Dear All: I am forwarding this as one message of solidarity which has been issued for International Women's Day. Feel free to send other messages relevant to this important day--or summaries of your activities to commemorate this day. Have a good Women's Day! Stefanie Rixecker ECOFEM Coordinator ------- Forwarded message follows ------- PRESS STATEMENT 8 March 2000 For immediate release Reference: Oscar Atadero, secretary general WORKING GAYS SAY NO TO ERAP The Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines (Progay) join women the world over in militant struggle on the occasion of International Women's Day. We working class gays and other basic sectors in the gay and lesbian community relive the original ideals of the women's movement for the total liberation of humanity led by the exploited classes of the world against exploitation and oppression - as first expressed by the angry women workers of New York in 1857 in protest of the inhumane working conditions. The decrepit workplace and housing conditions that pushed women to the streets 143 years ago in protest remain very true today. The massive unemployment, depressed wages, economic exploitation, sexual abuse and cruel living conditions prevalent during the early days of capitalist development in the West are as vividly true today in the Philippines and other Third World nations. Instead of equality before law and liberation from fruitless toil, the vast majority of people suffer from the hegemony of monopoly capitalist expansion by imperialist rulers and their client fascist regimes. In nations exploited by imperialist and feudal monopolies, the people who suffer most from this unfair and unjust setup are women, ethnic minorities, gays and children, both in the backward countryside and in the decaying cities. As the crisis of monopoly capitalism heightens competition between and among nations and corporations, millions are put out of factory jobs and pushed to labor export, prostitution and the informal sector; states are restructured to cancel social services and to sell health and education to the poor for profit; farmlands are being grabbed from tillers and re-used for export crops, mining and commerce; and military and police states are being strengthened to suppress the rising social unrest from this unravelling disorder. Working class gays in the Philippines share specific characteristics of the rotten society's oppression of Filipino women. As traditional discrimination and homophobia evict effeminate gays from formal employment, poor gay men who subsist on informal jobs see their incomes fall at the slightest signs of crisis. The only alternatives many gay men find to bridge the income gap are prostitution, labor export market and anti-social means such as trafficking contraband. In this way thousands of gay men land in jails here and abroad uncared for and left to their own devices. Unable to afford rising rents, gays try to put up own- account shops for garments and cosmetology in urban poor hovels, but these are wiped out in the most massive campaign of demolition and eviction by the present administration. Gay students find it increasingly difficult to stay in schools as rising tuition fees and huge budget cuts by Congress of the education budget force them to find work instead. School administrations are working to close down student papers and militant organizations and to prevent gay associations from functioning. The US-Estrada regime's rising tyranny is victimizing women, gays and other sectors of society in the most barbaric fashion comparable to imperialist-backed puppet regimes in Turkey, Peru and Western Africa. Partly to sweeten the crushing effects of liberalization, privatization and deregulation policies to the poor, Congress is passing tokenistic magna carta bills purportedly to favor women and gays. Bills for gay rights for example, supposedly outlawing discrimination, are amusing diversions to show to the world the regime's façade of democracy and to divert the people's anger to the evil initiatives in Congress, notably Concord- Charter Change, Retail Trade Liberalization Act, the Energy Reform Bill and the Omnibus Amendments to the Labor Code. The gay and lesbian rights bill in Congress has been exploited by other factions of the ruling classes to demonize homosexuals and as a campaign platform of politicians of the Religious Right for the elections in year 2001. In this context, we disown the US-Estrada regime and its comprehensive program of repression and deception. His continued rule will only intensify the control of monopoly capital and comprador-landlords over the country. His attempts to rig the legal processes and militarize the cities and countryside in an undeclared martial law expose his naked desire to maintain himself and his drunkard legions in power. We join the women and other sectors in society in calling his resignation. We say no to Estrada, no to macho fascist rule, no to cronyism, no to globalization. We in Progay will continue working with genuine militant organizations in promoting not only gay rights in action, but more so, the people's basic rights to land, jobs, food, housing, education and social services. =================================================================== The Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines (Pro-Gay) is a national mass organization of Filipino gay men seeking for the liberation of gays through genuine national freedom and democracy in the Philippines. It also links with other gay-friendly heterosexual groups within as well as outside the Philippines. Visit the Pro-Gay Homepage at http://members.tripod.com/~progay_philippines/ and sign our guestbook =================================================================== ------- End of forwarded message ------- ************************************ Dr. Stefanie S. Rixecker, Senior Lecturer Environmental Management & Design Division Lincoln University, Canterbury PO Box 84 Aotearoa New Zealand E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax: 64-03-325-3841 ************************************
