National Statement
For immediate release
June 30, 2010

The Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) marches with the working class and racialized communities in Canada with courage and militancy as imperialist nations and the world elite meet in Ontario for the recently concluded G8/G20 summits this past weekend. In recognizing the summit as a desperate move by imperialism to cover up the crisis of an economic and political system that is inherently violent and anti-people, CPFC calls on the working class in Canada and around the world to seize this opportunity to advance an international anti-imperialist movement that puts the liberation of the working class, women and racialized peoples at the forefront of the struggle.

Grassroots organizations and activists around Canada have organized teach-ins and mobilizations along the streets of Huntsville and Toronto this past week to express not only our discontent, but also our commitment to collectively educate ourselves and deepen our analysis on neoliberal globalization’s intensifying attacks to our communities. Progressive Filipino Canadians identify that the policies that will be and have been resulting from summits, such as the G8/G20, further marginalize an already exploited and underrepresented transnational Filipino community in Canada. It is crucial for us then, whose lives are most affected by this imperialist project, to know the true history and purpose of the G8/G20.

During the course of events this weekend, the media has focused on the “uncontrollable” violence and the “misuse of the freedom of expression” by the protestors, to whom Prime Minister Stephen Harper has referred to as “thugs.” To render activists and organizers as people who want to cause nothing but mere trouble is to forget the legacy of resistance that we inherit as a people whose land has been ravaged and whose communities have been exploited by centuries of colonialism and imperialism.

We must not forget the intent behind the creation of the G6 in 1975 – it was to consolidate the power of the top 6 nations of the world to establish neoliberal ideology as a framework for economic policy-making, and to quell the growing anti-imperialist movement in the Global South and within the imperialist nations themselves. Canada joined in 1976 to secure its role in neoliberal economy, followed by Russia in 1997, thus forming the top 8. Along the same lines, the G20 was formed in 2008 to establish a partnership between the existing imperialist powers and their allies from the Global South. G20 summits include the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, imperialism’s institutional tools for assaulting the lives of the poor and working-class around the world. G8/G20 share the same core goal – to coordinate mechanisms for the consolidation of the imperialist agenda globally.

We must not forget that throughout history, it is the very implementation of this neoliberal agenda both in the advanced capitalist countries and in the Global South that has furthered the colonial legacy that continues to keep our community in the margins. We must not forget that, as part of a transnational community who serves as globalization’s pool of skilled, yet cheap labour, our constant movement and marginalization are direct products of these political projects.

Earlier this week, Harper delivered a statement regarding the upcoming summits, emphasizing the role of Canada in leading the world to economic recovery through the deliverance of an aggressive free trade agenda. However, because we do not forget our history, and we do not turn away from the worsening conditions that the working-class and the racialized communities face in Canada, we know that this economic recovery is not for us.

As capitalism has entered another phase of crisis, our lives as people in the margins have become even more difficult as we continue to suffer from massive lay-offs and from the effects of the flexibilization of labour. And how has Canada responded to this? Rather than protecting the structures that attempt to meet the basic human rights of Canadians, they have made significant cutbacks from social services and have further privatized our education and healthcare systems.

In this crisis, it is racialized and working-class women who are hit the most. We see this as more and more Filipino women toil under Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program, work as migrant workers under the Temporary Foreign Workers Program or are relegated to precarious service sector jobs and sex work. De-skilling and underdevelopment have marked the path of the Filipino Canadian community towards further economic marginalization and social exclusion.

Now we ask, is this the type of recovery that we will allow the heads of the top 20 nations and international financial institutions to pursue?

We already know what the world after the G8/G20 summits will look like. We saw it from the violence in the streets of Toronto this weekend, as heavily armed police hurt and arrest protesters. We felt it just less than a year ago, when our friends and family were laid-off from their jobs. And we still see it on those who are tired from working 16-hour shifts, or those who were pushed out of high schools. Some of us have felt it, when environmental degradation and extreme poverty have pushed us out of our countries to migrate. With the Canadian economy depending on the success of the establishment of the global imperialist order, we will, once again, be witness and subjected to the aggressive implementation of: underdevelopment, resource extraction and the facilitation of labour migration from the Philippines and the rest of the world.

We, as Filipino Canadians, denied of a just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada, are living testaments of the attacks of imperialism against working-class and racialized peoples. However, we have shown commendable strength and solidarity this weekend as we have taken our resistance to the streets for the world to witness our dissent against the G8/G20 summits. But we cannot stop here. We do not just oppose the G8/G20 summits, we oppose what it represents and the violence it perpetuates on our communities.

Hence we, members of the newly-formed Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians, reiterate our call to heighten our resistance and intensify the educating, mobilizing and organizing efforts of our community. We continue to advance our work in building the community and making genuine solidarity with other communities in North America and movements in the South.

Progressive Filipinos, who have marched the streets in Ontario this weekend, and those in Quebec and British Columbia who have supported in solidarity, challenge community organizers, and the rest who have expressed resistance this weekend to strengthen our organizing efforts. We call on all working-class and racialized communities to strengthen our resolve to expose and oppose the imperialist agenda and work towards building a genuine solidarity.

As we strive for fulfilled lives and a better world, we will continue to march the streets for liberation, and advance the struggles of the oppressed, marginalized and working-class peoples around the world.

The people united, will never be defeated!
Expose and oppose the neoliberal project!
Down with imperialism!
Long live international solidarity!

-30-

Organizations under the CPFC:
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
SIKLAB-Canada (Filipino Canadian worker’s organization)
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – National
Sinag Bayan Arts Collective – National
Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR)

For more information:
Contact Joy C. Sioson
www.magkaisacentre.org
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
416-519-2553