Workers announce Nov. 30 protests

Labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno announced today a nationwide protest on the 149th birthday of working-class hero Andres Bonifacio to condemn imperialist plunder and intervention and the Aquino government’s puppetry.

KMU said the ideals for which Bonifacio fought and died are yet to be achieved by the Filipino workers and people, as their realization are being hindered by the continuing dominance of US imperialism over the country and the Aquino government’s puppetry.

The labor center blamed the intensifying poverty, hunger and unemployment in the country on the continued domination over the country of big monopoly capitalists and the elite few represented by the Aquino government.

“The best way to pay tribute to Bonifacio is to carry on with his struggle for national independence and genuine democracy. Our protests on Nov. 30 form part of that struggle,” said Roger Soluta, KMU secretary-general.

“We have no doubt in our hearts that if Bonifacio were alive today, he would be leading a revolt against continued foreign and elite domination over the Filipino people. One hundred and forty-nine years after he was born, we are still to be born as an independent nation,” he added.

“Bonifacio would not be pleased by the dumping of US troops’ toxic wastes into Philippine seas and by the expansion of US military presence in the country. He would definitely be angered by the Aquino government’s pro-imperialist and pro-elite policies,” he said.

“The Aquino government’s rejection of calls for a P125 across-the-board wage hike nationwide and its implementation of a significant wage cut via the Two-Tiered Wage System are dictates of foreign and local big capitalists. This government is pressing down Bonifacio’s fellow workers to boost the profits of big capitalists,” Soluta said.

The labor center said Bonifacio would have detested the impoverished state of the country’s workers and farmers, and decry the continuing concentration of lands in the hands of a few.

“Bonifacio fought for land reform, for the distribution of the friars’ lands among the farmers. He would definitely be revolted by the refusal of a haciendero president to implement a genuine land reform program and his collusion with big landlords who are grabbing farmers’ and national minorities’ lands,” Soluta said.

In Metro Manila, the labor group said workers and other sectors will gather at Liwasang Bonifacio in the morning, march to the US Embassy after lunch, and then proceed to Mendiola to hold their main program.

It also said that its regional chapters in Cordillera, Southern Tagalog, Bicol, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Panay, Cagayan de Oro, Caraga and Southern Mindanao regions will also hold various types of protests.

“While the Aquino government continues to boast about so-called economic growth, our protests will show that hunger, poverty and unemployment have become unbearable. Our Nov. 30 protests is just a start, as we vow to hold bigger protests in the coming months,” Soluta said.