Decades of Hurt Lie Behind the Protests in the Philippines
Recent protests against political corruption in the Philippines led to violent clashes at the presidential palace. The country’s rulers shouldn’t be surprised at the reaction after imposing their own forms of violence on its working classes for so long.
The Philippine state has consistently chosen to mobilize its vast powers and resources to favor the interests of big landowners and capitalists over those of the working-class majority. (Ezra Acayan / Getty Images)
Last month, tens of thousands of Filipinos took to the streets following a series of revelations that some of the country’s highest officials had been receiving kickbacks worth millions of dollars from government contracts.
They included a group of around a thousand protesters, reportedly consisting mostly of youth from the urban poor, who marched on the presidential palace and threw petrol bombs at heavily armored police. They refused to back off even under a hail of live ammunition, with some chanting “Revolution! Revolution! Revolution!”
Many commentators quickly dismissed this as a mindless “riot,” the work of unthinking or irrational “troublemakers” seeking to destabilize an otherwise stable government. While we still don’t have a full picture of what happened, only those who are oblivious to the real state of the country and the experience of working people could fail to understand the logic behind the call for revolution.
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