The Southeast Asian Anarchist Library is the newest offering from The Anarchist Library which features multilingual anarchist literature from Southeast Asia or in Southeast Asian languages.
Category: Statement
Written by Laya.
The whirlwinds of danger have raised around us again. Unfortunately for the archipelago, it was in its most literal sense. Over October and the beginning of November 2020, right at the tail end of the yearly typhoon season, five consecutive storms ravaged the Philippines, particularly the easterly provinces of Luzon and Visayas. Marikina and Cagayan are deluged. Bicol and Catanduanes are flattened. This all happened while the government continues to to have no national plan for mass testing and continued mismanagement of the pandemic. Thousands are dead—victims of police killings, pandemic mismanagement, and now, typhoons.
An open letter by Filipino and Filipinx autonomists in the so-called Philippines and diasporas.
To our comrades in Turtle Island,
The long shadow of white supremacy reaches all the way to the archipelago known as the Philippines. Joseph Scott Pemberton — the transphobe who was convicted for the murder of transwoman Jennifer Laude — has been pardoned by President Rodrigo Duterte.
A statement from Bandilang Itim.
Silence is not golden
Some among us in Bandilang Itim are men who are cisgender and/or heterosexual. As cis/het men in Bandilang Itim who are raised with the privilege of being men, we are not experts on gender or queer issues nor have experience as women or queer. This ought not mean we stay silent on the issues that confront our sisters and queer siblings. As Adrienne Onday declares in her important piece, “Wrath Over Pride: A call-out post to ‘radical’ cis (het) men and their inadequacy in gender struggles,” “[Y]our silence is violence to us.” Our silence is violence to those struggling against gender-based oppression. We have people we love—partners, family, comrades, and friends—who are queer or who are women, and we owe it to them to speak against cisheteronormative discrimination and patriarchal practices that persist in our milieus and in our spaces. Queer people and women are angry that they still experience discrimination, infantilization, and oppression within our spaces. They are tired that they are consistently alone when they speak out against their own oppression. Not having queer experiences is not a reason for staying silent. If we do not have these experiences or expertise, we then ought to defer to the experiences of queer people and women. The issue of silence, censorship, or ignorance of women or queer issues is also a violence itself. When we are silent we are accomplices to the violence of the patriarchal system and the intricate network of oppression. We must join women and queer people and speak out for and with them especially in situations and spaces where they may not be able to speak for themselves.
An international statement signed by Bandilang Itim.
We will defend the social revolution in Rojava with all our power. The bloodthirsty imperialist interventions can be suspended only by the coordinated internationalist actions of the oppressed classes.
A statement co-signed by Bandilang Itim.
The murder of George Floyd in the United States by the police has unleashed a wave of popular outrage in that country and throughout the world. Massive demonstrations, direct action against the police and in response to repression have been common these past weeks. This murder, adding to thousands of others, revives the widespread protests of 2014 in the United States, following the many murders of black people, especially youth.
A statement from Bandilang Itim.
As we pass the 100th day in the longest and harshest quarantine in the world, we find ourselves in no better position to combat the COVID-19. All dissent is criminalized, ((Simoun Magsalin, “Against a Quarantine with Martial Law Characteristics,” Bandilang Itim https://libcom.org/blog/against-quarantine-martial-law-characteristics-03042020 )) and the lapsing of the Anti-Terror Bill, with its vague definition of what is considered as “terrorism” effectively legislates and normalizes the Philippines as a police state, without having to declare martial law. This is the kind of political maneuvering that would’ve made Marcos proud.
As anarchist, autonomous, and anti-authoritarian collectives in the archipelago, we declare our opposition the Anti-Terrorism Act recently railroaded in Congress.
Categories
We Reject the Terror Bill
Preface from Bandilang Itim
We are reproducing this cross-sectional statement drafted by the NUJP because we unite with them in opposing the Terror Bill. However, we are against the Terror Bill, but we do not oppose on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. As anarchists, we do not believe we ought to be governed by law—indeed, we do not believe we ought be governed at all. Making a thing constitutional does make it right, and what is right is sometimes unconstitutional. We reject the idea that the constitution and laws itself as concepts that decide what is right and what is wrong. The law has been used to tyrannize people ever since colonial times; that the archipelago is nominally independent does not change the fact that the law is still a tyranny used against activists and workers.
A statement from the Bandilang Itim Collective.
Two Days from World Press Freedom Day
Two days after celebrating World Press Freedom Day the Philippine government in the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) ordered the broadcast network ABS-CBN to cease and desist their broadcasting operations. ((Neil Arwin Mercado, “BREAKING: NTC orders ABS-CBN to stop broadcast operations.” Philippine Daily Inquirer. May 05, 2020. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1270074/ntc-issues-cease-and-desist-order-vs-abs-cbn See also a timeline at Melissa Luz Lopez, “TIMELINE: ABS-CBN franchise.” CNN Philippines. February 13, 2020, (updated). https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/2/13/ABS-CBN-franchise-timeline.html )) The NTC ordered this because the legislative franchise that allows ABS-CBN to operate expired on May 4, 2020. Included in the cease-and-desist order are 42 television stations and 23 radio stations that are operated by the media conglomerate. ((ABS-CBN News, “NTC orders ABS-CBN to stop broadcasting.” ABS-CBN News. May 5, 2020. https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/05/20/ntc-orders-abs-cbn-to-stop-broadcasting )) Normally congress would renew such franchises before their expiry as it had done so in the past, but President Rodrigo Duterte has had a tirade against the ABS-CBN network since becoming president, accusing the network of “swindling” and for refusing to air his political ads during the 2016 presidential election. ((Pia Ranada, “Duterte to block renewal of ABS-CBN franchise.” Rappler. April 27, 2017. https://www.rappler.com/nation/168137-duterte-block-abs-cbn-franchise-renewal )) Just days after he signed into law the franchise renewal of the GMA (the rival of ABS-CBN) Duterte had gone on record saying he would even block the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN. ((Ibid.)) We do not doubt that the franchise was willfully allowed to expire without a renewal as Duterte’s allies dominate both houses of congress.