Written by Bas Umali in October 2011. Published in May 2020 by Alimpuyo Press. Translation into English and edits by the author with help from Maku Felix. (Basahin sa Filipino.)
This is a republished article written by anarchists in the archipelago known as the Philippines or its diaspora. We at Bandilang Itim wish to highlight and disseminate these works to better propagate the ideas of anarchism in the archipelago.
The political exercise that is taking place in the United States is a manifestation of the worsening crisis of capitalism, where one percent of the population of the world has the sole control of the labor, resources, facilities and tools that were supposed to develop and expand the potentials of the world populations’ 99 percent.
The Occupation of Wall Street is one process of empowering the masses dedicated to destroying the domination of the few. With the intervention of states and corporations, the wealth of the society is controlled by the few that pass around benefits while the majority of the people in the other areas of the world experience poverty, hunger and loss of social justice. The destruction of resources further worsen the conditions of the marginalized communities, families and individuals that experience scarcity of basic needs for living with dignity and opportunity to improve themselves and their way of life.
Here in our archipelago, our agricultural industry, education, water services, electricity, housing, health and other societal services are controlled by few corporations and families that are protected by the state. Through these government institutions, corporate domination is strengthened. If we base our data on the NSCB (National Statistics Coordination Board), in the three years from 2006 to 2009, only the slightest change from 21.2% to 20.9% in the incidences of poverty was recorded.
According the latest national survey from the Social Weather Station or SWS from 1200 respondents last March 4-7 of this year, there were 20.5% of families that say they have experienced hunger and 51% of them say they are experiencing poverty .The 20.5% have the distribution of 15.7% (sometimes experiencing hunger); 4.7% often experience hunger. At stake are 3.2 million families that sometimes go hungry while 950,000 families live in hunger.
This data is conservative for the people and groups that do not trust the data stated by the government. There is a huge reason for the government to conceal the real status of the masses; for if there is enough information for the masses, the interests of the few rich individuals that control the benefits, nature and society.
In our own context, the political view that is carried by the word “occupy” is being used by the movements in different areas of the globe; the word occupy will take on a concrete meaning here if the masses will participate in this political exercise. Yet with the information on the activities at Wall Street and the other parts of the world limited to only a few groups and people, it is difficult to declare that we are occupying a particular place with the political awareness of the people. In line with this, the biggest challenge that we face is how we will distribute information to the wider masses and marginalized communities on the stories of Occupy Wall Street and how this affects us and our current situation.
For now, the actions that we take in Luneta are to reach out in solidarity with the movements of the people in the United States — one truly awesome movement that displays the absence of leaders and political divisions that always assumes and claims the movement and victory of the people to forward their own selfish interests.
MABUHAY TO THE LEADERLESS MOVEMENTS! MABUHAY TO THE PRACTICE OF DECENTRALIZED MOVEMENTS BASED ON THE INITIATIVES OF THE MASSES, MARGINALIZED SECTORS AND COMMUNITIES!
OCCUPY LUNETA