Salute to the victorious people power uprising in Egypt

Press Statement
February 12, 2011
Renato Magtubo
Chair, Partido ng Manggagawa

We salute the victorious people power uprising in Egypt against the Mubarak dictatorship. It is high time that the last pharaoh is buried in the desert. But the Egyptian people must not repeat the original sin of people power in the Philippines. They must not stop at simply changing the facesof the person in power but must continue on to uprooting the system that breeds poverty and unemployment.

The resignation of Murabak is only the first act of the drama that will play out in Egypt. It is game over for the dictator but with the military taking power, nobody knows how the game of the generals will play out. A civilian government ruling over a democratic and secular Egypt is still uncertain. The struggle of the courageous people and workers of Egypt for “tahrir” is unfinished.

Nonetheless we welcome the rebirth of an independent workers movement in Egypt. While evidently it was the youth of Egypt that sparked and led the uprising, the workers and their strikes later sustained and strengthened the uprising. The role of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter have been highlighted but in the background the strike movement of Egyptian workers since 2008 prepared the way and propelled the uprising to its victory.

While the popular uprisings in the Arab countries are directed at corrupt dictatorships, the underlying causes are the pervasive dissatisfaction at the lack of jobs and opportunities primarily among the youth but also among workers and even the middle class. Globalization has ravaged the Arab region as much as the Philippines. Unemployment, contractualization, retrenchment, rising prices and stagnant wages are also the norm in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan and Yemen. Everywhere the masses have become poorer while only the elite have become richer under globalization.

In fact, unrest may break out in the Philippines similar to Arab uprisings due to the rising prices of food and oil combined with worsening unemployment and poverty. Nobody was able to predict the explosion in the Arab region and nobody can discount unrest in the Philippines due to similar conditions of widespread desperation especially among the youth.

The prices of rice, bread, sugar, oil and gas together with transport fares and even toll fees are increasing thus squeezing the stagnant wages and incomes of workers and the poor. Today the unrest is expressed in the resistance of Philippine Airlines (PAL) workers against layoff and outsourcing. Tomorrow who knows if the struggle becomes generalized with high prices and food crisis making the lack of jobs and stagnant incomes unbearable?

Solidarity Message to the New Anti Capitalist Party of France

Greetings of working class solidarity!

We salute the New Anti Capitalist Party in its second congress. The NPA congress will be held amidst the fierce winds of change blowing in North Africa that hopefully will cross the Mediterranean and reach the shores of France.

The working class of France is in a crucial conjuncture. The offensive of the capitalist class that became even more severe and brutal as the global crisis unfolded a few years ago is nonetheless engendering an escalation in the resistance of the workers and the peoples of the world.

The class conscious workers in Philippines have been following with interest the huge mobilizations among the French proletariat against the Sarkozy government’s plan to reform the pension system and shift the burden of its costs on the backs of the workers. Such historic and gigantic movements inspire the workers of the whole world.

France is obviously a crucial link the chain of imperialist countries and any breakthrough in the class struggles in your country will have momentous significance for the international working class movement and the socialist struggle in the advanced countries. We will be paying attention to critical assessments of the fight against pension reform and the struggle against the capitalist offensive in France.

The tasks of the workers of France grow heavier as the fate of the Arab revolution hangs in the balance. As former colonizer of many of the Arab countries, the imperialist interference and intervention of the French ruling class can play a major role in subverting the uprisings in North Africa and the protests in the Middle East.

With the solidarity of the international proletariat, a resurgent working class movement in the Arab countries should swing the balance of forces for the people’s uprisings.

So even as the workers of the world look at France for the lessons of its class struggle, we are also focused on the popular uprisings and stirrings in North Africa and the Middle East. With nearly a million Filipino migrant workers in the Middle East sending some USD 3 billion in remittances to our country, the events in the Middle East will have great repercussions not just on the Philippine economy but in the consciousness of our people.

In a world of contradictions and revolutions, the role of international solidarity becomes even more crucial. We look forward to increasing cooperation between the workers of our countries.

Workers group oppose LRT/MRT hike, call for cheap, green mass transport

Press Release

February 5, 2011

In the public hearing called today by the Department of Transport and Communications, the labor party Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) declared its opposition to the planned fare hike and called for a cheap and green mass transport system. “The government of PNoy must extend and expand the subsidy to the riding public instead of passing the burden to the people of high transport costs,” stated Renato Magtubo, PM chair.

PM received an invitation from the Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) to attend today’s second of three public consultation hearings. A representative of PM came to the hearing to put forward the labor party’s position.

Magtubo clarified that “The MRT and LRT is a great counterbalance to the profit orientation of the private transport. Yesterday the Land Transportation and Franchising Board suspended another four bus companies for participating in the transport holiday last November. Without a public mass transport, the government and the people can always be held hostage by private transport firms out to guard their selfish interests.”

“The light rail should be maintained as the cheapest, most efficient and greenest mass transport in the country. Every peso spent by the government on subsidizing the LRT and MRT is money well spent. It not only benefits the workers, students and the poor but protects the environment as well,” insisted Magtubo.

The group is arguing that the cost-benefit accounting of the LRT/MRT operation should include “a consideration of its social good that cannot be quantified in money terms.”

“The prices of rice, sugar, oil, gas and fare among others are rising thus squeezing the stagnant wages and incomes of workers and the poor. If the government will not institute price control then it must subsidize the costs of basic goods and services together with increasing wages and providing jobs,” Magtubo said.

PM warned of unrest in the country similar to the uprisings in the Arab countries due to the rising fares and prices of food and oil combined with worsening unemployment and poverty.  Magtubo claimed that “PNoy must act boldly to address the food crisis, escalating inflation and deepening hardship of Filipinos. Nobody was able to predict the explosion in the Arab region and nobody can discount unrest in the Philippines due to similar conditions of widespread desperation among workers, youth and the poor.”

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He added that “Aside from short-term solutions such as price control, government subsidies, public employment and regulation of contractualization, government must institute a shift in industrial, agricultural, economic and social policies.”

Workers group warn of unrest ala Tunisia and Egypt due to rising prices

Press Release
January 30, 2011

The labor party Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) today warned of unrest in the country similar to the uprisings in the Arab countries due to the rising prices of food and oil combined with worsening unemployment and poverty. “PNoy must act boldly to address the food crisis, escalating inflation and deepening hardship of Filipinos. Nobody was able to predict the explosion in the Arab region and nobody can discount unrest in the Philippines due to similar conditions of widespread desperation especially among the youth,” claimed Gerry Rivera, PM vice chair.

“The prices of rice, sugar, oil, gas and fare among others are rising thus squeezing the stagnant wages and incomes of workers and the poor. If the government will not institute price control then it must subsidize the costs of basic goods and services together with increasing wages and providing jobs,” insisted Rivera.

PM also expressed its solidarity with the unraveling uprisings in the Arab. “Filipino workers welcome the Arab world’s own version of people power. Filipino migrant workers in Egypt and other Arab countries should not fear but be inspired by these expressions of people power. If anything they must learn the lessons of these rousing risings so that the fierce winds of change blowing in the Arab world can reach the shores of the Philippines,” Rivera stated.

PM warned that while the popular uprisings in the Arab countries are directed at the corrupt dictatorships, the underlying causes are the pervasive dissatisfaction at the lack of jobs and opportunities primarily among the youth but also among workers and even the middle class. “Globalization has ravaged the Arab region as much as the Philippines. Unemployment, contractualization, retrenchment, rising prices and stagnant wages are also the norm in Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Jordan and Yemen. Everywhere the mass of the people have become poorer while only the elite have become richer under globalization,” Rivera explained.

He added “Today the unrest is expressed in the resistance of PAL workers against layoff and outsourcing. Tomorrow who knows if the struggle becomes generalized with high prices and food crisis making the lack of jobs and stagnant incomes unbearable?”

Rivera is also president of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) which is embroiled in a protracted fight with management over the planned termination of some 2,600 employees. “Like the PALEA dispute, PNoy should assume jurisdiction of the problem of prices, wages and jobs. And then his government must provide tactical solutions such as price control, government subsidies, public employment and regulation of contractualization together with strategic shifts in industrial, agricultural, economic and social policies,” Rivera insisted.