Manila, Philippines
GABRIELA issued the following slightly edited statement August 5.
The national alliance of Filipino women GABRIELA and the women’s committee of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle strongly denounce the repressive measures launched by the U.S. and its cohorts against peoples’ resistances across the world. Its latest attack came in the form of severing access to financial services of one of the leading fiscal sponsors of grassroots organizations in many parts of the world: the Alliance for Global Justice.
Shortly before the credit card company cut off AFGJ’s access to its services, the U.S.-based, pro-Israel Zachor Legal Institute accused AFGJ of supporting terrorism due to its financial assistance to the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. Samidoun and its member organizations are being alleged to have ties with “extremists” because of their support to the Palestinian peoples’ struggle for liberation and justice amid escalating terrorist attacks and occupation by the U.S.-backed Israeli government.
Accusations of supporting “terrorists” and branding peoples’ organizations as themselves terrorists are not new. These tactics have long been used by the U.S. and its puppet governments as a means to quell unrest in its neocolonies. In the Philippines, more and more civil society organizations are being labeled as front organizations of a Philippine revolutionary armed group.
Such allegations have been used to legitimize further state attacks akin to those suffered by AFGJ and pro-Palestinian organizations, and worse forms such as killings, abductions and the like. Several organizations have likewise been alleged to be “financing terrorists,” which has resulted in the freezing of their bank accounts and assets, effectively shutting down their operations.
These U.S.-led and U.S.-funded assaults on peoples’ organizations only serve to protect imperial interests. The intensifying attacks against democratic forces, coupled with its growing military aggression towards rival imperialists, are proof of the U.S.’s desperation to maintain power and control over resource-rich countries, especially in the midst of grave global crises that resulted from four decades of neoliberal impositions.
As such, we must continue to unite and struggle against the true terrorists: the U.S. and its allies. Imperial powers and puppet governments have wreaked havoc and civil unrest all over the world – and it is only just for the peoples of the world to fight back. Their monopoly of the world’s resources and endless imperialist wars have left the majority of the toiling masses reeling from extreme poverty, displacement and disenfranchisement.
We say enough! Down with U.S. imperialism! No to imperialist wars!
We stand in solidarity with AFGJ and the peoples of Palestine demanding justice, peace and freedom! We link arms with our sisters and other rights activists of the world in the struggle for democratic rights and liberation from imperial exploitation and oppression!
GABRIELA Philippines is a grassroots-based alliance of more than 200 women’s organizations, institutions, desks and programs in the Philippines. They seek to wage a struggle for the liberation of women and the rest of our people.