May Day Massage From Partido Manggagawa

Solidarity to the UİD-DER and workers in Turkey

Greetings of solidarity to our sisters and brothers in the working class of Turkey! On May Day 2021, we affirm our internationalism by linking arms with the demands and struggle of fellow workers in Turkey and the rest of the world.

Internationalism is an urgent imperative in the face of the common problems faced by workers all around the globe. The repression and exploitation experienced by workers in the Philippines is the same as that in Turkey and elsewhere.

In the Philippines, the failed government response of President Duterte has spawned a grave economic crisis. The Philippine economy has contracted by 9.5% last year, the worst in Southeast Asia; 4.5 million workers are technically unemployed but the real numbers are of course much more; and 7.6 million are experiencing hunger.

The pandemic has been weaponized by the bosses to rollback workers’ rights. Benefits were not paid. Workers were left on floating status without any assurance of returning to work. Mass layoffs occurred left and right. Collective bargaining agreements were not implemented. Labor unions were busted. The state has likewise used covid to suppress its elite rivals and the labor movement. Duterte is using covid-19 as a club to bludgeons his political enemies. Unionists are being killed and harassed with impunity similar to the “othering” of poor drug addicts early in Duterte’s regime.

Amidst a new covid surge, workers in the Philippines will commemorate May Day in online and physical actions. The labor movement will demand a stop to political repression and increased state assistance to workers.

Solidarity to workers in Turkey and the world!

Rene Magtubo

National Chair