#title Anarchism in the Philippines
#author Erwin S. Fernandez
#LISTtitle Anarchism in the Philippines
#SORTauthors Erwin S. Fernandez
#SORTtopics Philippines, anarchist history, history
#date 2009
#source *The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest*, Edited by Immanuel Ness. DOI: 10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0068
#lang en
#pubdate 2020-05-10T06:51:23



Anarchism influenced Jose Rizal (1861–96),
martyr of the Philippine Revolution, and his
fellow Filipino anti-colonialist, Isabelo de los
Reyes (1864–1938). One of the international
contexts that shaped Rizal’s second novel,
*El Filibusterismo* (1891), was the growth
of anarchist activities in Spain and France,
reflected in the novel as the doomed plot to
set off a nitroglycerine lamp at a wedding
reception with all of the colonial elite present.

Like Rizal, de los Reyes encountered anarchism in Spain: imprisoned in Montjuich
after being arrested and jailed at the height
of the revolution, de los Reyes met and
befriended his cellmate, the anarchist Ramon
Sempau. From publications he read while in
prison, he understood anarchism as “the abolition of boundaries ... whether geographic
or of class distinction” (Scott 1992: 14). Freed
through the help of Spanish friends such as
Federico Urales, he returned to Manila in
1901, bringing with him books by Proudhon,
Marx, Kropotkin, and Malatesta. Shortly after,
he organized print workers and successfully
held strikes, infusing them with anarchosyndicalist ideas that led to the creation of the
Union Obrera Democrática (UOD) in 1902.

The UOD proved to be a headache to the
Americans. After the UOD staged a massive
demonstration, the civil governor put them
under police surveillance, branding them
as “radicals, subversives and anarchists” and
ordering de los Reyes’ arrest (Pomeroy 1992:
51). The UOD lingered for a while with
Hermenegildo Cruz, its secretary, becoming
a prominent labor organizer and publishing
his notes on the anarchist geographer Elisée
Reclus’ *L’Homme et la terre* (Man and the
Earth) in Spanish translation. Strike leader
Arturo Soriano translated Malatesta’s
*Fra Contadini* (Among Peasants) into Tagalog.

International connections with anarchism
continued into the twentieth century; for
instance, Chinese anarchists established a
cell in Manila after the May 4<sup>th</sup> movement
of 1919, publishing newsletters to propagate
their ideas, and in 1928 a Philippine representative was sent to Nanking as delegate
to the establishment of a League of Eastern
Anarchists. Nonetheless, the Philippine Left
gradually moved toward a markedly Marxist
and Leninist socialism and communism: a
communist party was established in 1930,
and in 1933 a socialist party was founded in
feudal Central Luzon.

Today, anarchist groups to be found in
the Philippines include the Local anarchist
Network (LAN), Davao Anarchists Resistance
Movement (DARM), Dumpling Press, Liberate the Clit Kolektiv (LiCK), and Youth
Collective for Animal Liberation (YCAL).
In particular, LAN, “a loose association of
anarchists,” does not endorse any specific
school of anarchism but welcomes a diversity of anarchisms. In 2001, in accord with
protests against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, they banded
to form the Anti-Capitalist Convergence
Philippines.

*** References and Suggested Readings

<biblio>

Anderson, B. R. O’G. (2006) Under Three Flags:
Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination.
Manila: Anvil.

Pomeroy, W. J. (1992) The Philippines: Colonialism,
Collaboration, and Resistance. New York: International.

Rizal, J. (1958) [1891] El Filibusterismo. Quezon
City: R. Martinez.

Scott, W. H. (1992) The Union Obrera Democrática:
First Filipino Trade Union. Quezon City: New
Day.

</biblio>