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Original Writing

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Categories
Translations

Buhay na Walang Batas

Ang Buhay na Walang Batas” ay unang inilathala ng Strangers In a Tangled Wilderness bilang “Life Without Law: An Introduction to Anarchist Politics” noong 2013. Inisalin sa Tagalog ni Lahumbuwan.


Paunang Salita ng Tagasalin

Magalak kong pinasasalamatan ang aming mga kaibigan sa Strangers In a Tangled Wilderness na pumayag sa pagsasalin ng kanilang teksto. Nagpapasalamat din ako kay Magsalin at Butingtaon para sa kanilang oras at tulong.

Maari ninyong hanapin ang orihinal na teksto sa ingles sa website ng Strangers In a Tangled Wilderness mismo o sa Anarchist Library.


Introduksyon sa Pulitikang Anarkista

Nais ko ay kalayaan, ang karapatang ipahayag ang aking saloobin, ang karapatan nating lahat sa mga ginhawa at kagandahan.

Emma Goldman, 1931

Ang anarkista ay isang tao na tumatanggi sa pangingibabaw ng iisang tao o uri sa iba. Ang anarkismo ay isang malawak na termino para sa isang grupo ng pilosopiyang pulitikal na nakasalig sa ideya na maari tayong mamuhay bilang mga anarkista. Ang gusto naming mga anarkista ay isang mundong walang bansa, gobyerno, kapitalismo, rasismo, seksismo, diskriminasyon kontra-LGBTQ+… isang mundo kung wala ni isa sa pagka-rami-raming nagkaka-halo-halong mga sistema ng pangiibabaw na nagpapabigat sa mundo ngayon.

Categories
Pamphlets Translations

Ang Programang Anarkista

Sinulat ni Errico Malatesta noong 1920. Isinalin sa Tagalog ni Malaginoo. Pinasalamatan ni Malaginoo si Lahumbuwan sa kanilang tulong sa pagsasalin.


Paunang Salita ng Tagasalin

Isinulat ni Errico Malatesta ang polyetong Ang Programang Anarkista at ipinagtibay nito ng Unione Anarchica Italiana sa kongreso nila sa Bologna noong 1920. Hango ang pagsasaling ito mula sa Ingles na bersiyon ni Vernon Richards sa tekstong Errico Malatesta: His Life and Ideas na inilathala noong 1965 ng Freedom Press.

Categories
Original Writing

Super Typhoon Aftermath Rage

Written by Libre, a survivor of Typhoon Odette.


On December 2021, Super Typhoon Odette traumatized over a million Filipinos in the Visayas and Mindanao region. There was nothing Merry in Christmas, nothing Happy in the New Year. There was only darkness, loneliness, and misery for the thousands who have lost their homes, loved ones, and access to needs.

A time without electricity and connectivity.

A time of helplessness and hopelessness.

We were cut off from the world and it felt like an eternity.

Aftermath Scenes

In daylight, there seemed to be an endless queue for drinking water, washing water, and gasoline. Some had to travel far to find other sources of water and needs, such as: tarpaulines, radios, flashlights, fans, etc. Some had to risk exposing all their things outside to dry it all up, while a family member rebuilds their house.

At night, it’s hard for us to sleep for how can we when we know it’s when robberies, and possibly murders, happen? Stores — big and small — have been ransacked. Some people had to deal with the deafening noise of generators; they’re living near rich houses, hospitals, and other big establishments.

Some wished for the sun so they can get their needs and fix what they can. Others wished for the rain so they can get water and escape the heat. We saw our surroundings almost wiped out. Plants and trees have become bald, bent, and broken. Power and Telecommunication posts have fallen down or broken into two. Water pipes in many places have been severely damaged.

It’s as if we have been transported to another place. Our neighborhood has become foreign to us. And it’s all the more heartbreaking to see hanging handwritten signs: ‘WE NEED HELP PLS :(’

Aftermath Rage

We witnessed people organizing to provide drinking/washing water, charging stations, and information on active banks, stores, and signal spots. On the other hand, there were those who were selling overpriced needs. A bottle of water, not even a liter, was selling for Php 60. A liter of gasoline rose up to Php 100, and etc. And of course, Politicians. Plastering their faces on water tanks and taking pictures of people receiving goods without their fucking consent. All for their fucking show and greed. Mga Pakitang Tao!

There was absolutely no way to contact for thousands of people to get in contact with their outside Visayas/Mindanao. We had to listen to radios for news and updates, but they mostly only broadcast reports outside our area. There was barely anything in ours. It’s maddening. It’s as if no one cares about us.

But what’s even worse and utterly frustrating is when radio broadcasters try to gives us a voice and ends it with the line: ‘MAGAMPO LANG TA SA GINOO.’ (Dasal lang tayo sa Diyos/ Let’s just pray to God).

Repeatedly so.

Now there is the one line, among the many, that has stunted us, Filipinos, for decades.

The Church, its God and Religious Morality

I say to you mga kababayan: God is man-made.

The Church, it’s God and Religious Morality, has contributed to stunting the Spirits of the Filipinos. It has brought us nothing but misery, self-hate, misogyny, unhealthy relationships, and ultimately, blind obedience to authority.

There is no Christian God. Jesus Christ is not coming back ever. The Bible is a well-written fiction. Heaven, Hell, and Limbo are imaginary; therefore empty threats. Religious Morality is a lie.

The Christian God, combined with Religious Morality, is a religious device used by the church to manipulate us into submission. Into blind faith and obedience. They use it to keep our rage and spirit in their control.

The Holy Bible is a drama. The Church is the center for Spectacles. It’s encouraged in the Bible to join the drama, for the readers to decide their roles into the show called living because it’s yet to be finished; therefore we can say that the Christian Communities are live-action role players or LARPers.

It’s no different from people participating in cosplay conventions or live-action role plays to have fun through living out a fictional world together with other fans.

Notice that the masses are scripted? From what the priest says down to what our responses should be. At the start of it, we live as Adams and Eves who have sinned and have been cast out of Eden. Then we participate in the Last Supper, where the body and blood of Christ cleanses our sins. Like I said, live-action role play.

During the mass, we are also spoonfed. Come to think of it, there’s no answer and question portion! All we had to do is listen, accept whatever comes out of the priest’s mouth as true, and live it out. It’s that easy! Oh, bring the children too. Teach them young, you see. For as children, in our innocence and need for guidance, we tend to believe more. Poison them young.

Right from when we were still young, we are told to not question or doubt God and his Will because it’s a sin and then we are threatened with hell and karma. Children get spooked easy, you know it.

We are also forbidden to engage in sexual acts of nature. No masturbation. No pre-marital sex. Yes to forced monogamy or marriage. Did you ever wonder why?

Oh, I’ll tell you why: Sex is a strong force within us. It inspires creativity, freedom, and imagination within us.((The Element of Sex in Life by Emma Goldman)) By suppressing our sexual nature, we’re not able to overcome antisocial impulses, which results to sexual ills, such as: Pedophilia, Rape, etc;((Sexual Revolution by Wilhelm Reich)) but not to be confused with Neurodivergence. Authority and Sexual Repression are linked. Therefore by being sexually repressed, we also become miserable enough to fucking helplessly submit not only to their power, but also to others.

I also want to point out a reality that has been going on for a long time now: Priests were, and still are, forbidden to get involved with women because they have demonized them. Being sexually repressed, these priests, having failed to overcome their antisocial impulses, are now involved in sexual abusing and organizing sex slavery on nuns, young men, and children.

Back to Authority and Sexual Repression: Notice when a partner sexually deprives the other, the other will do anything at all, from throwing the garbage to cleaning the house. We will cover more of this later.

As a consequence: When we, Filipinos, get into a relationship we can’t help but think of marriage as the end goal; without considering if we are compatible with the person in the mind, sex, and spirit. We become ‘melodramatic’. The church, in effect, has contributed to this ride-or-die mindset in a relationship, that no matter how toxic it has become, we try to save the it.

And did you know that as long as marriage as an institution exists, so will prostitution? Prostitutes have been supplied for married men centuries ago, and now to married women as well. It serves as their outlet for lust. For the Wife must be akin to Mary, the good girls. And for good girls to exist, there must be bad girls. Good and bad, that’s how Religious Morality works.

Prostitution has also been defended by the likes of Saint Thomas Aquinas. In fact, a lot of churches before have owned brothels.

Religious Morality is absolute. But for Morality to work, the church must impose their standards of good to them and their followers, and their standards of bad to others, especially those who are against them.

The Church knows exactly what they are doing because they fear the free spirit within us. The free spirit who rages at the face of injustice, tyranny, and force. They fear it so much that they took a massive effort for millenias — you read that right, for over 2,000 years — to shut it out, costing millions of lives. And they poison us right to when we are most vulnerable: in our childhood.

If you’re thinking the question: What did people believe before?

Oh, ancient people did believe in gods. They made gods because they are still yet to know the reason behind phenomena such as lightning, storms, and other natural disasters. But when they did, they were able to let them go — they unmade them. This has happened for tens of thousands of years, until Christianity got us stuck with their God.

I say: A God that humans have the difficulty of letting go, is essentially a tool of manipulation. Indeed, I am also referring to Allah, Buddha, and the other gods remaining in the present.

The Government, it’s Laws and Enforcers

See it’s like playing domino: When the Church falls, so will the Government, and the rest follows.

The Government needs the Church to stay in power. When the government tries to separate itself from the church — don’t get fooled, mga kababayan. Remember that it’s only a facade, among many that is.

Without the Church, no one will take their Laws and Money seriously as in the present. The people in the ancient times specifically the Wendats, laugh at the face of their leader; someone who plays chief.((Chapter 2 in The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow)) The chiefs are also the ‘poorest’ of them for they are expected to give away their wealth to the needy and to take care of them.

In ancient times, they follow these chiefs only as it pleases them. Nothing more. They have experimented on different social and economical concepts as it suits them best, depending on the season. Going back and forth, from having a chief to none. For more than tens of thousands of years, they were careful and protected their freedom with all their mind and might. It was hard for anyone to force someone to submit to them. They were not the ‘savages’, we are: The Modern Humans.

Money is only valid through belief. That is the power of belief, which has been used against us. Money is only made through loans and compound interests. When a Filipino goes to a bank to loan or borrow money, the bank does not get money from their vaults, no. Money is being made as you pay the loan. They write down the amount on their paper, and when that is paid; there, you have ‘new’ fucking money. Fucking magic, right? Edi wow.

The Government needs the Church to make us stupid, to dumb us down. To numb our minds, to silence our free spirit, and ultimately, to bend us into submission. With the control of our imagination, freedom, and sex slipping through our fingers, the government there and then, forces us into submission.

If the line: “NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW” was actually true, the government itself will have been behind the bars right at the start. The Law only applies to the us, the commoners, the Filipinos. Never to them and the rich.

Capitalism, the Rich and the Poor

They use their Laws and its enforcers to protect themselves and the rich. Notice most laws are property laws and most crimes are property crimes? Exactly. There is a reason why Governments or States around the world incorporated the Roman Law to their own Legal Systems.

The Roman Law have made tweaks regarding private property that makes the fucking rich very, very happy.

Let me illustrate:

People in the ancient times has a different concept of property or ownership.((The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow)) When a clan is acknowledge as the ‘owner’ of an animal specie, they are expected to take good fucking care of it. To protect, nourish, and flourish it. But never to kill it.

Now in the Roman Law, a property is not a private property not until the ‘owner’ has the fucking right to destroy it.

With that, the government and the rich are legally allowed to destroy, kill, and be reckless with their private property. They have been made free from the responsibility of taking care of it. So that is when us, Filipinos, the common people, are the ones who fucking forced and paid to take care of their shit for them.

They take lands, houses, and other things from us, and then make us pay them.

How can we feed ourselves, when we aren’t allowed to plant our food?

How can we get a house of our own, when we can’t get ourselves lands and gain access to resources?

We have been made to be dependent of the whims of the Rich.

We have no choice other than for our parents to fucking pay our education, only for us to end up as moneymakers for the rich, who sits there all clean and shiny while taking away the lion’s share of our earnings and forbidding us to enjoy what we have made for them.

We have no choice but to pay rent to the landlords, who fucking use our money to renovate and maintain their ‘extra’ house and land.

We have no choice but commit crimes to fellow humans to feed our family, live as comfortably as we can, while they fucking increase the prices of everything and make our wages/salary stay the same.

They don’t give a flying shit about us — from whom they squeeze their blood money from.

All people in power never did.

They leave us to fucking starve, shiver, and die.

Our Rotten Education System

Damn straight, another culprit.

The Education System is machinery of the Government. Any school, college, or university must be ‘approved’ by the Department of Education (DepEd) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

We are being trained from kindergarten to college to study 8 hours a day; but with homeworks, it’s actually over 8 hours. We are forced to study different subjects every hour and go home with homework with tight, fucking deadlines. All to train us to work tasks that are not part of our jobs in a fast-paced environment.

Let me ask you then:

How much do you remember from your previous school years?

Were we really there to be the best version of what we can be or the best employee (teamplayer) for a company?

Were we really there so we can achieve our dreams or actually achieve our bosses’ dreams?

Were we really there to build ourselves a bright future or build the bright future of another?

After more than 2 decades of studying or dare I say: training. We start looking for jobs. And when we do work for exactly 8 hours or more. We also barely have holidays — just like in our school years — doing different and plenty of tasks in a fast-paced environment.

But we’ve become used to it right? Exactly, it’s not a coincidence.

Now let’s go back in our early school years. Notice the differences between the Values Education (Christian Living) and Science class?

God made Earth for 7 days and the Big Bang Theory. Adam and Even are our parents and the Human Evolution. Animals talk human tongue and animals don’t.

There’s a reason why we have come to overlook these differences. It was important to us to get good grades for our parents or to just get done with it.

So we say to ourselves: This is Values Education class. This is Science class. Over and over and over and over until it spills in the other aspects of our lives. Yes, unknowingly… we have learned to contain. And that’s exactly what the Education System is also doing.

We have been forced to hinder our brain, our imagination, and silence our spirit to the fucking point that we are now having a difficult time connecting things that are actually interlinked.

The Education System is not for everyone. It’s hard and it sucks because it’s government machinery to supress our critical thinking, and imagination. They don’t want our peculiarities and free spirit. No, they want us to be the best employees and law-abiding citizens there is, for them — the government and the rich.

It’s why people who excel in school are highly rewarded. They get into big companies or ‘achieve success’ at a faster pace, with ease. They are the ‘perfect’ products of the Education machinery.

I say, it’s also a factor that answers the question: Bright man unta pero nganong regilyoso pa kaayo? (Ang talino naman, per bakit ang regilyoso niya? / They’re intelligent, but why are they still so religious?)

Because they are those who have been forced to learn to contain enough to the point that they can no longer see the whys and hows of the things that are interlinked. Here I shall include the Centrists, Liberals, NatDems, and the other so-called leftists who defend the status quo.

Filipino Traits and Values

Hardworking, patient, smiling even when miserable, will do any fucking work at a fucking low pay, etc. These are among the so called Filipino Traits and Values that have been instilled to us. It’s also something we ought to be proud of.

The ever classic Pinoy Pride.

It’s not. These values and traits aren’t unique to us, Filipinos. Other people from other countries, far and wide, have been taught the same. And these have been TWISTED, even advertised to foreign investors and the rich, and NOT to our benefit.

In the Odette aftermath, people have posted and shared the words: ‘Sige lang, Pinoy baya ta.’ (Okay lang, pinoy tayo/ It’s okay, we are Filipinos) referring to Filipino resiliency.

They’re trying to give comfort or calm down those who are already raging, complaining and losing hope. Maybe, just maybe, there was no ill-intent.

But I say otherwise: It’s not without harm. It’s fucking poisonous.

I could not say it better than someone (who shall remain anonymous):

Resiliency has become a tool of manipulation. It is an outfit of pretension incapacitated people are being forced to wear to persuade others and themselves that tragedies are normal occurrences they should naturally overcome… The masses are goaded to embrace resilience through the machinations of religion, controlled historical accounts to enforce faith and patriotism, and the very government sings servitude when its quota is to reap the benefits of power. Resiliency, a thing that used to be a positive defense mechanism, is now a false shell people retreat to when to face reality with nothing but themselves to fight it.

An Appeal to the Filipinos

Now instead of listening to those dangerous live-action role players on the radios and social media: How about we hold the Power Stations, TelCos,and Government accountable for their inefficiency and incompetence?

Not only when we’re struck by merciless natural calamities.

Because the Government, TelCo and Power Stations have stolen millions, if not billions worth of hard-earned money from Filipinos for decades!

Billions of blood money from your grandchildren, children, siblings, parents, grandparents, friends, and mga kababayan; for us, Filipinos, like the rest of the world, have been forced to sacrifice our freedom, dreams, energy, and life for the Rich’s greed.

And have we ever benefited from it? Barely.

Now the government and companies say they’re here to serve us, right?

Well, they’re the ugliest liars.

But let’s just say they mean what they say… sure, there are things that do take time. But January is coming to an end, it’s been over a month now. No surprise that they have the nerve to tell us to be patient, to be understanding when there are still so many people in need of help.

In my area, they even have to sent us our bill when they haven’t fixed anything here yet. Comical shitheads.

They pocket more blood money and sleep soundly throughout the night while there are people who still can’t work to pay their bills, to have food on the their table, to sustain themselves with other needs, and to keep up with their future plans.

There’s absolutely no other reason for these damn tyrants to rest on Sundays, not hire more experts (no shortage of it), not give emergency funds, and not have initiatives for faster operations than their own damning greed.

First World countries, like Japan, have fixed damage this bad, and worse, at a faster pace; although Japan has accumulated wealth as being a former Imperial power and having benefited greatly from the growth of international Capital after WII. . The Philippines is a Third World country; and like the rest of the Third World countries, our wealth has been stolen by invaders, our leaders got lured into urbanization loans and got betrayed by the fucking International Monetary Fund (IMF).((Debt by David Graeber)) through loans and compound interests that have soared so fucking high that us, Filipinos, and the future generations have been paying and will continue to do so.

Still it begs the question: Where has our money gone?

I am against all hierarchies, let’s be very clear about that. I’m only illustrating that our rage is all the more justified.

Break the Status Quo.
Embrace your peculiarities.
Unchain your free spirit.
Rage, and let them feel it.
Hold them all accountable.

Abolish the State, it’s laws and enforcers.
Abolish the Church, it’s god and morality.
Abolish Capitalism, take back what’s ours.

Unlearn everything by questioning everything.

Long Live Anarchy!

Resources

  • The Holy Bible
  • The Modern World
  • Philippine Law Books
  • Philippine Education System
  • The Element of Sex in Life by Emma Goldman
  • Sexual Revolution by Wilhelm Reich
  • Chapter 2 in The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
  • The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow
  • Debt by David Graeber
  • Law and Authority by Peter Kropotkin
  • ABCs of Anarchism by Alexander Berkman
  • You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train by Howard Zinn
  • Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber
Categories
Translations

Anarkismo: Ano Siya at Ano Hindi Siya

Ang akdang ito ay isinulat ni Joseph A. Labadie at muling nilimbag sa dandelion, vol 3, bl. 12, Tag-lamig 1979 sa isang “polyetong orihinal na inilathala ng Liberty Club of Detroit.” Inisalin ni Malaginoo.


Gusto mong sabihin sa’yo kung ano ba ang Anarkismo, ‘di ba? Kaya ko naman siyang tangkain, at sa simple kong paraan pa-intindihin sa iyo kahit papaano na hindi ito ang pinagsasabi ng mga walang-alam na mga kapitalistang pahayagan, sinungaling, hangal, at kontrabida.

Categories
Original Writing Pamphlets

Ang Minumultong Archipelago

Written by Isang Alipin.
Read this in Tagalog or English.


Note ng Author

Ito ay niwrite ko para bigyan liwanag sa egoism ni Max Stirner para sa mga individuals that live sa so-called “Philippines,” but puwede rin for any individual na interested kahit saan man sila nakatira. Para sa whoever na bumabasa nito: gusto kong iinform sayo na ito ay nagcocontain ng aking interpretation sa egoism ni Stirner at aking mga views at the time of writing; however, sana ang aking interpretation and views ay magamit niyo.

Categories
Original Writing Pamphlets

Ang Minumultong Kapuluan

Sinulat ni Isang Alipin.
Read in English or Taglish.


Tala ng may akda

Ito ay sinulat ko para bigyan liwanag sa egoismo ni Max Stirner para sa mga indibidwal na naninirahan sa tinatawag na “Pilipinas,” pero puwede rin para sa kahit sino mang indibidwal na interesado kahit saan man sila nakatira. Para sa kahit sinumang bumabasa nito: gusto kong ipaalam sayo na ito ay naglalaman ng aking interpretasyon sa egoismo ni Stirner at aking mga pananaw sa oras ng pagsusulat nito; gayunman, sana ang aking interpretasyon at pananaw ay iyong mapakinabangan.

Categories
Original Writing Pamphlets

The Haunted Archipelago

Written by Isang Alipin.
Read this in Tagalog or Taglish.


Author’s note

I wrote this to shed light on Max Stirner’s egoism for individuals who live in the so-called “Philippines,” but it can also be for any individual that is interested regardless where they may live. For whomever is reading this: I want to inform you that this contains my interpretation of Stirner’s egoism and my views at the time of writing; however, I hope my interpretation and views can be of use to you.

Categories
Original Writing

Duterte is not incompetent

Written by Simoun Magsalin.
First published by Young Progressives Hub.


A certain narrative suggests that Rodrigo Duterte, the sitting president of the Philippines, is incompetent in addressing the covid-19 pandemic. 

The idea stems from the country’s overwhelming failure to contain SARS-CoV-2 transmissions. Thousands continue to be infected every day. The Philippines remains in the middle of the longest lockdown in the world while other countries already enjoy some return to normalcy. The Duterte administration also botched the vaccine roll-out, implementing mass vaccinations later than other countries did.

Categories
Original Writing

Strength in Smallness

An Anarchist response to “A Heritage of Smallness” by Nick Joaquin by Carolus Plebejus. You can read the original article here.


The Filipino identity has been discussed by one of its National Artists for Literature, Nick Joaquin through his essay; “A Heritage of Smallness”. He began his essay with this small paragraph: “Society for the Filipino is a small rowboat: the barangay. Geography for the Filipino is a small locality: the barrio. History for the Filipino is a small vague saying: matanda pa kay mahoma; noong peacetime. Enterprise for the Filipino is a small stall: the sari-sari. Industry and production for the Filipino are the small immediate searchings of each day: isang kahig, isang tuka. And commerce for the Filipino is the smallest degree of retail: the tingi.” The rest of the essay is a critique of everything small the Filipino has, saying that such smallness is what inhibits the Filipino from ever progressing over perceived aversion of scale. But is there anything wrong with such smallness?

Categories
Original Writing

Celebrating Independence Day Anew as Anarchists and Libertarians

Written by Malaginoo.


On the 12th of June, the Philippine Republic will celebrate Independence Day, on the day Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista declared the existence of a free and independent “Republic Filipina” against the colonial government of the Spanish East Indies in the town of Kawit, Cavite in 1898. Myth and legend has surrounded those events, such as the idea that Aguinaldo read the actual declaration on the balcony of his own house, both patently untrue.

However, these stories still circulate, largely because of the prestige and power June 12 holds in the history and consciousness of the people of the Philippines.