Buuin ang bagong mundo

Nitong nakaraang Linggo ay inilunsad ang baong buong labor center na Sentro ng Progresibong Manggagawa o Sentro.

Medyo nakakatawa nga ang balita tungkol dito laluna ang isinulat ni Estrella Torres sa Business Mirror dahil nabanggit pa rito na nais lindolin ng mga manggagawa ang "Noynoying" ni Pang. Noynoy Aquino.

Nakakatawa dahil tila hindi alam ng writer na ang bansag na "Noynoying" ay pinasikat ng mga "Reaffirm" o ng mga grupong sumasampalataya pa rin kay Joma Sison at ang Kilusang Mayo Uno na kasama sa mga "Reaffirm" ay hindi kasama sa Sentro. Ano kaya ang naramdaman ng mga RAs na tila napag-iwanan na naman sila sa pansitan? Noynoying din ba ang tawag dito?


Balik tayo paglulunsad ng Sentro, na isinapubliko ilang linggo bago ang tradisyunal na paggunit sa Labor Day  sa Mayo 1, na hindi idinaraos upang magsaya ang mga manggagawa kungdi upang sariwain ang tagumpay at patuloy na pakikibaka ng mga obrero.

Naalala ko tuloy ang speech ni dating University of the Philippines (UP) president Dodong Nemenzo sa Asian Conference on Labor Restructuring under Globalization na inorganisa ng  International South Group Network sa Astoria Plaza, Ortigas Business District noong 9 January 2007. Mababasa ng buo ang speech sa website ng Bukluran sa Ikauunlad ng Sosyalistang Isip at Gawa (Bisig) o sa English ay Union of Filipino Socialist.

Sa kanyang speech, hinikayat ni Ka Dodong ang mga manggagawa na bumuo ng panibagong pamamaraan ng pag-oorganisa at taktika na nakabase sa kasalukuyang pangdaigdigang sitwasyon. Aniya kailangan nating gamitin ang mga bagong teknolohiya upang labanan ang kapitalismo tulad ng paggamit ng mga neo-liberal sa mga teknolohiya upang maipatupad ang kanilang sariling agenda.

Ipinaliwanag ni Ka Dodong na nagamit ng mga korporasyong naghahangad na lalo pang paigtingin ang globalization project ng mga neo-liberals sa pagbagsak ng Soviet Union. "The collapse of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of the international communist movement emboldened the leading capitalist powers to resume with greater vigor the project of imposing free trade on a global scale. The Keynesian regulatory mechanisms were decommissioned and the “welfare state” was dismantled piece by piece. With renewed aggressiveness, the capitalist powers – through the multilateral bodies they control like the IMF, World Bank and the WTO – then inveigled and coerced other countries to bring down their protectionist barriers and allow the free flow of trade and investments across nations.'

Pero sinabi ni Ka Dodong na kung nagamit ng mga neo-liberals ang makabagong teknolohiya, pwede rin itong magamit ng mga manggagawa.

"Let me emphasize three points: First, the phenomenal advances of computer, communication and transport technologies facilitated the neo-liberal project. These technologies have indeed brought the peoples in all nations together in what Marshall Mcluhan called a “global village”," aniya.


"Second: the “global village” is not necessarily bad. Why should we oppose satellite broadcasting, for example? While it promotes consumerism, it also keeps us informed of the struggle of the Nepali people, of American atrocities in Iraq, of the triumphs of the left in Latin America. Should we also shun the ATMs, the cellular phones and the Internet? Should we deplore the convenience of booking flight and choosing airline seats from our personal computers? All these form part of the infrastructure of globalization. While they rake in enormous profit for the transitional companies, they also enable the progressive groups in different countries to organize networks against them.

"My third point is this: Instead of resisting new technologies as the Luddites did, the labor movement should restructure itself, should globalize itself as well. We should think of how to utilize for the purpose of struggle the same technologies that made possible the establishment of a global capitalist market. It is futile to bewail to slow death of the traditional trade unions. If our strategic goal is to preserve the traditional trade union, I am afraid we are waging a hopeless war. Scientific and technological advances cannot be undone. The sensible response is to develop new forms of working class organizations that are appropriate to the emerging mode of production. This will enable the workers to fight back effectively and create their own version of a new world order where machines serve humankind rather than spread misery. Contemporary capitalism can no longer be fought within a factory or within one country. We have to fight capitalism globally with organizations that likewise cut across national boundaries.

"The workers in the Third World are no longer the only victims of capitalist globalization. Those I the industrially advanced countries are now learning the hard way. Their job markets are shrinking as the tasks they used to perform are increasingly relegated to automatons or exported to where the cost of production is lowest. Never before has exploitation been so universal. In this day and age all of us suffer from neo-liberal globalizations. Let us therefore once again raise the clarion call:

“Workers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your oppressors. You have a new world to build”.