STATEMENT: Let the storm rage on! Sulong, kabataang Pilipino!
UKPC/FCYA-TO Solidarity Statement
on the occasion of the conference, Ipagpatuloy: Living the Storm, in Vancouver. B.C.
November 23, 2005
Warm and militant greetings from Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada – Toronto Chapter (UKPC-TO)! We extend our congratulations to the organizers of this conference, Ipagpatuloy: Living the Storm, for your successful efforts in making this conference happen. We also extend our solidarity, to the conference delegates from across Canada and the U.S., in paying tribute to the youth who were part of the First Quarter Storm. Like you, we recognize the significance of the FQS in the history and current reality of our people.
The FQS was indeed a meaningful event in our people’s history. It demonstrated the ability of Filipino youth to analyze their situation and problems and understand them within the context of the broader struggle of the entire nation. In uniting with the different sectors in society, the youth of the FQS demonstrated the huge role that youth can take in sowing the seeds of social change in the Philippines.
The lessons of the FQS ring true until today. For us, Filipino youth in Canada, it is our role to critically analyze the challenges we face as immigrants and youth of colour in this country, and discover what we can do to overcome these.
In Toronto, there is a growing urgency to strengthen our organizing work among fellow Filipino youth, as the impacts of systemic racism on them worsen. The death of 17-year-old Jeffrey Reodica in the hands of a Toronto police officer just last May is still fresh in our minds. We also never forget that the events leading to Jeffrey’s death started with a racist assault by white youth on Jeffrey’s friends. This is but one example of the most blatant attacks Filipino youth face from other citizens and representatives of the state.
To make matters worse, our marginalized situation in Canada leads Filipino youth to also turn against each other. Just recently, one of the members of UKPC-TO became the victim of an assault by a group of fellow Filipino youth. Because of the negligence of the school in responding to the incident, the situation escalated, to which the school then responded by suspending our member. While the common response of the state to these incidents is putting the blame on the youth, themselves, or their parents, we recognize that these are but the effects of the alienation that our youth experience in this society which does not recognize their legitimate rights and does not respond to their particular needs.
It is our role, as organized and progressive youth, to raise the consciousness of our fellow Filipino youth and help them to see their situation as the result of unequal structures in society. Further, it is also our role to help organize our community so that they may be able to fight to uphold their rights and welfare as legitimate members of Canadian society.
Similarly, we must also understand the connection between our struggles as Filipino youth in Canada and the struggle of the entire Filipino people. The basic ills of Philippine society – U.S. imperialism, feudalism in the countrysides, and bureaucrat capitalism – which the youth of the FQS fought against, continue to poison our country and push millions of Filipinos like us and our parents, to leave the country and become migrants and immigrants in other countries.
With this understanding, UKPC-TO unites with the goals of this conference to allow us to continue our study of our people’s history; to intensify our organizing and political work among our compatriots here in Canada; and to build a national formation of Filipino youth organizations, which will work in support of and in solidarity with the struggle of the entire Filipino nation.
Let the storm rage on!
Sulong, kabataang Pilipino!
Fight for our legitimate rights and welfare in Canada!
Advance the struggle for genuine freedom and national democracy in the Philippines!
on the occasion of the conference, Ipagpatuloy: Living the Storm, in Vancouver. B.C.
November 23, 2005
Warm and militant greetings from Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada – Toronto Chapter (UKPC-TO)! We extend our congratulations to the organizers of this conference, Ipagpatuloy: Living the Storm, for your successful efforts in making this conference happen. We also extend our solidarity, to the conference delegates from across Canada and the U.S., in paying tribute to the youth who were part of the First Quarter Storm. Like you, we recognize the significance of the FQS in the history and current reality of our people.The FQS was indeed a meaningful event in our people’s history. It demonstrated the ability of Filipino youth to analyze their situation and problems and understand them within the context of the broader struggle of the entire nation. In uniting with the different sectors in society, the youth of the FQS demonstrated the huge role that youth can take in sowing the seeds of social change in the Philippines.
The lessons of the FQS ring true until today. For us, Filipino youth in Canada, it is our role to critically analyze the challenges we face as immigrants and youth of colour in this country, and discover what we can do to overcome these.
In Toronto, there is a growing urgency to strengthen our organizing work among fellow Filipino youth, as the impacts of systemic racism on them worsen. The death of 17-year-old Jeffrey Reodica in the hands of a Toronto police officer just last May is still fresh in our minds. We also never forget that the events leading to Jeffrey’s death started with a racist assault by white youth on Jeffrey’s friends. This is but one example of the most blatant attacks Filipino youth face from other citizens and representatives of the state.
To make matters worse, our marginalized situation in Canada leads Filipino youth to also turn against each other. Just recently, one of the members of UKPC-TO became the victim of an assault by a group of fellow Filipino youth. Because of the negligence of the school in responding to the incident, the situation escalated, to which the school then responded by suspending our member. While the common response of the state to these incidents is putting the blame on the youth, themselves, or their parents, we recognize that these are but the effects of the alienation that our youth experience in this society which does not recognize their legitimate rights and does not respond to their particular needs.
It is our role, as organized and progressive youth, to raise the consciousness of our fellow Filipino youth and help them to see their situation as the result of unequal structures in society. Further, it is also our role to help organize our community so that they may be able to fight to uphold their rights and welfare as legitimate members of Canadian society.
Similarly, we must also understand the connection between our struggles as Filipino youth in Canada and the struggle of the entire Filipino people. The basic ills of Philippine society – U.S. imperialism, feudalism in the countrysides, and bureaucrat capitalism – which the youth of the FQS fought against, continue to poison our country and push millions of Filipinos like us and our parents, to leave the country and become migrants and immigrants in other countries.
With this understanding, UKPC-TO unites with the goals of this conference to allow us to continue our study of our people’s history; to intensify our organizing and political work among our compatriots here in Canada; and to build a national formation of Filipino youth organizations, which will work in support of and in solidarity with the struggle of the entire Filipino nation.
Let the storm rage on!
Sulong, kabataang Pilipino!
Fight for our legitimate rights and welfare in Canada!
Advance the struggle for genuine freedom and national democracy in the Philippines!
posted by ukpc-toronto @ 2:24 p.m.
