Anarchism in the Philippines
After being supplanted by Marxism-Leninism as the leading revolutionary tendency during the mid-20th century, it experienced a resurgence as part of the punk subculture, following the fragmentation of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
One of the earliest signs of resistance was the Battle of Mactan, in which native warriors led by Lapulapu overpowered and defeated the forces of the Spanish Empire, resulting in the death of Ferdinand Magellan.
A number of Filipino intellectuals, including José Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar, launched a Propaganda Movement which called for reforms to the governance of the Spanish East Indies.
[8][9] The idea of propaganda of the deed particularly inspired Rizal's second novel El filibusterismo, which depicts a revolution of national liberation against the Spanish colonial authorities in the Philippines.
[10] Upon his return to Manila in 1892, Rizal founded the La Liga Filipina, a secret society dedicated to mutual aid and the establishment of cooperatives, among other activities.
[19][20] After his release, he met a number of anarchist thinkers, including Francesc Ferrer,[21] and read the works of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin.
[24] Inspired by anarcho-syndicalism, Isabelo organized a wave of workers' protests and strikes in Manila, leading him to establish the Unión Obrera Democrática (UOD), the country's first modern trade union federation.
[26][27] Isabelo tendered his resignation from the UOD while in prison, but his work was carried on by the labor organizer Hermenegildo Cruz and the strike leader Arturo Soriano, who translated Errico Malatesta's dialogue Fra Contadini (Between Peasants) into the Tagalog language entitled Dalawang Magbubukid.
Anarchist ideas would persist among the peasantry, particularly within peasant unions such as the Aguman ding Maldang Talapagobra (AMT; League of Poor Workers), a front of the Socialist Party of the Philippines.
[21] The Communist Party was initially outlawed by the Supreme Court,[35] but was later legalized after the Commonwealth of the Philippines was established, due to the growing threats from the Empire of Japan.
[39] This expulsion caused a further fragmentation of the communist movement, with some young Marxist-Leninists remaining loyal to the party's old guard and splitting from the KM to form the Free Union of Filipino Youth (MPKP).
But the majority of those that left the KM were themselves Maoists, seeking to enhance their political autonomy rather than submit to Sison's centralized authoritarian structure, going on to establish the Federation of Democratic Youth (SDK) in January 1968.
[46] The SDKM adopted the black flag as its symbol and began to form the front-lines at protests, earning the nickname "gunpowder brains" due to their inclination towards violence, use of explosives and construction of pillboxes.
[42] The fallout from this decision, combined with the Revolutions of 1989 and the beginning of the Second Great Rectification Movement in 1992, led to further splits within the Communist Party, which fragmented into several competing factions.
[59] In 2001, Filipinos were further drawn to anarchism during the Second EDSA Revolution against the government of Joseph Estrada, during which anarchists distributed a leaflet titled Organize Without Leaders!, contrasting themselves with other opposition groups that sought to achieve political power.
[61] This disillusionment accelerated following the aborted EDSA III, which was swiftly repressed and resulted in the arrest of opposition leaders, but had raised public awareness of the possibilities of self-organization.
[63] In the wake of these revolutions, contemporary Filipino anarchists such as Bas Umali began to call for the dismantling of the Philippine nation-state and the establishment of a decentralized "archipelagic confederation" in its place.
[64] Anarchist modes of problem-solving, grounded in precolonial bayanihan and supported by, among others, Christian subsidiarity,[65] have also emerged back into the mainstream as an alternative to disempowered dependence,[66] an example being the setting up of community pantries during the COVID-19 pandemic and their persistence amid a backdrop of political-economic hostility.
