This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.

Baylosis speaks on struggle of Filipino people



Over the last two months, RAIL helped organize a continent-wide speaking tour for radical Filipino activist Rafael Baylosis to bring a deeper understanding of the national democratic struggle in the Philippines to a broad audience. BAYAN International USA, a legal, multi- sectoral national democratic organization based inside u.$. borders, initiated and co-sponsored the tour.

Rafael Baylosis is an experienced activist in the national democratic struggle in the Philippines. He participated in the "First Quarter Storm" of 1970 which mobilized thousands of Filipino young people against the Marcos regime, and he later joined the revolutionary movement in the countryside.

He was arrested and imprisoned twice for his revolutionary political conviction and activities, for a total of more than eight years. First, in 1973-76 during the Marcos regime, and second, from 1988 to 1992 during the Aquino administration. Released temporarily on bail July 1992 with an inconclusive case in court for alleged "illegal possession of firearms and explosives in furtherance of rebellion."

Since his release, Baylosis has been giving political and theoretical education to mass leaders and members of progressive people's organizations. He is currently a consultant to the National Democratic Front of the Philippine (NDFP) panel for socio-economic reforms in the NDFP-Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) peace talks and a consultant to BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance), a legal, multi-sectoral national democratic organization.

Philippine society is semi-colonial because it is politically and economically dominated by foreign powers, even though the Philippines is nominally an independent country. The dominant foreign power in the Philippines is u.$. imperialism, but Japanese, Australian, and European imperialism all participate in the exploitation of the Philippines.

Philippine society is semi-feudal because the main mode of production in the Philippines remains agrarian and backwards, and because the problems of landlessness and severe exploitation of the peasantry by a handful of big landlords persist. 75% of the people in the Philippines are peasants and 70% are landless. Because Philippine society is semi-colonial and semi-feudal, the majority of people of the Philippines face poverty, unemployment, lack of heath care, and exploitation. In general, the current political and economic situation denies the people of the Philippines their right to self- determination.

The economy of the Philippines is an import dependent, export-oriented economy. The Philippines exports raw materials and semi-finished products. The products which are produced in the Philippines are heavily dependent on foreign inputs, such as steel and capital goods. The Philippines does not have a steel industry, chemical industry, or petroleum industry, all of which are essential to any modern economy. No steel means that the people cannot develop capital goods.

One of the clearest examples of u.$ imperialism's political dominance in the Philippines is the u.$. military's continued occupation of Philippine territory. Despite the fact that the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) terminated the u.$. military's lease on Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Force Base in the early 1990s in response to a mass movement to kick the bases out of the Philippines, several current and proposed treaties give the u.$. military free rein in the Philippines.

RAIL considers this leg of the speaking tour a success because it contributed to a greater understanding of the national democratic movement in the Philippines among activists and potential activists who have an important role to play in the United States as well as in the Philippines. The event also demonstrated the solidarity that exists between RAIL and the revolutionary movement in the Philippines, and provided RAIL with an opportunity to do its internationalist duty in support of Third World movements against U.S imperialism and its puppet regimes. Exposing the atrocities of U.S. imperialism, in the Philippines and elsewhere, is an important part of RAIL's educational and organizing work in this country.

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