In time with the birth anniversary of Filipino proletarian revolutionary Andres Bonifacio and the 60th founding anniversary of the Kabataaang Makabayan (Patriotic Youth, KM), a broad solidarity for the Philippine struggle has launched global-wide activities in support of the NDFP.
Led by the Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle (FFPS), protest demonstrations, rallies, cultural programs, and study sessions were conducted to condemn the US-Marcos regime, and US imperialist domination of and repression in the Philippines. These actions highlighted the ongoing just revolutionary struggle of the Filipino people for genuine freedom, democracy, social justice and peace, and called for a more vigorous campaign against fascist attacks on the Filipino people.
The solidarity activities took place in the United States, Canada, Netherlands, and Hong Kong.
“These US-backed attacks by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines are futile against a people driven by the profound injustices perpetrated by US foreign domination, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism, and a longing for justice and liberation. The revolutionary resolve of the Filipino people remains firm and our solidarity for their struggle also remains firm,” said Robert Reid, chairperson of FFPS.
“Despite the violent crimes of the US-Marcos regime, the Filipino people are fighting back! The NDFP continues to unite the Filipino people to fight for genuine national liberation and democracy, and has demonstrated to the international community not only the necessity and justness of the national democratic revolution in the Philippines, but that armed struggle is a legitimate exertion of the Filipino people’s inherent right to self-determination, as recognized through International Law,” said Dana from People Organizing for Philippines Solidarity (POPS) in the United States.
The global actions also condemned the US-Marcos regime for its continuous attacks on NDFP peace consultants and the peace negotiations. In October this year alone, three NDFP consultants were illegally arrested in clear violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) signed by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the NDFP. Seventeen NDFP consultants and staff are currently imprisoned, according to the human rights group Karapatan.
“We must view the assault on the NDFP consultants as an assault on the Filipino people, particularly the broad masses, who they so selflessly serve. Amid these attacks, our solidarity is crucial. We amplify the call of the Filipino people for justice for the consultants who have been murdered and to free unconditionally those who have been illegally detained. We stand in full solidarity with the Filipino people’s struggles for national and social liberation,” said Reid.
“The Filipino people’s demands are clear: genuine agrarian reform, social change, the abolition of unjust treaties with foreign powers, the expulsion of US military bases, and a program for national industrialization and genuine development. It is precisely the refusal of the US-backed Marcos Jr. regime – and those before it – to sincerely address these demands that has driven the Filipino people to (armed) revolution,” the FFPS stressed, as it called on other peoples and groups to be in solidarity with the Filipino people’s just struggle.