Gay Wedding For Philippine Communist Rebels
international |
rights, freedoms and repression |
other press 
Tuesday February 08, 2005 14:14
by Paul McAndrew
Gay Wedding For Philippine Communist Rebels
Two communist rebel fighters in the Philippines have tied the knot in a ceremony at a jungle base.
The pair are members of the New People's Army, rebels who have been fighting for independence in rural areas since the late 1960s.
The NPA added same-sex relationships and marriage to its independence manifesto policy in 1998. But, the Philippine government which has been waging war against the communists does not recognize gay relationships and in much of the country homosexuality remains a taboo.
Comments (1 of 1)
Jump To Comment: 1Fair play to anyone who does not discriminate on gender-preference grounds, but ... in response to the article above, and lest people feel that this gay marriage issue makes the CCP part of any sort of progressive global justice movement, I feel compelled to inform Indymedia readers that the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) - the New People's Army (NPA) - have included Walden Bello on their hit list for assassination because they feel he is a 'counterrevolutionary'. They have already killed two NGO-types since the hit list came out late last year.
On a personal note, I listened to Bello speak at an anarchist-organised anti-corporate meeting during the protests against the World Bank and IMF in Prague in September 2000. Later a pile of us went for a few beers. From listening to him, chatting over a drink and reading his books I can say he is overtly anti-imperialist, he is specifically anti-US-imperialism, he is anti-corporate and also specifically anti-WTO; he also espouses what I would call radical and useful pro-meaningful-participatory-democracy.
Bello is a member of the Focus On The Global South in the Philippines [see: http://www.focusweb.org/main/html/index.php], which are a full-on anti-corporate NGO, he is also a member of the Transnational Institute [see: http://www.tni.org] - based in Holland, they do excellent research on the specifics of how and why the pro-corporate decision making structures of the EU undermines democracy, erodes public services, destroys the global environment and promotes the global arms trade.
In 2003 Bello won the Right Livelihood Award - in the past Vandana Shiva and Trident Ploughshares (UK) have won this award [see: http://www.rightlivelihood.org/recip.htm].
So while one welcomes gender-preference-equality the world over, I would ask people to be aware of the NPA hit-list before moving towards a love-in with the NPA.
More Info:
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The Focus On The Global South article addressing the targeting of Bello:
http://www.focusweb.org/main/html/Article565.html
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The Communist Party of the Philippines website:
http://www.philippinerevolution.org/cpp/index.shtml
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Full text of the Transnational Institute email ALERT:
From: "Transnational Institute" « Add to Address Book » « Block sender »
To: tni-news@tni.org
Cc:
Subject: [Tni-news] TNI Alert: Walden Bello threatened
Sent: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 18:32:01 +0100
Dear subscribers to TNI news,
we feel obliged to inform you of the threat to our fellow, Walden Bello, and hope to have your understanding for using TNI-news list (which is otherwise strictly used for our Bi- weekly news bulletin) to alert you on the danger he faces.
Dear Friends,
We are extremely alarmed at the recent attacks by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on Walden Bello, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South. Walden is also a long standing Fellow of the Transnational Institute (TNI) and a current TNI Board Member.
We believe that this threat to Walden's life and to other Filipino activists named as "counter- revolutionaries" in the CPP diagram of December 7, 2004 cannot be ignored. Two of the persons named in the list have already been eliminated - one just a few months ago.
Walden is a lifelong and outstanding activist and writer and is internationally acknowledged for his contribution to the struggle against neo-liberal globalisation and war and to building alternatives are equitable, democratic and pluralist.
We unreservedly condemn violence, terror and assassination as a way of resolving differences and appeal to the CPP to desist from its attacks on Filipino activists and refrain from this destructive course of action.
We agree with Focus on the Global South that these attacks deserve a response from global civil society. We are therefore circulating this widely on TNI's list serves and urge you to add your name to the Focus Statement posted below.
Fiona Dove
TNI Director
Address reply to: Chanida Bamford - Deputy Director, Focus on the Global South
http://www.focusweb.org
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Transnational Institute
Paulus Potterstraat 20
1071 DA Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 20 662 6608
fax: +31 20 675 7176
http://www.tni.org
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