NAFCON Solidarity Statement to Gabriela-USA on their 2nd National General Assembly
May 18, 2012
NAFCON Solidarity Statement to Gabriela-USA on their 2nd National General Assembly
Warm greetings to the members of Gabriela-USA!
Congratulations on your 2nd National General Assembly! We of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) look forward with great enthusiasm in Building a Brighter Future for the Filipina women in the U.S. and in the Philippines.
As an overseas chapter of Gabriela Philippines, you play a special role in the progressive movement of Filipina women in the U.S. Because of U.S. foreign policies in the Philippines that has trampled on our national sovereignty and continues to worsen the situation of poverty, many of us, as Filipino migrants or sons and daughters of Filipino migrants, are forced to join the 4,500 Filipinos leaving the Philippines everyday to find greener pastures.
The majority of those of us in this outmigration are women, taking up jobs abroad as domestic workers and caregivers. Most of our families have found ourselves in the US, where the brighter futures we hope for are becoming bleak. Attacks on immigrants are intensifying in the US. Budgets cuts in education and youth services coupled with exponential increases in university tuition fees are at an all time high. Economic and military aggression in the Philippines continues, one of its disastrous effects are the raping of Filipina women by US servicemen and sex trafficking. Violence against women in all forms, from domestic violence to electronic violence through mass media unfortunately continues. In the midst of systems of patriarchy and oppression, the need for forging multi-sectoral alliances in advancing and defending the rights and welfare of Filipina women in the US and the Philippines comes with great urgency.
NAFCON has always supported and collaborated with Gabriela-USA in their various campaigns, most prominently in the campaign to end violence against women, justice for victims of rape by US servicemen in the Philippines, and pushing for the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. It is through our mutual support, collaboration, and solidarity that campaigns in advancing and defending the rights of women have gained much exposure and heightened the awareness of women’s struggles.
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, where thousands of Filipinos, most of whom are women, 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 Gabriela-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 Filipina women in the U.S. and the Philippines.
Mabuhay Gabriela-USA!
Isulung ang pakikibaka ng kababaihan!
