MANILA — More than 450 delegates representing more than 100,000 workers gathered in Baguio City on September 14-15 to plan out their campaign of resistance to the neo-liberal globalisation offensive hitting Filipino workers.

The workers attending the congress were all members of the Filipino Workers Solidarity (BMP), the largest militant workers organisation in Manila.

The congress agreed on a three-year expansion program for the BMP centred on a new emphasis on recruitment among public service workers. The public service is coming under severe attack by the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, which is carrying out economic policies recommended by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The policies require stringent cutbacks in the government's budget, which is projected to experience a massive deficit by the end of the year. Indeed, the government is already frequently unable to pay public service salaries.

A part of the government's plans is to abolish at least 14 government agencies and downsize, through corporatisation and privatisation, many other government bodies and institutions. Last year, the government started to prepare for the privatisation of the social security system, but a public campaign, including strike action, by social security workers stalled the government's plans.

The congress also began a discussion as to whether the BMP should transform itself from a labour rights campaign centre into a trade union centre.

In the Philippines, trade unions establish themselves as independent entities at the enterprise level by winning certification elections. Different groups of workers usually, though not always, associated with a trade union federation or centre or a political party, contest the election for the right to represent the workers at a workplace.

Most of these enterprise unions then affiliate to a federation, which can gather the resources to provide legal back-up for court hearings on collective bargaining agreements as well as facilitate representation on the various tripartite bodies.

Most BMP member workplace unions are also members of a trade union federation that can facilitate the legal and tripartite representation work.

After some debate, the BMP decided to study the possibility of also taking on such work in addition to its mass campaigns around labour issues, economic policies and social issues.

The BMP, which openly advocates socialism, also adopted a resolution to establish Bukolod, or socialist campaign groups, at the factory level.

The congress also decided to help host and organise an international conference opposing neo-liberal globalisation and militarisation in Manila in November, 2003.

This was the first BMP congress since the assassination of its chairperson, Felimon Lagman, two years ago. It is suspected that the assassination was carried out on orders by sections of the military. A resolution was passed paying tribute to Lagman as one of a string of labour and left leaders assassinated in the country.

The delegates elected a new chairperson, Victor Briz, and re-elected Leody de Guzman as secretary-general.

The congress also marked the presence of 14 workplace unions that were previously affiliated to the Socialist Party of Labour (SPP), which has since merged with the BMP-aligned Philippines Workers Party (PMP).

SPP secretary-general Sonny Melencio gave the main report to the BMP congress on political and economic developments. Melencio and another SPP leader, Reihana Mohideen, were elected as vice-chairpersons of the BMP.

Also attending the Congress to present greetings was a representative of the Peoples Movement Against Poverty (PMAP), which had emerged out of the urban poor anti-Arroyo mobilisation last year, known as EDSA III.

Other Filipino organisations which gave or sent greetings included the Freedom from Debt Coalition, the Cordilleras Peoples Army, the AMA peasants union, Women's Rage, the Sanlakas multi-sectoral federation, as well as the long-established trade union federations — the National Federation of Labour Unions and the National Federation of Labour.

International greetings were read out from the Peoples Democratic Party of Indonesia and by Max Lane on behalf of the Democratic Socialist Party of Australia.

From Green Left Weekly, September 25, 2002.
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