Fight Back News Service is circulating the following march 8 statement from Rubi del Mundo, Spokesperson, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), Southern Mindanao

8 March 2018 The National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Southern Mindanao and all revolutionary forces in the region celebrate the International Women’s Day with women of all classes and sectors around the nation and across the globe. We especially congratulate all women revolutionaries who are serving the interest of the Filipino people by arousing, organizing and mobilizing other women in the line of the national democratic revolution. We are likewise inspired by the examples of the great women who have been martyred in our struggle against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.

Women’s struggle for emancipation have come a long way since the historic Petrograd mobilization of 1917 where tens of thousands of women marched in the streets, demanding “Bread and Peace” against the Russian Tsar’s war and campaign of suppression. Barely two years in power, GRP Pres. Rodrigo Duterte is reeling back more than a century of social progress with his regressive views on the value of women and their struggle for emancipation. From sexist jokes and misogynistic threats to government and social policies, Duterte has proven himself the enemy not only of women but of the entire Filipino people.

Today, Filipino women are rising up to the call of undertaking militant action against the US-Duterte’s despotic regime and wars against the Filipino people. In Southern Mindanao, thousands of women are becoming invaluable mobilizers for armed struggle, agrarian revolution and base building. Significantly, despite Duterte’s sexist threats, more and more women are joining the ranks of the New People’s Army in the region. Most of them opt to become medical officers while others are commanders or political instructors of NPA units. Even more encouraging is the marked involvement of women in the establishment of organs of political power where many of them are becoming leading members of barrio and municipal revolutionary councils. All of leading Party units across the region also have many women cadres in their ranks.

In the face of the US-Duterte regime’s outright subservience to the interests of imperialists and oligarchs, thousands more women are participating in mass actions against feudal exploitation, imperialist mining and agri-plantations in the guerilla bases. In towns and cities, women comprise more than half of the forces who are militantly confronting Duterte’s refusal to end contractualization among workers, his regime’s sell-out of the country’s economic sovereignty, his anti-poor TRAIN Law, and other issues.

Under the semi-colonial and semi-feudal system which the US-Duterte regime now resolutely consolidates through dictatorship and fascism, Filipino women of the exploited class find their rightful place in their struggle for emancipation. In the revolutionary movement, under the guidance of the Communist Party of the Philippines, women know that in order to emancipate themselves, they must immerse their struggle in the national democratic revolution.

Long live all toiling and revolutionary women! Long live the national democratic revolution!

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