But despite all our differences, we have come together today because of the growing threat of dictatorship.
President Rodrigo Duterte is now stepping up his attacks on the people: He has been consistent in promoting patronage politics, impunity while attacking our patrimony and the ideals of democracy and sovereignty.
Even as he promises various concessions, he continues to deny us a life of dignity and fails to deliver on basic social services. He has attacked workers by legitimizing “contractualization.” He has attacked the urban and rural poor by upholding the country’s inequitable land distribution, promoting land-grabbing, and failing to guarantee dignified housing. He threatens to attack us all by pushing for regressive tax measures that put the burden of taxation on the backs of the poor. He threatens to attack us all by pushing for a kind of federalism that will only enhance the power of warlords and political dynasties. He is depriving people of the opportunity to participate at the local level by foregoing the barangay elections.
At the same time, Duterte is also gradually putting in place a more authoritarian, if not a fascist, regime: He has imposed--and extended--martial law in Mindanao, and he has threatened to impose martial law in the entire country. We see this now as he has consolidated his grip on the legislature and the judiciary He is continuing to wage a violent ‘war on drugs’ that violates human rights and civil liberties. He has glorified the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos by burying him in a cemetery for heroes—and he supports Bongbong Marcos’ bid for the vice presidency. He has been persecuting his critics and he has constantly attacked human rights activists. He has been normalizing violence against women with his persistent reference to rape, sexist remarks, slut shaming, and macho posturing.
We have come together because all this represents a clear and present danger to us all—regardless of our class, our age, our gender and sexual orientation, and our political persuasion. A repressive dictatorship protecting an inequitable, warlord-dominated, elitist system, will not only lead to state terrorism and more widespread human rights violations, it will also take us farther away from the fairer, more just and more equal society we all dream of.
We have come together because we need each other to fight this threat and to defend our values.
Together, we commit to continue building the movement by pursuing the difficult process of building a broad but principled united front against dictatorship and elite democracy.
Together, we will fight for real democracy and social justice. Together, we will light each other’s way in this time of darkness.
We enjoin everyone to join the fight.
Harangin ang diktadura! Baguhin ang sistema!
NATIONAL CONFERENCE AGAINST DICTATORSHIP
21 July 2017
(To endorse this Declaration, or to get involved in future meetings/actions, write to blockmarcos@protonmail.com)
https://web.facebook.com/BlockMarcosNow/posts/292421974567055
President Rodrigo Duterte is now stepping up his attacks on the people: He has been consistent in promoting patronage politics, impunity while attacking our patrimony and the ideals of democracy and sovereignty.
Even as he promises various concessions, he continues to deny us a life of dignity and fails to deliver on basic social services. He has attacked workers by legitimizing “contractualization.” He has attacked the urban and rural poor by upholding the country’s inequitable land distribution, promoting land-grabbing, and failing to guarantee dignified housing. He threatens to attack us all by pushing for regressive tax measures that put the burden of taxation on the backs of the poor. He threatens to attack us all by pushing for a kind of federalism that will only enhance the power of warlords and political dynasties. He is depriving people of the opportunity to participate at the local level by foregoing the barangay elections.
At the same time, Duterte is also gradually putting in place a more authoritarian, if not a fascist, regime: He has imposed--and extended--martial law in Mindanao, and he has threatened to impose martial law in the entire country. We see this now as he has consolidated his grip on the legislature and the judiciary He is continuing to wage a violent ‘war on drugs’ that violates human rights and civil liberties. He has glorified the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos by burying him in a cemetery for heroes—and he supports Bongbong Marcos’ bid for the vice presidency. He has been persecuting his critics and he has constantly attacked human rights activists. He has been normalizing violence against women with his persistent reference to rape, sexist remarks, slut shaming, and macho posturing.
We have come together because all this represents a clear and present danger to us all—regardless of our class, our age, our gender and sexual orientation, and our political persuasion. A repressive dictatorship protecting an inequitable, warlord-dominated, elitist system, will not only lead to state terrorism and more widespread human rights violations, it will also take us farther away from the fairer, more just and more equal society we all dream of.
We have come together because we need each other to fight this threat and to defend our values.
Together, we commit to continue building the movement by pursuing the difficult process of building a broad but principled united front against dictatorship and elite democracy.
Together, we will fight for real democracy and social justice. Together, we will light each other’s way in this time of darkness.
We enjoin everyone to join the fight.
Harangin ang diktadura! Baguhin ang sistema!
NATIONAL CONFERENCE AGAINST DICTATORSHIP
21 July 2017
(To endorse this Declaration, or to get involved in future meetings/actions, write to blockmarcos@protonmail.com)
https://web.facebook.com/BlockMarcosNow/posts/292421974567055
No comments:
Post a Comment