Chanting « Globalization: Betrayal of the People!, » « GATT-WTO: the Worst Plague of All! » and « Stop the New Round of Talks! The Philippines is not for sale!, » around 8,000 protesters marched for around two kilometers down one of Manila's busiest thoroughfares.
SEPTEMBER 13 (Manila) – Aboard a caravan of 300 jeepneys – the ubiquitous and distinctly Filipino mode of transport — farmers and fishers traveled hundreds of miles from different provinces to march in downtown Manila Saturday.
Norvic Baculao, who came all the way from an island in the Visayas region in central Philippines, was one of them. Atop a makeshift stage on a twelve-wheeler truck, Norvic said his reason for taking the arduous 24-hour trip was simple.
« I came here to tell people in Manila that people in the Visayas are joining the resistance against a new round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, » Baculao said in Visayan, one of scores of languages in the country.
People from the Visayas are mostly fishers and their understanding of the WTO, Baculao said, is basic. « It is small fishing boats versus giant fishing trawlers! »
DIFFERENT CALLS, ONE MARCH
In Manila, Baculao and the hundreds of other protesters who joined the caravan converged with thousands of students, factory workers, shoemakers, urban poor, NGO workers, and other activists to join the Philippine leg of worldwide actions parallel with the ongoing Fifth Ministerial of the WTO in Cancun, Mexico.
Chanting « Globalization: Betrayal of the People!, » « GATT-WTO: the Worst Plague of All! » and « Stop the New Round of Talks! The Philippines is not for sale!, » around 8,000 protesters marched for around two kilometers down one of Manila's busiest thoroughfares.
Some of them were only against the launch of a new round of liberalization under the WTO; others were calling for the abolition of the WTO itself; still others called for an end to corporate globalization, imperialism, and wars of aggression.
Despite the differences, all marched under the banner of the Stop the New Round! Coalition, a broad coalition of NGOs, trade unions, political parties and social movements, in tandem with the Global Day of Action Committee, an ad hoc coalition of political blocs and organizations that came together to coordinate actions for the Philippine's participation in the September 13 International Day of Action against War and Corporate Globalization.
FRESH WOUNDS
Corazon Fabros, a long-time Filipino activist, noted with enthusiasm how the march brought together political blocs that are usually at loggerheads with each other and that usually march separately even if they share common political positions.
The SNR! Coalition, which was formed seven months ago specifically for the Cancun ministerial, has been holding a series of educational forums around the country, demanding government transparency in its negotiating position, and raising awareness on what's at stake for the country in Cancun. A 15-member SNR! Contingent also flew to Cancun to monitor, report, and attempt to influence the actions of the Philippine negotiators.
« Before they left for Cancun, our negotiatiors told us that we shouldn't worry because they'll be carrying our interests, » Ka Pablo Rosales of the Fisherfolk's Movement recalled. « But that's what they also said in 1994. »
« The wound from that betrayal, » Rosales said, « is still fresh. »
SHOULD HAVE BEEN BIGGER
The protesters were supposed to march to the Presidential Palace – and a huge bloc were also planning to go all the way to US embassy – but even before they could move forward from their assembly point, they were already blocked by a phalanx of truncheon-wielding, shield-carrying SWAT officers in battle gear backed up by two firetrucks ready to disperse the crowd with water.
It seemed as though the massive security measures protecting the WTO in Cancun were replicated in Manila.
After negotiations with authorities, the protesters were allowed to march instead to the historic Plaza Miranda, site of anti-dictatorship rallies during the 1970s.
On the way, the protesters marched down one of Manila's most crowded avenues while giving out leaflets and political statements to passersby. Waving dozens of colorful flags and streamers that read « Stop the Slaughter of Philippine Agriculture in the WTO!, » « Stop Neoliberal Globalization, » « Education is a Right, Not a Commodity, »« Oppose all Wars of Aggression, » and « A Just World is Possible!, » the rallyists stopped the flow of traffic for hours.
Some of the protesters were wearing the Cambodian scarf or krama as well as the kiffiyeh, the scarf that has become the symbol of Palestinian — and increasingly, also of the growing anti-corporate globalization – resistance around the world.
The protest should have been bigger but several more jeepneys that were part of the caravan were prevented by the police from reaching the assembly point somewhere on the national highway on their way to Manila.
According to Rasti Delizo of the anti-war group PEACE CAMP, the organizers were originally targeting 25,000 protesters. More farmers and fisher were hoping to join but unfortunately, the organizers were not able to raise enough more money for hiring more jeepneys that would transport them from the countryside.
AT A STALEMATE
During the program, the organizers made a long distance call to Dr. Walden Bello, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South and a member of the SNR! contingent for updates on the state of negotiations in Cancun.
« I'm happy to announce that negotiations in Cancun are in a stalemate, » Bello said to the delight of the crowd. He, however, relayed that the Philippine negotiators are under intense pressure to break away from the ranks of the developing countries opposed to giving any further concessions without the US and the EU substantially cutting down its generous subsidies to its farmers.
« How can our farmers compete when they're not even receiving any kind of support from our government?, » lamented Derek Cab of the Youth for Nationalism and Democracy. Rosales noted how the very people who plant rice are themselves the ones starving.
BRACING FOR BUSH
Student leaders roundly expressed their fears about the further commodification of education under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). They noted how even without GATS, the government is already abandoning its responsibility of educating Filipinos as can be seen in the small budget that the education sector receives.
« Children no longer have any future under globalization, » Cab bewailed.
Pat Gonzales of the women's group SARILAYA pointed out how the Philippines' membership to the WTO has brought suffering especially to women who have been forced to work doubly hard in order to ensure that they can still take care of their families' needs.
Wilson Fortaleza of SANLAKAS political party called for a much bigger march when US President George Bush visits Manila this October 18. This early, organizers are preparing « 16 hours of protest for Bush's 8-hour visit. »
At one point, a cultural group sang an anthem with the lines: « It was us who planted, harvested, and pounded the rice. But when it was cooked, it was not us who ate it. »
The poetry may have been lost in the translation but the message would have been as clear in any language.###
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