KMU’s Labog calls for int’l solidarity

KMU’s Labog calls for int’l solidarity

Against Trade Union Repression

TORONTO–May 1st Movement (Kilusang Mayo Uno) chairperson Elmer “Bong” Labog was in Toronto June 11 at a community forum dubbed Trade Union Repression and Political Killings: A Call for Solidarity.
Labog spoke of the current spate of extrajudicial execution of local leaders and activists of anti-globalization/anti-imperialist, human rights and peace organizations in the Philippines. These political killings have now claimed over 200 lives since January of this year. From 2001 to date, some 59 of the victims were workers.

He called for support to the campaign to free progressive parliamentarian and former KMU chair Crispin Beltran, and against the political persecution of Gabriela party list representative Liza Maza, Bayan Muna party list representatives Satur Ocampo, Joel Virador and Teodoro Casiño, and AnakPawis party list representative Rafael Mariano.

In the same forum, the KMU leader was joined by Iliam Burbano of the Global Solidarity Committee of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and member of the Colombia Action Solidarity Alliance. Burbano cited the similarities of the Philippine and Colombian situations where heightened state repression has claimed thousands of lives and continues to worsen the lot of the working poor. He said that the triad of deregulation, liberalization and privatization imposed by international financial institutions such as the IMF-World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO) are the main culprits behind these heinous crimes.

The forum was sponsored by SIKLAB Filipino Migrant Workers’ Alliance, Philippine Network for Justice and Peace, Philippine Women Centre and Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance (UKPC-Toronto).