There’s something particularly admirable about the intransigence of the Filipino antiwar movement. Not a single representative of US militarism shows up in their limousine caravans without antiwar protesters responding with effigies & mass protests against the re-militarization of the Philippines, the role of the US government in bankrolling that, & joint military war games between the US & Filipino military.
Filipinos paid a mighty price for the Vietnam War by their government hosting US military naval & air bases. And now in its competition with China, the US is re-engaging the Filipino regime–the same regime forcibly evicting thousands from their farmlands for agribusiness plantations & from urban slums to gentrify. And not just to gentrify to make the country suitable for well-heeled tourists but for hosting the entourage of diplomats & military operatives that come along with US military bases. Kabul & Baghdad redux.
Here a protester is doused by a water cannon as he hurls a paint bomb at the headquarters of the Filipino military in Quezon City, a part of Manila that is the heart of the slum evictions.
The rest of the world should not just admire the Filipino antiwar movement but emulate its intransigence.
(Photo by Al Falcon/Reuters)