MIM Notes 166        July 15, 1998

Conference decries colonialism in Philippines on 100th 
anniversary Imperialist oppression of wimmin highlighted

June 12 marked 100 years of u.s. colonialism in the 
Philippines. In honor of this occasion, Gabriela Network 
held a Stop 100 Years of Servitude conference at Hunter 
College in New York city. Gabriela Network is a 
Philippine-US women's solidarity organization that 
supports the "militant women's movement in the 
Philippines." Gabriela Network (GAB Net) works with 
Gabriela Philippines as a part of the national 
democratic movement. Gab Net was formed in May 1989 and 
has been doing educating and activist work in the u.s. 
and other countries ever since.

This conference featured a keynote address by Liza 
Largoza Maza, Gabriella Philippines' secretary general 
and a member of the national executive committee of 
BAYAN (Patriotic Alliance in the Philippines). 

She started her speech talking about the celebrations 
that were held in the Philippines on the 12th and 13th 
of June. A hundred years ago the Philippines achieved 
independence from Spain and in honor of this occasion 
Ramos held two parades. The department of tourism 
organized the parade on the 12th, featuring 40 floats 
costing millions of pesos. June 13th was the "people's 
parade" at which the government encouraged attendance by 
the peoples organizations. Maza pointed out that these 
two events show what happened in 1898: the leaders took 
credit for all that was good and the masses get the next 
day, segregated from the wealth, power and credit 
reserved for the leaders.

On June 12, 1898 the Filipino flag was raised and the 
declaration of independence read in culmination of the 
anti-colonialist struggle against Spain. 1898 also 
marked the rise of the u.s. as a new imperialist power 
and the beginning of the Philippines-Amerikan war, which 
lasted from 1899-1902 and left more Filipinos were 
killed then during the entire 300 years of Spanish rule. 
The u.s. wanted the Philippines because the u.s. economy 
needed new markets for surplus and raw materials and 
because it was a strategic site in the pacific.

Maza pointed out that the Filipino elite were seduced by 
the u.s. and eagerly collaborated with u.s. imperialism. 
In fact, in the declaration of independence of the 
Philippines it says "under u.s." rule. After killing 
more than a quarter of the population, the u.s. gained 
hegemony over the islands that make up the Philippines.

Under u.s. rule liberalization, privatization and 
deregulation have been cornerstones of policy which have 
consistently hurt the Filipino people. Liberalization 
opened the country to more multinational companies in 
export processing zones where there are very flexible 
labor policies and a no strike policy. Privatization of 
the government health and social services has led to an 
increase in school fees of 15-35% and an increase of 
other fees (i.e. library, dorm) as much as 300%. At the 
same time hospital workers and other workers are being 
dismissed because of privatization. Deregulation has led 
to price increases and Maza reported that just before 
she left the Philippines on this trip there were talks 
of another round of price increases of all products.

As a result of imperialist rule and the recent economic 
crises, the cost of production has increased and 
factories have been laying off workers, many in the last 
eight months. In Mindinao, for instance, 100,000 workers 
have been laid off since last year.

This situation, according to Maza, is ripe for 
organizing more women to act against imperialist 
globalization. The previous battle against Spain and 
then the u.s. "was not the culmination of our nationhood 
... it was only the beginning of a struggle ... for true 
freedom and democracy.... It remains alive today in the 
hearts and minds of Filipino people." And as Maza 
pointed out, "Filipino women have been active and in the 
forefront of the struggle against colonialism."

She pointed to MAKIBAKA, a revolutionary organization of 
women formed in 1971 as a National Democratic 
organization of women which was forced underground when 
martial law was declared a year later. This group is 
engaged in armed struggle and was referenced by Maza 
several times as an example of revolutionary and 
proletarian feminism in action. Maza described the 
Gabriela's role as "struggling for women's equality 
against imperialism and feudalism." And this year they 
are starting to organize the children into Gabrieletas, 
holding regular education sessions teaching about the 
struggle. These "nine-year and twelve-year-old girls are 
our hope" for the future.

Maza addressed the criticism attributed to the national 
democratic movement that they relegate the issue of 
gender to the back burner, saying sexism is a supraclass 
issue dividing the revolution. She said she had 
personally spoke to the comrade who made this comment 
and he explained that what he meant is that imperialism 
has used the gender issue, divorced from its context and 
depoliticized it. "This kind of gender advocacy is what 
white mainstream feminists are advocating, using [the 
women's movement] for the interests of the oppressors."

Maza was clear that "the goal of general national 
liberation can only be attained through general people's 
struggle for nationalism and democracy," much to the 
dismay of the revisionist organizations in attendance 
who repeatedly tried to dismiss the role of nation and 
national liberation and reduce the struggle to class.

In response to the revisionists, Maza said "I don't 
understand why it is questionable to struggle for 
nationalism if you are undermining u.s. colonialism by 
doing this. You can not be internationalist without a 
base, without advocating your own struggles. These 
efforts are contributing to the final downfall of u.s. 
imperialism."

A RAIL comrade also spoke up to refute the lies and 
misrepresentation of the Spartacist League members who 
cited the massacre of the communists in Indonesia in the 
1960s and in the 1920s in China as demonstrations of the 
failure of the strategy of united front organizing. The 
RAIL comrade pointed out that it was precisely these 
experiences that give us the lesson that the communist 
party must be in the leadership of the united front, 
exactly the position that the Communist Party of the 
Philippines is successfully occupying leading the 
revolutionary movement in that country.

In response to a question about the differences between 
bourgeois and proletarian feminism in the Philippines, 
Maza said that since 1986 there have been many 
initiatives to organize women's programs through the 
government to divert them from revolutionary organizing. 
She said "In Gabriela we have always been attacked by 
women who claim to be true feminists when we took up the 
u.s. bases issue because they said this was not a true 
women's issue. Those national issues were not true 
women's issues. In Gabriela we are for the poor women. 
This must have a class component. We advance the 
interests of women workers and women peasants."

A board member of GABNet also addressed the general 
forum to describe in more detail the work of GABNet. She 
outlined the concept of a gender division of labor that 
was highlighted in a number of the other sessions. It is 
Gabriela's thesis that a gender division of labor has 
developed to support and strengthen class divisions in 
the Philippines. The work of wimmin is valued less than 
that of men, and the most exploitative work is relegated 
to the wimmin. At the same time sexual service has 
become a commodity. This has led to the sex trade and 
the labor export of wimmin that is the main focus of 
GABNet's work. This export of wimmin includes three main 
categories: mail-order brides, domestic workers, and the 
international sex trade. Several of the smaller sessions 
addressed these issues in greater detail.

Labor export and trafficking in wimmin

Over 60% of the recorded migrant workers from the 
Philippines are wimmin and this does not include the 
"illegal" sex trade. There are 7 million prostitutes and 
500-mail order brides leave the Philippines each year to 
come to the u.s. alone. 2,000 overseas contract workers 
(OCWs) leave the country each day. Each year more than 
350,000 Filipinas are imported.

Filipinos are desperate for jobs and this fuels the 
exodus of wimmin, mostly educated wimmin, seeking jobs 
as domestic laborers or sex workers. The official 
unemployment rate is 8.6% and 19.6% are underemployed. 
70% of the population lives in poverty with an average 
daily wage of just $6.

Labor export has been institutionalized by the 
government. There are both private and public 
recruitment systems. Philippines 2000, the government's 
plan for economic development, emphasized labor export 
and tourism as the twin pillars of development. With an 
international debt of $47 billion, the government needs 
the money repatriated from the overseas workers to pay 
the interest on the debt. To take advantage of the 
workers the government has set up programs to export 
domestic workers, requiring women to give 70% of their 
earnings to the Government of the Philippines. In the 
first six months of 1996 OCWs remitted $2 billion and 
one-fifth of the population depends on the earnings of 
these workers.

The abuse of overseas workers is rampant. Domestic 
laborers who are not going into an overt sex trade are 
often raped by their employers and have little recourse. 
The GABNet presenters drew parallels between the 
domestic workers and the bride industry, which is for 
men seeking both domestic work and sex. The wimmin 
advertised by "matchmaking" companies are often listed 
with qualities of servitude, enjoying domestic work, and 
knowing how to please a man. There are many cases of 
abuse of these wimmin who also have nowhere to turn for 
help and who have no money or other resources to turn to 
should they wish to leave a marriage. There are a number 
of reports of murders of these wimmin by their husbands. 
In Honolulu there was the case of Hellen Crook, a mail-
order bride, killed by her husband for the insurance 
money, and in Australia there are reports that many men 
are engaged in this method of collecting life insurance. 
The u.s. and Australia are the biggest importers of 
mail-order brides.

In 1995, Migrante, an OCW organization, said there were 
40,000 cases of abuse reported by Filipina wimmin. And 
two OCWs return to the Phillipines each day in caskets. 
In the face of this widespread abuse the government of 
the Philippines has pretended to regulate the export of 
wimmin to some countries but this has been little more 
than lip service. For instance, the Philippines banned 
export of labor to Saudi Arabia due to reports of abuse 
but the government backed down in the face of Saudi 
Arabian economic threats.

In addition to the above legal exports of wimmin, the 
international sex trade is a huge business which, 
although illegal, is tacitly endorsed by the government 
of the Philippines. There are 100,000 Filipina wimmin in 
Japan working as prostitutes, thousands more in Europe 
and 99% of the prostitutes on the u.s. military base in 
Okinawa are Filipina. The sex trade is a large pull for 
tourism in the Philippines and many companies openly 
advertise the wimmin that men can have if they spend 
their vacation there.

White labor

The discussion between members of the audience in one of 
the small sessions focused on the white labor movement 
and its dismissal of Asians in the 1920s and 30s and 
continuing national divisions within the u.s. labor 
movement today -- and also on the divisions between the 
white feminist movement and the Third World feminist 
movement. 

MIM agrees with the audience members who suggested that 
the white feminist movement's gains have sometimes led 
to losses for Third World wimmin. One example of this is 
the domestic workers that benefit both white men and 
wimmin. One participant suggested that the white 
feminist movement has allowed wimmin in the u.s to move 
out of submissive roles but the patriarchy has continued 
to advocate submissive wimmin as the sexual ideal and so 
the demand for importing of submissive Filipina wimmin 
increased.

MIM would point to the Filipina mail-order brides as 
examples of wimmin truly unable to leave the 
relationship even in the face of physical abuse. Unlike 
the majority of white wimmin who almost always have 
access to resources and family and friends, these wimmin 
are literally enslaved to their husbands and the abuse 
and murder of these wimmin comes as no surprise.

In response to the question of how to end the export and 
abuse of wimmin the GABNet members suggested five 
points. First wealth and income must be evenly 
distributed to the masses. This should be done through: 
genuine agrarian reform, nationalization of key 
industries, building up of national industries to 
provide jobs, the use of overseas workers' remittances 
for social services and foreign involvement in the 
Philippines only when both countries are on equal 
footing. The GABNet members see these reforms as points 
along the way to ending the oppression of wimmin and all 
Filipino people in the struggle to overthrow 
imperialism.