In this mailing:

1. Strikers Massacred in the Phillipines
2. Letter of solidarity
3. Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal: Ten reasons why the Arroyo regime is ripe for the ousting

Subject: STRIKERS MASSACRED IN THE PHILIPPINES: BMP (initials for Solidarity of Filipino Workers, in Tagalog, one of the labor federations in the Philippines-KM) SOLIDARITY APPEAL


STRIKERS MASSACRED IN THE PHILIPPINES
Three days ago, on 16 November, fourteen people were killed by army and police in the Philippines. They were strikers at the Hacienda Luisita, in Tarlac.

The strike is in defence of 327 workers fired by management in a clear-cut case of union busting. The union was defending the right of workers to collectively bargain for wage increases.

The strike busting was carried out by the Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas, who through the strike breaking mechanism -- "assumption of jurisdiction" of the strike -- issued a "return to work order" thus setting the scene for the police and army to move in.

Two of those killed were children, aged two and five, who died from suffocation as a result of the tear gas used. Some 35 people suffered gunshot wounds, 133 were arrested, hundreds more were wounded.

Hacienda Luisita is owned by the family of former president Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino, who replaced the dictator Marcos during the 1986 Edsa uprising.

The trade union movement in the Philippines has called for massive protests condemning the murders, demanding a full investigation of what happened. They are demanding justice for the workers, that hundreds of workers illegally dismissed be rehired, and that criminal charges against the strikers be dropped. They are also demanding the repeal of the 'assumption of jurisdiction' authority of the labor department, and resignation of the Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas.

The protest actions have begun and will continue next week, with coordinated nation-wide actions, culminating in a major mobilisation on November 30.

Please send your messages of solidarity to be read out at the protests and to be sent on to the Department of Labor and Employment.

BMP International Desk

bmp_philippines (at) yahoo.com

It is with great sadness that I have read the news of the massacre of striking workers at the at the Hacienda Luisita. I condemn this murder of 14 people, two of them children, and injury to hundreds. Likewise I demand the immediate release of all who have been imprisoned.

Today the U.S. government has troops in the Phillipines that are supposedly there fighting against “terrorists� on the side of the Phillipino government. Yet this action of repression by the police and Phillipino armed forces lays clear that the true terrorist in the Phillipines are the repressive forces of the government and the capitalist interests they protect. U.S. support for the current set of butchers in the Phillipines is only a continuation of their same policies of support for the Marcos dictatorship.

The Worker’s Democracy Party of the United States strongly condemns these murders, calls for the immediate release of all strikers, and demands that the U.S. government withdraw all troops from the Phillipines.

Sincerely, Steven Argue
For the Worker’s Democracy Party

I am also a representative on the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council and sit on Executive Board of the Service Employees International Union where I will be submitting resolutions of solidarity as well.


Also read:

Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal: Ten reasons why the Arroyo regime is ripe for the ousting: groups.yahoo.com/group/Liberation_News/message/567