Filipino activists today staged a protest in front of the US embassy in Manila in support of the Egyptian peoples’ struggle for democracy. Carrying placards calling for the ouster of the “US-backed Mubarak regime”, member organizations of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan, New Patriotic Alliance) and the International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS) expressed their “steadfast solidarity with the Egyptian peoples’ struggle against domestic tyranny and US imposition”.
“The people of Egypt have spoken and risen. The US-backed regime of Hosni Mubarak must go. Even his new appointees are not acceptable to the people. Mubarak’s ouster is the only way to resolve the current conflict,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.
“We are a nation that believes in people power and we fully understand and support the decision of the Egyptian people to assert their sovereign will. Their ultimate success lies in their determined pursuit of mass actions for the removal of the dictator,” he added.
Tuesday marks the start of the indefinite general strike and the million-man march in Egypt calling for Mubarak’s ouster.
Bayan also assailed the US government for its “consistent support for the repressive Mubarak regime.”
“The US government has no problem supporting fascist dictators so long as they support US economic and military interests. It’s the same story with Marcos and Mubarak. Egypt has received $1.3 billion in military aid annually from the US. American dollars are used to fund the guns, bullets, tanks and airplanes being used against the Egyptian people,” Reyes said.
“The US government should be held accountable for the situation in Egypt. Even now, the US government seems incapable of coherently explaining its role and views on the Egyptian crisis and has not made a clean break with the Mubarak regime. The US is instead maneuvering for a new puppet that would be pro-US and would continue Mubarak’s policies,” he added.
The umbrella group also expressed concern for the situation of Filipino migrant workers in Egypt, saying that the best way to ensure their safety was for the Mubarak regime to step down.
Bayan chapters in the US and ILPS formations worldwide have also joined solidarity protest actions there as more and more protests take place around the world in support of the Egypt actions.
“The Egyptian people should be given a chance to freely select their next government. They should strive to break with the old pro-US foreign policy and neo-liberal economic dictates. Their human rights should also be ensured under a new government,” Reyes said. ###
from: bayan.ph
