Categories
Original Writing Statement

Interlinking our Struggles in Gender and Queer Issues

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.

Categories
Statement

International Solidarity with the Social Revolution in Rojava

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.
Categories
Republished

The New Terror Bill in the Philippines: Another Front in the Worldwide Struggle against Tyranny

Written by A.S. Sakdal with an introduction from CrimethInc. Originally published by the CrimethInc. Ex-Worker Collective


Yesterday, a new “anti-terror” law went into effect in the Philippines, marking another stage in the worldwide rise of autocracy. The law enables authorities to warrantlessly arrest and detain anyone for two weeks or more on the sole suspicion of inciting terrorism “by means of speeches, proclamations, writings, emblems, banners or other representations,” even “without taking any direct part in the commission of terrorism.” What constitutes terrorism is defined at the whims of the Anti-Terrorism Council, a group comprised almost entirely of members of authoritarian president Rodrigo Duterte’s cabinet.

Categories
Original Writing Republished

Against emergency: The interlinked struggles in Hong Kong and the Philippines

States around the world are criminalizing dissent in response to a global and ongoing wave of uprisings.

By JN from Lausan and Simoun Magsalin. (Graphic: spf.pdf for Lausan.) Originally published by Lausan


The COVID-19 pandemic has seen the widespread failure of states across the world to carry out the function of providing healthcare and proper protective resources to its citizens. Many have risen in revolt across the world against this flagrant abandonment by their governments, whose unconscionable exposure of the most vulnerable and marginalized to infection only serves to maintain the flow of global capital. The social chaos that has ensued has created an apt cover for governments to begin consolidating their own power, wielding the threat of “emergency” to ram through legislation that consolidates their unaccountable monopoly on violence.

Categories
Statement

The Oppressed Classes Rise Up Against Racism and Discrimination

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.

Categories
Original Writing

Wrath Over Pride

Written by Adrienne Onday and originally published at friendship anarchy.


I want to talk about gender issues in “progressive/radical/revolutionary spaces” before Pride Month ends because it’s so important. I need to call out cis (het) men1 in radical/progressive spaces—especially the anarchist, Marxist, or generally progressive men that I see around or know.

  1. For those who might not know: cis is shorthand for “cisgendered,” meaning your gender matches your assigned sex at birth, while het is shorthand for “heterosexual” or straight. I put het in parentheses because the behaviors I am calling out are not only present in cisgendered heterosexual men but sometimes even cisgendered homosexual or bisexual men; however it is often in cis het men that the behaviors are observable. This specification is important because of the way cis men are raised in a society that privileges their experiences and realities while treating any other experiences and realities as wrong or deviant or subhuman.
Categories
Original Writing

Black Cross: A Proposal for an Abolitionist Prisoner Support Group

Proposal by Simoun Magsalin.


With the Terror Bill now becoming Terror Law, we can expect an increase of arrests and suppression from the State. Indeed just one day after the signing of the Terror law, eleven protesters were warrantlessly arrested and became known as the Cabuyao 11. It is in this climate that having an abolitionist prisoner support group may be necessity. What follows is a sketch of a Black Cross organization, a proposal for an organization that would do prisoner support and advocate for prison and police abolition. The abolitionist advocacy would be what differentiates the Black Cross from other prisoner support groups.

Categories
Original Writing Translations

Melawan Teror dari RUU Antiterorisme

A translation of our piece “Against the Terror of Anti-Terror” by Malaginoo into Bahasa Indonesian. Translated by Ishtar Jawa at Rimpang.

Teks Asli: Against the Terror of Anti-Terror
Ditulis oleh: Malaginoo
Diterjemahkan oleh: Ishtar Jawa
Terjemahan diterbitkan oleh: Rimpang


Pemerintah Filipina semakin menunjukkan wajah aslinya: sebuah entitas opresif, non-demokratis yang hanya siap melindungi dan melayani kepentingan mereka yang berkuasa, kaya, dan berprivilese. Sebelum ada obrolan mengenai lockdown dan karantina semasa pandemi COVID-19 ini, sebenarnya sudah mulai terdengar desas-desus pembaharuan dari UU Keamanan Filipina yang berusaha mendefinisikan apa itu tindak terorisme. Setelah berhari-hari dan berminggu-minggu melobi sana-sini, mencari perhatian media, dan menandai semua orang sebagai komunis (red-tagging), akhirnya kongres merilis RUU Antiterorisme. [1]Neil Arwin Mercado, “Longer warrantless detention among features of Lacson anti-terror bill.” Philippine Daily Inquirer. October 02, 2019. … Continue reading

References

References
1 Neil Arwin Mercado, “Longer warrantless detention among features of Lacson anti-terror bill.” Philippine Daily Inquirer. October 02, 2019. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1172687/longer-warrantless-detention-among-features-of-lacson-anti-terror-bill
Categories
Original Writing Translations

Kontra sa Terror ng Anti-Terror

Isinulat, isinalin, at in-update ni Malaginoo mula sa orihinal.


Malapit nang ipakita ng pamahalaan ng Pilipinas ang kanyang mga tunay na kulay: isang institusyong diktaturyal at mapang-api, handang protektahan at pagsilbihan ang mga namumunong mayayaman at makapangyarihan. Bago pa dumating ang isyu ng lockdown at quarantine para tugunan ang krisis na dala ng COVID-19, abala ang gobyerno sa pag-update ng Human Security Act, ang batas, ang armas ng pamahalaan kontra sa terorismo. Matapos ang ilang linggo’t buwan ng pamumulitika, pagmamagaling, at pag-redtag, ibinunyag ng Kongreso ang Anti-Terror Bill ng 2020. [1]See a report on the proposed law: Neil Arwin Mercado, “Longer warrantless detention among features of Lacson anti-terror bill.” Philippine Daily Inquirer. October 02, 2019. … Continue reading

References

References
1 See a report on the proposed law: Neil Arwin Mercado, “Longer warrantless detention among features of Lacson anti-terror bill.Philippine Daily Inquirer. October 02, 2019. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1172687/longer-warrantless-detention-among-features-of-lacson-anti-terror-bill
Categories
Original Writing Pamphlets

To Be Queer is to Love All

Written by Malaginoo.

Content and trigger warning: This text discusses physical, mental, and sexual abuse, discrimination, and murder committed against queer people.


For the first time, I’m going to speak in the first person, because contrary to the belief of religious conservatives and macho-fascists, there is no such thing as a Gay Agenda™, and the queer community isn’t a monolith. I cannot write for all queers, nor the communities I have come to know and love in my less than two decades of existence in the world. No, they have their own stories to tell, and they have their own time to tell it. I have mine. I can only write for myself, but that’s a good start, isn’t it?