BAYAN USA proudly recognizes the tremendous people’s victory marked by the end of the Hacienda Luisita strike, the most controversial workers strike in Philippine history! We extend our gratitude and continued solidarity with all the supporters throughout the U.S. who attended educational film showings and forums featuring the documentaries of Aklasan and Sa Ngalan Ng Tubo which led to an outpouring of moral and financial support from the labor and faith communities as well as working class and immigrant families
The triumph was, first and foremost, due to the courage of the workers and their families who were able to maintain the picket lines for more than a year in the face of the most brutal attacks by the military, police and the hired goons of the Cojuangco-Aquino family.
We pay tribute to the thirteen [13] martyrs of Hacienda Luisita whose supreme sacrifice made possible the victory of the people of the hacienda. They are the seven victims of the Nov. 16 massacre: Jhavie Basilio, Jun David, Juancho Sanchez, Jesus Laza, Jimmy Pastidio, Adriano Caballero and Jessie Valdez. Peasant leader Marcelino “Ka Marcing” Beltran, shot and killed in his home in Sta. Ignacia on Dec. 8, 2004; Tarlac City Councilor Abelardo Ladera, assassinated in Tarlac City on March 3 this year, Father William Tadena, killed in an ambush near his church on March 13 in La Paz, Tarlac, regional peasant leader Ben Concepcion, shot to death in Angeles City, Pampanga on March 17; Bayan Muna leader Florante Collantes, shot and killed in his home in Camiling, Tarlac on Oct. 15, the latest victim CATLU president Ricardo Ramos who was shot and killed near his home in last October 25. All were either directly involved or actively supported the striking workers.
BAYAN USA vows to elevate our stand against state terror and political repression on this International Human Rights December 10, 2005 and beyond. We hold the Cojuangco-Aquino family, the Arroyo government and NOLCOM, particularly Gen. Jovito Palparan of the 7th ID, responsible for the recent and future attacks on the people of the hacienda. We condemn the emergence of STATE FASCIM in its crudest, most barbaric form not only in Hacienda Luisita but in the rest of the country.
Long live our struggle for land, jobs and decent wages! End state terror and political repression! Pull out U.S. military troops, training and arms funded by U.S. tax dollars! Oust Arroyo now–the worst human rights violator to rule the Philippines!