reimagining resistance in times of repression - eiler, philippines

In these very challenging times, the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER) is inviting visual artists and workers to mainstream workers’ struggles and demands in relation to the national and local issues and repression through the Art + Activism in Defense of Labor Rights exhibition. The exhibition aims to foster unity among activists, unions and artists in order to increase publicity on workers’ rights in the context of the passage of the Anti-Terror Bill. EILER encourages the submission of artworks that tackle the issue of freedom of association, freedom of expression, and the sovereign freedom as well as artworks that express the call to uphold the dignity and rights at work.

In a time of looming martial law and a rampant crackdown on human rights defenders in the country, the exhibition will be launched in September 2020 in time for the commemoration of the Martial Law declaration in 1972 by the dictator and former President Ferdinand Marcos.

EILER is a nonprofit, non-governmental, labor organization based in Quezon City, Philippines, that was formally established in 1981 as an ecumenical service institution for workers. EILER’s mission is to actively promote workers’ initiatives for self-organization and empowerment through increasing participation in society’s economic, political and cultural life. Its mission base is comprised of both formal and informal labor in the Philippines, to be gradually developed into a broad workers’ movement grounded on an independent advocacy for better wages, jobs and democratic rights. EILER’s institutional goal is to be a key resource and advocacy center for a broad spectrum of workers’ organizations in the Philippines, and networked strongly with other pro-workers’ institutions and grassroots labor organizations in the Asia-Pacific and other regions. EILER works closely with trade unions and peoples’ organizations in the Philippines, as well as other labour groups in various countries.

Background

The Philippines is one of the ten worst countries in the world for working people due to numerous labor rights violations, according to the ITUC Global Rights Index. ITUC has noted how in the Philippines, union members are at risk of violence, intimidation and murder. The report also stated that in a context of extreme state violence and suppression of civil liberties, employers' tactics to label unions as 'subversive organizations' in a process commonly known as red-tagging, exposed their members to violence and repression. 

A total of 50 trade unionists and labor rights defenders have been victims of extra judicial killings. The latest victim was Jose Jerry Catalogo, an officer of National Federation of Sugar Workers. Catalogo was killed on June 23 by suspected state agents while he was feeding his carabao at 5 in the morning. Prior to the incident, he reported being followed by unidentified individuals. On July 3, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the draconian Anti-Terror Bill into law. The new law grants state security forces excessive powers to target militants and progressive groups, while legal experts say broad provisions could incite rights abuses together with the Administration’s war on drugs, and could allow privacy infringements and suppression of peaceful dissent, including on social media. The Anti-Terror Law will have far reaching implications to trade union organizing, including the mobility and security of labor organizers, educators and labor rights defenders.

ISTRAYK! (STRIKE!)