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Rice revolution
Jun Lozada is now blogging. Thank you Erwin of Inquirer and Trina of Abs-Cbn for the write-ups. Bloggers Kapihan will participate and help in launching the blog of Pampanga Governor Among Ed Panlilio. Free transportation and food will be provided to 30 Manila-based bloggers. If you’re interested in joining the trip to Pampanga, please email me or visit our group blog for details.
Rice continues to be more expensive despite the announcement of the agricultural department that local rice production is higher this year. The harvest season failed to stabilize the soaring cost of rice. Perhaps unscrupulous merchants are hoarding supplies again. Or maybe the government has not procured enough rice supplies from local farmers.
This news is disturbing. What will happen during the lean months of the year? What will be the cost of rice when supplies dwindle in the next few months? Strong typhoons are expected to affect rice production. Rice importation is the convenient solution but rice exporting countries like Vietnam and Cambodia are also experiencing food supply problems.
The people should expect the worst during the third quarter of the year. Food prices will continue to go up. Hunger will worsen. Consumer panic will rise. Protests will intensify. The agricultural and economic policies of the government will be questioned.
Malacanang said food riots will never occur in the Philippines. This statement should be clarified. The government should not worry about food riots. It should prepare for peasant uprisings. Mass unrest over rising food prices could lead to revolutionary upheavals.
In the past one hundred years, more than forty land reform programs were implemented by the government in order to quell discontent in the countryside. But these token programs have failed to weaken peasant-led mobilizations. Thousands of farmers have been recruited in the red army of the communist movement. Land reform and food security are the basic programs of the armed left.
Malacanang may be correct when it asserted that food riots are highly unlikely to develop in the Philippines. But who needs food riots when a peasant revolution is gaining strength in the provinces? Food riots will just be a sideshow to the great street battles between the urban proletariat and the defenders of the ruling order.
Rice has the potential to spark an uprising. The August 1945 revolution in Vietnam was led by hungry peasants and urban dwellers who stormed public halls demanding food, rice and independence. The food issue unified the Vietnamese nation and became the launching pad for future armed insurrections.
The slogan in 1945 was very powerful: “Break open the rice stores to avert famine.” This mobilized the masses which ended colonial occupation and paved the way for the establishment of an independent democratic Vietnamese nation.
Scholar Gabriel Kolko further explains the success of the revolution in Vietnam:
“When the Viet Minh declared a general insurrection on August 12, the millions of euphoric people who filled the streets of Hanoi, Hue, Saigon, and dozens of other cities also led to Viet Minh takeovers of villages and towns everywhere. What had initially been a peasant mass movement now merged with the urban population to strike at the crucial organs of the colonial system in the cities.”
Imagine a political force in the Philippines capable of commanding the poor to “Break open the NFA stores to avert famine.” Then the people will be told to occupy the streets, government offices are to be raided, vital public installations are to be seized. The rice and food question will sustain the Philippine revolution.
Perhaps the sudden obsession of the president to pacify the restless masses by promising lower power rates, tuition and text services is a desperate measure on the part of the government to delay the inevitable rebellion of the poor. What this government wants to prevent is not food riots but a people’s war.
Food riots
Food riots are taking place in many parts of the world. These bold actions could inspire local activists to intensify street protests in the country. Consumer groups can learn from the tactics of campaigners in other countries.
A "Rice Revolution" has erupted in Bangladesh last month. Thousands of workers, most of them women, clashed with the police during a rally where the workers protested skyrocketing food prices.
The general strike in Egypt last April started when employees of a textile plant announced plans to go on strike over low salaries and price hikes. A big coalition of workers supported the protest and called a general strike to demand decent living conditions. Consumers “joined” the strike by staying home, while others participated in street processions leading to city squares. The strike was announced through text messages, emails and through the popular social networking platform, Facebook.
The general strike in Egypt can be replicated in the Philippines. It is curious that Egypt is the world's biggest consumer of bread while the Philippines is the biggest importer of rice.
A few days ago police fired teargas on hundreds of demonstrators protesting against high food prices in Kenya. Fuel protests are spreading in Europe. Fishermen from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and France have gone on strike to protest skyrocketing fuel prices. Ten years after the massive street protests in Jakarta, students are once again leading the rallies in Indonesia today.
Reuters reported that housewives and youth were the frontrunners in the street rallies in Ivory Coast last April. They blocked the roads with barricades and burning tires as a protest against rising food prices. The prime minister of Haiti was forced to resign after food riots gripped the country for many days.
Food protests were also reported in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Yemen and Jordan.
Economists claim the era of cheap food is over. Activists warn the era of elitist politics will soon come to an end too.
Related entries:
Rural agenda
Festival and politics
E-vat and food
Street battles
National road
Rice continues to be more expensive despite the announcement of the agricultural department that local rice production is higher this year. The harvest season failed to stabilize the soaring cost of rice. Perhaps unscrupulous merchants are hoarding supplies again. Or maybe the government has not procured enough rice supplies from local farmers.
This news is disturbing. What will happen during the lean months of the year? What will be the cost of rice when supplies dwindle in the next few months? Strong typhoons are expected to affect rice production. Rice importation is the convenient solution but rice exporting countries like Vietnam and Cambodia are also experiencing food supply problems.
The people should expect the worst during the third quarter of the year. Food prices will continue to go up. Hunger will worsen. Consumer panic will rise. Protests will intensify. The agricultural and economic policies of the government will be questioned.
Malacanang said food riots will never occur in the Philippines. This statement should be clarified. The government should not worry about food riots. It should prepare for peasant uprisings. Mass unrest over rising food prices could lead to revolutionary upheavals.
In the past one hundred years, more than forty land reform programs were implemented by the government in order to quell discontent in the countryside. But these token programs have failed to weaken peasant-led mobilizations. Thousands of farmers have been recruited in the red army of the communist movement. Land reform and food security are the basic programs of the armed left.
Malacanang may be correct when it asserted that food riots are highly unlikely to develop in the Philippines. But who needs food riots when a peasant revolution is gaining strength in the provinces? Food riots will just be a sideshow to the great street battles between the urban proletariat and the defenders of the ruling order.
Rice has the potential to spark an uprising. The August 1945 revolution in Vietnam was led by hungry peasants and urban dwellers who stormed public halls demanding food, rice and independence. The food issue unified the Vietnamese nation and became the launching pad for future armed insurrections.
The slogan in 1945 was very powerful: “Break open the rice stores to avert famine.” This mobilized the masses which ended colonial occupation and paved the way for the establishment of an independent democratic Vietnamese nation.
Scholar Gabriel Kolko further explains the success of the revolution in Vietnam:
“When the Viet Minh declared a general insurrection on August 12, the millions of euphoric people who filled the streets of Hanoi, Hue, Saigon, and dozens of other cities also led to Viet Minh takeovers of villages and towns everywhere. What had initially been a peasant mass movement now merged with the urban population to strike at the crucial organs of the colonial system in the cities.”
Imagine a political force in the Philippines capable of commanding the poor to “Break open the NFA stores to avert famine.” Then the people will be told to occupy the streets, government offices are to be raided, vital public installations are to be seized. The rice and food question will sustain the Philippine revolution.
Perhaps the sudden obsession of the president to pacify the restless masses by promising lower power rates, tuition and text services is a desperate measure on the part of the government to delay the inevitable rebellion of the poor. What this government wants to prevent is not food riots but a people’s war.
Food riots
Food riots are taking place in many parts of the world. These bold actions could inspire local activists to intensify street protests in the country. Consumer groups can learn from the tactics of campaigners in other countries.
A "Rice Revolution" has erupted in Bangladesh last month. Thousands of workers, most of them women, clashed with the police during a rally where the workers protested skyrocketing food prices.
The general strike in Egypt last April started when employees of a textile plant announced plans to go on strike over low salaries and price hikes. A big coalition of workers supported the protest and called a general strike to demand decent living conditions. Consumers “joined” the strike by staying home, while others participated in street processions leading to city squares. The strike was announced through text messages, emails and through the popular social networking platform, Facebook.
The general strike in Egypt can be replicated in the Philippines. It is curious that Egypt is the world's biggest consumer of bread while the Philippines is the biggest importer of rice.
A few days ago police fired teargas on hundreds of demonstrators protesting against high food prices in Kenya. Fuel protests are spreading in Europe. Fishermen from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and France have gone on strike to protest skyrocketing fuel prices. Ten years after the massive street protests in Jakarta, students are once again leading the rallies in Indonesia today.
Reuters reported that housewives and youth were the frontrunners in the street rallies in Ivory Coast last April. They blocked the roads with barricades and burning tires as a protest against rising food prices. The prime minister of Haiti was forced to resign after food riots gripped the country for many days.
Food protests were also reported in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Yemen and Jordan.
Economists claim the era of cheap food is over. Activists warn the era of elitist politics will soon come to an end too.
Related entries:
Rural agenda
Festival and politics
E-vat and food
Street battles
National road
posted by: mongpalatino at June 03, 2008 11:20 |
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