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On November 17-20, indigenous peoples, peasants, workers, environmentalists, human rights advocates, activists and social-conscious individuals from all walks of life from all over the country will converge in the National Capital Region to join the rest of the peoples of the world protest against the treacherous claws of monopoly capitalist countries, this nationally coordinated protest action is dubbed the Peoples’ Action Against Imperialist Globalization (PCAIG).

People from the communities, municipalities, cities and provinces of Northern Luzon shall meet with the people from Central and Southern Philippines in Manila, the venue of the meeting of leaders of member-countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

In this “Salubungan” a gathering of people mainly from the basic sectors of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, shall raise common issues to debunk the so-called economic growth President Benigno Aquino III boasts off. They only wish to highlight the true plight of the country under an administration and a president who continuously blame others for the poverty they suffer in hope that these convergence of world leaders would listen. The people from the most remote communities of the country hope to show the world that their government is not really helping to improve their lives and instead under the “tuwid na daan” worsened their living condition.

The people in these protest events against APEC are not just there because they want to protest. The IPs are there to demonstrate to the leaders of APEC against being driven out of their lands, against the rampant killing of their leaders, their families, their children traumatized and even orphaned by state forces deployed and encamped in their schools and communities in the guise of going after the New Peoples Army (NPA).

The experiences of the Lumads in Mindanao and the IPs of the Cordillera, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, etc. are not isolated cases. Their ancestral territories are threatened by the entry and operations of large scale mining owned by the rich member-countries of APEC and other imperialist nations. These countries fund the intense militarization common in IP ancestral territories.

The peasants shall raise the issues of how backward the agricultural industry is, and issues of how they suffer from landlords and the anti-farmer policies pushed by government officials who are landlords themselves. The workers both from the private and government sector are the enslaved labor given mere pittance for a salary. The public educators and education workers are made beggars asking for a liveable salary, and the government insults them by a raise of two thousand given on a staggered basis.

The people will converge to the gates of the country’s central power to bring their issues and struggles and strengthen further the vow to end inequality, an unjust system and establish a pro-people political structure. # nordis.net