We echo the statement of the International Women’s Alliance in which a member organisation that people’s rights are not guaranteed under the dominant global system, and women from working classes have shown that these can only be claimed by exercising people’s sovereignty through organized collective actions.
It often means standing up against corporations, elite-led states and confronting state violence. The International Women’s Alliance salutes the working class for its tireless contributions to society – and its relentless struggle against exploitation, imperialist war, and violence against women.
This May 1, we reiterate our call to support the worker’s struggle, to reject neoliberal false solutions, and to continue to fight for a world free of exploitation and corporate domination.
[Berlin, 09 October 2019] A two-day forum on 5-6 October composed of panel discussions and workshops tackling political and social issues such as imperialism and neo-colonialism, racism, territorial and natural resources defense, anti-patriarchal struggles, and internationalism marked the opening of the first Anticolonial Month (5 Oct- 15 Nov) in Berlin. The forum which gathered together more than 200 participants from Berlin and elsewhere is designed as a venue not only to discuss and consume information but an open space to acquire a deeper understanding of each other’s struggles and strategies in order to forge a strong unity to mutually advance all struggles.
Zara Alvarez of Negros Island Health Integrated Program for Community Development Inc., along with Abel from the National Indigenous Association of Colombia, and Ferhat from the Kurdish Student Federation were the invited speakers in the Panel “Defending Our Territories and Natural Resources: Strategies and Practices of Resistance in the Global South”. The three shared and illustrated their particular conditions and peoples’ resistance against the control of their lands and rivers by aggressive imperialist powers through their local ruling elites.
Zara is actively involved in campaigns against the construction of a Mega Shipyard that will displace hundreds of poor families in the coastal area of Negros, of the continuing operations and applications of foreign mining companies exacerbated by the foreign serving Philippine Mining Act of 1995, as well as in strengthening the collective actions of farmers in occupying idle landlord lands thru “Bungkalan”. She expressed her increasing alarm as the peoples’ resistance are being met by heightened Duterte government’s sponsored killings and harassments thru the Oplan Sauron, where 87 deaths have been recorded in the last three years since Duterte came to power. As a conclusion she thanked the people in Anticolonial Berlin and all those who are present in creating spaces to listen to their plight and struggles and to be in solidarity with them.
Abel belongs to an Indigenous Group in Colombia, and was part of the Asturias program in Spain for temporary protection. The Program enabled him to travel to Germany and speak in the panel. The Program is now over and he has to go back to Colombia despite the imminent threat to his life. He discussed with fervor their century old suffering from colonial power, the betrayal of their own ruling government and their- the indigenous peoples enduring fight for their rights, lands and territories. Their groups’ symbol of struggle is an Indigenous Guard with a wooden spear, denoting their principle to non- violent means of resistance. He noted however that the increasingly brutal and repressive state reactions against their non-violent defiance is pushing them to even consider taking up arms. He ended with a call for support to their struggle, not for him but for the generations to come and expression of his peoples’ staunch oath to defend their mother earth, as good sons and daughters would do.
Ferhat talked about the threat of a mega dam that will not only displace hundreds of families but could wipe out a thousands of years old world historical heritage, the birthplace of the oldest civilization discovered so far that emerged from the fertile lands of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. The resistance of the Kurdish people, who highly value not only the rights of the affected peoples in the proposed dam but also the historic significance of this heritage have been met with repression from the Turkish government, the main sponsor for the construction.
The panel concluded with discussions revolving around how imperialist powers and their hands thru repressive local regimes have its deep historical colonial roots and that it continues and increasingly becoming more aggressive in the face of ever worsening crisis of the monopoly capitalist system, wanton destruction of natural resources that results to the climate crisis, and the growing resistance of the peoples in different parts of the globe.
The Anticolonial month is organized to actively claim the space and platform to speak for ourselves, the exploited and the oppressed, particularly the conditions in our home countries and how they are connected to the politics and economics of our residence country, Germany and to engage in defining solutions that are just and humane. Different activities organized by the anticolonial Berlin and other independent organizations are spread out in different days within the duration of the Anticolonial Month.
The idea is initiated by the Bloque Latino Americano Berlin, a progressive internationalist network of individuals and social and political organisations coming from different countries in South America. It is then taken up as a collaborative work by various organisations and network based in Berlin including Gabriela Germany, Migrante Europe, Africa United Sports Club, Unidos por la Paz-Alemania, Ni Una Menos Berlin, Mapuche Solidaritaetsgruppe, Voces de Guatemala, Schwarze Hochshulgruppe, Refracta, Humboldt Huaca, Nav-Dem, Academics for Peace, Frauenstreik Komitee Berlin, Palestina Speaks, JXK & YXK Berlin, Kale Amenge, and Revolutionaere Internationalistische Organisation/Klasse gegen Klasse.
Karin Louise Filipino-German academic activist | Indigenous Rights, Climate Justice & Aloha ‘Āina | M.A. in Pacific Islands Studies | PhD Candidate in American Studies | International Relations Officer of Gabriela Germany.
With every passing year that countries and transnational corporations put economic profits over people, we move one step closer to our worst-case climate catastrophes of 4 to 8 degrees of global warming with fast melting ice-caps and rising sea-levels. Here in Germany where I’m currently based, we already tangibly experienced extended heatwaves causing drought and forest fires last summer. Elsewhere there are stronger natural disasters like supertyphoons, and snow storms from polar vortexes become common occurrences as well.
Climate change impacts women and members of other vulnerable and structurally-disadvantaged communities like Indigenous Peoples more severely as they may have less access to resources. Oftentimes women are the ones in charge of the household, child-rearing, and care-giving of elders. And in the Philippines they are also sometimes the main breadwinners in a family, because this female care labour force is outsourced as domestic work elsewhere.
Poverty and corruption in the Philippines from centuries of Spanish and American colonialism burden the livelihood of much of the population enough. Now climate change with its strengthening natural disasters mean that in the case of devastation, women find themselves in scenarios of not only struggling to find shelter, food, and clean drinking-water, but also desperate to evade the higher risk of sexual violence during a state of emergency.
Indigenous Peoples in particular are at the frontlines of climate action in the Global South, yet also in the Global North, where this January Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau was violently evicting activists/protectors from the Wet’suwet’en Nation from their land in the way of the TransMountain oil pipeline. And I have spoken here in Berlin against the North Dakota Access Pipeline at rallies before, too. In many of these movements, it’s the women who are leading the resistance to protect Mother Earth.
While Brazil and the Philippines are under strongman leadership by macho-fascists, they are also the countries with the highest and second-highest rate of murders to environmental defenders in the last years. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Kankana-ey-Igorot), and several other Indigenous Filipinas are women who have found themselves placed on national terrorist lists: as enemies of the state for protecting their land from environmental destruction.
When agribusinesses enforce land-grabbing, environmental defenders in their way literally risk their lives. After a deadly landslide in the Philippines causing over 60 deaths, a local woman asked the President about shutting down the quarry that was likely to have caused it. She then went into hiding for having openly criticized him and called attention to herself. Mining corporations bring a lot of male aggression into regions were women and children become the targets of violence, trafficking, and prostitution. If not outright murder, as is the case in North America’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (#MMIW).
In November of 2013, Supertyphoon Haiyan ravaged the islands of Samar and Leyte in the Philippines, to date with more than 6000 human fatalities and 1000 still missing. Warming oceans caused a stronger typhoon than the typical ones that hit the region during typhoon season. The seawater rose in the low-pressure system of the eye of the typhoon and caused a storm surge that the population hadn’t been warned about or prepared for.
This storm surge was well over 2 storeys high rolling across infrastructure, including the city of Tacloban where my uncle, aunt, and cousin live. They were presumed to be among the dead in the hardest-hit area, the peninsula the city’s airport was on, cut off from any communication. But they were found after 3 days, when another relative connected to the military had made his way there from a neighbouring province. The reason I mention the storm surge is also because women in the Philippines are discouraged from learning how to swim. They don’t even stand a chance to survive sudden-onset flooding in an archipelago of over 7100 islands.
The same racist forces of American colonialism and neocolonialism the Philippines has been under since 1898, are why Flint still doesn’t have clean drinking-water, why Puerto Rico is still rebuilding after Hurricane Maria while many residents have migrated to the U.S. continent. Colonialism is why the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, within the path of the same typhoons that regularly hit the Philippines, still has residents living in shelters and tents after Typhoon Mangkhut and Supertyphoon Yutu destroyed their homes in September and October.
While some governments and their politicians are still denying climate change as man-made, a handful of global corporations are responsible for causing the major part of carbon emissions that led to this climate catastrophe and the masses of plastic pollution that cannot simply be shipped out of sight (and out of mind) any longer.
Climate justice calls for not only funding poorer nations and communities already impacted by climate change towards adaptation, but also for an implementation of just transition and compensations for loss and damage. This means that moving away from fossil fuels cannot come with unjust consequences for a labour force impacted by this energy transition, or with false solutions that don’t consider the consequences in the long-run. False imperialist solutions can take away more Indigenous lands for palm oil plantations or even promote nuclear energy as a safe alternative to fossil fuels, when colonization is the only reason that the storage of nuclear waste is not considered in these plans, as it’s merely disposed of near marginalized communities.
It’s affecting us all globally, but at a different speed and intensity. Postponing a collective system change of the capitalist system of profit and growth over human dignity is still seen as a worthwhile gamble in the global North, when others are already losing their homes, livelihoods, and lives in the global South and on Indigenous territory to an insatiable imperialist greed.
Mula sa Migrante-Europe, isang taas kamaong pagsaludo ang aking ipinapaabot sa mga kasapi at opisyales at mga panauhin at tagasuporta ng Gabriela-Germany sa araw inyong pagkakatatag.
Makasaysayan ang pagtitipon ninyong ito sa Berlin sapagkat ito ay simbolo ng inyong pagkakaisa na harapin ang hamon ng mga isyung kinakaharap ng sektor ng kababaihang Pilipino sa Pilipinas at sa ibang panig ng mundo.
Sa ilalim ng gobyernong US-Duterte, ang mga kababaihan ang isa sa mga sektor na apektado ng kanyang di-makatarungan, kontra-mamamayan at makadayuhang-interes na polisiya at pamamahala.
Sa dulo ng anti-drug war ng US-Duterte na walang pagrespeto sa karapatang pantao ng libu-libong mga biktima na inosente at suspetsado na pinagkaitan ng karapatang ipagtanggol ang sarili sa batas at hukuman ay halos mga mahihirap na mamamayan at marami sa kanila ay mga kababaihang nawalan ng asawa, anak at katuwang sa buhay.
Ang pabigat ng bagong buwis na isinabatas ng US-Duterte sa mamamayang Pilipino ay dagdag na pasanin para mga kababaihang malaki ang ginagampanan sa paghahanap-buhay at pagtugon sa mga batayang pangangailangan ng isang pamilya.
Dito sa Europe kabilang na ang Germany, ay maraming mga kababaihang Pilipino ang nakakaranas ng hindi-makatarungang pagtrato mula sa kanilang katuwang sa buhay, kasamahan sa trabaho at maging sa kanyang kinabibilangang komunidad.
Ang pagkakatatag ng Gabriela-Germany ay simbolo ng inyong kolektibong paglahok na gampanan ang tungkulin sa pambansa-demokratikong pakikibaka ng mamamayang Pilipino para sa katarungan, kapayapaan at ganap na kalayaan.
Mabuhay ang Gabriela-Germany!
Mabuhay ang mga kababaihang Pilipinong nakikibaka para karapatan at katarungan!
Mabuhay mamamayang Pilipinong nakikibaka sa para sa ganap na kalayaan at demokrasya!
Mabuhay ang sambayanan Pilipino!
Father Herbert Fadriquela
Chairperson
Migrante-Europe
The inspiration to create the Gabriela Germany is drawn from the other Gabriela overseas chapters that have been existing not only in the United States but also in Europe (Italy, Denmark).
In the Philippines, GABRIELA National Alliance of Women is a grassroots-based alliance of more than 200 organizations, institutions, desks and programs of women all over the Philippines seeking to wage a struggle for the liberation of all oppressed Filipino women and the rest of our people. While we vigorously campaign on women-specific issues such as women’s rights, gender discrimination, violence against women and women’s health and reproductive rights, GABRIELA is also at the forefront of national and international economic and political issues that affects women.
Gabriela Germany is therefore an extension of the Filipino women’s struggle in Germany. At the same time it seeks to unite with other local organizations that struggle and advance for the same cause.
GABRIELA stands for General Assembly Binding Women for Reforms, Integrity, Education, Leadership, and Action. It is also named in honor of GABRIELA SILANG, the first Filipino woman to lead a revolt against the Spanish colonization of the Philippines.
Migrante-Europe supported the showing of the film Sunday Beauty Queen in this year’s 2nd Philippine Film Festival-Berlin. It was the culminating film for the festival, which ran from November 3-5, and 8-12. The film, directed by Baby Ruth Villarama, is a documentary featuring the lives of five domestic workers in Hong Kong and how they spend their Sundays organizing and participating in beauty pageants in order to alleviate homesickness and foster community in a foreign land. More than a hundred people, mostly Filipinos and some Germans went to see the film and participated in the roundtable discussion (RTD) held afterwards. The Philippine Film Festival-Berlin, the only film festival in Germany that showcases Filipino films is organized by The First Reel, and the Philippine Studies Series-Berlin, and supported by various organizations in Germany.
The discussion theme for the SBQ was “Philippine Migrants’ struggles and desires”. Two Germany-based members of Migrante-Europe–Elnora Held and Father Mark Jun Yañez were invited as panelists to the RTD. Held is a member of Gabriela-Germany and the auditor of the Migrante-Europe, while Yañez is the port chaplain of the Seamen mission in Hamburg. The other panelists were Krisanta Caguioa-Moenich, a language mediator in Banying, organization that helps migrant women who are victims of violence, Megha Amrith, an urban anthropologist of migration, and Lisa May David, an artist who previously worked on issues of identity and migration.
The discussion lasted for more than an hour, as the audience got actively engaged by asking questions and sharing some thoughts about the theme and the film. During the discussion, there was a general agreement among the panelists and the audience that the film presents a sad reality on how hard the lives of the majority of domestic workers in Hong Kong are. Most of the discussions also revolved around the significant contributions of Migrant workers to the Philippine economy and the government’s weak efforts in securing their rights abroad and helping migrants facing various problems such as violence or abuse in their host country. Held emphasized that present-day migration is mostly forced migration: caused by war, poverty, and even climate change. She added that forced migration can only be addressed by solving these root causes. Father Yañez stated that Filipino seafarers are in demand as they are of highly qualified but cheap. “The government however is not bent on addressing this issue believing that pushing for the increase of Seafarers’ wages will prompt hiring companies to take cheaper labor from other countries, thus reducing their potential remittances” he added. In his experience working with the Seamen, most of them are not happy with their work because it means being away from the family. However, their family and the desire to give them a better future are the reasons why they take these jobs. The seamen hope that Philippine economy will get better soon and that they no longer need to be away from their families just do they can provide for their needs.
Some notable contributions from the audience were on the discussion of the Labor Export Policy and the sharing of an experience by a former overseas domestic worker herself. The discussion ended with insights from the panel and the audience on what migrants in Germany can do to help their fellow migrants.
[BERLIN, 26 June 2017] Nothing About Us, Without Us! Migrants and refugees from Europe and around the world will hold the SPEAK OUT STREET EVENT on Wednesday, 28 June, in Berlin, Germany, as a counter-action to the UN Global Forum on Migration and Development and as an activity of the 7th International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR7).
The 28th of June 2017 is the official opening of the 10th Summit Meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD). It will be attended by highlevel and senior government policy makers, and will talk about issues and policies on migration and social development. Those who are directly affected by these policies — the migrants and refugees – are not part of the GFMD. They and their allies are organizing a counter-event and will gather at the Brandenburg Gate at 9:00am for the SPEAK OUT STREET EVENT. At around noontime, they will march to the venue of the GFMD Summit at the German Federal Foreign Office.
The migrant and refugee communities will claim their space and assert their right to be seen and heard. It is important to give space to the voices that challenge the legitimacy and capacity of the GFMD to effectively address the problems and respond adequately to the challenges of migration and development. These grassroots and frontline communities will share their perspectives and solutions to the problems confronting them and engage with policymakers in the parliament of the streets, bearing witness to their effective exclusion from decisionmaking processes that affect them principally but which take place behind closed doors.
The 10th GFMD Summit is taking place amidst a global migration and refugee crisis that has witnessed the flight of millions of people fleeing extreme poverty, from countries destroyed by resource wars and wars of aggression, and devastated by the impacts of climate change.
Under the guise of creating “legal, orderly and safe migration pathways and channels”, discriminatory and racist policies of preselection allow only ‘highlyskilled and knowledge migrants’ to access and enter the territories of European Union member states. This right is denied to majority of those who are the most impoverished and who seek a better life, or those who are victims of various forms of persecution.
This policy also effectively discriminates and criminalizes the majority of migrants and refugees who have already entered and established their right of abode in the European Union. Taking place in Germany where its schizophrenic policy has received close to a million migrants and asylum-seekers in 2015, at the same time as it prepares to deport over 200,000 migrants, among them, the undocumented, the ‘economic migrants’ and rejected asylum‐seekers. Those profiled as ‘irregulars’ face arrest, detention and massive deportation.
The SPEAK OUT STREET EVENT will send a strong message to the high-level and senior government policy makers as well as the general public regarding the continued marginalization of refugees, migrants and immigrants affected by forced migration and human trafficking. Spearheading the event is the International Migrants Alliance (IMA), in cooperation with the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), GABRIELA Germany, IBON International, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, the International Women’s Alliance, MIGRANTE Europe, and supported by Churches Witnessing With Migrants (CWWM), COURAGE, Coalition Against Trump, Democracy in Europe Movement 25 – Berlin, Die Linke International, and Solidarity International. The SPEAK OUT STREET EVENT is an activity of the 7th International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR7).
