4-18-05, 9:23 am
From Solidarity Network
PPSC MEETING OF SOLIDARITY WITH CUBA AND VENEZUELA KICKS OFF GLOBAL WEEK OF ACTION IN THE PHILIPPINES
The Philippine Peace and Solidarity Council (PPSC) held a meeting of Solidarity with Cuba and Venezuela yesterday (Sunday, 10 April 2005) at the Balay Kalinaw (House of Peace) of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, which was attended by 200 participants representing over a dozen national sectoral organizations.
The meeting was opened by Prof. Reynaldo de Guzman, PPSC National Chaiman, who spoke about the need to strengthen Philippine solidarity with the revolutionary governments and peoples of Cuba and Venezuela in the face of the continued attempts of US imperialism to subvert the popular regimes in these 2 countries. He mentioned that this PPSC activity is related to the worldwide celebration of the 55th Anniversary of the World Peace Council, the international organization with which the PPSC is affiliated, and which international organization consistently supports socialist orientations such as those espoused by Cuba and Venezuela.
The keynote address was given by Atty. Antonio E. Paris, PPSC National Secretary, who related examples of US terrorist acts against Cuba since the triumph of the Cuban revolution in 1959, and stressed the need to strengthen the campaign for the release of the 5 Cuban heroes who are presently languishing in US jails. Atty. Paris also related the anti-imperialist struggles of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez – from his leading of a military-civilian rebellion in 1992 (which however failed to topple the US puppets then at the helm of the Venezuelan government), to his landslide victory in the presidential election in 1998, to his triumph over the US-engineered coup d'etat in April 2002, to the overwhelming support that the Venezuelan people gave him in the Referendum of August 2004, and to his initiation of a Bolivarian Alternative ('ALBA') for the progress of Venezuela and of the Latin American region. Atty. Paris also praised the commitment to socialism declared by President Chavez at the World Social Forum held earlier this year in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Atty. Honesto L. Cueva, Honorary President of the PPSC and Dean of the College of Law of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, also spoke about the need to strengthen the Campaign for A More Democratic United Nations (CAMDUN), in the light of the imperialist unilateralism and skirting of United Nations processes, as was seen in the US-UK invasion of Iraq, and in their projection of an alleged right to launch 'pre-emptive' wars and to cause 'regime change' everywhere.
Special guests at this Solidarity Meeting were Cuban Ambassador Jorge Rey Jimenez and his wife Elba ; and Charge d'Affaires Jose Clavijo of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Ambassador Rey spoke about the criminal US blockade against Cuba, which is being maintained by the Bush administration despite condemnation by the United Nations. He also condemned the US flaunting of international law in its use of the US naval base squatting at Guantanamo, Cuba, as a center of torture and gross violation of human rights. On the subject of Venezuela, the Cuban ambassador gave assurances that the Cuban government will continue to give every assistance for the socio-economic development of the Venezuelan people, particularly by way of sending thousands of doctors, teachers and technicians to Venezuela, and by opening Cuban educational institutions to thousands of Venezuelan students. He stressed that despite the rich natural resources of Venezuela, it is only now – under the leadership of President Chavez and with assistance from the Cuban people – that many depressed communities in Venezuela were able to avail of medical, educational and other social services.
For his part, Charge d'Affaires Jose Clavijo spoke of the assassination attempts hatched by US imperialism against President Hugo Chavez, and the need to counter US threats by arming the Venezuelan masses and building up a strong militia. He also expounded on the major cause of the present US fulminations against President Chavez – the Bolivarian Alternative ('ALBA') for the socio-economic upliftment of Latin America which is espoused by President Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro. He spoke of the different dimensions of ALBA in the fields of equitable trade, mutual economic assistance, the forging of a regional development bank, and the setting up of a co-prosperity fund for the setting up of the necessary infrastructures and social services to benefit the masses in their region. He also invited Philippine participation to the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students to be held in Caracas this August, which will surely be the biggest anti-imperialist event of the year.
This meeting was also addressed by Pedro P. Baguisa, General Secretary of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP-1930, or the Philippine Communist Party), who described the present partnership between Cuba and Venezuela, and the Bolivarian Alternative ('ALBA') in a wider sense, as an example of concrete solidarity on the basis of equality and camaraderie which springs from the spirit of socialism. He stressed that the socialist alterntive remains viable, that capitalism is insustainable, and that there is a need to step up the struggle against all forms of imperialist military aggression and economic exploitation. He also spoke about several planned activities to attract more people to the humanist alternative of socialism, in connection with the PKP's commemoration this year of the 75th Anniversary of its founding.
For her part, Miss Trinidad Domingo, National President of the Katipunan ng Bagong Pilipina (KaBaPa), the country's largest association of rural women, spoke of the participation of Filipina women in the struggle against the economic crisis --- against the uncontrolled increases in the prices of oil, water, electricity, tollway fees, expanded 'value-added' taxes, etc. --- as part of the worldwide struggle against imperialist domination and against imperialist institutions (IMF, WB, WTO, etc.)
Pablo Santos, National President of the HUKBALAHAP Veterans' Federation, also spoke to remind the meeting about the significance of this year's commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Victory over Fascism and Militarism, and the 60th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and of the need to safeguard the founding anti-fascist and anti-militarist principles of the United Nations.
At the end of the meeting, the participants joined the International Signature Campaign demanding an end to the US imperialist blockade and subversive activities against Cuba. The participants also joined the International Signature Campaign initiated by the Brazilian Peace Council (CEBRAPAZ) at the World Social Forum, to indict Bush, Blair and their ilk (in what is now better known as the 'Coalition of the Greedy') before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes in connection with their genocidal invasion of Iraq.
This PPSC meeting also kicks off the Philippine Week of Action which is part of the Global Week of Action on Trade and Economic Development, which will feature several rallies, demonstrations and meetings by different organizations against the World Bank, IMF and the World Trade Organization. In particular, the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) will be holding this week several marches and rallies for debt cancellation, against the privatization of public services, against trade liberalization, and also against Paul Wolfowitz (the butcher of Iraq who was recently appointed as new World Bank president) , in several cities of the Philippines. The PPSC will support these mobilizations of the FDC, as well as other mass actions against the continued US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, against US support for the continued zionist occupation of Palestine, and against the imperialist bullying of Syria, Iran, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and other countries (aside from Cuba and Venezuela).
