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Filipino Youth in New Jersey Fight Racist Attacks on Immigrant Communities, Demand Legalization For All

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Anakbayan New York/ New Jersey stands with migrant workers and their families in exposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) “Secure Communities Program” as another anti-immigrant scheme to round-up and deport migrant communities in the United States.  We are joining Action 21, Jersey City Peace Movement, Jersey City Truth, Action and Peace Coalition (JC-TAP), Truth-Media.Info, Jersey City Soccer, and Dominico- Americano 809 Association on Saturday, September 3, 2011, to call for an end to “Secure Communities”, and demand “Legalization for All” as the immediate solution to the issue of immigration. We strongly urge the Filipino community in Jersey City and other neighboring areas to support our undocumented kababayans all over the U.S. who are targets of anti-immigrant policies such as “Secure Communities”.

Roots of Migration

Roughly ten percent of  the population, or 12 million Filipinos, are living and working overseas due to dire economic circumstances in the Philippines.  Landlessness, joblessness, low wages, contractual employment and exploitative working conditions push 4,500 Filipinos to migrate every day in search of better opportunities abroad.  They become the nation’s largest commodity thanks to the Labor Export Policy (LEP), which has been in place since Marcos’ dictatorship in the mid-1970s.

Youth Protest the L.E.P. in the Philippines

LEP was initiated as strategy to assist in paying off foreign debt and managing an intensifying financial crisis through the influx of dollars from Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), propping up the local economy. In 2010 alone, OFWs sent a record $18.76 billion in remittances, accounting for a 10% growth in the Philippines’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  The coercive LEP continues as the Philippine government’s alternative development program to industrialization.

We must grasp the abnormality of this situation.  Massive out-migration from the Philippines and other developing countries to the so-called “First World” countries such as the U.S. disproves the theory that leaving one’s homeland is voluntary.  This phenomenon is testament to a deeper problem in our society that can be linked to the global context of Imperialism.

The Real Culprit: Imperialism

Migration is a laborious process necessitated by a country’s failure to provide for its citizens because of Imperialism.  In simple terms, imperialism is a stronger state’s political, economic and cultural dominion over a weaker one in order to acquire cheap raw materials and cheap labor, and  use as dumping ground for surplus products and capital.  Such has been the relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines (and other semi-colonies) since the end of Spanish colonial rule.  The following neo-liberal policies are consistently imposed by the U.S. and its puppet regimes to maintain control over a country’s resources:

1. Trade Liberalization is the elimination of trade barriers, such as tariffs and other taxes in the spirit of free trade. This swamps the market of under developed countries with cheap surplus products from first world countries, such as the U.S.

2. Economic Deregulation is a policy that puts a “hands-off” policy on the market, meaning the government cannot control the prices of basic commodities nor subsidize vital ones, such as agriculture.

These policies devastate the  capacity of nations to industrialize and provide jobs, therefore, creating the socio-economic conditions that convince people to leave their homeland.  This is why Anakbayan NY/NJ believes that, without the U.S. intervening in political, economic, and cultural affairs of developing countries such as the Philippines, these nations will be able to assert their self- determination and implement genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization, ultimately eliminating the need for its citizens to undergo forced migration.

“Secure Communities” Make Communities Insecure

The U.S. remains to be the primary destination for many immigrants.  There are about 12 million undocumented immigrants currently residing in the U.S. due to the flawed economic system that governs immigration protocol. Among the 4 million Filipinos here, 1 million are undocumented.

In an effort to facilitate the removal of “criminal aliens”, ICE initiated the “Secure Communities Program” in 2008.  It involves biometric information- sharing between local law enforcement agencies and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to identify, detain and deport criminal offenders of varying levels.  Level 1 refers to “aggravated felony” and supposedly receives highest priority; Level 2 includes misdemeanor charges; and Level 3 includes crimes punishable by less than a year.

Jurisdiction of “Secure Communities” in the U.S.

“Secure Communities” has been implemented in a total of 1,508 jurisdictions spread out across 43 states including California, Florida and New York. Despite its guise of public safety, it has been found that, of the 49, 638 removals from October 2009 to September 2010, only 23% were Level 1 crimes, 49% were Level 2 and 3 offenders, and 28% do not even hold criminal records. Arrests also lead to prolonged detention, lack of detainee appeal system, and detention solely based on immigration status.

ICE does not maintain documentation of particulars regarding the offender’s case, so there is also no way of confirming one’s conviction.  Moreover, this program harbors fear among immigrant communities.  It raises the mentality that cooperating with law enforcement may be harmful to their safety in this country, especially if they are undocumented.

ICE is barking up the wrong tree with “Secure Communities”.  It is a waste of taxpayers’ money on unreliable strategies, and the expensive process of detention and deportation.  Instead of posing immigrants as threats to national security, why not enable them to be productive members of society through a realistic legalization process?

“Legalization For All” Means Justice For All

AB-NY/NJ with NAFCON at May 1st Rally in NYC

Anakbayan NY/NJ stands firm in the principle that providing undocumented immigrants a path to legalization that is appropriate to their economic conditions is the first and only step in attaining justice for the most oppressed sector in today’s American society.

Granting lawful immigrant status also means upholding workers’ rights by improving working conditions, enforcing fair and just wages, and providing legal protection.  Furthermore, U.S. government spending will be allocated on social services rather than detention and deportation, which will cost an estimated $94 billion for 10 million undocumented immigrants.

The Migrant Struggle Should Adopt an Anti-Imperialist Perspective

At the root, migration is provoked by the lack of domestic industries, smothered by the grasp of Imperialist countries on third world countries, such as the Philippines.  For this, concerned sectors of society must ultimately take a stand against Imperialism and its neo-liberal policies that it imposes on our home countries.  Only by building an international anti-imperialist united front of migrant workers  and supporters against injustice and oppression can we truly win the struggle for equal rights for migrants and the people.

The International Migrants Alliance (IMA; www.internationalmigrants.org) is the first international grassroots organization that unites migrant workers under the anti-imperialist banner. Anakbayan encourages groups and organizations with similar aspirations to participate in IMA-USA’s founding assembly on October 23, 2011 in Queens, NY.

JUSTICE FOR MIGRANT WORKERS!
NO TO “SECURE COMMUNITIES PROGRAM”!
LEGALIZATION FOR ALL!
NO TO LABOR EXPORT POLICY!
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Youth and Students @ AB- NJ’s Open Mic, “Upsurge: Migrants at Heart”


Anakbayan (in English: Sons and Daughters of the Nation) NY/ NJ is a comprehensive national democratic mass organization of Filipino youth. We fight for the rights and welfare of our fellow Filipinos at home and abroad. To contact us:
Email: anakbayan.nynj@gmail.com
Website: anakbayannynj.wordpress.com
Facebook: Anakbayan NJ
Anakbayan NY
Twitter: anakbayannynj

One Year Later, Filipinos Still in Crisis Under Aquino– BAYAN USA

/ Anakbayan New Jersey / Leave a comment

Press Statement
July 25, 2011
Reference: Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, BAYAN-USA, email: chair@bayanusa.org

National Alliance of Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) and BAYAN USA hold the People's State of the Nation Address in Woodside, NY

Filipino-Americans, under the banner of BAYAN-USA, are taking part in actions across the US and in Manila during the scheduled State of the Nation Address (SONA) in the Philippines to register strong condemnation and disappointment over the failure of the administration of Philippine President Benigno Simeon “P-Noy” Aquino III to facilitate significant changes to improve the lives of the burdened Filipino people after one year in office.

Citing continuing subservience to foreign dictates and a worsened economic situation as measures of the Aquino’s failure to deliver upon promises made during the election and during last year’s SONA, BAYAN-USA and its allies in the US remain adamantly unconvinced that the administration is genuinely for change.

Shameless US Puppetry

At the heart of Aquino’s failure is unrelenting loyalty and puppetry to US foreign policy.

Within his first year, Aquino has willingly allowed the US to use the Philippines as its puppet state to take advantage of the regional territorial dispute over the Spratly Islands and provoke profit-making military aggression in Asia, and particularly against China.

As war and arms production has become the most profitable industry for the US ruling elite, the US government has in turn been able to rely strongly on the compliant Aquino administration to continue with a sugar-coated version of Arroyo’s deadly Operation Plan Bantay Laya by implementing Operation Plan Bayanihan, per the US State Department’s Counter-Insurgency Guide (US COIN). The objective of this counterinsurgency program is the same as it was for Arroyo’s administration and as utilized by repressive regimes worldwide: to suppress dissent and eliminate opposition using a combination of deceptive and increasingly violent tactics. The end result is the protection of imperialist economic and political interests at the expense of human lives.

The Poor Get Poorer Under Aquino

Under the thumb of US foreign dictates, Aquino has further pushed a neoliberal economic framework that has made life more miserable for the majority of the Filipino people. Landlord families, such as Aquino’s, remain in control of the country’s natural resources and push for privatization. Liberalization continues to hike up the prices of basic commodities such as food, gas, and water out of the reach of Filipino families. Contractualization hurts workers by decreasing wages, sowing job insecurity, and busting unions. Under Aquino, there are over 11 million unemployed Filipinos in the country with virtually zero job growth.

Privatization schemes such as the so-called Public-Private Partnership (PPP) not only serve to bulk up the pockets of wealthy and powerful multi-national corporate investors at the expense of ordinary Filipino citizens and workers. They also widen the gap between the few Filipino families that control the majority of the country’s wealth and political power and the burdened majority who must pay from their own pockets for the risks of private investors. It is the impoverished majority who suffer the most from the Philippine state’s abandonment of its public responsibilities.

Filipinos are left with no choice but to seek opportunities abroad, like in the United States. But in these desperate economic times, many Filipino workers fall prey to human trafficking schemes to the US.

Philippine Government: #1 Human Trafficker

The cases of the Sentosa 27 healthworkers, the Florida 15 hotel workers, and hundreds more similar cases of Filipinos duped into coming to the US under the auspices that they would have contract work waiting for them only to have their money taken, passports confiscated, and be left by their recruiters to fend for themselves as undocumented migrants are another clear measure of the Philippine government’s failure to address the country’s economic woes.

In addition, the Aquino government continues Arroyo’s non-accountability to overseas Filipino workers in distress by not providing adequate social services and protection from abuse, maltreatment, and exploitation abroad.

Last Names Do Not a Great Leader Make

Though he was able to capitalize on his last name and the dirty record of his predecessor to win the election, it is clear that none of these things actually translated into making Aquino a great leader or any improvement to the state of the Philippine nation.

Like Obama, Aquino has proven that he is not much different than his predecessor, particularly with his human rights record. In one year of the Aquino presidency, 45 activists have been slain in politically-motivated killings, 5 have been victims of forced disappearance and over 300 political prisoners remain behind bars. The perpetrators of the 1,206 extra-judicial killings, more than 300 forced disappearances, and over 1,000 cases of torture committed under the previous administration of President Gloria Arroyo remain at-large, including those guilty of abducting and torturing renowned Filipina American poet, artist, and BAYAN USA member Melissa Roxas.

As Aquino delivers his formal State of the Nation Address (SONA) to the Philippine Congress today, Filipino-Americans will be amongst those who refused to be deceived and who understand that real change can only come from ordinary people in collective struggle, not from individual politicians with famous last names. ###

Let’s Deliver Our One- Two Punch Against the Incompetent Aquino Regime!

/ Anakbayan New Jersey / Leave a comment

Warm and militant greetings!

WHAT: Production work

WHERE: Action 21

107-B Hutton St. (corner of Central Avenue)

Jersey City, NJ

WHEN: Wednesday, July 20; 4pm

WHY: President Noynoy Aquino’s 2nd State of the Nation Address is just around the corner. As we do every year, we’ll be holding a People’s State of the Nation Address under the banner of National Alliance of Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) and BAYAN-USA on Sunday, July 24, 12-1pm at Queens, NY.

Being an inspired, creative force, the youth in NJ is tasked to help make props for the protest action. The concept behind this production is that President “P-Noy” Aquino will be depicted as a spoiled egg, oozing with controversy and various incompetencies (rising prices of commodities, public-private partnerships, tuition fee hikes, Spratly dispute, etc). The boxing gloves will represent the Filipino people’s collective power that continues to fight for basic rights such as jobs, education, healthcare, and other social services. The boxing gloves also serve as a reference to Congressman Manny Pacquiao’s endorsement of the 125- peso wage increase bill.

We’ll be making 2 big boxing gloves that are meant to smash the spoilt “humpty dumpty”, and 6 smaller gloves representing the different groups of human trafficking victims and the community organizations in the NY/NJ area.

To volunteer, or for questions, contact Bea Sabino at biningbol@gmail.com or call (201) 779-6886. Thank you and hope you can offer some of your time for a great cause! Feel free to tag your friends who would be interested. 🙂

STOP TRAFFICKING OUR PEOPLE!

P125 WAGE INCREASE ACROSS THE BOARD, NATIONWIDE IN THE PHILIPPINES!

NO TO LABOR EXPORT POLICY!

LEGALIZATION FOR ALL!