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Monday, December 09, 2013

National support for the people of the Philippines

-Joint Statement in support of the people of the Philippines affected by 
Typhoon Hayan:

On 8th November, the typhoon Hayan (known as Yolanda within the country) has
 
swept some areas of the Philippines to more than 300 kilometers per hour,
 
with 5 meter high waves, one of the strongest and most disastrous ever seen
 
to hit the earth.
Right from the start it was clear that the destruction of human beings and
 
things were striking and now, after more than two weeks, the official
 
figures speak about 5500 victims, but the wounded are many more of those
 
admitted at the beginning: more than 26,000. Thousands are still missing and
 
some international experts say that for the complete reconstruction may take
 
up to 10 years.
Officially nine million inhabitants, or 10% of the entire population, were
 
involved in the event, but the UN brings the figure to 13 million. Over four
 
million are the homeless.
The most affected areas of the archipelago are the islands Leyte, Samar and
 
Cebu, Negros, Visayas Eastern, Central and Western, about 5 regions and 36
 
provinces, and in particular the city of Tacloban, coastal and mountain
 
areas among the poorest in throughout the country, where most are poor
 
peasants, agricultural workers unemployed, small-scale fishers and
 
indigenous peoples.
Faced with this tragedy political organizations and trade unions of the
 
Philippines who fight for the defense of the conditions of life and labor of
 
the people immediately mobilized carrying out support and calling for a
 
general mobilization in the country and abroad for proper co-ordination in
 
order to distribute appropriate help and materials, water, food, shelter,
 
medical care and aid to rebuild homes, recover farm animals, collection of
 
tubers to those who have greater and more urgent need of help starting with
 
the children and the elders. And the Communist Party of the Philippines has
 
also declared a unilateral ceasefire for two months to allow and facilitate
 
relief efforts in any way. Appeals to which the government has not yet
 
responded.
The government of the Philippines of President Aquino, despite the
 
information and alert branched from the Observatory of Manila that said "You
 
may need a massive evacuation of residential areas on low lands within 8 to
 
16 km of the coast" has not taken appropriate measures (pompously declared
 
"zero victims") and then has intervened with considerable delay in rescue,
 
first allocating insignificant funds for such a catastrophe and on the other
 
side filling these areas with military bunkers and checkpoints, instead of
 
immediately building homes and help those affected by the tragedy in areas
 
too difficult to reach; this behavior has in fact aggravated the general
 
conditions of affected populations, minimizing inter alia constantly the
 
number of victims. The anger of these people is mounting as delays become
 
fatal to save more lives and give immediate responses to the needs of the
 
moment. On some occasions the President Aquino has had the "courage" to
 
criticize the Filipinos because they were unprepared! And he is doing an
 
effusive populist propaganda about the funds that are in his immediate
 
disposal, such as the President's Social Fund and the Disbursement
 
Acceleration Program (DAP), which says falsely that he has used for the
 
relief effort, and is on the contrary an excuse to increase them.

Even in these terrible hours, the Aquino government has not stopped for a
 
moment to continue to militarize the Mindanao campaigns and across the
 
country with its operations, such as the one called "Community Organizing
 
for Peace and Development"(COPD) and to harass (through a real war of
 
extermination through the operation that bears the name of "Oplan
 
Bayanihan" - increasing the firepower on the field and diverting millions of
 
dollars in money and means of the state) the activists of the Communist
 
Party of the Philippines that in theses areas is present with different
 
people's local governments. The government, thanks also to an enslaved
 
press, continued to use the farce of the attacks suffered and clashes with
 
fighters to denigrate the people's war, especially in areas that have been
 
virtually abandoned by the reactionary government.
The government is pursuing this militarization of aid in Haiti style, even
 
allowing for the armed forces of the United States to intervene directly in
 
the affected areas. The U.S. imperialists are once again taking advantage of
 
the tragedy to intensify in a "legitimate" way the presence in the area that
 
has entered into their strategy which they gave the name of "Asia Pivot"
 
(Asia at the centre). In fact they have deployed in the Philippines no less
 
than six warships including the flagship of the U.S., the aircraft carrier
 
George Washington, which carries at least 80 fighter jets and helicopter, in
 
addition to 5000 marines. The aircraft carrier will be accompanied by the
 
USS Antietam, USS Coepwns, USS Mustin, from the cruiser with guided missiles
 
Lasses. Other U.S. military are moving from ports in the area such as Hong
 
Kong toward the Philippines and are invading the capital and took over the
 
airport in Tacloban. American imperialism keeps for many years an
 
extraordinary military presence in the area and considers the Philippines a
 
more "own backyard".
Even British imperialism has sent the warship HMS Daring and a Boeing C-17
 
for military transport.
Imperialism takes every opportunity to strengthen its military presence and
 
gain control of strategic areas to protect the profits of multinational
 
corporations.
The power never seen of this typhoon also caused by environmental
 
destruction going on in the world, and especially in the Philippines made up
 
of savage deforestation to make way for agribusiness and mining that enrich
 
the masters of the world and impoverish and leave in inhumane conditions
 
amount impressive populations, has devastated millions of people who now
 
have to raise again, focusing on their strengths and on a genuine
 
international solidarity that knows how to target aid in the reconstruction
 
of houses and living conditions.
The solidarity we express is to support the dignity of a people conscious
 
that must struggle to recover and get rid of parasites internal and at
 
international level.
We express solidarity capable of strongly denounce military interventionism
 
of the Aquino government against its own population and that of imperialism,
 
the United States first.
For this it will need to engage in a campaign of denunciation and
 
information as wide as possible to bring to the proletariat of the
 
imperialist countries and around the world.
It is with this kind of solidarity in the heart that we express the maximum
 
proximity, at this particular moment, to the masses of the Philippines who
 
have suffered this terrible tragedy.

Atik - turkye/Europe
Slai Cobas per il sindacato di classe - Italy
Frap - France

Address for Relief:
NDFP International Information Office in The Netherlands:
NDF ST. INT. INFORMATIE
Account number 39 45 70 642
RABOBANK
Bank branch: Utrecht, The Netherlands
IBAN NL 70 RABO 0394 5706 42
BIC RABONL 2U
Please put "Haiyan/Yoland Relief Funds"

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