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Post by dodger on Jul 16, 2013 5:38:14 GMT
NPA to reach 10,000 Red fighters in few years amidst Aquino failure to address roots of civil war
July 12, 2013
www.philippinerevolution.net/statements/20130712_npa-to-reach-10-000-red-fighters-in-few-years-amidst-aquino-failure-to-address-roots-of-civil-war
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said for the first time in its history, the number of New People’s Army (NPA) Red fighters with high-powered rifles is on its way to reach 10,000 levels in the next few years amidst the utter failure of the Aquino regime to address the nationalist and democratic demands of the Filipino people which are at the root of the raging civil war.
The CPP issued this statement in reaction to public admission by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that it has failed to make a dent on the strength of the NPA. The AFP, however, downplayed its failure by understating the strength of the NPA as “over 4,000” members from the supposed base number of 4,384 when the AFP launched its Oplan Bayanihan campaign in January 1, 2011.
“Clearly, the AFP cannot counter the fact that over the past several years the NPA has steadily grown in strength,” said the CPP. “The nationwide advances of the revolutionary armed struggle is indubitably demonstrated by the increasing frequency and bigger tactical offensives being carried out by the New People’s Army (NPA) in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.”
“To portray themselves as impressive, the AFP repeats the baseless claim that the NPA had the peak strength of 25,000 in 1986 but has recently dropped to 6,000 and has further been whittled down to 4,000 under the Aquino regime,” pointed out the CPP.
“These are all groundless claims being made by the AFP. In fact, the peak strength of the NPA was only at 6,100 Red fighters with high-powered rifles in 1986. Because of the internal errors, the NPA’s strength slowly declined up to 1992 and thereabouts, when the CPP launched the 2nd rectification movement. By 1998, the NPA strength returned to the level of the early 1980s when it started to make big strides forward.”
“Over the past several years, the NPA has surpassed its former peak strength in 1986 and is on its way to reach the 10,000 levels in the next few years,” pointed out the CPP. “The NPA is setting its sights on building around 180 guerrilla fronts nationwide with one company of Red fighters each, and with its armed strength further amplified by tens of thousands of armed militias and members of barrio self-defense committees.”
“Commands of the NPA nationwide continue to fulfill the tasks of extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare, while pushing forward the widespread the revolutionary land reform movement and methodically building the infrastructure of the people’s democratic government from one level to another higher level,” added the CPP. “There are, of course, NPA units that are still small and weak, but these are being assisted by other NPA units that are stronger and more advanced.”
“According to targets of the Oplan Bayanihan made public by the AFP in 2011, the strength of the NPA will supposedly have been reduced by more than half by the middle of 2013 or around this time. The plan set by the AFP in the next phase is to transfer ‘counter-insurgency duties’ to the Philippine National Police and have the AFP concentrate on ‘external threats’.”
“Clearly, the Aquino regime’s Oplan Bayanihan is bound to fail,” said the CPP. “Not only has the AFP failed to reduce the NPA strength to insignificant levels, it has succeeded only in rousing the oppressed people further to engage in armed and unarmed resistance by subjecting them to brutal and repressive military campaigns deceptively characterized by the AFP as ‘peace and development’ operations.”
“The Aquino regime’s Oplan Bayanihan will end up like the Arroyo’s Oplan Gordian Knot and Oplan Bantay Laya I & II, Estrada’s Oplan Makabayan and the first to the fourth phase of the Oplan Lambat Bitag carried out by the Aquino and Ramos regime from 1986 to 1998,” said the CPP. “All these oplans have met utter failure because these are nothing but war plans to suppress the Filipino people and stop them from waging democratic struggles and armed resistance.”
“The correctness and necessity of waging revolutionary armed struggle has become more crystal clear to the Filipino people with the Aquino regime choosing to terminate peace negotiations and further advancing the neoliberal policies that serve the interests of foreign big mining companies and plantations, other big capitalists and Aquino’s big landlords and big business allies to the detriment of the Filipino people.”
“Aquino and his military officials are obsessed with defeating the people’s armed resistance through military force and armed campaigns of suppression,” said the CPP. “Aquino and the AFP are very wrong to think that with all-out US financial and military support, it will be able to put an end to the people’s armed and democratic revolutionary resistance through sheer force.”
“After three years in power and all its political dressing-up, the Aquino regime has failed in achieving the declared objective of Oplan Bayanihan to ‘gain the trust of the people’ for the rotten social and political system which has become ever more oppressive and exploitative.”
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No mirage, turning a corner on a busy main road. Not a mile from a town police station, NPA fighters. A checkpoint. Relaxed , civil, cheerful and professional. My only recollection a young man in Pink 'wellies'. I remarked how handsome they looked. "Sir__ thank you__my mother bought them for me from ---market, at discount." "So practical too!" He waved us on after explaining the purpose of the road block. I did have some sensible questions, suitably framed, those boots just completely put me off my train of thought. |
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Post by dodger on Oct 17, 2013 13:16:47 GMT
Davao’s anti-pork protest welcomes ‘Megan Yan’ ‘Megan Yan’ arrives at the anti-pork rally. (photo by Medel V. Hernani)
Davao City — Last Friday’s anti-pork protest action drew 2,000 people coming from sectors of the workers, urban poor, small-scale miners, students and “middle class”.
But an activist dressed as beauty queen “Megan Yan” – a spoof character of Miss World winner Megan Young – stole the show.
The protest, organized by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), started with a mid-day march led by red-shirted leaders marching along Magsaysay Park, Quirino Avenue, Bankerohan, Magallanes to CM Recto for a rally at Freedom Park in this southern city.
Later at 6 pm, the protesters held a torch parade towards Rizal Park in San Pedro Street and held a concert featuring protest songs and poetry from Davao artists.
Protesters march to Rizal Park with torches.
What entertained the crowd most was the spiel from “Megan Yan,” a play on the phrase ‘Me Ganyan’ (Is that so?). She told the protesters that she arrived home after winning the “Mess World” title, only to be welcomed by a congressman who offered her a feast of “pork chop, belly, liempo, sinigang, chorizo, tocino and special pork ice cream”.
But ‘Megan’ complained that the congressman told her: “You should go on a diet, because you’re Miss World.” And the congressman took all the food for himself.
Speakers from various sectors raised their calls to abolish all pork barrel funds including the DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program) and the President’s discretionary funds and have them rechanneled to social services.
With clenched fists, women protesters slam the pork barrel system.
Award-winning writer and playwright Don Pagusara delivered a poem, while a small-scale miner from Pantukan, Compostela Valley, slammed President Aquino’s endorsement of large-scale mining that would not only displace small-scale miners, but also destroy the environment and livelihood in his province.(Text and photos by davaotoday.com’s MEDEL V. HERNANI and ACE R. MORANDANTE) Reposted by (http://bulatlat.com) - See more at: bulatlat.com/main/2013/10/14/davaos-anti-pork-protest-welcomes-megan-yan/#sthash.5njcGqt7.dpuf
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Post by dodger on Oct 27, 2013 7:17:36 GMT
www.facebook.com/pages/Take-Grangemouth-into-Public-Ownership/1400064060230182We just received this message of support:"To all the workers, families and communities of Grangemouth: your dignified and resolute refusal to be bullied and blackmailed by billionaire parasite, Jim Ratcliffe is a source of great pride for working people across this country. You are being blackmailed and threatened as part of a strategy of payback for the victory won by trade unionists in 2008 at Lindsay Oil Refinery when workers defended their national agreements and walked off the job to win the day and stop social dumping. Energy bosses have never forgotten or forgiven that victory by rank and file trade unionists and now they want to take their revenge on Grangemouth workers. Don't let them grind you down. Demand nationalisation of this essential part of our energy infrastructure. An entire nation will support you."
Alex Gordon,
Former President National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers (RMT)
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Post by dodger on Oct 27, 2013 11:33:03 GMT
OCTOBER 26, 2013 Corruption portrayed as monsters, ghosts “The protest action is meant to call on the people to persevere in the fight against the monsters of corruption.” – Artista Kontra Korupsyon
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO Bulatlat.com MANILA — Dressed in colorful costumes inspired by mythical creatures, members of progressive groups marched from Raha Sulaiman Park to the Senate office in Pasay City to call on legislators to abolish the pork barrel system.
“The protest action is meant to call on the people to persevere in the fight against the monsters of corruption. Unlike the creatures of Pinoy folklore, the issue of corruption is quite real and is causing havoc and carnage on the lives of the people,” Neil Doloricon, former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts and one of the conveners of Artista Kontra Korupsyon, said.
Among the mythical creatures based on Filipino folklore that were featured in the parade include: Zuma, kapre, tyanak, white ladies, among others. Upon reaching the gates of the Senate office, the protesters shouted, “Let us in. There are more monsters like us inside the Senate.”
The pork barrel scam implicated many legislators who allegedly siphoned public funds by funding projects of fake non-government organizations. The most infamous are the NGOs created and controlled by Janet Lim Napoles.
Aside from the colorful Halloween parade, several big protest actions were organized to show resistance against the pork barrel system.
(Photo by J. Ellao / Bulatlat.com)
President Aquino, in his recent pronouncements, defended the Disbursement Acceleration Program saying that it should not be lumped with the Priority Development Assistance Fund. His funds, he said, are being used to provide health, education and housing for the poor. He said in an ABS-CBN report that he is “perplexed” on how “some people” equated PDAF with DAP.
Senators, on the other hand, failed to agree on the proposed abolition of the pork barrel system. In a Philippine Daily Inquirer report, the legislators were given until Nov. 11 to propose projects for their P200 million ($4.65 million) pork barrel funds.
“This administration and the President have already lost a lot in terms of the people’s faith in government. It stands to lose its power over the people if it does not get rid of the pork barrel, prosecute everyone involved in corruption, and begin to truly serve the Filipino people,” Isabelle Baguisi, spokesperson of the League of Filipino Students, said.
Aside from the pork barrel, LFS said, the onerous bonuses of government officials, the public private partnership projects and the lack of social services show the disparity between the select few and the poor Filipino masses.
“People have had enough of being cash cows of a select and powerful few. We ca see that people are quickly and readily organizing themselves to get rid of corruption in the government; the people’s initiative to push for justice for themselves is a proof of that,” Baguisi said.
“This movement will only expand and progress in the coming day,” she added.
Peoples’ initiatives
Progressive groups said that while Aquino claims that while the Priority Development Assistance Fund is already abolished, the pork barrel system remains deeply embedded in the 2014 budget, which passed its third reading on Oct. 22 by the House of Representatives.
(Photo by J. Ellao / Bulatlat.com)
Bayan, on its statement, said that it is high time for the people to use their own power to scrap the pork barrel system from the General Appropriations Act.
“What happened last night at the House of Representatives proves beyond doubt that we cannot expect anything from Congress or the Aquino administration when it comes to abolishing the pork barrel system. While PDAF has already been removed, the new itemized pork will continue the tradition of patronage politics that has made our system corrupt,” Renato Reyes, secretary general of Bayan, said.
Reyes added, “Presidential pork will also continue to exist as lump sum appropriations. We condemn in strongest terms the passage of this 2014 pork budget and hold the Aquino government responsible for this grand deception.”
He said during the program that Bayan, along with progressive groups under its umbrella, will support the Peoples’ Initiatives initiated by former Chief Justice Renato Puno. He said that the Peoples’ Initiatives is will way more powerful than legislators because they would be batting with the very same people who elected them to office.
Reyes said their groups and members will help in possible duties in carrying out the Peoples’ Initiatives. These include scouting for signatures and educating the public about the campaign.
Protesters vowed to return on Nov. 7, the day Napoles will face the Senate, some of whom are implicated in the pork barrel scam.
Reyes said, “when institutions like Congress fail to uphold public interest, we rely on the power of the people. Bayan supports the proposal for the People’s Initiative and will work with CJ Puno and other anti-pork groups advocating this process.” (http://bulatlat.com) - See more at: bulatlat.com/main/2013/10/26/corruption-portrayed-as-monsters-ghosts/#sthash.IFiHQv2p.dpuf |
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Post by dodger on Oct 27, 2013 12:40:04 GMT
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Post by dodger on Oct 31, 2013 11:40:43 GMT
Lockout blackmail at Ineos
WORKERS, NOV 2013 ISSUE Swiss-based multinational Ineos (the world’s fourth largest chemicals company) imposed what amounts to a lockout on its Grangemouth oil refinery and petrochemical plant – demanding a no-strike agreement, a degrading of wages and pensions and threatening closure (as Workers went to press). Workers on the picket line at Ineos, Grangemouth, in April 2008, fighting for their pensions.
Now the company is threatening permanent closure of this vital piece of Britain’s infrastructure
Photo: Workers
The union Unite called off a strike over victimisation planned for 20 October “in the national interest” and “in order to protect this national asset from the scandalous behaviour of its owner”, saying the reckless full shutdown could risk destroying the plant.
Now SNP leader Alex Salmond has asked Unite to sign a no-strike agreement with the company, which moved its HQ out of Britain three years ago. Ineos was accused at the time by the TUC of trying to save £406 million in tax over five years.
Alf Young pointed out in The Scotsman that the financial crash of 2008 had reduced Ineos founder Jim Radcliffe’s personal fortune from £3.3 billion to £150 million. One result was the 2011 formation of Petroineos, a 50:50 joint venture with PetroChina (part of the China National Petroleum Corporation). Petroineos combines the refining operation at Grangemouth with Ineos’s other refinery near Marseille, France. One possibility is a sell-out of its stake in these refining operations to China in order to concentrate on the core Ineos chemicals business. That scenario, and even the current shutdown, compromises the viability of BP’s Kinneil plant nearby. Oil and gas from the central North Sea fields are delivered there for processing, refining and export, utilising steam and energy from the power station in the Grangemouth Ineos site. Kinneil accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the entire oil production in Britain. |
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Post by dodger on Nov 1, 2013 7:27:44 GMT
Scaring the pork away HALLOWEEN V's PORKActivists in Davao staged a Halloween costume protest along San Pedro Street to air their call for the abolition of the President’s special funds, DAP and pork barrel funds. - See more at: bulatlat.com/main/2013/10/31/scaring-the-pork-away/#sthash.OhwbWARt.dpuf ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Youth putting their own stamp on this popular demand...end Pork Barrel. Very much at the sharp end of the system. So little of the funds allocated to school and college actually reach --sticky fingers intervene at every stop on the way down. A system I believe bequeathed by US colonialism. Corrupt hence putrid,nostrils are offended by the rank stench. in such a state of decomposition. None in any doubt where the fetid odour emanates, President Aquino has been crowned King Pork. Time to arrest the descent into further penury and degradation, for these youth. That pork is long past its 'sell by' date. One whiff will tell yer dat.
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Post by dodger on Nov 1, 2013 14:50:54 GMT
Teachers strike
WORKERS, NOV 2013 ISSUE Teachers across London, the South East, Cumbria, the North East and South West struck on 17 October in protest over pay, pensions and jobs. Around 3,500 schools were wholly or partially closed in this second regional joint NUT and NASUWT action. In London around three-quarters of schools closed, and around 15,000 teachers marched (below).
Photo: Workers 
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Post by dodger on Mar 13, 2014 9:14:28 GMT
February’s tube strike was the opening skirmish in a struggle to defend London Underground transport services in the face of a full frontal attack on the rail unions...
A victory for London, a victory for unionsWORKERS, MAR 2014 ISSUE The weekend after London Underground staff staged their 48-hour strike, three people in a pub in an affluent part of Sussex were overheard chatting over a few drinks. They seemed unlikely supporters of the rail unions. But while these commuters to London had been severely inconvenienced by the strike, they were unconvinced by the arguments put forward by London Mayor Boris Johnson to justify the proposals that led to the strike.
 6 February: RMT and TSSA pickets united at Leytonstone tube station.
Photo: Workers That feeling was echoed throughout London and its commuter belt: the public has seen through Johnson, preferring the commonsense union view that closing ticket offices and cutting staff would damage service to passengers.
This strike was the opening skirmish in a struggle to defend London Underground transport services in the face of a full frontal attack on the rail unions. It ended in a resounding victory for the workers. Strike action paralysed London for two days. London Underground was forced to agree to withdraw its formal notice of redundancies and conduct a review of station staffing jointly with the unions. A second strike was therefore called off.
The strike was a show of strength for both RMT and TSSA. While the two unions have decided against merger, there has been a spirit of unity among the many pickets around the system.
Voting with their feet
Transport for London (TfL, London Underground’s parent body and the transport authority for London), and London Underground tried to play down the effect the strike would have on tube services. But they massively overestimated the number of staff who would turn up to work, and hence the lines and stations they could open and how many trains could run. Despite a less-than-decisive turnout in the strike ballots nearly all union members voted with their feet and walked out.
The strike also affected National Rail services and passengers. One group got off a (non-Underground) train at a station managed by London Underground to find the station was closed, and the gates locked! There were also dangerous levels of overcrowding at many busy stations, London Underground taking a very cavalier approach to public (and staff) safety.
London Underground and TfL tried every tactic to undermine the strike. They tried to recruit so-called “ambassadors” (a new euphemism for scabs) from among TfL staff to replace striking station staff. Not surprisingly, these workers were not at all enthusiastic about breaking a strike by colleagues – many of whom are in the same unions, and facing the same Johnson-inspired staff cuts.
TfL put on huge numbers of extra buses, many from outside London, with reports of vehicles over 60 years old being pressed into service on some routes! The bus enthusiasts may have loved it, but massive traffic jams ensured that they were no substitute for lost train services.
Unions are now urging passenger watchdog London Travel Watch to put pressure on ministers to bring tube ticket offices into line with those on National Rail stations across the country, where strict rules apply about ticket office opening. Stations and lines are often shared between the tube and National Rail with some rail stations managed by the Underground and ticket offices staffed by Underground staff, so a common approach would be logical.
So what lies behind the dispute? London has adopted the Oyster smartcard for passengers to use the tube, as well as buses and National Rail services. Seven million Oyster cards are in regular use, with millions more bought by visitors to London. An Oyster fare for any given journey is much cheaper than conventional paper tickets, a deliberate move to pressurise passengers to use Oyster.
Johnson would have us believe that the success of Oyster means ticket offices are no longer needed. Prime Minister Cameron was clearly taken in by Johnson’s hype, telling Parliament "the fact is that only 3% of transactions now involve ticket offices, so it makes sense to have fewer people in those offices." The trouble is, Johnson was not just seeking fewer staff in ticket offices – he wanted no ticket offices at all.
Even the statistics quoted by Cameron were not correct. TfL’s own research shows that around 3 per cent of journeys begin with a purchase at a ticket office. Clearly many transactions pay for more than one journey, including sales of weekly, monthly or even annual season tickets, and Oyster cards which almost invariably pay for more than one trip.
TfL has now been forced to admit that one in five ticket purchases took place at a ticket office. And, as many tube staff are quick to mention, much of the time of ticket office staff is spent sorting out errors and problems with the millions of Oyster cards. It is well known that TfL is overcharging Oyster users on a massive scale running into millions of pounds, much of which is down to problems with the Oyster computer systems.
And the dispute is significant for those working in National Rail ticket offices. The extension of Oyster to all National Rail stations in London (and some beyond, soon including Gatwick Airport) has meant a big reduction in conventional ticket sales. In a clear attempt to undermine their viability, many of these ticket offices are not equipped to sell or top up Oyster cards, or to deal with any problems.
Long-planned
This isn’t the first dispute over tube ticket offices – it’s the third time they’ve had to fight. “They’ve been planning this since 2005,” said one picket at Leytonstone, east London. “I think if Ken Livingstone had been mayor [the full closure programme] would have been done,” said another. To which a third added, “More efficiently.”
But Mayor Johnson has a much wider agenda. He has set out to wage war on tube workers and their well organised unions, RMT and TSSA. Not only does he want to cut staff numbers, but he also wants to slash wages for those left with a job, and there are growing fears that Johnson intends to attack the staffs’ pension scheme and their free travel facilities. He wants driverless trains, though there are huge technical difficulties to overcome before that can happen. In order to achieve his plans, he needs to defeat the unions.
Fortunately, the regulations put in place following the loss of life in the Kings Cross fire disaster in 1987 will protect staff numbers at stations that are actually below ground (many London Underground stations are not actually underground), but if Johnson has his way many surface stations will become what the unions refer to as a “mugger’s paradise”. With the government attacking health and safety standards and laws, how long will Underground workers be able to rely on these laws?
It is no coincidence that Johnson announced the intention to start running 24 hours a day at weekends, along with the plan to remove nearly 1,000 jobs and axe 260 ticket offices. The unions believe that more staff cuts would follow. Yet only recently, London Underground was talking of employing around 300 extra staff!
The employer’s publicity has continued to talk about “modernising” the tube but failed to explain how this “modern” 24-hour tube service could be run with so many fewer staff!
There is no doubt that the war against cuts and closures in London Underground has yet to be won, and many expect the workers to be picketing again in the near future. But Mayor Johnson and London Underground are on the back foot. They now know that they have a formidable adversary in the unions, and will have to overcome massive public support for maintaining public services. ■ |
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