Workers must fight puppetry and repression under the Arroyo regime!

Rubi Del Mundo
Spokesperson
National Democratic Front-Southern Mindanao
May 01, 2005

The National Democratic Front Southern Mindanao salutes the working class on the occasion of the May 1 International Labor Day.

We pay tribute to the heroes and martyrs of the working class in Southern Mindanao who have made historic contributions towards the advancement of the nationalist democratic struggle, which aspires to liberate the people from the claws of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.

The workers all over the nation have borne the brunt of the US-Arroyo regime's state terrorism against them and all of the Filipino people.

Arroyo has shown her anti-worker stand. While she has turned a deaf ear to the workers� clamor for a just wage hike, she shows subservience to the whims of the US imperialist multinationals and its lackeys, the bourgeois-compradors that have wreaked havoc to the country�s economy.

The prescriptions of the imperialist-led globalization has resulted to continuing increases in the prices of oil and other basic commodities, the implementation of more burdening taxes, the closure of many local firms, and the displacement and unemployment of millions of Filipinos.

Like all puppet presidents from the past, Arroyo responds to the workers� clamor with intensifying state fascism. Such is the case of the sugarcane workers in Hacienda Luisita, which has now become a symbol of the state�s terror against workers and the toiling masses.

The US-Arroyo regime will sabotage any hope of the workers� long struggle in Congress for wage increases, as she would thumb down this clamor by stashing the national budget towards corruption and towards strengthening the regime�s armed forces that will quell her political opponents, the militant mass movement and the revolutionary forces.

The state is now unleashing its entire course towards silencing the people�s protest and all her critiques by pushing for the national ID system and the anti-terrorism bill which will be used against legitimate dissent.

The US-Arroyo regime however, underestimates the strength of the revolutionary nature of the working class for the people�s democratic revolution led by the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Arroyo�s puppetry and intensifying repression have isolated her more from the toiling masses and even from her fragmented clique. As what has happened on the crippling nationwide transport strike a few weeks back, the people led by the militant and patriotic movement have grown discontented with the Arroyo regime and are now clamoring for her ouster.

The history and revolutionary fervor of the working class movement in the Philippines has grown and such has led the Filipino people in ousting two puppet presidents. With massive corruption and isolation of her regime, Arroyo is sure to be overthrown by the Filipino people.

NDF Southern Mindanao calls on all the workers to continue the struggle for national industrialization as one of the foundations to build an alternative society. The peasant masses in the countryside are one with you as your indomitable ally as they struggle for genuine land reform. We also call on the patriotic members of the Congress, progressive groups, in the academe, the media and the church to be vigilant to oppose Arroyo�s ploys against the workers and Filipino people. This binds us once more to unite and strengthen our ranks to oust Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in due time. ###

Back to top