NAFCON Solidarity Statement to Bayan-USA on their 4th National Congress
May 18, 2012
NAFCON Solidarity Statement to Bayan-USA on their 4th National Congress
Warm greetings to the members of Bayan-USA!
Congratulations on your 4th National Congress! We of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) look forward with great enthusiasm in Building a Brighter Future for the Filipinos in the U.S. and in the Philippines.
As the first overseas chapter of Bayan-Philippines, Bayan-USA plays a major role in creating a positive future for our loved ones back home the Philippines as well as fighting against the root causes to the struggles of Filipinos here in the U.S.
The US dominance in the Philippines along with its support of an anti-people Philippine government allows multinational corporations to enter and reap the country’s vast natural resources to profit only the elite and multinational corporations. The result is the suffering of the Filipino people in massive poverty and escalating human rights violations.
The worsening situation in the Philippines has forced many of us, as Filipino migrants or sons and daughters of Filipino migrants, to join the 4,500 Filipinos leaving the Philippines everyday to find greener pastures. The majority of our families have found ourselves in the US, where the brighter futures we hope for are becoming more bleak.
In a time where we are seeing attacks on immigrants intensifying in the U.S., budgets cuts in education and youth services coupled with exponential increases in university tuition fees, the ongoing violence against women in all forms, and increasing military aggression in the Philippines and all other countries that the US has economic and military interests, the need for forging multi-sectoral alliances in advancing and defending our rights and welfare in the midst of U.S. aggression, both in our countries of origin and in the domestic front, come with great urgency.
NAFCON and Bayan-USA have been longtime mutual supporters and collaborators on various campaigns and actions. These include, but are not limited to, the Stop the Killings campaign, End US Military Aid to the Philippines, Junk the Visiting Forces Agreement, Justice for Melissa Roxas, and The People’s State of the Nation Address. It is through our mutual support and collaboration, that campaigns in advancing and defending the rights and welfare of Filipinos in the US and the Philippines have gained much exposure and heightened the awareness of our people’s struggles, casting a wide net in arousing, organizing, and mobilizing Filipinos across multiple sectors of society.
NAFCON congratulates you in celebrating your many victories and is planning for the coming years of continuing the struggle. NAFCON will unite with you on the streets of Chicago as we gather on May 20, 2012, in making our voices heard to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as its members gather in Chicago for their summit.
NATO has been one of the major world organizations in expanding brutal military aggression in third world countries in the name of the so-called “war on terror”, causing massive environmental destruction, increasing poverty, and peoples being displaced from their homelands. It is military and economic aggression by the U.S. and NATO that has had disastrous effects on countries like the Philippines, forcing many of us to leave the country daily to escape the worsening poverty and find work abroad just to be able to provide for their families.
NAFCON in unity with Bayan-USA will demand an end to military and economic aggression in our home countries. Let us continue on in the struggle to advance and defend the rights and welfare of Filipinos in the U.S. and the Philippines.
Mabuhay Bayan-USA!
Isulong ang pakikibaka!
