Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Call to POST your comments and reflection!

Hey friends, I am posting some articles to tickle your mind to reflect, comment and maybe inspire?!!!!. I invite you all to share what is on your mind. I am going to post what I think about it either tonight or tomorrow. By the way, the article here is written by my two colleagues at Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC). You want to know more of our organization, you can visit FDC in the News (see Political Blogs section below).

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Class Struggle and the Radicalizing “Middle Class”

Working class in a changing landscape

By James Matthew Miraflor and Emmanuel M. Hizon

“When political analysts ask, ‘Where are the middle forces, they who triumphed at the two Edsas [people power uprisings]?’ I am tempted to answer: At Starbucks, drinking an iced venti latte."

-Raul Pangalangan, Starbucks and the Class Struggle

Rationale

Now that another political uprising, on the tradition of EDSA, is slowly gaining ground, brought about by the aborted ZTE NBN deal implicating once more Mrs. Arroyo, the role of what had been dubbed as the “middle class” or the more politically correct term “middle force” in such an upheaval is again slowly entering social discourses. Regardless of how we define the nature and composition of such middle class, its potent capacity to introduce change is already assumed in many progressive and reform-oriented circles, so much so that formations such as the Black and White movement (B&W) explicitly labels itself as a group which has its purpose to organize the disgruntled members of the middle class in its effort to oust the “evil” Arroyo regime.

But how do we characterize the middle class and its members? Usually, they are described as the relatively well-off, well-dressed, wielding relative economic independence and the highly educated segment of society – in short, what the masa is necessarily not. As such, as if a distinct social specie in itself, the middle class as a political force is often contrasted to the more traditional proletarian and peasant class, or, with the worsening of economic destitution and unemployment, the urban poor.

How the forces of the democratic left should treat the middle class had long been subject of theoretical and strategy discourses since the NDF boycott of the 1984 snap elections, which paved the way for the 1986 EDSA people power revolution. Is the move of the left to tap into the potent force of the middle class in recent Philippine political uprisings a return to the pre-Leninist strategy of a bourgeoisie-led democratic revolution? Or is this recent “epiphany of the middle class” (to borrow from Mon Casiple) merely an over determination in the Althusserian sense, with a relatively autonomous and pent-up middle class temporarily taking the revolutionary role of a mal-developed working class, with the working class remaining to be the vanguard force of change in the end?

This brings us to a more urgent question: What is our exact definition and understanding of this particular group?

Defining the “MF”

As members of the democratic left, we hold Marxism not only as tool for social change but also equally, as a tool for social and political analysis. Our Marxist definition of social class is not based on lifestyle, money earned or simple social psychology, but rather on the relation of a specific social class on the means of production of a certain social structure.

It is not true that the left movement out rightly dismisses this group nor is its discourse gravely or consciously avoiding any debate, discussion on the role of the specific social grouping.

In fact, leftists of all shades and students of Marxism vigorously debate the exact composition of the middle class under contemporary capitalism.

Some sections calling themselves as “council communists” say this group is in fact a social class composed of intellectuals, technocrats, bureaucrats, and managers with its own “seizure of power” agenda. Others describe it as a "harmonizing class", a class that is part of the “executive committee for the common affairs of the ruling class” composed of the petit bourgeoisie, professionals and managers. On the other hand, some say, this group refers to the comfortable section of the broad working class population often branded as the affluent white-collar workers.

However, simply put, based on our perspectives coming from the Marxist tradition, the bourgeoisie/capitalists are those who own the means of production, who control economic production and promote wage labor. On the other hand, the working class is the social class that do not own the means of production, and earn their living by offering their bodies, services for the capitalists to extract surplus value in exchange for inadequate wages. The middle class is defined by exception as an intermediate social class between the two, or what we usually call as the petty bourgeoisie.

The petty bourgeoisie is defined as small propertied groups of individuals, which, while contrasted with the proletarian class in as much as they do not entirely rely on the sale of their labor-power, are also differentiated from the bourgeoisie or the capitalist class who own the means of production and buy the labor-power of others to earn profit. Mostly, this includes corporate managers, small property owners and small-scale entrepreneurs, who, while having a degree of control on their income by the virtue of their role in the process of production, are still entirely vulnerable to the dictates of the capitalist controllers of the forces of production.

Therefore, being branded as a member of the middle class is a matter of relation of the individual to commodity, a matter of social relations and a matter of the person’s position in the overall mode of production. You do not classify a person as middle class, for example, just because she or he is usually seen in plush coffee shops, at the Embassy Club or because she or he speaks coňo English. You do not de-class yourself from your true class origins and interests by simply speaking good English, by sheer lifestyle or chić fashion sense.

But unfortunately, the brand “middle class” became a colloquial term which seems to encompass exactly such, the (eloquent, straight) English-speaking minority in contrast with the majority capable at most only of crooked English. In that case, the term middle class is used as a substitute for middle-income – a very wrong substitution indeed.

So how do we characterize the “real Filipino middle class”? The Philippine petit-bourgeoisie in the traditional sense is not even that developed. Mostly coming from the displaced old elite, the real middle class is but a small sub-section of the perceived to be the middle class.

Why didn’t our real middle class grow in the first place? The reason can be traced to the failure of our redistribution strategy. Our agrarian reform program, for example, which is supposed to break feudalism and promote a new and strong middle class through establishing “owner-cultivatorship of economic-sized farms” instead, converted the feudal elite into a nascent capitalist elite, with land and agricultural labor as their base.

So was EDSA I and EDSA II people power uprising really led by the middle class? In practice, neither EDSA I nor EDSA II are middle class events. They were both powered by the working class, only that factions of the ruling class was able to hijack both: on the first instance because the progressive forces by-and-large boycotted it, with the leadership being stolen by the liberal-democratic faction of the elite; on the second instance because the progressive forces are not strong enough to maintain leadership up to the end.

Can it then be perhaps, in our particular case, there is really no third way, no specific middle strata, only an illusory social stratification imposed to us to keep the working class divided, to de-class them and in the end muddle their true class interests? With the “real” middle class defined, where do we fit in this particular group of people who are not necessarily corporate managers, small property owners and small-scale entrepreneurs but are labeled as middle class or middle force?

If we follow this line of thought, what is therefore presented to us is a social grouping wrongly called “middle class” that can either be seen as lesser than the average capitalists or better off than the average worker.

In this case, we go with the latter proposition.

Worker of a New-Type

In actuality, the slow yet determined radicalization of the “middle class” we are witnessing in this particular juncture is in fact the radicalization and participation of an important section of the working class itself. As a consequence of the growing services sector and gradual de-industrialization of the Philippine economy, we are, in fact, witnessing the rise of a new working class whose social definition is not limited to the industrial-factory characterization we in the progressive movement often romanticize.

What we are witnessing is the growing political action of Makati employees, public servants, call center agents, doctors and university professors and teachers agitated by an equally agitated student body. These people are often described as middle class but are in fact so politically and economically ingrained with the system’s means of production. Their actions are in fact the actions of the working class.

However, unlike their industrial counterparts, on their own, they wield substantial, albeit latent, political power. There are many reasons for this, but revealing only two will suffice.

First, it is perceived that a large chunk of our country’s revenue comes from such “middle-income” (which is, by and large, above average) “middle class” members, and ever increasingly so. Just look at the taxes levied against professionals, or the high income taxes burdening the highly paid skilled workers. They have the “right of claim” of the government, since they are responsible for a large part of its financing.

Consequently, it is for this reason that they are mostly latent at best as a political force partly because their social mobility aspiration is in loggerhead with their patriotic and progressive values. They are the most reluctant to decide between change and the status quo because they perceived themselves losing their current social status, of being proletarianized in the eventuality of joining a political upheaval. Nonetheless, with proper persuasion, they can become a formidable force for progress, political modernity or of conservatism.

The second source of their political power is their high degree of credibility and objectivity, which stems mainly because of their long exposure in the universities, academic circles and different layers of the government.

In a stratified society such as ours, the ruling class, which in this case is the capitalist class, is the natural subject of criticism. Thus, the rhetoric coming from the ruling capitalist class is received with little appreciation from the working class whose traditional base are the industrial workers. Their class interests are necessarily in contradiction with each other.

Thus, more often than not, this specific layer of the working class often described as middle force serves as the objective fulcrum of change or conservation – the determinant of political direction – because their rhetoric are not perceived as necessarily representative of either the ruling or oppressed class. This is the reason why “middle class support” is highly coveted by both opposing camps, for different purposes.
Either for the purpose of demobilizing their ranks, bending them to conservatism or radicalizing them.

Revolution of a New-Type

Truly, the middle force is proletariat. They may be wielding P180 worth of Starbucks coffee instead of the usual hammer which so symbolized the working class in all recorded history, but nonetheless, they are workers in their own right and are legitimate members of the proletarian movement.

With their entry also comes a plethora of new protest strategies they are introducing, owing much to their exposure to different and often non-traditional faces of production. In the time when the political struggle is more and more becoming a Gramscian battle for position, political blogging, cyber-activism, and other forms of anti-establishment communication which heavily utilize Third Wave technologies (Toffler) are gradually becoming indispensable as tools of mass propaganda to convince and organize.

These new forms of struggle must complement and even amplify existing efforts by the traditional industrial working class to undermine the capitalist state which foundations are anchored not only on political-economic apparatuses of repression but also on the ruling liberal-democratic consensus. The political struggle for democratic space must be complemented with a perception struggle for moral ascendancy, an arena where our “middle force proletariat” thrives.

At the end of the day, the struggle remains to be “proletariat” in its deepest sense – with the real forces behind of the societal system capturing control of the system itself. The traditional base of the working class that is the trade unions must welcome them not with doubt or hesitation but with pride and recognition. Ώ

With apologies to Randy David’s article “Greed in a Changing Landscape."



Monday, February 25, 2008

Statement of FDC


Statement of the Freedom from Debt Coalition
On the 22nd Anniversary of People Power 1
Quezon City, 25 February 2008



Illegitimate Debt: The Betrayal of
Post-Edsa Governments



The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) joins the entire country as we commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the first people power uprising that gave birth to a new nation long thirsty for justice, equality and peace. We join the Filipino people as we relive this historical and significant occasion—an important juncture that saw not only a united people unceremoniously removing an authoritarian regime through collective struggle, but also the political nativity of “people power” as a potent tool of the citizens against institutionalized social ills.
However, the ethos and the principles of this significant event had been gravely bastardized and betrayed by succeeding post-Edsa governments. Social justice issues which were the backbone issues of the first Edsa uprising were swept aside in favor of the return of elite and patronage politics, the restoration to political and economic pre-eminence of the traditional ruling classes and their continued subservience to foreign interests and institutions.
None is more glaring of this betrayal than the refusal of all post-Edsa governments to fundamentally confront our lingering debt problem. Their refusal to undergo a progressive re-orientation of public spending towards important social services like education and health away from the burdensome payment of illegitimate debts is a complete turnaround from one of the most elemental social justice calls made by the people during and after the downfall of the Marcos regime.
From Cory Aquino’s spineless “honor all debts” policy up to Fidel V. Ramos and Joseph Estrada’s same penchant for debt servicing and accumulation of new illegitimate debts coupled with their blind acceptance of the creditor community’s ill-prescribed structural adjustment policies of deregulation, liberalization and privatization; generation after generation of Filipinos were betrayed by these governments by forcing them to live a life of indebtedness, shoved to the breadline because of debts they do not owe.
Beyond doubt, the persistent problem of illegitimate debts is a clear and costly betrayal of the true spirit of Edsa by all post-Edsa governments.
Even so, the government which can best characterize and give meaning to this treachery and tragedy is no less than the illegitimate administration of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Born out of a similar people power uprising which deposed a corrupt President, the Arroyo government broke all the promises and hopes of Edsa 2 by not only replicating the sins and failures of its predecessors but by taking them to new heights and proportions.
To date, Mrs. Arroyo’s debt payment and borrowing spree are historically unrivaled. Her total debt stock dwarfs to shame the total debt accumulation of the three administrations before her. Likewise, her track record of entering into anomalous if not illegitimate deals and contracts which in turn becomes illegitimate debts to be carried by an already debt-burdened populace is unparalleled and phenomenal.
This is the true essence of Rodolfo Lozada’s revelation on the aborted $ 329 million ZTE National Broadband Network—an anomalous contract which Mrs. Arroyo recently admitted to be flawed in the first place. Lozada’s testimony is not only a sad and appalling story of corruption, greed and bribery; moreover, it is an ugly reminder that we are still trapped in this deadly debt quagmire imposed to us by our government in collusion with unscrupulous lending institutions.
Twenty-two years have passed since the first Edsa uprising yet, our present government is still an insatiable debt addict. It not only continued to acquire new and yet unwanted debts it also created a new breed of insatiable plunderers headed by no other than Mrs. Arroyo’s First family and their entire cabal of thieves and social leeches.
We abhor and condemn this illegitimate government and their illegitimate debt!
Now more than ever, in the midst of our quest for truth, accountability and social change, we enjoin the Filipino people not only to remember the lessons of the past, not only to celebrate what was before but more importantly, to relive and reawaken the idea of another Edsa people power.
However, the Edsa we want is unlike the previous Edsas. What we want is a people power of a new-type. What we want is an Edsa that is explicitly against elite rule and elite succession, a people power that is against foreign meddling and intrusion and a new Edsa that will wipe out all illegitimate debts.

Let us finish what we have started twenty-two years ago. Let us finish our incomplete revolution.

Not to do so is truly, what’s unforgivable.

Gloria, Noli Resign!
Establish a New Government of the Filipino People!
Wipe Out all Illegitimate Debts!




Tugon ng Kabataan Noon, Hamon sa Kabataan Ngayon!

A lawyer friend of mine initiated to organize a youth forum here in our parish within our barangay (Parish of Our Lady of the Abandoned, Brgy. Hulo) to educate and build awareness among the youth so that they may discover and understand their roles at this time of political crisis. Also, to allow them to critically think what really needs to be done as youth leaders.

About 57 youth attended the forum today and eagerly participated in the short dramatization activity on how they understand what is happening around them particularly in politics. They also listened attentively to the guest speaker who was once a youth activist at the time of Marcos, a leader of a big youth organization, a former partylist Congressman and currently, a lawyer. The speaker shared his experience as a youth activist and explained in simple terms why activist do what they have to do for the country.
My personal opinion says that the speaker gave a powerful parting words to the youth, "Never stop dreaming! / 'Wag tumigil mangarap!" I do agree that most of the youth today stopped dreaming about having a good future while in their country. But instead are lured by media, government and even their own families to find their luck abroad and earn dollars and euros despite of the needs of this country.
This kind of initiative are encouraged to continuously remind our society of the values originally taught by institutions that shape us as a person - family, school, government, Church, peers - but can now be easily distorted because of media and technology. Efforts such as sustained education and awareness campaign through organizing forums, discussions and dialogues is one way of motivating some sections of the civil society such as the youth to act according to their judgement.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

What is 'communal action'?

The Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP) Statement on the Jun Lozada case provided some concrete suggestions on what may a 'communal action' mean. Communal action may mean that you take active part on the following efforts:
1. Put up TRUTH CAMPS in our community: school, parish, offices and other settings. This can be any place where people can gather to be informed on the latest events in our country, be helped to reflect on these and deepen their awareness of truth, spend some moments of common prayer and light candle for Truth to prevail. Competent persons will assure the constant flow of updates and materials for reflection.
2. Launch SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN FOR TRUTH. For professional groups, please draft your own letter.
3. Join the "FUND DRIVE" or what is also known as the "Sanctuary Fund.
4. Join mass actions, prayer rallies, symposia and other forms of collective actions for truth.

I hope, based on the suggestions, this can be a starting point for all of us to act together and let our voices be heard.

On Randy David's Public Lives Column on "Should bishops lead political actions?"

I couldn't agree less to Mr. David's column posted last February 16 at the Philippine Daily Inquirer. First, I would like to thank him for giving me a fresh perspective on looking at the Church's role at this time of crisis.
"Cardinal Sin is Cardinal Sin!" Nobody can replace him, I guess, and I have highest respect for him for doing what he did 22 years ago. If I can say, he sort of saved the people. But we no longer have him around to call once again on the people to act and we have to move forward as a nation carrying with us, hopefully, lessons from the past.

However, if his activeness can be called as his strength, then I can call it a weakness as well because the people have depended on what the Church has to say for years. And this cannot continue. The people has to really "own" this struggle for a change.

Many ask, what "communal action" means. I say, this can mean different things and we should not stop ourselves from discovering what kind of communal action should be done. After all, we do not want to copy the rest of the EDSA's we have before. This is a very unique scenario which requires a different approach like what the CBCP said, a new brand of People Power.
I think, having the kind of Church we have right now is a welcome change because it will allow the citizenry to become more mature and come up with a sound judgment if the time comes and when it is most needed.
See a copy of the article by Randy David below under the headlines section.

Change of Venue

For those who would want to join the FDC's contingent tomorrow (Feb 25), the meeting place was changed from the People Power Monument to Cubao Arayat just across Farmers Plaza, 12 nn. The march to EDSA Shrine will be at 1 PM so please let us be on time. Also, try to bring more of your friends and family so we can commemorate the SPIRIT of EDSA together!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Step 1: How to act accordingly???!!!!

One concrete way of acting as members of civil society is by joining mass and creative actions on the streets. Come, join and be heard!

Itakwil ang lahat ng Ilehitimong Utang!
Itakwil ang Ilehitimong Gobyerno!
People Power Na! Patalsikin si Gloria!


Join the New Movement of the Filipino People! Let us mount a New People Power Uprising!
Monday, Feb 25
1 PM @ People Power Monument, EDSA
You may wish to go on your own or join other organization's contingent
(i.e. Freedom from Debt Coalition).
For more information, please contact Job Bordamonte @ 09209149561 and Emman Hizon @ 09189070674


Another way to act is to listen to news and opinions, gather information from reliable sources, attend forums which discuss the issues, ask questions, read, read and read newspapers, papers, documents and primer and discuss them anytime if given an opportunity - mealtime, after mass, in schools, barkada sessions and so on and so forth.

To help you understand the current political developments, I will attach a copy of the PRIMER ON ZTE-NBN DEAL entitled, "ZTEwwwwwwww!" We hope to also have the Filipino version by Monday's time. I just have to understand how to post an attachment. Anyway, after reading the material, why not try to discuss it in your class, workplace and other areas possible. In your way, your helping civil society, little by little.










Friday, February 22, 2008

Civil Society Act Now!!!

Finally, I got my own blog! I cannot explain my feelings but I am excited to share my thoughts to the world particularly on the subject I chose. This blog will in no way pretend to know a lot about civil society actions but would attempt to give the basics (kaya nga 101) and/or give tips, suggest, recommend on how to jumpstart one's participation in any cause-oriented actions and projects. The author, which is me, is not an "ideologue." I would want to be one but I am still learning the ropes step by step, on a per issue basis. I am saying this to make clear to everyone that this blog is up not because of ideology but only because of what I think is right, my own principle and faith as a Christian. And everybody is welcome here.

After, a dozen of planning and "urong-sulong" attitude, I have created the CivilSocietyAct101 blog. Not only because of the current political developments but I think this is something that I require myself to have as my little contribution to the civil society and and hopefully to the social movement. This would also be a great tool, in a way, to personally help me in my training as a campaigner in the future and to be able to promote and encourage active participation among members of the civil society and to the rest of the world.


To all my acvtivists friends out there, I invite you to post/comment and share relevant topics to my blog. Please send me as well the links to your blogs so I can add them. I am also going to post very articles with my comments and hopefully yours.


In the meantime, I have to get going. There is a "Misa para sa Katotohanan" (Mass for Truth) at our parish here in Brgy. Hulo (Our Lady of the Abandoned). The parish priest is becoming active in helping AMRSP support Lozada. With my friends here in Mandaluyong, we hope to start organizing the parishes nearby as our contribution to the communal action called for by CBCP to the citizenry. I hope people will start waking up from their deep sleep and get around with their senses.

Hope to see you all in action!!!