Let the people's outrage against the US-Aquino regime
explode this First of May*
Editorial, Ang Bayan
21 April 2011
The people are completely justified in commemorating May First as a Day of Outrage. The Filipino toiling masses and people have every right to vent their anger against the Aquino regime.
The living conditions of workers and the people in general have been rapidly deteriorating. After almost a year under Aquino, all his promised changes have come to nought and failed to improve the people's lot.
Prices of basic goods and services have soared by at least 15% in the few months since Aquino took over and he has done nothing to control them. He has, in fact, pushed for hikes in train fares and expressway toll fees. He feigns helplessness in the face of relentless increases in the prices of petroleum products because of the tax windfall his government has been reaping from them. He pretends to be unaware of the people's suffering.
Aquino has been giving his own distorted rationalizations for blocking a significant wage increase. He ridiculously claims that the inflation rate is so low that raising the minimum wage is unwarranted! But he is contradicted by even the doctored statistics of his own government's agencies.
Big capitalists have been raising the frightening specter of higher inflation rates, bankruptcies of small businesses and more unemployment with the implementation of a P125 wage increase.
In fact, it is simply the greed for profit that is behind the refusal to adopt a P125 across the board hike in the minimum daily wage. Such a wage hike would shave off only 15% from the profits of most capitalists in the Philippines. (see related article) But avaricious capitalists who feed on the blood and sweat of the workers balk at the idea of parting with even such a small amount.
Aquino's refusal to heed the demand for a just wage is in keeping with the orders of his real "bosses"--the imperialists and local comprador bourgeoisie who contributed a lot of money to his campaign. It is their interests that Aquino has been advancing as he tirelessly pushes his privatization program and reductions in the government's budget for social spending.
All this deception being foisted on the Filipino workers by the Aquino regime, its profit-hungry "bosses" and their spinmeisters must be exposed, assailed and put to a stop.
The workers' movement must zero in on the ruling regime's responsibility for imposing antiworker and antipeople policies that have added to the people's burdens.
The toiling masses and other oppressed and exploited sectors must be made aware that they cannot rely on the US-Aquino regime for anything. The regime has, in fact, been zealously enforcing laws and policies that are disastrous to their interests.
The working class and other oppressed and exploited people must unite to form broad alliances that will advance their common interests and push for their collective demands. They must vent the people's pent up anger and create a powerful protest movement that will fight for the welfare of the toiling masses and hold the Aquino regime accountable along with all other entities that have caused the people's suffering.
It is the duty of the working class and its proletarian party to lead the struggle against all of the Aquino regime's antiworker and antipeople policies.
This truth must be seared into the consciousness of the mass of workers: that the struggle for higher wages and other labor issues form part of the intense struggle between the capitalist and working classes, and the people and the ruling classes as a whole. They illustrate in the concrete the meaning of exploitation and oppression. They starkly point to the toiling masses and other oppressed sectors and strata the correct path to genuine change. This is the path of militant struggle and revolutionary resistance.
http://theprwcblogs.blogspot.com/2011/04/let-peoples-outrage-against-us-aquino.html
