred peasant families have benefited from this undertaking.
These are just initial victories. The revolutionary movement in Central Luzon continues to expand the scope of agrarian revolution throughout the region to address the problems and aspirations of the peasant masses and transform them into solid bastions of the revolution.
This summary of antifeudal campaigns was sourced from reports published by Himagsik, the revolutionary mass paper in Central Luzon.
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