Thousands of workers from various national labor centers, unions, workers’ associations, and allied organizations marched together in Manila on May 1 to mark International Labor Day. They united under the National Wage Coalition led by Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Nagkaisa Labor Coalition (Nagkaisa!), and Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP). Mayday Multimedia estimated the participation of up to 30,000 in the rally.

The coalition carried the calls “WELGA” or Wage hike now toward a national living wage!; Remove E-VAT and excise tax and review income tax!; Tax excessive wealth and super profits!; Make prices affordable!; and Arrest all the corrupt! At the forefront of the march from España Boulevard to Mendiola, they carried the large call: “Raise wages! Lower taxes! Launch a nationwide strike!”

The Marcos regime’s police forces repressed the workers’ march. The large deployment of armed police, barbed wire, and fire trucks blocking the way forced the workers to instead hold their program at the intersection of Nicanor Reyes and Recto Avenue.

The workers said the blocking of their protest is a blatant disregard by the Marcos regime for their rights and welfare. It proves the emptiness of the regime’s declaration of “honoring” Filipino workers on May 1.

Militant march to the US embassy

After the National Wage Coalition’s united program, KMU, together with All Workers Unity and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, led a march to the US embassy. They marched to the embassy to call for the end to the US-Israel war of aggression against Iran, which has inflicted an unparalleled crisis in the Philippines and worldwide.

“Since the conflict in West Asia erupted, the US and its allies have dragged workers and the people in the Philippines and across the world into a quagmire of severe hunger, poverty, and suffering,” KMU stated. Filipino workers experience the severe negative effects of the oil price shock on the prices of basic goods while the minimum wage is deliberately suppressed.

The groups also asserted justice for the reactionary state’s killing of workers and unionists for upholding their rights and building unions. They also called for justice for the Negros 19 and all other victims of the Marcos regime’s bloody counter-insurgency campaign under the framework of the National Action Plan for Unity, Peace and Development.

Amid the economic and political crisis, KMU called on fellow workers to hold firm and rely on the strength of our class. “Let us link the struggle of Filipino workers with the struggle of all workers worldwide against plunder, war, and fascism. Together, let us bring down US imperialism—the number one enemy of workers and peoples of the world,” it said.

In marking the 124th year of Labor Day in the Philippines, KMU continues the anti-imperialist and militant tradition of the Union Obrera Democratica de Filipinas, the first labor federation in the country. The union upheld the rights of labor while the country was under direct US colonial rule. More than 100,000 workers marched from Plaza Moriones in Tondo to Malacañang to demand full independence and the death of US imperialism.