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July 2004  

Statement of the
Rebolusyonaryong Grupo ng mga Komunista

WORKERS: STRIKE AGAINST THE WAR!

The Rebolusyonaryong Grupo ng mga Komunista (RGK) is calling on the international working class and on our Filipino class-brothers to mobilize their power to once and for all defeat the imperialist war in Iraq, and to combat with workers’ actions the “war on poverty” being waged by the Philippine bourgeoisie, led by the Arroyo regime, against working people and all of the oppressed here in the Philippines. Refusal to handle war materiel and workers’ strikes against the war are urgently needed especially now that the U.S. and British imperialist occupiers and their so-called allies in the “coalition of the willing” are slowly crumbling. One by one, countries with military and “humanitarian” contingents [in Iraq] already have begun or are expressing their desire to pull out their troops. It is imperative that the working-class must take action now as the U.S. tightens its hold on Iraq by forming a puppet Iraqi interim government to implement all of Washington’s dictates, and “localizing” its colonial war by pitting Iraqis against each other through the forming of a security and intelligence force to crush Iraqi rebels.

The war on Iraq is an imperialist war of domination. The international working class does not have any interests in helping continue this domination. Instead, it has an obligation to help its class brothers inside Iraq to defeat this imperialist war. The only way of fulfilling this obligation is through workers actions. In the United States and in countries of  so-called coalition partners, workers should refuse to handle war materiel going to Iraq and strike against the war. They should also refuse being sent to their imminent death in Iraq as civilian base employees. In the Middle East, migrant workers and workers from Arab countries that are part of the “coalition of the willing” should refuse to work as long as there is war in Iraq. The migrant working class has nothing to do with the interests of  the capitalist contractors, military or civilian, American or of the “coalition partners,” in getting war-profits. The life of a worker cannot be replaced by a capitalist margin of profit and high return of investments for the bourgeoisie. That is why we appeal to workers, particularly truck drivers and civilian base workers, to refuse to transport war materiel inside Iraq as well as in transports going in and out of Iraq. No matter how big the hazard pay is, it is the duty of every class-conscious worker to resist being thrown into a war that is being waged by the bourgeoisie.

Here in the Philippines, as the Filipino mercenary troops were pulled out of Iraq, and as the case of Angelo dela Cruz1 was turned again into a soap opera-like drama reminiscent of the Oakwood incident2 last year, the Philippine bourgeoisie has already laid out another six-year plan of class war on the working class and the oppressed. Its “new arsenal” includes a plan for the implementation of eight additional tax measures and increases in the prices of basic necessities, fare hikes, the privatization of the National Power Corporation and an impending massive lay-off of government workers. As if the working masses could still manage to have a decent life after the series of increases of prices of goods and services just after the elections! Another “new arsenal” is the Balikatan 04-3 military operation in Mindanao that is aimed at provoking the Moro peoples once more. And this does not include the even tighter security climate that is being implemented by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that has the aim of crushing all dissent and protests by the working masses and various oppositions. This has been seen time and again in violent dispersals of rallies and protests by different left groups and even bourgeois opposition groups. The ever-tightening security is what Arroyo meant during her inauguration speech by pointing out that the EDSA uprisings would be put into history.  In essence, the troop pull-out and the saving of Angelo dela Cruz is only aimed at getting “pogi points” or positive propaganda for its plans to prepare the working masses for class war and to prevent another outpouring of disgust and rage as happened in the Flor Contemplacion3 case. All its talk of protecting the interests of migrant workers is plain and simple propaganda talk for Arroyo’s regime, nothing more, nothing less. All the talk of prioritizing the interests of the working masses
as against international commitments is hot air, as the government has again launched another provocation on the Moro peoples by having joint military exercises with U.S. imperialist troops in Mindanao!

The fight of the Filipino workers against the class war of the Philippine bourgeoisie is intrinsically linked with the struggle of the international working class to defeat the imperialist war through workers actions. The Filipino working class has an international obligation to defend Iraq and help in defeating U.S. imperialism, as the class enemy is not just the Philippine bourgeoisie, but also the international bourgeoisie led by the U.S. imperialists that has raped and ravaged Iraq.

At the same time that we fight for our class brothers in Iraq, we also have the obligation to fight for the right to self-determination of the Moro peoples as part of the oppressed peoples, including the independence of Mindanao and the Moro peoples. The working class has no interest in continuing the oppression of minorities and nations as the does the bourgeoisie, which needs oppression to maintain and acquire its profits. Racial, religious and national divisions are the ideology of the bourgeoisie and not the working class. In the immediate sense, workers should also link up the fight against the local bourgeoisie’s class-war with the struggle of the Moro peoples, and call for the defeat of the present aggression and provocation of U.S. imperialist forces in the central Mindanao region under Balikatan 04-3.

Now is the time to act. Instead of merely parading and protesting against the war as the so-called mainstream left is doing, we should organize and win our class brothers and sisters here in the Philippines and internationally to fight and defeat this imperialist war and the local bourgeoisie’s class war. Instead of having to petition international bodies – which are basically controlled by the imperialist countries – like the United Nations, we should seek to mobilize our class brothers to defeat all imperialist war of all the imperialist countries and all the “localized” class war that our local bourgeoisie is waging against us. And rather than merely marching against the war as do the social democrats, Stalinists, pacifists and other reformist outfits, we Trotskyist call for proletarian revolution to once and for all bring down this rapacious and predatory system of monopoly capitalism that continues to breed wars, racism, and oppression upon mankind.

FOR WORKERS STRIKE AGAINST THE WAR!
FOR WORKERS ACTIONS TO KICK ALL TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ!
DEFEAT U.S. IMPERIALISM THROUGH PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION!

FOR WORKERS STRIKES TO DEFEAT THE PHILIPPINE BOURGGEOISIE’S CLASS WAR!
FOR PROLETARIAN ACTIONS TO DRIVE MILITARY TROOPS OUT OF MINDANAO!
DEFEAT U.S. IMPERIALIST PROVOCATIONS IN CENTRAL MINDANAO!

–Rebolusyonaryong Grupo ng mga Komunista, July 26, 2004

1The Filipino worker held hostage in Iraq and then released after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo agreed to withdraw Philippines troops from Iraq.
2See “Soap Opera ‘Coup Attempt’ in the Philippines, Perplexities of the July 27 Incident,” in The Internationalist No. 17, October-November 2003. 

3The case of the Filipina domestic worker who was hanged in Singapore on trumped-up charges of killing her employer’s son and a fellow domestic worker, charges which she denied until her death.
To contact the RGK, write to rgk7@hotmail.com

To contact the Internationalist Group and the League for the Fourth International, send e-mail to: internationalistgroup@msn.com

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