Filipino workers support the Burmese people

Statement by the Partido ng Manggagawa

Filipino workers support the Burmese people

The Filipino working class joins the peoples around the world in condemning the brutal suppression by the military junta of the protest movement in Burma. We add the voice of the workers in the call for democratization in Burma, freedom for political prisoners and an end to the military rule.

We express our solidarity for the people of Burma especially our Burmese brother and sister workers. The working class of Burma suffer as much or even more as other sectors and classes of Burmese society under the heel of the military junta.

The Burmese military dictatorship may be a throwback to the Dark Ages of old but under its iron fisted rule the new paradigm of globalization is being forced down the throats of Burmese workers. Multinational corporations are extracting super profits from the blood and sweat of Burmese workers who are denied the most elementary labor rights by the brutal dictatorship.

The Filipino workers sympathize with the situation of their Burmese brothers and sisters for we suffered the very same exploitation and very same abuse under the Marcos dictatorship. In fact the burgeoning protest movement in Burma against price increases recall to mind the welgang bayans of the '80's and '90's against economic hardship during and after the Marcos dictatoship.

The Burmese military dictatorship hope to nip in the bud the protest movement against the economic crisis and scuttle its maturity into a political movement for democracy in their country. But the tables may yet be turned and instead the bloody repression may still incite the beginnings of a new uprising against military rule.

Despite the forced isolation of Burma under the dictatorship, international solidarity has a significant role to play in sustaining and strengthening the protest movement in Burma against economic hardship and for political freedom. Thus the Partido ng Manggagawa will educate and mobilize the Filipino workers as vanguard fighters for democracy to stand as one body and speak with one voice in support of the Burmese people and workers in their struggle for political freedom and social emancipation. ###