Worldwide protests support peasant struggles in the Philippines

ITAL Throughout early June, activists in the Philippines, in 
Europe, and across North America marched to support the peasants 
in the Philippines and oppose the sham Philippine independence 
day. The united snakes granted their former colony independence in 
1946, but has retained control of Philippine society through one-
sided treaties, military aid and training, and a series of puppet 
regimes. The following statement -- read at a rally in front of 
the Philippine consulate in Los Angeles -- discusses the 
importance of the struggles of the peasantry for land and 
livelihood in the Philippines and most Third World countries. END

Support the farmers and fisherfolk of Hacienda Looc! Support the 
struggles of workers and peasants in oppressed nations around the 
world! Fight against Amerikan imperialism!

Statement by the Maoist Internationalist Movement and 
Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League June 9, 2000

Hacienda Looc is a small fishing and farming community near 
Manila, where luxury golf course developers and local officials 
are working together to drive peasants off of their ancestral 
land. 

The golf-course developers and the government claim that the golf 
courses will bring jobs and prosperity, but the peasants and 
fisherfolk from Hacienda Looc understand that the tourist-
dependent project will bring neither. According to Romy Capulong, 
the peasants' attorney: "Land conversion, which the government and 
the capitalists call 'development,' destroys culture, destroys 
homes, communities, the environment, and doesn't really bring any 
benefits to our people."

Several people organizing against the golf courses were harassed 
and killed by the developers' armed goons -- as recently as 
February, 2000.

Hacienda Looc is a microcosm of the problems facing the Philippine 
peasantry, which makes up close to 80% of the Philippine 
population. They must struggle for their very lives against 
landlords, domestic and foreign capitalists, and corrupt 
government officials. In fact, the same problems face the majority 
of the people of the world, who live in semi-feudal and semi-
colonial countries like the Philippines.

Amerika's role

The golf course development at Hacienda Looc is typical of the 
imperialist-led "development" schemes in Third World countries, 
which place foreign investors' needs above the needs of the 
majority of the people. The schemes replace rice fields with golf 
courses and toy factories and create problems like hunger, 
poverty, and unemployment.

Amerikan investors do not seem to own a significant part of the 
company carrying out golf-course development at Hacienda Looc, 
although the U$ Agency for International Development encouraged 
its conversion to a tourist trap. But u.$. firms do control 
enterprises worth more than $1.66 billion and account for over 
half of the foreign capital invested in the Philippines. 

More importantly, the u.$. actively supports a political and 
economic system which allows a few privileged Filipinos to get 
rich through corruption and exploitation. For example, u.$. aid 
accounts for 83% of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' budget.

Again, this is not restricted to the Philippines. In Mexico, 
Indonesia, Peru, Turkey, etc. etc. the united $tates props up 
avaricious and brutal regimes simply because they are good for 
Amerikan business. These regimes keep wages low by violently 
suppressing workers' ability to organize; they practically give 
away their natural resources to multinational corporations, with 
grave economic and environmental consequences; and so on.

Thus, people struggling here in Amerika and abroad for a world 
without oppression are concretely united when they fight their 
common enemy: Amerikan imperialism!