July 13, 2012
On behalf of the National Executive Committee, National Council and general membership of Anakbayan-USA, we send our revolutionary greetings and congratulations to our kasamas in Melbourne for establishing the first chapter of Anakbayan in Australia!
We offer you our full support and we look forward to strengthening our ties across the Asia-Pacific, together with our mother organization in the Philippines. Let us share and learn lessons from our experiences to consolidate and expand the comprehensive Filipino youth organizing in our respective countries.
As Filipinos overseas, it is clear that the cause of the forced migration of Filipinos abroad is the continuing semi-feudal, semi-colonial character of Philippine society that exports cheap Filipino labor. It is for this reason that we must recognize ourselves as integral to our people’s struggle for national liberation and genuine people’s democracy.
Be bold and daring in arousing, organizing, and mobilizing the Filipino youth in Melbourne and across Australia, to build a strong nationwide Filipino youth movement. It’s important to address your local community issues while linking them with the root problems in the Philippines that cause our migration–namely imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. Through making these connections, we can bring overseas Filipino youth closer to the ongoing struggle for national democracy in the Philippines.
In addition, it is our duty as overseas Filipino youth to deepen solidarity links with other oppressed and exploited communities in order to strengthen the international anti-imperialist movement. We must do our best to build alliances with non-Filipinos and their struggles to gain broad support for the Philippine national democratic movement, especially now as the protracted crisis of global monopoly capitalism imposes more misery on our people and the rest of the working masses of the world.
The struggle in Australia is even more crucial with the threat of the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), a neoliberal policy larger in scope than its predecessor, the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This economic attack on the people is bolstered by US military aggression with the building of a new US military base in your country and the proposed joint military exercises of the Australian military with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
It is high time that we reconnect and uphold the revolutionary tradition of the Filipino youth. Let us carry on the legacy of Kabataang Makabayan and draw inspiration from the words of its founding chairperson, Jose Maria Sison, “Only through militant struggle can the best in the youth emerge.”
Mabuhay ang kabataang makabayan na nakikibaka!
Serve the people! Struggle for National Democracy!
Lumalakas, lumalawak, lumalaban, ANAKBAYAN!
ANAKBAYAN SAN JOSE 