Akbayan yesterday came up with a statement supporting Senator Leila de Lima against the bullying of President Duterte. Any support going De Lima's way at this juncture is more than needed.
Akbayan is, according to its website, a socialist organization or party. They call their concept "Participatory Socialism," putting huge emphasis on the democratic ideal for socialist movements. This would be one opposed to "state-ist" projects that confine socialism only within the question of state formation being led by a vanguard, super-hierarchical party having an official ideology.
The party's overall model is hegemonic in the Gramscian sense -- visualizing a scenario where the movement is able challenge the prevailing conservative ideology in arenas that society does allow some space for contention, such as the political and cultural spheres.
Did Akbayan succeed? Is it succeeding? At this historical period, the party appears to be in a low point, at least ideologically. The party stuck closely with the Aquino Administration -- a move which led it in the end to losing its best members, notably its founder Walden Bello (or at least his leadership as party list representative in Congress).
Akbayan is currently in an Opposition role to the Duterte administration, not least because it supported Duterte's opponent and bourgeois (Neo)Liberal Party bet Mar Roxas, even going to the extent of one of its more brilliant members, Barry Gutierrez, becoming the former's defender in the media.
This link leads to former Akbayan member Ric Reyes' speech explaining his decision to leave the party. The speech contains history, and a nice summary of the Aquino administration of which Akbayan was too much in awe.
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