Workers Unite!
1902-1930: Distinguished history class and anti-imperialist struggle of the labor movement in the Philippines

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The workers� movement in the Philippines has a distinguished history of militant class and anti-imperialist struggle. It persevered in struggle in the face of the intense repression and deception perpetrated by foreign and local reactionaries. It was able to wage massive and powerful economic and political strikes and other mass mobilizations for the welfare of workers and for national liberation. It played a central role in the struggle against US colonialism. As early as the beginning of the 1900s, it was the proletarian class in the Philippines that took the lead in calling for and launching broad mass struggles to end US colonial rule in the country.

Under the leadership of Katipuneros Isabelo de los Reyes and Herminigildo Cruz, the first workers� congress in the Philippines was held on February 2, 1902, during which the country�s first labor federation, Union Obrera Democratica (UOD), was founded. Its establishment was guided by the Marxist slogan of the First Workers� International: "The liberation of workers is the task of workers themselves."

The Union de Litografos y Impresores de Filipinas (UIF) which was established on December 30, 1901, became the UOD�s base union. Many of the UIF�s members who were then working in printing presses played important roles in the propaganda movement and other actions against Spanish colonialism.

UOD immediately and daringly undertook massive organizing work and launched workers� and anticolonial struggles. It immediately and rapidly grew and was able to wage a series of big and powerful uprisings.

On August 2, 1902, it launched the first of a series of early general strikes in the Philippines. Most of the strikes were waged against US companies that suddenly appeared as the US imposed colonialism in the country. The workers� marches and rallies in front of Malaca�ang on May 1, 1903 were attended by more than 100,000, who bannered the calls: "Overthrow US imperialism!" and "Attain complete and immediate independence!"

Suffused with the spirit of struggling for their class and for national liberation and influenced by Marxism, the workers persevered in the face of brutal attacks and deceptive maneuvers by the US colonial regime and the surrender of some of their leaders.

On May 1-4, 1913, representatives of 36 unions with 40,000 members from Manila and nearby provinces gathered at the Sine Oriental in Azcarraga, Manila. They founded the Congreso Obrero de Filipinas (COF). The COF enthusiastically advanced the Philippines� struggle for independence.

On March 31, 1918, the UIF was reorganized, with Crisanto Evangelista elected as its president. The union movement was then inspired by the victory of the October Revolution in Russia.

Under Evangelista�s leadership, collective bargaining with the capitalists was conducted for the very first time. The UIF�s members were able to gain several benefits including a 100-500% wage increase in 1918. The UIF served to inspire other unions to wage struggles. Evangelista�s prestige soared. Not long after, he was elected secretary general of the COF.

By 1927, the COF had more than 80,000 members. The reactionaries assiduously moved to destroy the growing unity of the working class, derail their partiality for the socialist movement, and seat yellow and conservative union leaders within the COF leadership. The COF became divided between adherents of the line of "harmonious relations" or collusion with the capitalists and the line of class struggle.

With such schemes going on without letup and with the severity of the split, the COF was rendered inutile. Evangelista and his followers bolted the COF and established a new, more solid, militant and progressive labor movement center, the Katipunan ng mga Anakpawis sa Pilipinas (KAP).

The KAP openly declared that its objective was to resist the exploitation of the toiling masses and banner the Filipino people�s resistance to American colonialism. It expressed its all-out advocacy for "all revolutionary and class movements of the masses of workers, both national and international, especially struggles towards the salvation of the oppressed and suffering masses from slavery, as well as the liberation of countries from capitalism and imperialism". Twenty-two unions and workers� associations established the KAP on May 12, 1929.

In the process of relating with organizations and proletarian movements from other countries, including progressives and those led by communist parties, and with the workers� movement in the Philippines affiliating with international organizations and the international workers� movement, Filipino worker leaders experienced a significant development in their thinking and politics and raised the level of their Marxist-Leninist consciousness.

In the continuing effort to build a solid instrument for the struggle of the working class, the KAP approved a resolution to form a new workers� party that will organize and directly lead the people�s political, economic and cultural struggle.

On August 26, 1930, the anniversary of the First Cry of Pugad Lawin, 60 worker and peasant leaders representing their militant organizations gathered at the Templo del Trabajo in Manila to establish the new party, reflecting a new and higher level of consciousness, organization and politics of the working class in the Philippines. They called it Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP). They decided to formally launch the PKP in public on November 7, 1930 as a tribute to the Socialist Revolution in Russia.

On the 7th of November, some 5,000 people gathered at the Plaza Moriones in Tondo-�the heart of the working class district in Manila0-�to proclaim the PKP.

This part of the distinguished history of the labor movement in the Philippines served as the foundation of genuine, militant and anti-imperialist unionism. The Communist Party of the Philippines, which was reestablished on December 26, 1968, also traces its roots to such a history.

April 2002
English Edition

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