Migrante Europe

Tag: democracy

  • Neither the claws of the Dragon nor the Eagle: we stand for a truly independent Philippines

    Neither the claws of the Dragon nor the Eagle: we stand for a truly independent Philippines

    Press Statement
    June 12, 2015

    On the occasion of June 12, Bayan calls on the Filipino people to stand in defense of national sovereignty and territorial integrity against the foreign powers that seek to tear the Philippines apart. Today we are reminded that the Philippines is not truly free.

    We denounce in the strongest terms the aggressive actions and incursions of China in the West Philippine Sea, in blatant violation of the UNCLOS. China’s imperialist agenda is behind the grabbing of our seas and islands. We vow to resist such actions and call on the people to fight back through the various political and diplomatic means available to us.

    We likewise reject the increasing US intervention in the maritime dispute with China. The US cares not for Philippine sovereignty and territorial claims and is merely concerned with freedom of navigation in international waters. The US is more interested in reestablishing is bases and increasing its troop presence in the Philippines as part of its pivot to Asia. Decades of US military presence in our country has brought us never-ending woes and has severely and shamefully undermined our sovereignty.

    Both the US and China connive to exploit the Philippine economy, including our workforce and our natural resources. Both have economic interests in the Philippines. Both stand to gain from the ongoing efforts to change the economic provisions of the PH Constitution.

    We will not be caught in the claws of the Dragon nor the Eagle. We stand for a truly free, independent and self-reliant Philippines. We stand for an independent foreign policy based on our national interest and respect for our sovereignty.

    We assail the puppetry of the Aquino regime who up to now has no strategic plan for developing the domestic economy and our capacity for external defense. As with the economy and everything else, Aquino relies on foreign interests to boost our external defense vs China. This is precisely what keeps us weak. Aquino has failed to lay the foundation for an effective external defense not reliant and dictated on by the US.

    We are not helpless in the face of the big powers. Our people are our greatest strength. A patriotic movement is now developing to counter China’s incursions and US intervention.

    In the coming days we vow to:

    1.       Continue holding protest actions against the imperialist designs of the US and China.

    2.       Conduct a wide-scale education campaign on the matter of Philippine sovereignty and territorial integrity and mobilize the people for their defense

    3.       Press the Philippine government to undertake the necessary steps to defend Philippine sovereignty in our waters and islands while rejecting one-sided pacts such as the US EDCA

    4.       Press the PH government to nationalize the industries and enterprises of the countries that commit hostile acts against the Philippines

    5.       Fight for national industrialization and genuine agrarian reform as the main requisite for developing and strengthening the economy so that we can have a basis for an effective defense capability.

    We reiterate our solidarity with the working people of China and the US, that they too oppose the imperialist agenda of their governments and promote peace instead of imperialist aggression.

    To Filipino people, it is time to rise up. Tindig, Pinas! Tindig Pilipino! Ipagtanggol ang soberanya at integridad sa teritoryo ng ating Inang Bayan! ###

  • We condemn EU’s anti-migrant ” Mos Maiorum ” – ILPS

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    ILPS-Phils Statement
    23 October 2014

    The ILPS-Philippines joins migrant Filipinos in condemning before the European Union Office in the Philippines the on-going police operations launched by 26 European countries to detect, detain and deport what they brand as “irregular migrants”.

     This herding cracked by the whip of the incumbent Italian presidency of the Council of the EU is particularly vile. It coined the operations as “Mos Maiorum” (ancestral custom, way of the elders or social mores of ancient Rome). It harks back to Imperial Rome whose “legal citizens” are only those ruling inside the city walls and living by the sweat of slaves.  All others are “barbarians” and deserve to be expelled or conquered by the sword, this time by the Carabinieri and 20,000 troops.

     The current immigration problem in Europe comes not from discrimination alone but from the crisis itself of modern imperialism. The most recent influx of European immigrants came from the implosion of the Soviet Union and the Balkanization of Eastern Europe. The current surge of immigrants into Europe, and more particularly Italy, comes mainly from the conflict areas such as Syria and Eritrea – countries whose peoples have fallen prey to imperialist wars of intervention and aggression.

     Migrants are not questions of security and criminality. They are a consequence of wars and conflicts, especially in the Middle East and Africa. They grow with the inequalities and underdevelopment under imperialist rule from Latin America to Asia.

     According to the United Nations, there are 51 million refugees. In 2013 alone, there were 17 million people fleeing. “Fortress Europe” has not stemmed this stream of human beings even with costly walls.

     About two billion Euros were invested in the buffer zone around EU. Frontex received in 2013 as much as 85 million Euros. Europe launched Eurosur, in charge of the European border control, which will receive during the next six years approximately 250 million Euros.

     According to research, the amount of cameras and kilometers of fences on the European borders is an over-kill. Tens of thousands of border patrols were hired to be based at the borders, from Bulgaria to Spain. In countries as the UK, Hungary and Austria, refugees are locked up in jails. In Greece, Malta, Poland and Bulgaria, even non-accompanied minor asylum-seekers are locked up.

    To solve the “illegal” migrant problem with detect-detain-deport solutions will only repeat and compound the problem. The migrant problem, from outside Europe, and from within Europe itself, must be approached with full respect for refugee and migrants rights.

     

    When Jean-Claude Juncker won the backing of the European Parliament to become the new head of the EU Commission, he promised a complete restructuring of the financial supervision by the “Troika” – the EU, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank.  This is a step in the right direction. However, this should not be for their own “democracy” but for more democracy by the direct actions of migrants and the peoples of host nations in Europe.