Biggest in recent years: Luisita caravan a success

A stunning and historic success. 

That is how militant labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno today described the caravan to Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province which it held with other nationalist organizations last Nov. 16, saying it is so far “the biggest caravan which progressive organizations in the National Capital Region have conducted in recent years.”

Last Monday marked the fifth anniversary of the massacre, which marred the November 2004 strike of farmers and farm workers in the hacienda and which left seven dead and countless more wounded. To commemorate the massacre, the caravan was launched to demand “Land and justice for the people of Hacienda Luisita!”

“Compared with the 1990 caravan to Central Luzon against the US bases and the 1996 caravan, again to Central Luzon, to protest the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, this one is the biggest,” said Joselito “Lito” Ustarez, KMU executive vice president. 

“We have just finished our assessment and that is what the facts tell us,”added Ustarez. 

Ustarez said the caravan was able to exceed the target of bringing 2,000 people to the hacienda for the occasion. “We rode more than 100 vehicles, most of which are jeepneys, which carried our calls on the issue. We were able to send our message to the public and the people of Luisita – that we are still carrying on the fight for land and justice.”

KMU said, however, that the most gratifying indicator of the caravan’s success is the reaction of the people in Luisita. “Despite continued repression and harassment, despite the costs of travelling which is already too steep for them, and despite the scorching heat, more than a thousand people from Luisita greeted us,” said Ustarez. 

“At the forefront of their ranks were the families of the victims of the massacre. Everywhere we went in the hacienda, people were raising their clenched fists in solidarity, waving and smiling at us, and offering their homes to caravan participants. We saw people young and old in a very ecstatic mood,” added Ustarez.

“When we were touring the barangays in the hacienda, caravan participants in the jeeps initiated some chanting. They would say ‘Cojuangco!’ and the people in the streets who were greeting us would reply with ‘Berdugo!’ (butcher). There was a deep sense of solidarity in fighting for a common cause five years after the massacre,” he said.

The labor leader said that aside from land and justice, KMU and other progressive organizations are also calling for the scrapping of the deadline for eviction imposed on farmers by the Luisita management. 

“The deadline imposed by the management is one of the main reasons why this issue has again become urgent – contrary to speculations that this is but part of politicking for the coming elections,” said Ustarez. 

Ustarez reported that peasant organizations in Tarlac and Central Luzon are organizing a caravan to the NCR this first week of December. “They will register their legitimate calls here in Metro Manila. They hope to put more pressure on the Cojuangco family and the Arroyo regime, who have so far remained deaf to their calls,” he said. ###