Organising students and youth in the Philippines
By Jo Brown
A new socialist youth organisation called the Ligang Sosyalistang Kabataan or Socialist Youth League (LSK) was launched in the Philippines late last year.
The Philippine student movement has a rich history and is one of the best organised in south-east Asia. It spearheaded the people's movement against the Marcos regime, leading to the revolution that overthrew the dictatorship in 1986.
One of the main student organisations at that time was the League of Filipino Students, which was aligned with the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines. When the CPP split in 1993, a new socialist youth organisation called Kamalayan was formed. Recent debates led to another split and the formation of LSK.
Resistance member Nick Soudakoff visited the Philippines in 1998 and met with LSK leaders in Manila. "It was exciting to meet with the LSK and hear about plans for building their organisation", Soudakoff said.
"LSK is different from socialist student groups in the past, because it is an open socialist group with an activist membership. It is quite broad in its focus, taking up issues such as women's rights and gay and lesbian issues, as well as education cuts and youth rights."
LSK members described the challenge of rebuilding the socialist movement on campus, because the left is fragmented and the general student body is politically inactive. Where struggles have arisen, they have often been independent of the left organisations.
For example, at the University of the Philippines (UP Diliman) in Manila, students in the English department carried out a campaign in 1998 against cuts to staff and funding in their department. At one point, students spontaneously boycotted classes in support of their teachers.
In another example, women students at Philippines National University organised a demonstration of 500 people after a professor accused of sexual harassment was allowed to maintain his position.
One of the campaigns that LSK has been involved with at UP Diliman is against the violent initiation rituals of the campus "fraternities", which led to the death of a member of a left student group last year. These fraternities are similar to those on campuses in the United States. They divide students and divert attention from political issues.
"The political situation in the Philippines is more volatile than in Australia, with greater repression against activists. For example, all students must show ID cards before entering campus, and on some campuses left groups like LSK cannot meet", explained Soudakoff.
"But there are also many similarities in the issues faced by young people in both countries. The privatisation of education and the exclusion of many working-class young people from universities is one example. It's all part of the same struggle. Solidarity from the Australian student movement can play an important role in assisting students in the Philippines to organise and defend their rights."
LSK helps to produce Progresibo, a new newspaper which campaigns for the unity of social and progressive movements in the Philippines. The first issue of Progresibo was published on March 8 to mark International Women's Day.
LSK members write articles for Progresibo and distribute the paper on campuses. Several pages of the paper are devoted to campaigning around student and youth rights.
LSK has also established links with Resistance and Students in Solidarity for Democracy in Indonesia.