This speech was delivered at the demonstration outside the Philippine consulate in Toronto, as part of the program of the 2021 Anakbayan Canada National Congress. The speech was delivered by the Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle, of which CPSO is a member organization. Some extra content has been added for context.
Congratulations, Anakbayan Canada, on your second National Congress. This weekend and especially this militant mobilization have been a beautiful show of strength and bravery of the youth of the Philippine nation to arouse, organize, and mobilize in the face of heightening repression and attacks.
The Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle stand firmly with our allies here in Toronto, from across Canada, and from around the world as they express their outrage at the attempt by the Marcos and Duterte dynasties to claw their way back to power in the Philippines’ false democracy.
As we spend this weekend celebrating the democratic advancement of Anakbayan Canada, in the light of the announcement of the Marcos-Duterte alliance in the 2022 Philippine elections, we are ready to ask: who is this election for? Whose interests do they serve, when the vast majority of the Filipino people, who are workers and peasant farmers, cannot represent themselves? If the Philippines is a democracy, why is the biggest democratic demand of the Filipino people, which is a demand for land and livelihood, not met? This question is why our organization was formed.
The Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle formed earlier this year as a global organization in support of the longstanding movement of the Filipino people for national and social liberation, toward a socialist future. We are stepping up in fearless support of the fearless struggle in the Philippines.
We are here to say that we support the liberation of the Philippines from the three-way social contradiction that holds that land and livelihood, away from the hands of the people, in the hands of just a few.
We are here to say that we support the liberation of the Filipino people from the problems:
- firstly, of imperialism, which is foreign monopoly capitalism, primarily US and including Canadian capital, and its aggressive exploitation of the Filipino people;
- secondly, of feudalism, which is the unequal ownership of land and permanent indentured servitude of the tens of millions of peasant farmers in the Philippine countryside;
- and thirdly, of bureaucrat capitalism, the trained puppetry and corruption in the Philippine government which links the imperialists with the local Philippine reactionaries, big sellout capitalists, and big feudal landlords.
And this problem of bureaucrat capitalism is why we strongly oppose the return of the Marcoses and Dutertes, who are well known for taking billions and trillions of dollars of foreign debt in order to enrich themselves and their families.
We are here to say that we support the liberation of the Philippines by any means necessary
And moreover,
- since a consolidated twelve-point political program for the liberation of the Philippines has been put forward by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines;
- And since this is the only political program that speaks of genuine land reform, has a real plan for national industrialization, and truly aims to combat imperialism and uplift various sectors of the Filipino people
- and since the correctness of this political program has been shown through the unwavering revolutionary struggle of the workers and peasants of the Philippines for decades, to take back land from the feudal landlords and foreign multinationals, and instead to build, in every corner of the Philippine archipelago, the organs of political power which are the seeds of the future People’s Democratic Government of the Philippines
Since we see through their revolutionary practice the correctness of this program, and since we intend to be on the right side of history, our organization is openly in support of the 12-point political program of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
Our struggle in the international arena is for the recognition of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines as a belligerent force, an equal, in the civil war in the Philippines, which is the Filipino people’s war for liberation from their three basic problems.
Our struggle is to pressure for the resumption of the peace talks, not because we feel that peace can be attained through talking alone, but because it’s an arena where the NDFP can put its program on full display in front of the reactionary sellout Government of the Philippines.
History has shown that if that government is led by the Duterte or Marcos cliques, they cannot be trusted to approach the people’s revolutionary movement or their revolutionary program with anything but deceit and brutality.
Instead, we can expect that if they take power, the oppression will heighten, and that the youth of the Philippine nation will rise up again like they have done consistently when faced with one enemy or another.
Anakbayan Canada, on your second Congress, you have gathered over a hundred of the brightest leaders of the Philippine youth from across Canada. Your unity, broadness, and strength are an inspiration to us all, and we are excited to echo your calls against the US-Marcos-Duterte alliance.
This is why we join voices with you here today to say:
No to US-Marcos-Duterte!
Long live the youth of the Philippine nation!
Long live the Filipino people!
Long live the Philippine revolution!
Long live international solidarity!