Working class
(We yield this space to the statement of the Campaign against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
MAY 1 is more than just a day to celebrate workers and their vital role in nation-building. May 1, above all, commemorates the arduous and continuing struggle of the working class not only for its rights but also for the collective rights and welfare of the people — even in the face of brazen tyranny.
Workers endured the worst forms of repression under the fascist Marcos dictatorship: strikes outlawed, protests banned and violently dispersed, unions busted, and hundreds of union organizers and leaders tagged as rebels, thrown behind bars, and tortured — or worse, killed or forcibly disappeared.
Far from being the “golden years,” the Marcos dictatorship and its brazen corruption bled dry the nation’s coffers, plunging millions of workers into poverty, further exacerbated when the dictator integrated contractualization in the Labor Code through Presidential Decree 442.
Terror gripped the country, yet the labor movement persisted and openly defied military rule in the La Tondeña workers’ strike in October 1975. The terror was shattered. In the years that followed, the labor movement played a crucial part in organizing the resistance that eventually overthrew the Marcos dictatorship in the 1986 EDSA People Power uprising.
Marcosian tactics of labor repression led by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict have been alarmingly revived under the current Duterte administration, which has fast-tracked the rehabilitation of the Marcoses. With daughter Sara running in tandem with the dictator’s son and namesake Marcos Jr., their conquest in the upcoming elections could only mean the continuity of the same repressive and brutal anti- worker and antipeople policies.
Throughout the years, the working class has been a leading force in the struggle for people’s rights, justice, and liberation — and as we mark Labor Day, we are inspired by its history of resistance against tyrants and dictators as we defy the lies and historical distortions peddled by the Marcoses in their desperate bid to return to power.