Mothers, who are they?

It is not just about women who bore, fed, clothed, sheltered and reared-up biological children, neither it's about regretting of not having or seeking the image of a perfect mother in one's life. Rather it is about knowing that there was, is and will be women who assumed mothering for the creation of a family, community and nation where all children find love, live in secured homes, are fed and cared for, respected and assume responsibility to make this world a just and peaceful place to live in. Thank you all mothers. HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!

APPEAL FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION- JUSTICE FOR SUMMARILY KILLED PEASANT LEADERS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Call for justice for the killing of Menelao "Boy" Barcia and
for the persecution and harassment of Antonio Tolentino and other farmers of Hacienda Dolores, Porac, Pampanga


Dear friends,

Please join us in our call for justice for the human rights violations of farmers in Hacienda Dolores, Porac, Pampanga.

Killing of village councilor

Initial reports from Karapatan-Central Luzon cited the killing of Menelao "Boy" Barcia, 57. Barcia was a Barangay councilor (kagawad) and an official of Alyansa ng Nagkakaisang Mamamayan ng Hacienda Dolores (Aniban or Alliance of United People of Hacienda Dolores).

On May 2, at around 10:00 p.m. Barcia picked up his wife Maria at a gas station in Angeles City where she worked. While driving their jeep back to Brgy. Hacienda Dolores, two motorcycles drove alongside them. There were two unidentified men on each of the motorcycles.

Suddenly, the men fired at Barcia's vehicle, killing him instantly. Barcia sustained four gunshot wounds—three in the chest and one at the back of his head. Maria was also injured and was brought by residents nearby to the Mt. Carmel Hospital in San Fernando, Pampanga. As of this writing, Maria’s foot is scheduled for operation.

Witnesses of the incident are afraid to speak for fear of retaliation. Farmers of Hacienda Dolores believe that state security forces or goons hired by Triple L were involved in the killing.

Menelao Barcia had been monitoring of the administrative charges against Barangay captain Antonio Tolentino. With Tolentino, Barcia was also involved in uniting the farmers of Hacienda Dolores against the moves of the Triple L Company to grab their lands.

Harassment suits and trumped-up charges against ANIBAN members

Before Barcia was killed, on April 16, 2014, around 30 members of San Fernando City and Porac City PNP, all in combat gear, arrived at the barangay hall of Brgy. Hacienda Dolores and arrested village chief Antonio Tolentino.

Tolentino was talking with Barcia and the barangay treasurer when members of the PNP arrived. After briefly showing Tolentino a warrant of arrest for carnapping charge, the police grabbed and pulled Tolentino into a waiting police vehicle. Two residents who were also at the barangay hall at that time accompanied Tolentino despite attempts of the police to ward them off.

Tolentino is currently detained at Angeles City District Jail for charges of carnapping and kidnapping with serious physical injuries. The village chief was also slapped with an administrative complaint for grave misconduct, oppression, abuse of authority and acts prejudicial to public service. The bail for the carnapping charge is PhP 180,000.

Two days after, on April 18, the policemen returned to Brgy. Hacienda Dolores and surrounded several households in Sitio Balucboc, Purok 8, Brgy. Hacienda Dolores. The police operation was conducted to arrest all of Tolentino's sons, namely: Tirso, Ener, Ed, Erwin, Eddie. All were named in the carnapping charge but none were arrested at the time of the police operation. According to witnesses, some of the police were in full combat gear but without nameplates; while several others including Porac PNP Chief Miro were in civilian clothes. Some security personnel of Triple L accompanied the police.

Lucila Tolentino, wife of Tirso Tolentino, was in their house when the police arrived. She trembled in fear when she saw the armed policemen.

Antonio Tolentino was earlier arrested with his son Ener in January 13, a day after Triple L security guards shot and killed farmer Arman Padiño and injured Noel Tumali. The Tolentino's posted bail for charges of slight physical injuries and grave threats.

As early as October 2013, members of Aniban were subjected to harassment and intimidation, illegal arrests and detention. During an assembly, while members of Aniban were discussing concrete steps to take to stop the Triple L Company from seizing their farm lands, several members of the PNP arrived and sat in the meeting. PSupt. Juritz Rara also talked to barangay chairperson Antonio Tolentino who was facilitating the farmers' assembly.

While the assembly was going on, security guards of the Triple L tried to fence off the lands being tilled by the farmers of Hacienda Dolores. But they were stopped by the women farmers who are members of Aniban. Village councilors Menelao Barcia and Cornelio Pineda demanded from the guards proof that they have permission to fence off the said areas. The security guards were forced away by the residents when they could not show any proof.

As a result, 30 Aniban members were charged of grave threats, grave coercion and usurpation of real rights in real property. The charge was filed by the security guards of Triple L. Those charged received a subpoena in March ordering them to appear before the provincial prosecutor of Pampanga.

The farmers of Hacienda Dolores face threats of eviction from the land they tilled for generations as the Leonardo-Lachenal Leonio Holdings, Inc (LLL), FL Property Management Corporation (FL) and Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) eye the vast tracts of lands of the hacienda.

We call on friends and human rights advocates to send letters of concern calling for:
1. Justice for the extrajudicial killing of Menelao Barcia and the frustrated killing of his wife Maria.
2. The iimmediate release of Barangay Captain Antonio Tolentino, and to stop filing of fabricated charges and arbitrary arrests against members of Alyansa ng Nagkakaisang Mamamayan ng Hacienda Dolores (Aniban or Alliance of United People of Hacienda Dolores) and farmers.
3. The immediate formation of an independent fact-finding and investigation team composed of representatives from human rights groups, the Church, local government, and the Commission on Human Rights that will look into the incidents of human rights violations, to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators, and to investigate the landgrabbing in lands in Hacienda Dolores, Porac, Pampanga by the Triple L Company.
4. The PH government and its state security forces to stop labelling and targeting human rights defenders as “members of front organizations of the communists” and “enemies of the state.”
5. The withdrawal of Oplan Bayanihan, the Philippine government’s counterinsurgency program that victimizes innocent and unarmed civilians.
6. The Philippine Government to observe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all the major Human Rights instruments that it is a party and signatory to.

You may send your communications to the following agencies through mail, e-mail or fax:

H.E. Benigno C. Aquino III
President of the Republic
Malacañang Palace,
JP Laurel St., San Miguel
Manila Philippines
Voice: (+632) 564 1451 to 80
Fax: (+632) 742-1641 / 929-3968
E-mail: op@president.gov.ph

Sec. Teresita Quintos-Deles
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)
7th Floor Agustin Building I
Emerald Avenue
Pasig City 1605
Voice:+63 (2) 636 0701 to 066
Fax:+63 (2) 638 2216
stqd.papp@opapp.gov.ph

Ret. Lt. Gen. Voltaire T. Gazmin
Secretary, Department of National Defense
Room 301 DND Building, Camp Emilio Aguinaldo,
E. de los Santos Avenue, Quezon City
Voice:+63(2) 911-6193 / 911-0488 / 982-5600
Fax:+63(2) 982-5600
Email: osnd@philonline.com, dnd.opla@gmail.com

Atty. Leila De Lima
Secretary, Department of Justice
Padre Faura St., Manila
Direct Line 521-1908
Trunkline 523-84-81 loc.211/214
Fax: (+632) 523-9548
Email: lmdelima@doj.gov.ph, lmdelima.doj@gmail.com, lmdelima.doj2@gmail.com

Hon. Loretta Ann P. Rosales
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., UP Complex
Commonwealth Avenue
Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Voice: (+632) 928-5655, 926-6188
Fax: (+632) 929 0102
Email: chair.rosales.chr@gmail.com, lorettann@gmail.com

Please send us a copy of your email/mail/fax to the above-named government officials, to our address below.

URGENT ACTION Prepared by:



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KARAPATAN Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights

2014 KASAMMAKO LABOR DAY STATEMENT

2014 LABOR DAY STATEMENT

KASAMMAKO or the Unity of Filipino Migrant Workers Associations in Korea, on this Migrant Workers Labor event, expresses deep sympathy and condolences to the bereaved families of all casualties of the Sewol-ho ferry accident.

KASAMMAKO gives full support and solidarity to all migrant workers in Korea and around the world in asserting our labor and human rights and urge governments of the Republic of Korea and of our home countries to respect and uphold these rights. We believe that the proletarian working class is the leading force in the economic, political and social change in society and the world. We continue to work in alliance with other democratic and progressive forces that struggle to stop modern-day slavery of workers in the neo-liberal globalization.

Since last week, the US President Barack Obama is moving around the countries of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines to strengthen the United States’ stranglehold on national sovereignty, the coveting and exploitation of the natural resources of countries in the region, and ensures that these countries will remain strong defenders of the geo-political and military presence in Asia-Pacific. The US only secures its interests and does not care about the plight of ordinary people in Asia.

We oppose the US “Pivot to Asia”, which is a multi-layered offensive that includes the further deployment or “rebalancing” of US military forces and military bases into the region and the drive to forge a long-sought Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). This will also consolidate and expand its strategic alliances with selected countries in the region. These objectives are part of the long-term efforts of US imperialism to advance its economic, political and military interests and reassert its preeminent power in the region.

In same vein, we protest Barack Obama’s signing with BS Aquino of the “Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement" (EDCA) between the US and the Philippines, despite questions on its constitutionality. "The agreement gives the US full access to Philippine facility and to set up US military bases within Philippine military camps, and to launch military operations in Philippine territory under the name of joint military exercises. When this agreement is signed this will intensify violations of human rights and of the international humanitarian law. More so the continuation of the dire economic situation of many Filipinos which is the main cause of forced migration.

Forced migration of many Filipinos and other Asians are caused by the unjust economic development in our home countries and in the world. Workers rights are violated by employers and corporations so they may gain maximum profits from the labor of workers and employees. Today, we, migrant workers in South Korea join forces together to express our real situation and present our demands for the respect and protection of our labor rights. Our demands are:

A.To the government of South Korea:

1.Repeal the policy revision on refund of severance/pension claims of migrant workers after their contract ends or deported from the country.
2.Replace the oppressive EPS policy with just and employment system, where migrant workers exercise freedom to choose jobs that fit them, where their labor and human rights are respected.
3.Repeal the Immigration Control Act that severely impact migrant workers, stop crackdown and deportations; transform immigration policies that grant migrant workers the right to live with families in Korea.
4.Legislate and guarantee equal pay for equal work.
5.Guarantee equal right to work and sojourn for overseas Korean migrant workers

B.To the government of the Philippines:

1.Put a halt to forced migration! Create jobs at home!
2.Approve the passage of the P125 Wage Hike Bill. Workers urgently need significant wage increase amidst soaring prices of commodities.
3.Stop crackdown! The Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) should recall their memorandum on forced deportation of non-documented migrant workers in Korea which is in collaboration with the South Korean immigration office and the MOEL.
4.NO to return of US Bases in the Philippines and “Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement" (EDCA). Uphold and respect national sovereignty and self-determination.
5.NO to U.S. Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)! This is an instrument of neo-colonization and imperialist pillage of national economies and people’s democratic rights for humane and just economic development
6.Resume peace talks between National Democratic Front-Philippines and the Government of Philippines.
7.Stop extra-judicial killings that already killed many labor, peasant, tribal community, youth and student leaders in the Philippines.
8.Prosecute and penalize all political leaders involved in Pork Barrel scam!

WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD UNITE! STRENGTHEN OUR SOLIDARITY TO END EXPLOITATION OF WORKERS!

KASAMMAKO
27 April 2014
Seoul, Korea

2014 LABOR DAY STATEMENT

KASAMMAKO or the Unity of Filipino Migrant Workers Associations in Korea, on this Migrant Workers Labor event, expresses deep sympathy and condolences to the bereaved families of all casualties of the Sewol-ho ferry accident.

KASAMMAKO gives full support and solidarity to all migrant workers in Korea and around the world in asserting our labor and human rights and urge governments of the Republic of Korea and of our home countries to respect and uphold these rights. We believe that the proletarian working class is the leading force in the economic, political and social change in society and the world. We continue to work in alliance with other democratic and progressive forces that struggle to stop modern-day slavery of workers in the neo-liberal globalization.

Since last week, the US President Barack Obama is moving around the countries of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines to strengthen the United States’ stranglehold on national sovereignty, the coveting and exploitation of the natural resources of countries in the region, and ensures that these countries will remain strong defenders of the geo-political and military presence in Asia-Pacific. The US only secures its interests and does not care about the plight of ordinary people in Asia.

We oppose the US “Pivot to Asia”, which is a multi-layered offensive that includes the further deployment or “rebalancing” of US military forces and military bases into the region and the drive to forge a long-sought Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). This will also consolidate and expand its strategic alliances with selected countries in the region. These objectives are part of the long-term efforts of US imperialism to advance its economic, political and military interests and reassert its preeminent power in the region.

In same vein, we protest Barack Obama’s signing with BS Aquino of the “Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement" (EDCA) between the US and the Philippines, despite questions on its constitutionality. "The agreement gives the US full access to Philippine facility and to set up US military bases within Philippine military camps, and to launch military operations in Philippine territory under the name of joint military exercises. When this agreement is signed this will intensify violations of human rights and of the international humanitarian law. More so the continuation of the dire economic situation of many Filipinos which is the main cause of forced migration.

Forced migration of many Filipinos and other Asians are caused by the unjust economic development in our home countries and in the world. Workers rights are violated by employers and corporations so they may gain maximum profits from the labor of workers and employees. Today, we, migrant workers in South Korea join forces together to express our real situation and present our demands for the respect and protection of our labor rights. Our demands are:

A. To the government of South Korea:

1. Repeal the policy revision on refund of severance/pension claims of migrant workers after their contract ends or deported from the country.
2. Replace the oppressive EPS policy with just and employment system, where migrant workers exercise freedom to choose jobs that fit them, where their labor and human rights are respected.
3. Repeal the Immigration Control Act that severely impact migrant workers, stop crackdown and deportations; transform immigration policies that grant migrant workers the right to live with families in Korea.
4. Legislate and guarantee equal pay for equal work.
5. Guarantee equal right to work and sojourn for overseas Korean migrant workers

B. To the government of the Philippines:

1. Put a halt to forced migration! Create jobs at home!
2. Approve the passage of the P125 Wage Hike Bill. Workers urgently need significant wage increase amidst soaring prices of commodities.
3. Stop crackdown! The Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) should recall their memorandum on forced deportation of non-documented migrant workers in Korea which is in collaboration with the South Korean immigration office and the MOEL.
4. NO to return of US Bases in the Philippines and “Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement" (EDCA). Uphold and respect national sovereignty and self-determination.
5. NO to U.S. Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)! This is an instrument of neo-colonization and imperialist pillage of national economies and people’s democratic rights for humane and just economic development
6. Resume peace talks between National Democratic Front-Philippines and the Government of Philippines.
7. Stop extra-judicial killings that already killed many labor, peasant, tribal community, youth and student leaders in the Philippines.
8. Prosecute and penalize all political leaders involved in Pork Barrel scam!

WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD UNITE! STRENGTHEN OUR SOLIDARITY TO END EXPLOITATION OF WORKERS!

KASAMMAKO
27 April 2014
Seoul, Korea

Stand for human rights, justice and peace; Reject the US-PH partnership enhancing a culture of impunity

STATEMENT
27 April 2014




As US Pres. Barack Obama visits the Philippines this April 28, human rights activists, peace advocates and justice campaigners in Hong Kong together with Asian and Filipino migrants, stand with the Filipino people in the Philippines and overseas in calling for the rejection of the US-PH Agreement on Enhanced Defense Cooperation and withdrawing aid to the Philippine military who is waging war against activists and civilians.

The US-PH AEDC is a resurrected military bases agreement in a worse and bigger scale as it will make the whole Philippine territory open to US military forces, nuclear armaments and war machines; and a base to use for the US’ arbitrary wars of aggression and intervention or to show to its economic and political competitors US’ military might.

It shall also pave the way for increased assistance to the Philippine military that is yet to account for the numerous human rights violations its personnel have committed against rural people, indigenous communities, urban settlers, and activists from trade unions, peasants organizations, indigenous groups, women, youth and other marginalized people striving for societal changes.

Impunity is much alive in the Philippines; the same impunity that lets the US government get away with the wars it waged, bombs it dropped, and drone strikes it unleashed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere on unjust grounds.

According to the human rights group Karapatan, the victims of extrajudicial killings since President Aquino assumed leadership up to December 2013 reached 169. In the first three months of this year, 19 more were killed including the Ligiws - environmentalist father and sons – in Abra, fair trade activist Romeo Capalla in Panay Island, and human rights defender William Bugatti in Ifugao.

This meant that at least one person was killed per week as a victim of extrajudicial killing.

These numbers are on top of the thousands more victimized by the previous administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for whom the Aquino administration has failed to provide justice. Even AFP Gen. Jovito Palaparan, known notorious human rights violator of the previous administration, has also not been brought it to account for his crimes.

Political prosecution has also been in an upsurge under the Aquino government. This has greatly affected the prospects of the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and is threatening to subvert any advances the talks have made over the years.

The recent arrest of Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria, consultants of the NDFP, and the refusal of the GPH to acknowledge that they are under the protection of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) is yet again another snag in the negotiations.

There can be no peace if there is no justice; and there can be no justice if human rights are violated with impunity.

US Pres. Barack Obama should take this to heart before he signs any agreement that will merely increase the capacity of the Philippine government and military to suppress the rights of the people, and commit more atrocious acts that make human rights meaningless, justice untenable, and peace a mere dream for the Filipinos.

If President Obama’s visit is to have meaning to the Filipino people, it must be geared towards putting a cap to the culture of impunity, and exerting efforts to jumpstart the peace talks again.

The Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP) shall continue to stand with groups under the banner of the International Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) to achieve these ends.#

Endorsed by:

• Abra Tinguian Ilocano Society (ATIS-HK)
• Asosiasi Buruh Migran Indonesia di Hong Kong (ATKI-HK)
• Bagong Alyansang Makabayan – Hong Kong (BAYAN-HK)
• Cordillera Alliance in Hong Kong (CORALL-HK)
• Filipino Migrant Workers' Union (FMWU)
• GABRIELA Hong Kong
• Indonesian Muslim Migrants Alliance (GAMMI)
• Indonesian Migrant Workers' Union (IMWU)
• League of Indonesian Migrant Workers (LiPMI)
• Persatuan BMI Tolak Overcharging (PILAR)
• Promotion of Church People’s Response – Hong Kong (PCPR-HK)
• United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE-HK)
• United Pangasinan Hong Kong (UPHK)


For reference:
Jackie Hung Bruce Van Voorhis
ICHRP, Vice Chairperson HKCAHRPP Co-Convenor
Tel. No. (852) 9268-1803 Tel. No. (852) 9492-3064


*** Formed in 2006, the Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP) is a coalition/network composed of human rights organisations and advocates, migrant workers groups, NGOs, faith-based groups and individuals from the media, academe and legal profession – united in advocating for human rights and for just and lasting peace in the Philippines. HKCAHRPP is a member of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) ***

Obama, US troops undesirables in the Philippines--KARAPATAN

Obama, US troops undesirables in the Philippines

http://www.karapatan.org/Obama+visit+Philippines+enhanced+cooperation+agreement+US+troops+out


"With the four-country visit of US Pres. Barack Obama, he is virtually stamping Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines a 'US property' seal on the world map," Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general said. "Many of the peoples of these nations are now geared up to protest US Pres. Obama's 'unfriendly' visit," Palabay announced.

The Global Council of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) called for internationally coordinated actions in time for the Obama Asia-Pacific visit to raise the alarming rate of extrajudicial killings, stalled peace talks, and the increased and permanent presence of US troops in the Philippines.

The April 23-29 Obama visit the four countries, "is meant not only to strengthen its economic interests and military presence but its dominance in Asia-Pacific," Palabay said.

The so-called Asia Pacific pivot “has already resulted in the 60 percent increase in the deployment of the US Navy forces in the Western Pacific and an increase frequency and scale of military exercises,” said the statement of the ICHRP Global Council.

ICHRP member organizations in the US have lined up several activities such as a mobilization in front of the White House.

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-USA (Bayan-USA) has put out a national call to action on April 25. Other groups in the US held activities as early as April 15, the global day of action on military spending. The raised the issue of human rights violations in the Philippines and US military aid. Said events were geared towards supporting mobilizations around Obama’s visit in the Philippines.

As Obama lands in Japan for the Japan-US summit, the two States affirms its military and economic alliance through additional US military bases, specifically in Ukawa district, Kyotango City. Some 49,000 American troops are deployed in different bases in Japan.

South Korea also hosts some 30,000 US troops in the border of North and South Korea. "The US’s presence heightens the tension to the two countries and uses this for its military build-up, including positioning of weapons of mass destruction in South Korea," Palabay explained.

In the Philippines, Obama is set to sign with BS Aquino the railroaded "Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement" (EDCA) despite questions on its constitutionality. "The agreement gives the US full access to Philippine facility and to set up US military bases within Philippine military camps, and to launch military operations in Philippine soil under the name of joint military exercises," Palabay said. “It’s a violation not only of the Constitution, but a sell-out of our national sovereignty," Palabay added.

"For sure, this leads to the intensification of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The overwhelming cases of human rights violations and IHL violations perpetrated by US troops in the wars of aggression in Afganistan and Iraq will, more likely, happen here in the Philippines," Palabay warned. ###
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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Sts., Central District
Diliman, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

ON OBAMA’S VISIT TO EAST ASIA

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples' Struggle
April 22, 2014

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle views the upcoming visits of United States President Barack Obama to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines from April 23 to 29 as part of the US imperialist objective of further entrenching its hegemony and imposing its neo-liberal agenda while undermining the sovereignty and coveting the patrimony of countries in the region, in line with its avowed “strategic pivot” to Asia.

The US “pivot to Asia” is a multi-pronged offensive that includes the further deployment or “rebalancing” of US military forces and military bases into the region, the drive to forge a long-sought Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), and the consolidation and expansion of its strategic alliances with selected countries in the region. These objectives are part of the long-term efforts of US imperialism to advance its economic, political and military interests and reassert its preeminent power in the region.

The renewed US focus on Asia, highlighted since late 2011 by a series of policy statements and positions in various summits and country visits by top US officials and considered a cornerstone of current US foreign policy, will be further pushed by Obama in his upcoming four-country visit. He is expected to advance or finalize a number of multilateral agreements when he visits Japan from April 23 to 24, South Korea from Apr 25 to 26, Malaysia from April 26 to 28, and the Philippines from April 28 to 29.

Obama’s Asian swing has particular urgency especially in light of China’s steady rise as a major regional capitalist power while the US has had its hands full elsewhere. He had cancelled scheduled trips to Asia twice already, once in 2010 and more recently in October 2013 due to the US fiscal crisis. The US imperialist chieftain is determined this time to erase any doubt about the seriousness of the US pivot to Asia despite its growing problems on the domestic front and its worsening troubles on a global scale, especially in the Middle East and the Eurasian belt.

US military ‘rebalancing’

The ILPS reiterates the urgency of exposing and opposing the strategic scheme and maneuvers of US imperialism to strengthen its military bases, escalate its military intervention, and consolidate its geopolitical alliances in East Asia under the flag of “re-balance” or “pivot” to Asia.

The US is currently building new military bases in Japan, South Korea and Guam, pushing to deploy an increasing number of troops as well as preposition war materiel in Australia and the Philippines, and plans to move 60% of its warships to Asia by 2020.

To this end, the US is aggressively seeking or renewing basing opportunities, access agreements, mutual defense pacts, and bilateral and multilateral military exercises in the region. It is pushing its treaty allies such as Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Australia to host an increasing number of US troops as well as naval and air force assets on a so-called “rotational” but effectively permanent basis.

Faced with its own fiscal crisis aggravated by huge military expenditures due to its self-appointed role as global cop, the US now wants host countries not only to provide land for new bases and access to existing bases, but also to impose on them the burden of paying for base construction and maintenance, accommodation of troops, environmental degradation, and other social costs. These other costs that typically come with foreign bases and foreign troops include worsened prostitution of women and children, drug trafficking, other vices in the name of troop “rest and recreation,” abandoned Amerasian children, and violent crimes including rape and murder.

The strategic military, political, and economic objectives of the US pivot to Asia are stated in Sustaining US Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense, a Department of Defense strategic guidance document. The US seeks to dominate strategic sea lanes and control the sources and flow of strategic resources such as oil in this vast global region. At the same time, it wants to use this tremendous clout to force countries to accede to neoliberal economic dictates, and to impose a virtual embargo on countries that may resist such dictates and assert their own national interests.

On the TPPA

The US is desperate to finalize as soon as possible a multilateral consensus with 11 other countries on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), if only to mitigate its own imperialist economic and financial crisis. As designed and dominated by the US, this comprehensive trade agreement would encompass 40 percent of the world’s GDP and would include countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Chile, Canada, Mexico and Peru. Notably, the TPP talks have excluded China for now although Obama’s national security advisor Susan Rice recently said the US will “welcome any nation” to join the pact.

While the trade pact’s details have largely been kept secret from the public, a recent draft revealed by Wikileaks has triggered controversies even among some Western policymakers and US allies, who question clauses that favor US monopoly control and undermine governmental processes. The TPPA’s main provisions are expected to require member-countries to remove any remaining barriers to investments, to strictly enforce intellectual property laws that would raise pharmaceutical costs and stifle digital innovation and freedom of expression, and to allow private corporations to sue states before an international tribunal. In effect, countries joining the TPPA will have to surrender big chunks of their national sovereignty to the trade pact’s imperialist masterminds.

US-China relations as key issue

China has become the single biggest factor in the US imperialist agenda in East Asia. Despite its own internal problems, China is fast rising as a regional power, with a growing capacity to project its power in the rest of Asia and beyond. While the US eyes China as a potential long-term rival, the two capitalist powers remain in an uneasy partnership, comprising trade and investment ties, on top of some USD 1.28 trillion in US debt to China. The collusion and contention of the US and China operates not just in East Asia but throughout the world. The BRICS, in which China is a stalwart, provides a counterpoint to the US in certain respects, but it also promotes the US-instigated neoliberal policy in many other respects.

Obama’s forthcoming trip to Asia does not include a visit to China. However, a basic premise of the US agenda is to further contain China’s ambitions as a regional power, pressure it to keep within the present limits of the US-China partnership, and more strictly hew to the neoliberal framework. The US imperialists are further pushing China to further dismantle its state enterprises so that Western multinationals can more freely exploit its vast market and cheap labor.

The US is wary of China’s inclusion of the South China Sea as among its “core interests”; its fast-rising military capability to project its own “String of Pearls” maritime strategy in the Asia-Pacific and South Asia-Indian Ocean; its use of “soft power” and various diplomatic initiatives in its expansion of trade, investment and aid in and outside the region; and its growing alliance with Russia at the core of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). These moves, directly or indirectly, pose a counterpoint to the US strategic pivot to Asia.

Despite China’s territorial disputes with neighboring countries over islands islets, reefs and rocks in the East China Sea and South China Sea, it maintains a good leverage including strong bilateral ties with Cambodia, Laos, and Sri Lanka; a standing offer of “joint exploitation of the South China Sea for mutual benefit” directed at the Philippines and Vietnam; and the potential for a China-ASEAN FTA and a China-South Korea-Japan FTA as its counter-balance against the US-led TPPA.

The US exploits territorial disputes involving China and its neighbors such as Japan, South Korea, and some ASEAN countries. It pretends to help these countries against China as a pretext in expanding US military forces and operating military bases in these countries. But the US interest is not in supporting territorial claims in the South China Sea, but in gaining control of the sea lanes. The US would not risk open war with China in the near future as the US has far greater economic interests there compared to countries like the Philippines or Vietnam.

Russia, Japan, and China also view the vast territories covering the East China Sea and South China Sea as strategic in terms of natural resources, shipping, and military access. For now, all the big powers collude and compete for a bigger share of the Asia-Pacific pie without resort to war, although they beat their war drums to signal a readiness to escalate conflict whenever it fits their strategic plans.

Specific agenda in the four country visits

On April 23, Obama is scheduled to attend the Japan-US summit to affirm the two countries’ military and economic alliance. Even as it has been in the economic and political doldrums in recent decades, Japan hosts a wide range of US military bases, serves as its second largest trade and investment partner, and has long been the main US ally in the post-war Asia-Pacific. The Obama visit intends to enhance the US-Japan military and economic alliance.

A few days before Obama lands, on April 20, a new US military installation will be inaugurated in Ukawa district, Kyotango City, Kyoto. An X-band radar facility will be installed as an essential part of the US Missile Defense network in East Asia, in connivance with the Japanese government.

Despite the transfer of a big US Marine contingent to Guam and the unresolved relocation of the sprawling Futenma Marine Corps Air Station from a heavily populated part of Okinawa to Nago City, the US continues to enjoy strategic basing rights in Japan. Some 49,000 US troops are deployed in Japan-hosted bases, through which the US is able to project its imperialist power in East Asia, encircle China, and threaten the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).

The TPPA is also on the agenda of the Japan-US summit. The US wants Japan to join the trade pact as a crucial member, but it must convince Japanese big business that the TPPA has more advantages for them compared to a more localized trade pact such as a China-Korea-Japan FTA. The US also wants Japan to settle its disputes with South Korea.

In Seoul, Obama is expected to meet with South Korean President Park Geun Hye, affirm the US military alliance with South Korea, and review the continuing US-led program of economic, political, and military pressure against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). Despite calls from both sides to move towards peaceful reunification, the US has refused to defuse tensions by continuing to maintain a heavy military presence of 30,000 troops in the peninsula (including nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction), instigate repeated armed provocations along the so-called demilitarized zone and through offshore naval exercises, and seek to isolate North Korea by focusing on the DPRK’s nuclear program and imposing sanctions.

Despite strong opposition from the Korean people, the US is preparing to use a military base being constructed by the Korean government in Jeju Island near its border with China.
Next, Obama will visit Malaysia as the first US president to do so in the past half-century, to make another pitch for the TPPA. Past Malaysian governments, with strong Islamic influence especially during the premiership of Mahathir Mohammad, had been critical of US foreign policy, opposed US wars in the Middle East, and supported the setting up of a Palestinian state. Obama intends to sweeten US-Malaysia bilateral ties by offering economic advantages to the Najib Razak government in exchange for keeping to a moderate and pro-US Islamic position.

Obama’s last stop will be the Philippines, a former US colony that hosted a major US Air Force base in Clark and a major US Navy station in Subic, and a long-time postwar ally under successive pro-US regimes. He is expected to meet with President Benigno Aquino III and sign a de facto basing pact disguised as an “Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement” (EDCA).

The Filipino people had successfully driven away these US bases in 1991, but pro-US regimes continued to allow US ships, troops, armaments, drones, and electronic espionage facilities on the excuse of “non-permanent” presence as covered by the US-Philippine Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

Nevertheless, the EDCA that may be signed during the Obama-Aquino meeting would further expand the questionable premises of the VFA. This would allow the US practically unhindered access to Philippine facilities in order to station its troops and equipment, to even set up its own exclusive military facilities within Philippine bases or virtual “bases within bases,” and for its troops to operate in any part of the country in the guise of joint military exercises or humanitarian missions. Like the US-RP VFA, the US-PH EDCA would be in brazen violation of the country’s 1987 constitution that bans foreign troops and weapons of mass destruction on Philippine soil.

The US imperialists and their local puppets have been hyping the Philippine-China maritime dispute over the exclusive economic zone and extended contended shelf of the Philippines under the UNCLOS, and terrorist scares as well in the southern islands bordering Malaysia and Indonesia, in order to justify the urgent signing of the EDCA and the entry of more US armed forces. Alarmingly, they are pushing the Philippine government to construct or renovate more bases, such as in Oyster Bay near the disputed Spratly islands, supposedly to counterbalance the Chinese presence in the area. They also rode on supertyphoon Haiyan’s disastrous impact by calling on the US Seventh Fleet to play the high-profile role of “savior”, suggesting it can do more humanitarian good if only it is allowed unhampered operations within the country.

Obama is also expected to quietly urge Manila to remove any remaining constitutional restrictions to foreign investments, including land ownership, and thus pave the way for the Philippines’ joining the TPPA.

Call for broader struggle vs US imperialism in East Asia

In the face of the current global crisis, the US wants to rush its military rebalancing act in the Asia-Pacific even as it is harried by major troubles in other global regions and in its own backyard. But the people in all countries of East Asia will not allow this imperialist scheme to ride roughshod over their national sovereignty. The International League of Peoples' Struggle and a broad range of patriotic and progressive forces in the region are calling to oust US bases and troops from their shores, and to resist the intensified imperialist plunder of the region’s human and natural resources through the TPPA.

The ILPS calls on all the oppressed peoples in the region, as elsewhere in the world, to resist the US imperialist agenda and to fight for national and social liberation in all possible realms of struggle. We support the East Asian peoples’ broad opposition to the US bases, military buildup, and aggressive actions in their respective countries and throughout the region as a whole. We support their equally broad opposition to the neoliberal economic agenda in all its despicable aspects, including the US-dictated TPPA. We support their aspirations and demands for peace, genuine development, and social justice.

We reiterate our full support for the Japanese people’s protest actions against the new US base in Kyoto, and stand in solidarity with the AWC-Kyoto, the Kyoto Coalition, and the Kinki Coalition that are in the forefront of the anti-bases protest. We likewise express our support for the Okinawa people in opposing the plan to relocate the Futenma US base to Nago City, and hope that their struggle leads to the full ousting of all US bases from the Okinawa islands.

We again express our solidarity with the Korean people on both halves of the Korean peninsula in their long-aspired-for peaceful reunification, against the heavy US military presence in the south and US-instigated provocations against the north, and against the planned construction of a US naval base in Jeju.

We call on the Malaysian people to resist the sugarcoated pills being offered by the US through the Obama visit, with the intent of pulling their country deeper into the neoliberal trap of the TPPA. We are confident that anti-US imperialist groups in Malaysia will join hands and launch common protest actions to confront Obama and local pro-US reactionaries.

We salute the Filipino people in their century-old struggle against US imperialism. We commend Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) and other ILPS member-organizations in the Philippines for exposing and opposing the so-called US-PH Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, for their planned week-long protest in time for the Obama visit, and for linking up with other anti-bases and anti-imperialist organizations in the United States, Japan, South Korea, China, and elsewhere.

We extend our solidarity to the people of the United States, who are as victimized by US imperialism as the rest of the world. We welcome the increasing ranks and growing militancy of anti-war, anti-globalization, and anti-imperialist organizations in the US, especially in opposing domestic repression, military adventures overseas, and increased spending for war while the American people suffer the burden of the crisis.

All over the world, as in East Asia, countries and peoples are resisting US imperialism’s desperate efforts to extend its talons and dig its claws deeper as it continues on a path of long-term decline. The ILPS is one with them in the struggle until victory.

No to US bases, and imperialist wars and intervention!
US troops, out of East Asia!
Resist neoliberal economic dictates! Fight the TPPA!
Down with US imperialism and its domestic puppets in East Asia!
Long live the people of East Asia! Long live international solidarity!