Onward with Bonifacio’s Struggle for Freedom and “Kaginhawaan”

Bonifacio will always be relevant. At every juncture and for every generation, Bonifacio’s struggle for national independence and social justice will be reinterpreted by workers and the youth to understand the challenges of the situation.

 

Today, the Filipino people are caught between a new cold war between China and the US in the Pacific, and on a global scale between Western powers and rivals such as Russia and China. Filipino workers and youth must navigate a path of peace and independence from these geopolitical rivalries. Workers and the youth refuse to be the cannon fodder in the hot and cold wars of stronger countries.

 

Aside from the relevance of Bonifacio’s fight for independent development, his advocacy for social justice and “kaginhawaan” continues to ring true in the face of the consolidation of the authoritarian turn and growing inequality. The Philippines has one of the most unequal societies in Asia as revealed in a recent World Banks study. This inequality can only worsen as workers’ civil liberties and political rights are curtailed under a Marcos regime.

 

The struggle for freedom and “kaginhawaan” forms an integral whole as revealed in the current authoritarian regime of Marcos which has no program for workers. Thus, the advocacy for a labor agenda combining the demands for wages, jobs, rights and services intersects with the campaign to defend human rights and civil liberties.

 

We vow to pursue Bonifacio’s struggle under new conditions. Workers fight for wage hikes, secure jobs and labor rights to defend their living conditions. Further, workers resist the shrinking of the democratic space that denies them the ability to advance its advocacies for social justice and “kaginhawaan.”

Partido Manggagawa

30 November 2022