URGENT CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY : We stand in solidarity with #YouthStrikePH in the Philippines
Jai Sen
Thursday, November 19, 2020
The Philippines in movement…, Youth in movement…, Resistance in movement…, International solidarity in movement…
[Here is an Urgent Call for international solidarity from the Philippines, to educators, scholars, students, researchers, and activists worldwide.
[Please sign the form at the link given, and please DO NOT send your endorsements to this list !
URGENT CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY :
We stand in solidarity with #YouthStrikePH in the Philippines
Centre for International Studies, University of the Philippines, and CONTEND – Congress of Teachers and Education for Nationalism and Democracy
[November 19 2020]
Dear Comrades,
I am forwarding here a petition that seeks the support of educators, scholars, students, researchers, and activists worldwide. Hope you can add your name in support of our strike. As you may already know, the Philippines was hit by 2 super typhoons this month making it impossible for many people to continue with remote classes.
Prior to this, we have been battered by a horrific COVID 19 response by the US-Duterte government, the horrendous killings, the imprisonment of activists, the Anti-Terror Law, and just really the evil all around. As the movement here is focused on relief ops on account of the massive damage, militant students have also decided to call for a nationwide strike.
The workers’ and the teachers’ movement have immediately decided to support this. We, the organized left faculty in the University of the Philippines and allies, declared an end to our classes. We are still battling it out with the administration, which has declared a one-week break after our strike announcement. However, it has issued a definite back to work order by Monday. But we will still be on strike.
There will be consequences but our stakes are higher. This youth-initiated strike demands that Duterte steps down. Your support will mean so much to us! Thank you!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdz5B-PI5JIRPFQjseXO09wCdOaNSITdpq4HRirobEpQDhz4g/viewform
Sarah Raymundo
On behalf of the Centre for International Studies, University of the Philippines, and CONTEND – Congress of Teachers and Education for Nationalism and Democracy
[Text of call to be signed at the link :
We, the undersigned international educators, scholars and students
express our solidarity with striking students, faculty, and education workers
in some universities in the Philippines. We believe that their strike is
legitimate and their demands just.
We support the work and education stoppage led by the #YouthStrikePH that calls
for the end of the semester to channel energies to relief operations for
victims of the tropical storm while, at the same time, calling for the ouster
of President Rodrigo Duterte for his inability to deal with the crisis such as
his negligence to help the victims of the successive tropical storm and his
incompetence in addressing the short and long term solutions for COVID-19
pandemic.
Students from top universities in the Philippines have spoken. Starting
November 18, students from the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University, in a
petition, said they would “withhold the submission of any school requirements…
until national government heeds the people’s demands for proper calamity aid
and pandemic response.” The petition adds: “We believe that things cannot
continue business as usual… We cannot sit idly by and do our modules, ignoring
the fact that the Philippine nation is in shambles.” Hundreds signed the
petition on Nov. 14, in less than 24 hours that it circulated online.
On Nov. 15, the call for academic strike was sounded by students from the De La
Salle University. In a statement, students demanded that “either the national
government (will) act now or step down.”
On Nov. 16 students, professors, and education workers from the state-run
University of the Philippines Diliman announced the start of a strike.
Their strike declaration reads: “We halt our classes and academic work to
amplify our call for justice and for the ouster of Duterte! We stand in
solidarity with the urban poor, farmers, and workers who have starved and
generally ignored by this (Duterte) tyrannical regime! We link arms with the
mass movement and concerned civil sectors that have swiftly stepped in to aid
our stricken brothers and sisters at a time of state abandonment. We strike to
end the semester as a humane and just response to the struggles of our
students, whose right to education has been scorned by this government.”
Likewise, a group of professors and instructions in the University of the
Philippines have asked the university administration to immediately end the
semester and give way for students, faculty, and the academic community to
recover from the recent calamities and help in relief operations for
typhoon-stricken communities. They took note of the constraints of running
classes online such as limited time to prepare the modules, lack of support to
students who do not have access to online learning gadget and tools. All these,
along with poverty and the anxiety, have taken their toll on the mental health
of students and teachers alike.
On the wake of the three recent tropical storms that battered many provinces in
the Philippines, including Metro Manila, synchronous and asynchronous learning,
being computer and internet-dependent, have suffered that it is almost
impossible for harried students and teachers to continue teaching and learning.
The statement from the a group of teachers said: "With only three weeks
left to finish the semester, discounting the time needed to recover by those
affected by the recent typhoons, the pressure to finish the remaining days of
the semester has exacerbated to the point of inhumanity.”
In response to the demands and appeals of students, the Duterte administration
threatened to defund UP even as it is dismissive of the points they have
raised.
We, the undersigned, support the strike movement now brewing in Philippine
universities. We express our admiration for their commitment to callout
government inaction.
Contrary to conservative naysayers, strikes are in-themselves education
processes happening outside the formal classroom setting where participants are
taking direct action through relief work, immersion in impoverished
communities, and collective action in solidarity with other sectors against
social injustice. This counteracts the dog-eats-dog neoliberal orthodoxies of
rugged individualism and resiliency narratives.
We are outraged by the threats and red-tagging made by the Duterte government
against participants of #YouthStrikePH. We condemn all threats and attempts of
state forces to harm striking students, faculty, and education workers.
In solidarity,
Signatories:
____________________________
Jai Sen
Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of Ottawa
jai...@cacim.net & js...@uottawa.ca
Now based in Ottawa, Canada, on unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900) and in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325)
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Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press; hard copy only also at The Movements of Movements
Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ? (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press. Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN, MOM1Flipkart, and MOM1AUpFront
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