Filipino youth celebrate Anakbayan gala in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA – On November 30, members of Anakbayan, the Filipino youth activist organization, hosted a fundraising gala. They were celebrating the five-year anniversary of their Philadelphia chapter.
Members and attendees gathered at the University of Pennsylvania’s campus to enjoy a program including a teach-in, music, drag performances and a competitive “Mx. Philly-pino” pageant. Funds went to Anakbayan and a relief fund for people displaced and devastated by the recent typhoons that hit the Philippines.
Since the founding of their chapter in 2020, Anakbayan Philadelphia has been tirelessly organizing and educating Filipino-American youth. They teach about general problems of Philippine society as a semi-colony of the United States. In addition, they explain the goals of the national democratic movement for complete independence of the Philippines. Anakbayan Philadelphia also leads the struggle against the particular repression that Filipino-Americans face as national minorities in the U.S.
One issue highlighted at the gala was the phenomenon of mass migration. Many Filipinos are forced to emigrate from their country. Most send a portion of their wages back home to their family due to the backwards economic and social conditions of the Philippines. A former colony of the U.S., the Philippines continues to be economically dominated by and nationally oppressed by the U.S.
Forced to leave their homes now for multiple generations, many Filipinos end up in the U.S. facing discrimination, low-wage jobs, and a broken immigration system. Especially sharp under the Trump administration are ICE and anti-immigrant attacks. The same Filipino-Americans forced to migrate to the U.S. by exploitation in the Philippines, are then punished in the U.S. for wanting to work.
In true contradiction to these harsh conditions, the gala was the perfect image of the Anakbayan’s warm comradery, clear militancy and genuine mass character. A plate of ube cookies baked by one of the members made the event feel especially welcoming.
The gala concluded with a satirical play, climaxing with the destruction of images of Philippine President Bong Bong Marcos Jr. and Vice-president Sara Duterte, both the objects of a recent wave of massive anti-corruption protests in the Philippines.
One refrain perfectly summed up the spirit of the night, its political clarity and optimism for the national democratic movement apparent, “The U.S. will never liberate the Filipino people! The Filipino people will be the ones to liberate themselves!”