May Day StatementAJLPP-USA
May 1, 2009
FIGHT FOR FULL RIGHTS FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS NOW! END US IMPERIALISM!
This May Day, 2009, the Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) celebrates with pride and honor International Workers’ Day in the United States. Today, we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters worldwide commemorating working-class struggle against US imperialism. We march in almost all the major cities and towns of the US where there is a Filipino American community.
The Alliance-Philippines calls for full rights for all immigrants and an end to US imperialism in the Philippines, the root cause of the Filipino people’s forced migration.
We join the 14 million undocumented immigrants in the US demanding genuine, comprehensive and humane immigration reform, full legalization, amnesty, a stop to racist enforcement measures like deportations, detentions and border militarization, and full protections for all workers.
This marks the fourth consecutive May Day that the Alliance has demanded full rights for immigrants, echoing the call of millions that immigrants’ rights are workers’ rights. On May 1, 2006, in response to the anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner-King bill, millions of immigrant workers and advocates surged into the streets in historic nationwide marches. By that time, the US economy had already begun to slow down, US public outcry against President Bush and the war was at its height, and immigrants refused to be scapegoats.
Amidst a deeper economic crisis today, their demands are even more urgent.
From the Bush regime to the Obama administration, more than $13 trillion have been given to corporations and banks. Using US taxpayers’ money, bailout after bailout is passed—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG, auto industry, Citigroup, Bank of America. It has meant the largest transfer of wealth from the working to the ruling class by state intervention in history.
Meanwhile, more and more people have to fight to meet their basic human needs. There are more than 19 million people losing their homes and cannot pay rent, while there are at least 13 million unsold homes. Pay cuts, budget cuts, terminations, lay-offs and less and less entitlements plague the people.
Immigrant workers, mainly women, are on the frontlines of this crisis. They contend with all of these so-called new indicators of economic crisis in addition to lack of status and lack of basic recognition as a labor force, as well as separation from family. The crisis merely threatens to push immigrant communities further into the shadows. More than 46,000 Filipino World War II veterans continue to struggle for recognition as veterans. Instead of lifetime pensions, they were given a one-time lump sum with a quit claim, without recognition. And roughly 1.4 million domestic workers nationally—of which between 15 and 20 percent are Filipino women—continue to work under dirty, dangerous and exploitative conditions with no labor protections and under constant threat of deportation.
Abroad, US imperialism is propping up cruel dictatorship in the Philippines, backing the Arroyo regime’s proposed change to the Philippine constitution in a bow to US corporate interest. This will aggravate more exploitative conditions, in favor of extracting wealth and natural resources. It results in more wars like in Mindanao where there is 600,000 refugees, human rights violations, export of labor, exploitation and trafficking of women and children and exodus of overseas labor.
For too long, US imperialism has exploited immigrant workers while continuing to profit from their labor. This worsening crisis marks the decay of imperialism and the opportunity for genuine change.
This May Day, demand that Obama keep his promise of immigration reform! March for full rights for all immigrants and for the interests of all workers! March towards liberation and a better tomorrow!
FIGHT FOR GENUINE WORKERS LIBERATION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE!
FULL RIGHTS FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS!
MAKIBAKA, HUWAG MATAKOT!
DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!
