ANARCHISM IN THE PHILIPPINES:

In addition to the labour struggles mentioned by Molly on her post of the previous day there is a new and growing anarchist movement in that country. This is significant because unlike other East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and China there is little known historical precedent for this growth. The latest aspect of this growth is the opening of a new infoshop in the southern city of Davao on the island of Mindanao. This is especially significant as Mindanao is an epicentre of Muslim insurrection in the Philippines. The main players in this armed conflict are the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (a split from the more moderate Moro National Liberation Front), Abu Sayyaf, and the Jemaah Islamiyah . Unlike the declining Maoist thugs of the New Peoples' Army, these groups actually have at least a modicum of popular support, even though, like the NPA, their "armed struggle" follows the usual trajectory of degenerating into sheer criminality. Their support is sufficient that the government has seen necessary to compromise with them in granting the Moros of Mindanao a degree of autonomy. This "compromise", however, hasn't prevented the government from imposing what is essentially a regime of modified martial law on the area, with all the human rights abuses that this implies.

In this conflict between a brutal ruling class and even more brutal would-be rulers it is significant that our comrades have established an anarchist presence. They call their project "As a Whole Family: Alternative Culture, Art and Resource Centre", and it is a typical infoshop with print resources, film showings, lectures, etc.. They are looking for help, both financial and in the form of resources for their library. They can be reached via email at asawhole_family@yahoo.com . Their mailing address is #386 Makiling St. (Lower), Central Park Subdivision, Bangkai, Davao City, Philippines 8000, and they have two phone #s ie 09107843815 and 09185117233. There is also another group active in Mindanao ie the Katribu Mindanau.

Meanwhile in Luzon, the major island of the Philippines a number of groups are active as well. These include the Non-Collective, Manila Indymedia and the Manila Infoshop. All of these groups have been added to Molly's Links under the general Links section. There are also a large number of projects and groups that don't have an internet presence, from Food Not Bombs groups, media projects, literature distributors, ecology groups and others. There is an interesting article on the Manila Indymedia site that gives a recent list. Go to http://manila.indymedia.org/?actions=default&featurereview=187 to view the report.

Molly