Letter from Dave Pugh of New York City [regarding Walden Bello's recent attacks on the democratic rights of Prof. Jose Maria Sison and the national democratic movement in the Philippines]

March 10, 2005

Friends,

You may be familiar with Walden Bello's recent attacks on Prof. Jose Maria Sison and the whole national democratic movement in the Philippines. While falsely claiming that he is on a CPP "hit list," Bello denounced legal organizations such as BAYAN, GABRIELA and KMU as "communist fronts"--at the same time as their members ARE being assassinated by the Philippine Army on a daily basis! A month before Bello launched his misleading attack on Sison in the /Philippine Inquirer/, 7 farm workers were murdered on a strike line at the Hacienda Luisita sugar plantation by the military. Since then, Bello has been jet setting from country to country seeking political sympathy for himself and his reformist Akbayan (Citizens) Party.

Walden Bello's charges get a hearing internationally because of his status as a prominent anti-globalization activist and author. Among other things, his latest book advocates "balancing the US superpower by global civil society." This is nothing new. For years Bello has been a vocal advocate of organizing "civil society" to reform the WTO by relying on pressure from NGOs and social-democratic parties (such as Lula's Worker's Party in Brazil). In order to pursue this strategy, Bello has opposed efforts to build anti-imperialist organizations and struggle that can actually break the stranglehold of the World Bank, WTO and other neo-liberal institutions on the exploited, poor nations of the "Third World." As a result, Bello and Focus on the Global South, which he directs, are funded by Western foundations and other elite sources.

In the Philippines, his own country, Bello's positions stand in even sharper opposition to the basic interests of the millions who are victims of imperialist globalization. In coordination with the anti-communist propaganda of the Arroyo regime, Bello claims that the millions-strong revolutionary movement that aims to overthrow US military, economic and political control is the "Al-Qaeda of the Philippines." Instead, he insists that the violent, corrupt regime in Manila can be reformed, or "balanced", by organizations that cling to the illusion that US-trained generals will give up power peacefully. In contrast, the national democratic activists that Bello irresponsibly attacks risk their lives organizing--both openly and underground--to place real power in the hands of 90% of the Filipino people. Walden Bello, apparently, has other plans.

Also included below is the most recent letter from 15 national democratic organizations in Canada denouncing the Stop War Coalition's decision to invite Bello to speak at an anti-war event in Vancouver, B.C. on March 19.

Dave

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