Ariel Guides is a leader of the Freedom From Hunger Coalition, which organises 22,000 sugar workers, as well as small farmers, on the island of Negros in the Philippines. He is also a leader of the socialist trade union centre Solidarity of Philippines Workers (BMP) and the progressive alliance Sanlakas. He was in Australia to attend the October 24-26 Sydney Social Forum and to address the October 22-23 antiwar demonstrations in Sydney and Canberra. He spoke with Green Left Weekly's NICK SOUDAKOFF.
What are the issues facing sugar workers in Negros?
More than half a million Negrons depend on the island's sugar economy. More than 300,000 of those are sugar plantation workers. Sugar workers have suffered for more than a century from the particular phenomena known as the "dead season" which lasts from March until mid-October. There is no work on the plantations during this time and very little work anywhere else.
We have conducted research and found that 86% of sugar plantation workers have food insecurity. We also found that 94% of children in the province suffer from malnutrition and food insecurity.
There are no food subsides, there are rampant violations of fair labour practices and there are big problems with the agrarian reform process. The sugar workers and farmers have been struggling for decades now in legal battles with the big landowners.
Who is involved in the Freedom From Hunger Coalition and what campaigns is the FFHC involved in?
The FFHC has three main programs. One is mass organising and education in the context of the hunger problem. Another is the struggle for agrarian reform. The third is the accessing of livelihoods and any economic help in order to alleviate the poverty and hunger problem.
Our immediate demands are to implement the minimum wage among sugar workers, provide them with social security, and provide food and medical assistance during the dead season.
The coalition was formed last year after 10,000 sugar plantation workers and their families came from the countryside and from the haciendas to demonstrate in Bacolod [capital of Negros Occidental] outside the governor's office on April 30. It was the peak of the dead season. We asked the governor for immediate assistance, for rice, but he was not around. Some of his people gave us only a few cartons of sardines and 30 sacks of rice — but it ran out.
It became a national issue when, the following day, we "ransacked" the national warehouse located in Bacolod. We opened the warehouse and got just 10 sacks of rice for lunch. Twelve of our leaders were arrested and charged with robbery. Luckily, the Church and even the governor intervened to get the 12 released.
A week later, we formed the FFHC, which is now organised in 12 cities and municipalities in Negros.
In 1987 the government of President Cory Aquino announced the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) that gave landless farmers and workers some legal opportunities to acquire land. What are some of the issues facing small farmers and sugar workers around land reform in Negros?
We have the experience that once sugar workers and small farmers have acquired the land they still face a tough battle. The small scale of production and the lack of machinery means their production is very backward.
What is endangering the agrarian reform law right now is a bill in Congress called the Farm Lands as Collateral Bill. It will legitimise grabbing back land that was given to land reform beneficiaries.
There are issues aside from the large landowners trying to circumvent the law. The current form of land reform disintegrates the spirit of collectivism and cooperation among sugar workers, it reduces production because of the loss of economies of scale. There is the problem of physical abuse and harassment by the goons of the sugar lords and the fact that the government is conclusively biased in favour of the hacienda owners.
Given these problems, how do you believe agrarian reform should be implemented in Negros?
Our position on agrarian reform is the need for the socialisation of the land. We are campaigning for the collective ownership of the land.
As for supporting the beneficiaries of land reform — we don't have the resources for that. It should be the government's responsibility but it is not supporting them. In fact, there are resources such as the Competitiveness Enhancement Fund that are meant to go to the beneficiaries of land reform, but instead it goes to the sugar lords. This is a big problem.
Also, among the political groups and NGOs that work with sugar workers and small farmers in Negros, most only confine themselves within the four corners of the law. Once they have helped redistribute the land, everything is finished. So we have debates with them about socialisation of the land and about collective ownership.
We also showcase how collective ownership can work. We have close to 200 members who have acquired 120 hectares of land some three years ago. After two years they were able to buy two trucks, they were able to register themselves at the sugar mill and ensure they have at least the minimum wage.
So they are organised into a cooperative?
Yes, and they have two NGOs helping them. One is called the Philippine Sugar Workers, a small NGO in Bacolod, that is helping them with the legal aspects of how they are organising. The other is an alternative corporation whose main slogan is "people's alternative livelihood" — it exports sugar and promotes organic farming, it helps them by giving them loans at a reasonable interest rate. As a result, they are better off than they were 15 years ago.
We are organising a lot of these cooperative projects. Through them we can prove that collective ownership of the land can make it more productive and we can disintegrate the haciendas without breaking the spirit of social cooperation.
Are there occupations of vacant land occurring as well as land redistribution through the Department of Agrarian Reform?
Yes. There are many sugar lords who are very much resistant to agrarian reform, who are using goons, private guards and even the military against those identified by the Department of Agrarian Reform as legitimate claimants for land. There are many sugar lords who refuse to give over the land.
In this situation, there is often a forcible entry and the physical taking over of the land. There are many cases of this in Negros, but the sugar workers and farmers don't do such a thing unless they have been officially identified as beneficiaries of land reform by the government.
Does the BMP organise other sectors of workers as well as sugar workers?
The BMP, as well as being a major partner in the FFHC, is also organising transport workers and service workers such as those working in hotels and large corporations, but the main base of the BMP in Negros is the sugar workers. The BMP is now the biggest trade union centre in Negros.
On October 13, there was a regional stop work and protest rallies throughout Luzon against individual work contracts. The BMP, along with other union centres, organised the action in solidarity with the 2500 displaced garment workers of Novelty after it transferred its operations to local subcontracting firms and sweat shops. Has the BMP in Negros been part of this campaign?
In Negros, the biggest sugar mill in the province, the Victorious Milling Company, used to employ 12,000 workers but now it is around 2000. There was a change in ownership after the recent collapse of the sugar industry and the new management laid off the workforce and then offered some of their former workers jobs on a contractual basis. So, permanent workers, who have been working for the company for 15 or 20 years, are being given the "option" of being rehired on a contractual basis with a probationary period.
It is a major issue for electricity workers in Negros too. The process of privatisation of the electricity companies has started since the Electric Power Bill was passed by Congress. One to two years from now, the largest electricity company in the province will be privatised. It employs almost 1000 workers.
From Green Left Weekly, November 5, 2003.
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