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Post by dodger on Jul 30, 2013 8:28:44 GMT
www.workers.org.uk/news/news_0901/cuba.htmlfootball: from Oldham to CubaWORKERS, SEPTEMBER 2001 ISSUEUNISON has taken the lead in tackling racism in the Oldham area by bringing together Stagecoach Buses, Stotts Buses, the Youth Justice Board and Salud International to establish a youth inclusion scheme. Cutting across the racial divide, youths from some of the most deprived areas, who have fallen out of society's safety net, have been brought together to learn educational and practical skills. Many have been excluded from school since they were 7 or 8 years old and cannot read or write. Drugs and gang culture are the norm and all have been caught up in the juvenile justice system.
The practical side of the scheme involves the refurbishment and redecoration of buses, which on completion are shipped to Cuba for use in Cuba's hospitals. Stagecoach and Stotts buses have provided the buses, skilled staff and equipment. The Professional Footballers Association has assisted in trying to incorporate football and sporting industries, so the buses being painted in Cuban sporting colours.
Through the combined efforts of UNISON, Salud International and the bus companies, the scheme has addressed not only issues of work and skill but also wider social and political questions. Tackling racism in the North West has been the main aim, but all participants in the scheme have learnt something from seeing how socialist Cuba deals with the question of race.
The scheme has taken on greater importance when set against the race disturbances of Oldham and other northern towns. Princess Anne visiting the scheme in late June setting the official stamp of approval on this initiative.
For Salud International this initiative follows on from the two ships to Cuba sent in 1999 and 2000, strengthening the links of British trade unions with ambulances and buses for Cuba hospitals.
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Post by dodger on Aug 7, 2013 6:11:34 GMT
www.workers.org.uk/features/feat_0513/unions.htmlMembership of our trade unions has more than halved since the peak of over 13 million in 1979. Many reasons have been put forward to explain this fact and many attempts have been made to reverse the decline. Yet, in the land that gave birth to trade unions, the decline continues. But it can be reversed...Do it yourself, and do it in the workplace: the way to rebuild our unionsWORKERS, MAY 2013 ISSUE As the crisis of capitalism deepens so too does the crisis of thought and deed in the working class. In the face of continued and increasing attacks on our class on all fronts, the divide widens between those who want, and act for, better, and those who seek to avoid. The attack, all-encompassing – “shock and awe” – has left our class like rabbits in the headlights, and many of us are turning in on ourselves.
PCS banner PCS banner on Budget Day – but a turnout for a strike ballot of 28 per cent is a symptom that workers cannot ignore.
Photo: Workers
Our basic battleground is on pay yet there is a reluctance to fight for it. Why? Is it because our class buys into the enemy’s propaganda that the country cannot afford it due to the parlous state of the economy, as if we earn too much? Do we think there is no alternative to “austerity”? Or is it a case of we know what it will take to shift the government/employer on pay and we're not desperate enough yet?
Low turnouts
Recently PCS voted by 60 per cent for strike action on a 28 per cent turnout, though in general the action was supported. Teacher unions have voted 82 per cent in favour of action – on a 27 per cent turnout. Low turnouts only encourage the employer and discourage ourselves. Just how hard is it to return a ballot form? What message would an 80 or 90 per cent return deliver? We should remind ourselves that the employers in Britain hold £800 billion in cash and that's our money.
Too many of our class behave as if scrabbling around for crumbs – “Why should you have it when I haven’t got it?” – cries of “it's discrimination that s/he is paid more for doing the same job”, etc. No more is this exemplified than on the pensions front. Lost through weakness and ignorance, final salary schemes now cover only 13 per cent of workers in the private sector. Too many don’t see why public sector workers should have them, and say so! We should be aware that some £1.5 trillion are tied up in the pensions of British workers – that's also our money!
In general the class still hankers for partnership with the employers, despite knowing that leopards don't change their spots. We are paying the price for avoiding the struggles of the past and clinging in vain to the ideology of cowardice that has brought us to this pass.
The emasculating of trade union facility time in the civil service will be rolled out across the public sector and aped in the private. Of course, when our forebears built trade unions there was no such thing as facility time, only the determination to survive through collective strength and refusal to be wiped out. Today, the attack is sorting the wheat from the chaff in terms of commitment - far too many trade union reps are fair-weather “not in my own time” people, as if the struggle stops at the workplace exit gate!
Government also attacks trade unions financially. Larger unions such as Unison, Unite and GMB could each be deprived of up to £12 million annually due to the implementation of the Jackson Report. Set up to review civil litigation costs under Labour and implemented with glee by the coalition government, it scraps payments for Personal Injury referrals and insurances, effectively forcing unions to pay the equivalent of more than 200,000 members’ subscriptions annually.
End individualism
The drive to elevate individual rights above collective ones which began in the 1980s was reinforced by Labour's introduction of the right to representation. Under the guise of greater “rights” (and trumpeted as a gain) its real purpose is to tie the time of union officers and reps up in knots with individual issues – that is why neither this, nor any other government, will ever repeal that “trade union right”.
There was a time when someone from an unrecognised workplace would be told that they would have to organise the workplace and win recognition if they wanted representation. Now there are thousands upon thousands of individual members just maintaining their membership as a form of “insurance”, draining both energy and resources, contributing little if anything to the development of their union.
Having promoted individual workers’ rights, government now attacks them by restricting their access to the justice system – employment tribunals. By the introduction of deposits (£1,200 for an unfair dismissal claim) and making it impossible to submit a claim without first securing a certificate for seeking resolution through ACAS, these “rights” are seriously undermined. Tribunal claims are often submitted as a holding/negotiating tactic to avoid running out of time and adding leverage on the employer. The employers’ response will be, as now, delay – making a claim fail by going beyond the limitation date.
Rebuilding workplace trade union organisation is not easy but has to be done. It is the foundation from which all progress under capitalism has been built. Fundamentally, this means challenging those workers who are content for the union to exist in their workplace, but refuse to join.
Be blunt
Shop stewards and reps must be steeled to encourage existing members to be more blunt with these people. Non-members must be told that the employer has long used them against the organised and also themselves – they must be faced with this truth rather than permitting the liberal attitude that they have freedom of choice not to belong.
While many do step forward to become the union representatives of their workmates, it can often be a burden too hard to bear. We see it all the time – the poor volunteer (very few elections these days) to become a rep can also result in their setting themselves up to be a target, not just by the boss but more importantly by their workmates.
It is as if workers have the luxury of watching a show from the sidelines and giving marks out of ten. The attitude that says “We elected you to do it for us” is at the root of our problems. It is both the microcosm and essence of our problem: social democracy and the abrogation of responsibility.
This attitude has to be challenged and if we are bold enough to do so, will strike a chord. It is the “We are all in it together” line. There is no hiding place and 100 members should mean 100 reps in attitude. When the boss tells the rep to get lost he is really telling every worker to get lost, so our response must be “What are WE going to do about it?”
The attacks will continue but ultimately, of course, it is not about the enemy class – they will do what they have always done – seek ever more vicious and inventive ways to exploit us while keeping us down. It is about us, the working class and what we do.
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Post by dodger on Aug 7, 2013 6:30:58 GMT
With the TUC Congress convening in Brighton this month, there are encouraging signs of a possible renaissance in recruitment. But the government is gearing up for yet another legal assault on trade unions...Trade unions: collective action is the keystone of strengthWORKERS, SEPT 2012 ISSUE www.workers.org.uk/features/feat_0912/unions.htmlTHE British state has released the results of its latest Labour Force Survey. What does it tell us about trade union membership and activity? A different picture emerges in public and private sectors, but it is not all gloom and doom. Overall a drop of 143,000 trade union members, but with an increase of 43,000 members in the private sector. That means 186,000 public sector trade unionists lost, but bear in mind there were 369,000 public sector jobs cut in the last 12 months.
Membership density in the public sector is up, representation in bargaining units is up, trade union presence in workplaces is up. The private sector, though increasing members by 43,000, saw density drop by 0.1 per cent, while bargaining remains the same at 16.9 per cent and presence in the workplace dropped marginally from 29.6 to 28.5 per cent.
But the increase in this sector reversed a huge drop during the previous three years, where over 450,000 members were lost, leaving 3.9 million members in the public services and 2.5 million members in the private sector – 6.4 million TUC affiliates. It is estimated that non-TUC affiliates account for roughly the same number with density the best since 2000 and presence in bargaining units up for the first time since 1998.
Desertion?
So after two years of the Coalition and its economic programme of poverty, have workers deserted their trade unions? Obviously not. There are quirks in the figures as Lloyds Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland trade unionists are now classed as the “public sector” and as yet it is not possible to determine how many outsourced trade union members who have been privatised have contributed to the increase in the private sector.
But the most draconian anti-union legislation in Europe is about to be made even more vicious. This time the attack is not only against the collective of trade unions but also at every individual employment right exercised by workers. The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill is part of the Coalition’s attack. Their rhetoric is that over-regulation in the workplace holds entrepreneurs and business back from growing out of the economic disaster they have been responsible for.
“Efficiency” and “competitiveness” are the buzzwords, to create cowed workers who will do whatever they are forced to do while the threat of dismissal and long-term unemployment and poverty hang over them. In other words, all legal protections achieved in the workplace need to be removed. Hence the much-trailed Adrian Beecroft report on employment law, Lord Young’s report on Health and Safety, the review on sickness absence, the “streamlining” of the national minimum wage and so forth. All are intended to return the whip hand to the “masters” in the workplace and a clear understanding by us, the “servants”, what servitude means.
So what is Beecroft’s proposal? He says, “I strongly favour a fourth approach which allows an employer to dismiss anyone without giving a reason provided they make an enhanced leaving payment....This type of dismissal could be known as Compensated No Fault Dismissal.” So scrap unfair dismissal law and legal precedents and go back to hiring and firing as in the good old days – but with a caveat of limiting compensation to £12,000 maximum. Plus raise the one-year qualifying period for compensation to two years. This means employers can often sack without even paying any paltry sum.
Small businesses would be exempt from almost all employment legislation. Discrimination law as introduced in the Equality Act 2010 is to be binned. Employment Tribunal Procedures and Awards are to be stood on their heads and fees for every case lodged to be introduced – make the victim pay! There are further attacks on pensions and tweaks to the Criminal Record Checking System which will introduce additional costs of £50 million for a watered down system. Changes are being made to work permits; getting migrant workers into Britain by bypassing Jobcentre Plus and going straight abroad to recruit.
There is a full-blown attack on the Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment (TUPE) regulations, most of can have a coach and horses driven through it even now. Likewise, we see weakening of collective redundancy consultation and Equal Pay legislation; abolition of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority; and abandonment of the Agency Workers Regulation – another EU directive ineffective in protecting agency workers.
Beecroft’s and similar reviews were leaked and then extensively published in 2011. The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill in nine short pages addressing employment law brings in all if not worse options though it drops the Compensated No Fault Dismissal. It introduces a lesser measure whereby an employer can be “fined” up to £5,000 for sacking someone unfairly, a small sum in the scale of things.
Fees for hearings will be introduced; compensation for loss of earnings claims slashed by 65 per cent, which ironically Beecroft opposed; awards will be capped, with differing awards depending on the size of the company and so forth. In the name of setting business free, the existing employment law, which already works on the principle that a worker is guilty until proven innocent, should give a still bigger stacked hand to the employer.
Of course the idea that employment rights are what hold back business and economic revival is nonsense. Employment rights are a response to the inequality in the workplace. They have never been a solution. With these changes, workers are going to have to face up to the reality.
There is no third way of ducking issues. There will not be that day in court which always gives the victim some illusion that all wrongs will be righted. Usually the worker loses anyway when the employer shows “reasonableness” in process or decision making despite behaviour which borders on criminal.
Back to the union
So where does it bring us back to? Being organised in the workplace and asserting our collective rights as workers. That means being members of our respective and appropriate trade union. Not as some meaningless so-called community, divorced from the workplace, unwaged, non-working, with an affinity to a local pub or park, but as “The Union”.
What does being the union mean? Coming together around our employer, around our skills, around our economic interests, around the things which unify us at work or through the work, not some separate or sectarian agenda which removes us from the workplace.
What constitutes, past and present, our greatest strength and greatest victories? It is our collective action in the workplace, not dissipated outside the workplace – whether in election, demonstration, rent strike or other. The contradiction of being in conflict with the employer, whether public or private, large or small, being at the workplace as the sharp end is far more valuable and instructive than stepping outside and taking that energy elsewhere.
Workers are going to have to find out or rediscover that when under attack that the only form of defence is to attack. Our first move in battle will be to find re-awakening class consciousness. Workers might also reflect on the fact that every EU country and many others – as far flung as Australia and the USA – are almost identical in their clamour for their so-called austerity programmes. And the first thing to go are workers’ rights at work.
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Post by dodger on Aug 15, 2013 7:40:32 GMT
Collective OrganisationWORKERS, OCT 2011 ISSUE Existence under early industrial capitalism was harsh and brutal for our fledgling working class. Unwilling to accept their lot, workers sought improvements to their working conditions and gradually their quality of life was raised. Following World War Two, gains endured but illusions grew, as improvements were taken for permanent fixtures. There was a dwindling acknowledgement of why the improvements were there. Many forgot how they had actually been won, assuming the gains and reforms had capitalism’s blessing. We lulled ourselves into thinking that these gains were secure “rights”, incapable of suffering erosion or being overthrown. As capitalism’s absolute decline proceeds, we now know that reversal and setback are possible as the system attempts to diminish the power of our class.
So how did previous working class gains materialise? Improvements and reforms came out of past struggle and campaigns by organised workers. Enhanced working conditions such as increased rates of pay, better holiday entitlement, implementation of pension schemes, reduced working hours, etc. were extracted and won in the face of opposition from employers and government. Equally, reforms such as free national health provision and free state education were struggled for over many generations, not arising from government benevolence. Collective need actively challenged private profit.
Recent decades have seen too many in the class freewheeling, exploiting an impetus set going long before, enjoying advances that had really been earned with difficulty by preceding generations of workers, who had fought hard to establish them. Because these gains were not protected by our organised vigilance, because our defences – mainly our organisation in trade unions – had become neglected, weak, and used for other purposes, everything we should have held dear was more vulnerable to capitalism’s eventual assault.
If destruction and retreat are to be halted, if the prospect of progress is to rise again, then we must put right the central weakness, the lessening organisation and collective instinct of our class. We must painstakingly put our class together again. We must stop depending on others, banishing reliance on false politicians or scheming activists. When there is a self-reliant mass of workers spiritedly wanting reconstruction in Britain, then progress will return. To that end, workplaces are key. We must rebuild collective union strength in workplaces and, as soon as it is feasible, link them up as networks of power. Our class will have to shape the trade unions in the best fit and form to do its bidding. If well-planned action is conducted in tactically sound ways, then confidence will reappear.
But initially our steps may have to be small. Sometimes the greatest step is to speak out: from good ideas, other things will flow.
www.workers.org.uk/thinking/collective.html
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Post by dodger on Oct 25, 2013 4:46:12 GMT
The festive season and the holidays have again brought home to many of us just how much the arts can enhance our lives – let’s keep it that way!The fight for work in Britain’s cultural industries
WORKERS, JAN 2012 ISSUE No doubt many readers will have taken the opportunity over Christmas to visit a favourite museum, catch a favourite band or orchestra, take friends or family to a seasonal ballet or panto, be enlivened by jazz at a local pub. Even for the stay-at-homes there will have been the experience of some great character acting on radio or television.
Some will have felt compelled to join forces and put on their own community show or dance events. There’s no lack of enlivening inspiration around – from Brazilian to Bangra, from classical to ceilidh. The English Folk Dance and Song Society reports little let-up in the popularity of social dance and more is in evidence in dance classes and folk festivals from Shetland to Sidmouth.
Ours is also a singing nation: the harmonised sea shanties of the south coast, the Welsh Choirs, the Gaelic vocals of the Western Isles, the classical song tradition of the concert hall, the raw rap of the urban studio to mention but a few.For others it’s the more reflective tasks of oils on canvas or poetry on paper. The brass, pipes and wind band movement continues to involve many tens of thousands - persisting long beyond their origins in mine, mill and other workplaces. Remember that great film ‘Brassed Off’? From nursery to older age (as demonstrated by Live Music Now), music and other arts have proven vital for educational development.
Behind the scenesYet we must recognise that behind this swirl of activities lies considerable teaching of a high order and professionalism that’s world class. Now it’s from these workers in the field that an epic appeal has gone out. They warn that a terminal decline to this whole picture could set in if erosion of such teaching and standards is not halted, if the debilitating or axing of key arts organisations is not resisted. Modern British opera: dress rehearsal for “The Loving of Etain”, written
by composer Eddie McGuire in collaboration with playwright Marianne Carey.
To flag up this danger, a campaign has been initiated by eight trade unions whose members are directly affected by the current undermining of our cultural life by a failing capitalism. It’s called “Lost Arts” and intends to defend the arts by first of all finding out exactly the extent of the attack and undermining.
A glance at the unions involved shows the really wide range of professional skills that provide the backbone to our culture. We have the Musicians’ Union, Equity (actors), BECTU (broadcasting, film, theatre and leisure), the NUJ (journalists), the Writers’ Guild and the large unions (Unite, PCS and Prospect) that have smaller sections working in the cultural field. An absence that will be rectified at a later date is Unison, which represents those working in museums and local government arts and heritage activities. Support is coming in from many other organisations such as the Book Trust, the British Archaeological Trust, the Scottish Artists Union, the Society of Playwrights, and so on.
In the seven months since the campaign started, £21 million has already been cut from arts funding in Britain – estimated to be a loss of over £42 million to the national economy. (Yes, through royalties, copyrights, sales and touring the arts are an earner and not a loser – a measure of the quality that has been built up).
Public funding is an established characteristic of arts in Britain. It is often forgotten that it was the third component – along with a National Health Service and a free education system for all – which our class fought for and achieved during and after World War Two. Administratively it took the form of the Arts Council of Great Britain. That model has been gradually divided, distorted and riddled with the privatising ethos.
Yet it is still this public funding that provides 53 per cent of backing for the cultural industries. Earned income (ticket sales, royalties, etc.) brings in 32 per cent. What is called “business investment” in arts has been falling 7 per cent each year since 2007, now standing at about 15 per cent of total arts funding. Instead of “arts for all” it may soon become “arts for those who can afford it” – if it is even there at all, with music and drama services shutting down and instrumental music teachers being made redundant.
Out of hundreds of examples of threats to the arts some stand out – like both Mendip District Council and Somerset County Council chopping their entire arts budgets; Yorkshire Libraries & Information closing its Music and Drama Collection and Service; closure of the University of East Anglia’s Music Department; Argyll & Bute Council selling off the superb outdoor, music and drama residential facility at Castle Toward (gifted to the nation, part of the death knell of such residential centres so beneficial to youth throughout Britain); a 50 per cent cut to the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and its Jazz Orchestra; a £140,000 cut to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and resultant 3.2 per cent pay cut.
Fighting tactics
Often the dilemma is whether to suffer and live to fight another day or to cease working. The occupation or work-in is hardly applicable in most of these jobs – although the Musicians’ Union in its second year (as a forerunner to the Amalgamated Musicians’ Union) hit on some innovative tactics: an 1886 opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre London saw half the orchestra walk out after the first act, coordinating with stage-hands and carpenters who walked out after the second act. With worrying talk of a BBC review of its music budget (this is the biggest patron of British orchestras), the tactics of the Britain-wide Musicians’ Union strike of 1980 that saved the orchestras (though sadly not the Radio Orchestras and “Big Bands”) will have to be revisited.
“Instead of ‘arts for all’
it may soon become
‘arts for those who can afford it’...”
It was that year, 1980, that Musicians’ Union membership reached a peak of over 41,000. In the decline of general union numbers since then, the MU has managed to keep membership above 30,000 - but the present decline in arts funding is again beginning to bite. Union membership in the full time, fully contracted stage and theatre orchestras has proven very resilient. A vast array of other music tasks are represented by the union - from those playing in jazz or folk bands to the composer, conductor, instructor or DJ. This union has plugged “Keep Music Live” for decades – the phrase seems to have entered everyone’s vocabulary – and a long campaign against the punitive Licensing Laws seems to be coming to fruition now. This had imposed a draconian system of payments on even the smallest pub or venue that employed musicians in England and Wales. The musicians who play these venues can be the first to lose out as the traditional British pub culture is ruined by exploitation and bankruptcies.
Behind the very special British tradition of stagecraft, both live and recorded, lie the endeavours of Equity, the actors’ union. From stand-up to Shakespeare, to the opera chorus, it has been representing a perplexingly diverse industry since 1930. Through a focus on youth recruitment, its 36,000 members include 5000 students. The veteran actor Simon Callow points to the need for “strength in numbers in a complex industry, to improve and defend our position. Equity is a unifying factor, with its expert knowledge, speaking for actors and to actors – indispensable.”
And behind or often in front of the actors and singers there is BECTU, for those working in broadcasting, film, theatre and leisure crafts. 1991 saw the current formation of a union that can trace its origins back to 1890 and the Theatrical and Music Hall Operatives Union. It represents visual art crafts as well. However, there have also been efforts to create specialist unions for visual artists – a profession that has long been at the bottom of the ladder compared to all other art forms. One of the youngest trade unions is the 10-year-old Scottish Artists Union with 700 members, already gaining valuable experience through several high profile campaigns and collaboration with its counterparts in the rest of Britain.
 Early advance: Britain’s National Youth Orchestra was set up in 1951. Under the umbrella of the TUC (and STUC in Scotland) these unions co-ordinate their actions through the Federation of Entertainment Unions, which, together with the unions already mentioned, brings in the NUJ (the world’s largest journalists’ union with over 40,000 members, founded in 1907), Unite, the Writers’ Guild, the Society of Playwrights and the Professional Footballers Association (an interesting addition – coming to public notice for their “united British team” motion at the recent TUC). Founded in 1907, the PFA has 4,000 members in England and Wales, with the affiliated PFAS in Scotland. The federation of unions represents over 130,000 working in the cultural sector.Fight back
The potential is there for a fight back, a vigorous defence. There is much that is unique about British culture created by those who work in it and those who listen and participate – from the pioneering visuals of Tate Modern, to the Royal Shakespeare Company, to our jazz and folk festivals, to our groundbreaking BBC Radio 3, envy of the world for the presentation of musical classics.The vitality of our popular music can also be world leading. But it takes quality and effort, not just a cheap exploitative commercialism. The Beatles did it in the 1960s. Now the Tottenham-born vocalist Adele Adkins has matched their achievement, selling 12 million albums (titled “21”) worldwide in 2011 and with 3 million sold in Britain, the fastest selling ever. This helped reverse a general nosedive in album sales. (Legal downloads now account for 28 per cent of sales, with more efficient providers like iCloud and Spotify). Behind such success lies talent and teamwork - and arising out of the innovation and creativity outlined above.Bringing back revenues to Britain is a major task carried out by the royalty collecting body the Performing Rights Society – a complex operation of licensing British owned copyrights in every country of the world for performances on TV, radio, internet, downloads, mobile phones, juke boxes or any other system. However, taking into account all sources, the British music industry has declined in value for the first time, down 4.8 per cent to £3.8 billion since 2009. Other sections of the creative industries such as film and animation, computer games (bringing back the symphony orchestra in a big way), and touring exhibitions and productions make an invaluable contribution.All this and more is part of our legacy and our future that is undoubtedly worth fighting for!
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Post by dodger on Nov 7, 2013 11:43:41 GMT
CPP calls on forces to collectively confront incoming storm Haiyan
November 07, 2013   Communist Party of the Philippines
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today called on all revolutionary forces, especially barrio revolutionary committees in areas within scope of the most likely path of the incoming super-typhoon, to immediately put into place plans to collectively confront the possibly disastrous impact of the strong winds, rains, floods, landslides and mudflows in order to minimize the loss of lives and immediately undertake rehabilitation efforts.
According to international weather monitoring agencies, tropical storm Haiyan (local name Yolanda) is set to impact any part of the Philippine archiepelago from Bicol to Northern Mindanao on Friday afternoon with winds reaching more than 215 kph.
“All revolutionary government committees down to the Barrio Revolutionary Committees, local branches of the CPP, basic units of the NPA and revolutionary mass organizations in Bicol, Eastern Visayas, Central Visayas, Negros Island, Southern Mindanao, North Eastern Mindanao, North Central Mindanao and adjacent regions should immediately undertake efforts to prepare for the impact of typhoon Haiyan,” said the CPP.
“BRCs in populated areas in geologically hazardous areas, including those at the foot of mining areas and logged over mountains, must prepare to mobilize for organized mass evacuation, putting into place measures to collectively monitor the exact path of the typhoon in the crucial hours before impact, as well as areas of likely floods and mudflows, in order to act with dispatch in the face of any contingency.”
“Every BRC should ensure the safety and welfare of the entire population in their areas of responsibility,” said the CPP. “They must give special attention to the elderly, the sick, the children, the widows and others who may not be able to sufficiently prepare for the storm.”
“The BRCs should be able to account for the entire barrio population during and immediately after the storm and promptly carry out emergency rescue operations when the need arises,” said the CPP.
“In the past, the organized mobilization and swift action of the local Party branches and the barrio committees have been the most crucial factor in ensuring the safety of the population, minimizing the impact of storms and assisting the masses in immediately resuming their lives,” pointed out the CPP. |
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Post by dodger on Nov 9, 2013 11:19:41 GMT
CPP calls for mass mobilization, international support for relief operations
November 09, 2013 Communist Party of the Philippines
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today extended its sympathies to the millions of people affected by supertyphoon Yolanda which ravaged provinces in Eastern and Central Visayas, in Panay, Negros, Masbate, Mindoro, Palawan and other islands, as well as in areas in Eastern and South Eastern Mindanao, Northern Mindanao and provinces in Southern Luzon.
At the same time, the CPP called for mass mobilization across the country and abroad to generate emergency supply and funds for rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts. The CPP called on “people in the areas least affected by the storm to extend maximum possible help to the people who are most in need of emergency assistance.”
Yesterday, tropical storm Yolanda (international name Haiyan) barreled across the Philippines, leaving a wide swath of destruction. Yolanda is considered to be among the strongest typhoons ever to hit land, and one of the most powerful of storms over the past 30 years.
The CPP said that among the areas which were devastated by the strong winds are revolutionary base areas which are within the scope of authority of the provisional revolutionary government and in the areas of operation of the New People’s Army and other revolutionary mass organizations.
The CPP also pointed out that many of the areas ravaged by the typhoon were those recently hit by powerful earthquakes where people were most vulnerable to the strong winds and rains.
“These areas are among the most impoverished in the entire country, where the majority are poor peasants, unemployed farm workers, small fisherfolk and indigenous peoples,” said the CPP. “They have long been abandoned by the reactionary government and will not be among its priorities for assistance.”
The CPP said it is still awaiting detailed reports from its local committees, as well as mass organizations and NPA units in the areas.
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Post by dodger on Nov 9, 2013 14:12:31 GMT
Above video gives a useful picture essay of the NPA work carried out in Mindanao. Typhoon Pablo struck us hard. What you see is what you get. No frills. A cohesive organization. An ability to isolate priorities and work with people to solve problems. No doubt they have already analysed Pablo and will be even better placed to effect assistance where it is needed. Super-typhoon Yolanda. Here and in other areas. Maybe it does not need saying but I shall say it anyways....an unbreakable bond between folks roundabouts has been deepened and strengthened. We relied on each other and of course the NPA medical teams came through with flying colours.
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Post by dodger on Nov 11, 2013 22:29:18 GMT
KM calls for mass mobilization for urgent relief operations and rehabilitation for the victims of super-typhoon Yolanda
November 11, 2013  Ma. Laya Guerrero Spokesperson Kabataang MakabayanThe Kabataang Makabayan (KM) condoles with the families and victims of super-typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban and hardly hit provinces and cities in Visayas on November 8.
It is initially estimated by international humanitarian agencies that the number of killed persons may have reached over 20, 000 and entire account of damages still unaccounted for. But the picture of the catastrophe is very clear and this may be worsened should the state concentrate on blame-game to conceal its own inutility to prevent the massive loss of lives.
The wrath of the super-typhoon has affected millions of people, resulted to massive loss of lives, crippling the livelihood especially of poor farmers and fisherfolks and low-income workers, destroyed fields, schools and public infrastructures and left tens of thousands homeless and traumatized.
The unspeakable suffering of the calamity-hit kababayans who are scavenging for food and water among the littered debris, are worsened as power water supplies, communication and transportation and were all cut off in the entire region.
We call on the Filipino youth, all members and chapters of Kabataang Makabayan to lead and form ‘Serve the People Brigades’, form teams for collecting much-needed relief goods and basic necessities. The people especially in the isolated areas and revolutionary base areas which are also devastated could hardly expect relief assistance ziphoned off by the anti-people US-Aquino regime.
As in the past like in the Sendong and Pablo typhoons with thousands of casualties, no real relief and rehabilitation were carried out. Instead the US-Aquino regime militarized these areas to protect the foreign and local mining and logging companies operations.
Aquino who is all concerned about his PRs and gimmickery amidst the humanitarian crisis in Tacloban and Visayas, could never comprehend the ordinary people’s necessities. Aquino showed utter calousness in pronouncements that the casualties in Tacloban rose because of the local government’s unpreparedness, which is led by an opposition, in order to evade accountability of the national government.
We call on progressive and mass organizations of the youth to take initiative in forming teams and reaching out to organizations, schools student councils and alliances in gathering resources.
Even as we strongly demand to put all resources of national coffers to disaster preparedness and mitigation, we must propagate the real reasons why the basic masses and ordinary poor people suffer the main brunt of calamities in a semi-fuedal and semi-colonial society as ours. Natural disasters are aggravated and turned to deadly catastrophes by ill-preparedness and government’s failure to deliver adequate relief and state abandonement of pro-people rehabilitation programs in favor of capitalist profit-making.
In the last three years, the US-Aquino regime has constantly brushed aside the Filipino peoples legitimate demands for government preparedness and installation of infrastructure in order to thwart massive destruction and loss of lives come weather disturbances and calamities.
The US-Aquino regime which is hounded by sustained peoples protests because of the pork barrel and corruption presided by Aquino himself, must be condemned for using Yolanda and calamities in order to desperately justify the pork barrel system.
This US-Aquino anti-people and corrupt regime has shown no sincere concern for the Filipino people amidst national calamities at the same time as it safeguards its corrupt-ridden pork barrel system.
This anti-people and corrupt US-Aquino regime which prevailed to constantly dart back the blame to victimized Filipino people, has no iota of right to stay in power any longer.
We call on the Filipino youth and people especially in the least affected areas, our compatriots and friends of the Filipino people in the international community to come out of their communities, schools, offices, workplaces and support the International Day of Solidarity for the Victims of Yolanda Super-typhoon on November 13 for relief and rehabilitation. |
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Post by dodger on Nov 14, 2013 6:43:42 GMT
MANILA, Philippines – Alleged members of the New People’s Army (NPA) attacked trucks carrying relief goods to victims of supertyphoon “Yolanda” in a Leyte town, according to reports posted on social media by concerned netizens.
The reports could not be confirmed immediately with authorities.
A Facebook user named Jeff Nivera posted online a text from a relative: “NPAs from samar attacked carigara. We were near capoocan when cars coming in our direction kept screaming go back! there’s war in carigara. We’re rushing back to ormoc to take cover. Pls tell the media to help our town. NPAs may have heard some relief goods were coming- I don’t know. They may have come for us. It just happened that our ship got delayed this a.m. Or maybe they think food is available in our town kc tabo yana. Pls pray for soldiers as well. Some soldiers are out on the streets ready to stop them from reaching ormoc. Our relief trucks are in ormoc. May God help us all.”
On Twitter, Ira Abigail Legaspi (@mslokaret) tweeted 13 minutes ago: “Help!! The NPA ‘s are attacking our hometown Carigara, leyte!! Lord keep my family safe! Pls pls! Naiiyak na akoooo!!!! #PrayforPhilippines”
In a Facebook page, Geness Gnp said: “Help!!!! nagkakabarilan daw ha bungto ha carigara kay adto daw an mga npa!!!!!! tumawag pinsan ko sa sister nya. pinabalik daw sila ormoc dahil sa sitwasyon.”
Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/526627/npa-attacks-trucks-carrying-relief-goods-to-yolanda-victims-in-leyte-town-netizens#ixzz2kbBQDHUL Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook ............................................................................................................................................................................................... NPA ambush of food convoy untrue–AFP
By Gil Cabacungan, Shiena M. Barrameda Inquirer Southern Luzon 5:34 am | Thursday, November 14th, 2013 Party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares of the leftist Bayan Muna (pictured) on Wednesday accused the military of “lying” about the supposed ambush. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO NAGA CITY—A military report about communist rebels ambushing a group of soldiers escorting a food convoy headed for typhoon-ravaged Tacloban City in Leyte has turned out to be false.
Capt. Mardjorie Panesa, public information officer of the Philippine Army’s 9th Infantry Division based in Bicol, on Wednesday clarified that what happened was an encounter on Tuesday morning between government troops and suspected communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Matnog town in Sorsogon, in which two rebels were killed.
Earlier press reports (not the Inquirer) said the rebels had ambushed the soldiers who were escorting a government convoy carrying relief goods to Samar and Leyte, the two Eastern Visayas provinces devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”
Party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares of the leftist Bayan Muna on Wednesday accused the military of “lying” about the supposed ambush.
“According to reports by the people of Matnog, no ambush took place and the Army could not even say if a shot was fired by the ambushers or what relief convoy was attacked since there was no relief convoy that passed the area. The AFP through Col. Joselito Makilala later backtracked and admitted there was just a supposed plan to ambush potential convoy but no ambush took place,” said Colmenares in a text message.
Reacting to the ambush report, Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, a former Armed Forces chief, warned the NPA that this “perceived strategy” to take advantage of the chaos and suffering in the Samar-Leyte region was a “big mistake.”
“I am still verifying these reports. But if indeed they (NPA) are responsible, this will be a blow to their projected legitimacy as an alternative government, the rightfulness of whatever they are projecting themselves as will be lost,” said Biazon in a phone interview.
“Those supporting their cause would think twice about continuing to support them. These are not the acts of so-called ideologues but plain bandits,” he said.
Party-list Rep. Walden Bello (Akbayan) appealed to the NPA’s “sense of decency and humanity to desist from such acts.”
Satur Ocampo, a former House party-list member representing Bayan Muna, was skeptical of the military report of an ambush.
“I don’t think the NPA would take any action to prevent or hamper the flow of relief goods to the people in devastated areas. On the contrary, it’s a standing policy for the NPA to assist or facilitate in the rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations by all aiding entities and the survivors in such situation,” he said in a text message.
He called on the National Democratic Front—the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines; the NPA is the CPP’s military arm—to call for a “temporary ceasefire” between the NPA and AFP in order to “give full leeway” to relief and rehabilitation efforts in identified war zones.—With a report from Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao
Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/526967/npa-ambush-of-food-convoy-untrue-afp#ixzz2kbD3mt2W Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook |
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Post by dodger on Nov 14, 2013 6:53:14 GMT
Palace tells NPA: Don't attack relief truckswww.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/11/12/13/palace-tells-npa-dont-attack-relief-trucksABS-CBNnews.com Posted at 11/12/2013 4:26 PM | Updated as of 11/12/2013 4:26 PM MANILA - The Palace is asking the New People's Army not to attack relief convoys amid reports that rebels attacked a military convoy in Sorsogon carrying relief items.
"We may differ politically with the NPA but we would like to ask these rebel groups not to… Again, this is a time to be in solidarity with those people afflicted, those people affected, and may we ask those who are not in the same views that we have to set aside our differences. And these are aid that is going to the affected people in Eastern Visayas, so sana huwag nilang gawin ‘yon," Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.
Two suspected NPA rebels were killed in an encounter with government troops in Sorsogon province Tuesday morning, a military official said.
Col. Joselito Kakilala, commander of the Philippine Army's 31st Infantry Brigade, said the encounter occurred in Matnog town at around 5:25 a.m.
The two slain NPA rebels have yet to be identified while one of their comrades was wounded in the clash.
Kakilala said the encounter occurred after the military received intelligence reports that the rebels will ambush soldiers participating in relief efforts for typhoon victims in the province. With a report by Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> www.philippinerevolution.net/statements/20131113_afp-lying-encountered-troops-in-sorsogon-not-carrying-yolanda-relief-cppAFP lying, encountered troops in Sorsogon not carrying Yolanda relief—CPP
November 13, 2013 Communist Party of the Philippines
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today denounced the Aquino regime and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for making use of the Yolanda tragedy as a camouflage to carry out relentless offensive operations in Sorsogon province and elsewhere.
“Malacañang and its AFP officials were lying when they claimed that the 31st IB troops that figured in an encounter with the NPA yesterday were involved in humanitarian aid operations for Yolanda victims,” pointed out the CPP. A report issued by the AFP indicated that the armed encounter erupted past 5 a.m. in Barangay Balocawe in Matnog, Sorsogon.
“While awaiting more detailed field reports from the NPA Celso Minguez Command in Sorsogon, it is instructive to point out that the reported encounter happened in the interior areas of Matnog, a site that is at least three kilometers away from the Maharlika Highway land route from Luzon to Samar island and five kilometers away from the Matnog port,” said the CPP.
“The Aquino regime and the AFP are lying through their teeth in claiming that their troops involved in an armed encountered yesterday were involved in a humanitarian mission, exploiting the plight of the Yolanda diaster victims to conceal the brutalities of their continued offensive operations,” added the CPP.
“The encountered AFP troops were clearly on an offensive mode and carrying out search and destroy operations in the interior areas of Matnog.”
The CPP said NPA units in areas ravaged by the recent super typhoon Yolanda are currently engaged in relief and rehabilitation efforts assisting local Party branches and revolutionary mass organizations in mobilizing emergency supply for disaster victims.
The CPP said revolutionary forces are exerting efforts to reach out to hundreds of thousands of people especially in the interior and mountainous areas of Samar and Leyte islands, as well as in the islands of Panay, Negros, Mindoro, Masbate, Palawan and others who have been practically abandoned by the reactionary Philippine government.
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Post by dodger on Nov 14, 2013 21:33:30 GMT
Ceasefire declaration to concentrate on rehabilitation work in Yolanda devastated areas
Central Committee
Communist Party of the Philippines
14 November 2013
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP-CC) hereby formally issues this ceasefire declaration to all concerned commands of the New People's Army (NPA) and people's militias in areas devastated by the recent supertyphoon Yolanda. Concerned NPA units have, as a matter of course, ceased offensive operations since November 9. This ceasefire declaration will remain in effect up to 2359 hours of 24 November 2013.
This ceasefire declaration covers the following regional commands of the NPA:
Eastern Visayas Regional Command
Panay Regional Command
Central Visayas Regional Command
Negros Island Command
Respective regional commands are also to transmit this ceasefire declaration to the concerned provincial commands of the NPA, namely:
Masbate Island Command
Palawan Island Command
Mindoro Island Committee
Based on their assessment of the extent of the devastation of the recent supertyphoon in their areas of responsibility, the respective regional commands can extend the effectivity of this ceasefire declaration in their areas of concern, while other regional commands of the NPA can issue similar or limited ceasefire declarations in areas within the scope of their operations.
In line with standing policy and with the CPP's call for calamity-related mobilization, the abovementioned NPA units have in fact already shifted their mode of operations even before supertyphoon Yoland hit land on November 8. This ceasefire declaration, thus, is a positive declaration of the practical mode shift already in effect.
Until the aforementioned expiration of this declaration, all NPA units and people’s militias shall cease and desist from carrying out offensive military operations against the armed units and personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other paramilitary and armed groups attached to the Government of the Republic of the Philippines.
While this ceasefire declaration is in effect, all units of the NPA and people's militias shall remain in active defense mode. They will, however, remain ever militant and vigilant to the encroachment and hostile movements of the AFP within the territory of the people's democratic government. The people demand that the AFP cease its offensive operations under its Oplan Bayanihan war of suppression. The CPP denounces the AFP for using the calamity relief operations as cover for its combat and surveillance operations within and outside the areas of devastation. The Filipino people urges the AFP to withdraw its combat units from within the guerrilla zones and demand that relief operations be carried out by civilian agencies.
With this ceasefire declaration, all local and international relief organizations are assured of safe passage through and into the calamity-affected guerrilla zones. The masses and their revolutionary organizations and governmental committees within the guerrilla zones are ever ready to help facilitate the distribution of emergency supplies to the people, giving priority to the injured, children, nursing mothers, single parents, pregnant women, the elderly, the handicapped and other vulnerable individuals.
This ceasefire declaration seeks to underscore the need to focus the attention of concerned NPA units and its Red fighters, as well as all units of the people's militias to the immediate task of assisting the hundreds of thousands of people, especially small and landless peasants, farm workers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples and the unemployed masses in the poor coastal and mountainous areas whose homes and sources of livelihood have been severely ravaged by supertyphoon Yolanda and who suffered deaths in their families and vast losses in property. Except for the small urban area in Tacloban City, the majority of the areas devastated by the supertyphoon are poor agricultural and fishing communities.
Since November 8, all NPA companies in the concerned areas have trained their efforts at helping the people rebuild their houses, recover farm animals, help harvest root crops for food, rebuild infrastructure for sourcing drinking water and facilitate the distribution of emergency supplies. The people in the guerrilla zones have carried out organized efforts to carry on with economic and commercial activity through their mass organizations, barrio revolutionary committees, local CPP branches, people's militias and their people's army.
The CPP calls on all its forces, all progressive and democratic organizations, relief agencies, doctors and health workers, agricultural experts and others who are willing to lend their expertise to coordinate with the revolutionary organizations in the guerrilla zones to help the people recover swiftly from the devastation and resume their normal lives.
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Post by dodger on Nov 17, 2013 3:32:59 GMT
Indict Aquino for criminal incompetence and demand justice
November 15, 2013 Communist Party of the Philippines The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) calls on the Filipino people, especially the millions of victims of the recent disaster to rise up, protest and indict Benigno Aquino III for the criminal incompetence of his government which has resulted in the deaths of thousands last November 8 when supertyphoon Yolanda barrelled through the Philippines and caused widespread devastation. The Filipino people demand justice.
They must protest the Aquino regime’s failure to provide and extend emergency relief and services resulting in the grave suffering of hundreds of thousands who continue to seek food, water and emergency supply, a full week hence.
The Aquino regime has been displaying such gross and criminal incompetence in the face of the terrible calamity which has resulted in an unnecessarily large number of deaths and injuries. There was no government presence in Tacloban City more than 48 hours after the supertyphoon struck and completely devastated the city. The local government was completely wiped out. It was apparent that the national government did not bother to look into the situation in the typhoon struck towns despite the fact that communication lines were completely cut off in these areas. It only started to take measures after local and foreign journalists fed images on primetime television of the widepread devastation in Leyte 36 hours after the typhoon.
Chaos began to erupt on the second day of the calamity as a result of the lack of food and water. Instead of rushing in emergency supply, the Aquino government deployed thousands of armed soldiers and police personnel in an effort to quell the mass discontent. Immediately, the Aquino regime’s incompetence reared its ugly head.
Aquino’s security and military officials irresponsibly engaged in spreading false information. An AFP press release claimed that a military truck supposedly carrying Red Cross supplies in Sorsogon was ambushed by the NPA. They have also circulated rumors that NPA members are involved in the armed looting around Tacloban city and are indiscriminately firing their weapons in Palo, Abucay and other places in order to justify the setting up of checkpoints and establishing outright military rule. Clearly, the AFP is more interested in projecting power and imposing its armed authority rather than ensuring the provision of food, other basic commodities and emergency supply to the people.
Aquino has gone berserk in his blaming spree and PR campaign to downplay the tragedy and devastation. Speaking to international media, Aquino insisted that the number of deaths will not go beyond 2,500 instead of the earlier estimates of 10,000. Aquino will be rebuked a couple of days later, when the United Nations revealed its independent estimate of deaths at 4,460. In an utterly tasteless twist, Aquino’s tourism officials declared that the Philippines “is still fun” to visit even as the entire world continue to watch desperately as the poeple in Tacloban beg for help amidst the grossly incompetent response of the Aquino government.
A week into the tragedy, thousands of people still have no access to emergency medical care. Food and drinking water remain scarce. Government has yet to provide emergency shelter to several thousand homeless people. Despite the outpouring of local and international support for the calamity victims, hundreds of thousands of victims have yet be reached by emergency supply. The United Nations, international relief workers and the media are utterly dismayed that the help they have already extended to the Philippines has yet to reach the disaster victims almost a week into the tragedy.
Aquino only declared a “state of national calamity” FOUR days after the widespread devastation. It took him and his officials FIVE days to realize that the transportation of emergency supplies to Tacloban and elsewhere will be the “largest logistical effort” yet to be undertaken by the government. Still, the Aquino regime has failed to effect the massive mobilization of ships and other sea transport despite the fact that the Tacloban port is only a few hours away from the central commercial port of Cebu and less than 24 hours from Metro Manila. Ormoc City, which is one hour away from Tacloban by land, is a mere two hours away from Cebu via high-speed ships. The Aquino regime has also failed to foresee the need to supplement the roll-on-roll-off transport ships in the Matnog port in Sorsogon resulting in a long queue of trucks and other land vehicles carrying emergency food and medical supply and personnel from Metro Manila.
The government’s failed response is so blatant, leading some people think Aquino is deliberately displaying incompetence in order to make the US military forces look like the heroes and thus justify the presence of a giant US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, at least six other warships, nearly 10,000 troops and Osprey helicopters in various parts of the Philippines and allow these to take over facilities and the transport and distribution of emergency supply.
Tacloban City, as well as other cities, have become practically uninhabitable, and will remain to be so for the next few weeks or months. Yet government has made no effort to bring people en masse to other places where they can be provided electricity, health care, shelter, food and temporary livelihood.
The Filipino people must take the Aquino regime to account for its failure to carry out emergency evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people who were at the path of the supertyphoon. In its “Typhoon Haiyan Brief Technical Report” issued a day before Typhoon Yolanda made landfall, the Manila Observatory stated that “Massive evacuation of residential areas on low ground within 8 to 16 km of the shoreline may be required.”
Despite such warnings, the Aquino government made no significant effort to mobilize enough resources to carry out such required evacuation. Instead, Aquino found it sufficient to go on primetime television on the eve of Yolanda’s landfall and issue a weather forecast. In comparison, the government of Vietnam mobilized all resources to evacuate 600,000 at least two days before Typhoon Haiyan reached Vietnam’s coasts. The population of Tacloban City, in contrast, is around 200,000.
The Filipino people should rise up in mass protest against the gross incompetence of the Aquino regime. They must cast aside the appeals by Aquino’s loyalists to stop blaming the Aquino government and instead unite. Indeed, they must indict Benigno Aquino III for the deaths of thousands resulting from his personal and his government’s criminal incompetence.
The Filipino people must demand justice for the plight of hundreds of thousands of disaster victims. They must make the Aquino regime pay for the grave tragedy that has befallen them that is a result not so much of the supertyphoon, but of the gross failure of the Aquino regime to carry-out appropriate preventive action and post-calamity emergency relief.
They must also indict Aquino for the failure of his government to secure the people against the destruction of their property. They must demand that the Aquino regime provide immediate emergency relief fund (not loans!) to resume their livelihood, emergency employment and pensions, reparation and the cancellation of all debts to government agencies.
They must denounce the Aquino regime for allocating a measly P7 billion to the calamity budget, resulting in its inability to build the necessary infrastructure for emergency response. Aquino is content to allocate money from his unprogrammed funds in order to justify bloating the President’s Social Fund and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
On the other hand, the Aquino regime is not keen on carrying out a massive environmental regeneration program to desilt the rivers and other critical water systems and undertake massive reforestation and instead is bent on bringing in foreign mining companies to continue plundering the environment.
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Post by dodger on Nov 20, 2013 16:04:37 GMT
PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT MISUSES PUBLIC FUNDS
AS PEOPLE SUFFER FROM POST-TYPHOON DEVASTATION
The Real News Network inteviews Prof. Jose Maria Sison, ILPS Chairperson, about the devastation wrought by super-typhoon Haiyan (local name: Yolanda). Prof. Sison explains how Philippine government has set up ghost non-profits that failed to service its most vulnerable citizens.
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Post by dodger on Nov 21, 2013 9:09:23 GMT
NDFP-EV denounces Aquino government's inutility in aiding calamity victims, calls for speedy humanitarian assistance
 Fr. Santiago “Ka Sanny” Salas
National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Eastern Visayas
November 21, 2013
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Eastern Visayas commiserates with the millions of people who suffered losses of lives and properties in the region and elsewhere in the country due to Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) last November 8. We condemn the gross incompetence and unreadiness of the Aquino government even though weather forecasts had already warned days in advance of the category 4 superstorm and the expected massive flooding from the storm surge. The Aquino government only made token announcements and evacuations, did not stock food and water, and did not prepare emergency services. Rather than passing the buck to the local government, it should have been the responsibility of the national governmment to ensure the safety and well-being of the people because of the scale and scope of the calamity.
It is simply untrue that the New People's Army has been harassing relief operations to the people and that the NPA is sowing disorder after the storm. In reality, the NPA along with other revolutionary forces and the People's Democratic Government has been striving to aid the stricken people and working to ensure the speedy delivery of humanitarian assistance. The Communist Party of the Philippines also showed concern for the people by declaring a unilateral ceasefire from Nov. 14-24 in the areas affected by Typhoon Yolanda. It is in fact the Aquino regime that is antagonizing the people by garrisoning Tacloban City, the hardest hit area, with police and military troops who impose a virtual martial law. It is the Aquino regime that is causing disorder and anarchy because of its slothful and disorganized relief operations.
Thousands are believed to have been killed especially in Tacloban and Ormoc cities in Leyte, as well as Basey and Guian towns on Samar island, among other areas. After the storm, the people had to fend for themselves as the Aquino government's relief efforts were virtually nonexistent. Indeed, more than a week after the storm, food and water have yet to reach Guiuan and other areas, and many of the dead have yet to be buried.
The presence of Aquino and other top governmment officials in the region after the storm were nothing more than publicity gimmicks. They were posing for the media, while outside, the people whose homes had been destroyed were living on the streets and dying of thirst and starvation. In the crucial days after the storm, the people had to commandeer food, water, medicine and other supplies because there was absolutely nothing coming from the government. Displaying utter heartlessness and contempt to the people despite their plight, instead of emergency supplies Aquino sent in armored cars and armed troops as a “show of force” to “stop the looting.” What little food and water arrived the people had to walk several kilometers to go to, and had to form long lines under the rain and under the heat of the sun. The Aquino rehimen is surely adept in stealing from the people through the pork barrel scam and patronage system, but lazy and despicable when the people desperately need help.
The Philippine and US governments make much of the psywar gimmick of some US troops participating in relief and rehabilitation, and there is talk of additional foreign troops. Do they have other, ulterior motives in doing so? In fact, there are more than 10,000 military and police troops in Eastern Visayas, but the Aquino regime is loath to shift them away from “counterinsurgency” operations and make them actually useful to the people by clearing roads, building shelters, repairing infrastructure, and restoring agricultural production. But the main concern of the military troops is to watch the people in the name of “peace and order” and to provide security for the publicity gimmicks of politicians, who take advantage of the people's miseries to bolster their political ambitions. We condemn the Aquino government for putting more importance into its war with the NDFP, rather than in alleviating the people's sufferings.
The damage to the region and elsewhere from Typhoon Yolanda may take years of social recovery. The natural calamity underscored the man-made calamity that is the Aquino regime. Having suffered for so long under the rotten semifeudal and semicolonial ruling system, the people surely resent the added ordeal the Aquino government made them undergo aside from the natural calamity and the long years of uncertainty ahead.
In the face of the plight of the many victims of calamity, the NDFP-EV is appealing to the people's organizations in the Philippines and abroad to help the people of Eastern Visayas. The NDFP-EV is also calling on the New People's Army, the revolutionary mass organizations and the People's Democratic Government, to persevere in the relief operations they are already undertaking and to participate in the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts. There can be a unity of efforts to ensure that aid and supplies contributed by private individuals and groups, as well as by foreign aid agencies, non-government organizations and government organizations can directly and speedily reach the intended recipients.
The NDFP-EV also calls on the people to rise up and protest the scarcity of emergency supplies and the arrogant and callous method of distribution. The calamity victims and the people must also join hands and bring the Aquino regime to account for its incompetence and ill-preparedness, and demand as a matter of social justice the appropriate rehabilitation and recovery after the devastation of Typhoon Yolanda.
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