REMEMBERING THE TRAILBLAZERS OF THE FILIPINO MIGRANTS MOVEMENT

REMEMBERING THE TRAILBLAZERS OF THE FILIPINO MIGRANTS MOVEMENT

The pioneers of the Filipino Migrant Workers movement which began  as early as the 1930s.

CARLOS BULOSAN-

From a peasant family in Binalonan,, Pangasinan, Carlos Bulosan grew up in poverty. He decided to migrate to the United States to work to augment the family income. At the age of 17, he arrived in Seattle in July 1930 without money and no knowledge of English. He worked as a farmhand, hotel bellboy  in factories, and experienced discrimination and difficulties.  He wrote his famous book America in My Heart while ill exposing the hardships and struggles of Filipino and other migrant workers in the US. He joined unions and eventually became a labor leader. He died on Sept 1956 of bronchopneumonia.

LARRY ITLIONG AND PHILLIP VERA CRUZ-

Itliong and Vera Cruz, leaders of the 1965 Delano grape strike, mobilized thousands of Filipino farm workers in Delano, California, then the lowest-paid workers. Eventually, Mexican-Americans joined, resulting in the formation of the United Farm Workers of America in August 1966. The strike lasted until 1970 and paved the way for a collective bargaining agreement with the table-grape growers, representing more than 10,000 farm workers.

Itliong served as assistant director of Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, precursor of the UFW. Later, he became its national boycott coordinator. After the strike, Itliong served as president of the Filipino American Political Alliance, the first national political organization of Filipino-Americans in the US.

Itliong died in 1977 at the age of 63. In Carlson, California, Larry Itliong Day is celebrated every 25th of October, his birthday.

Pedro Calosa-  

Another union leader, led strikes of Filipinos in the plantations in Hawaii in 1924. After the strike, he was deported back to the Philippines. By 1929, he started organizing the Ilocano Colorum of peasants. He led the Tayug Uprising on January 11, 1931 against feudal exploitation. He was killed by state forces in 1967.

Precursors to the founding of the global alliance of OFW organizations. Before the establishment of Migrante International in 1996, these organizations led the campaigns of OFWs for decent wages, better working conditions, freedom from discrimination and abuse, among others.

In 1984, eleven migrant organizations in Hong Kong stood up against former President Ferdinand Marcos’s Executive Order 857 mandating all OFWs to remit through the Philippine banking system 50 to 70 percent of their basic salary. They formed United Filipinos Against Forced Remittance (Unfare), a tactical alliance against Marcos’s directive. The alliance led internationally-coordinated actions that compelled Marcos to revoke EO 857.

On May 12, 1985, the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil- HK), one of the prime movers behind the alliance, was formally launched with a more strategic perspective of mobilizing migrant workers for their rights and welfare.

The Mission for Migrant Workers (MFMW), also in Hong Kong. Founded in March 1981 by Protestant and Catholic churches, the ecumenical institution provides services to distressed OFWs.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East, in 1985, the Kapatiran sa Gitnang Silangan (KGS) began as a small group promoting camaraderie among OFWs. Later, the KGS transformed into being a political organization advocating for the rights of OFWs in Riyadh and nearby cities.

Exemplary migrants and refugees

Juana Tejada whose death paved the way for the significant improvements of caregiver program in Canada.

Tejada arrived in Canada in March 2003. In 2006, she was found eligible for permanent residence. The following year, she was diagnosed with colon cancer stage 4 and was declared medically inadmissible for the residence. Tejada, with the support of migrant groups in Canada, fought for her rights until her very last breath. On July 17, 2008, the Citizenship and Immigration Canada granted Tejada’s dying wish, that she be granted permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Antonio Zumel, 

A journalist who fought the Marcos dictatorship, founded the International Office of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in the Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Jose Maria Sison, 

Founder of International Lerague of People’s Struggles, a political refugee since 1987 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, has not only been denied political asylum but was imprisoned in a foreign land and labeled as a terrorist.

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