Bitter-sweet: the story of Philippines sugar workers resisting the Empire
Featuring: Ariel Guides, Philippines unionist and leading activist from
Freedom from Hunger Coalition in Negros, Philippines
6.30pm Thu Oct 30
Seminar Rooms 1 & 2,
Level 7, Storey Hall,
RMIT, 344 Swanston St
Negros was once called the 'Sugar Bowl' of the Philippines, supplying a
large share of the sugar market. But since the 1980s, tens of thousands
of Negros sugar workers have defended their livelihoods from US
agribusiness pushing sweeteners derived from genetically-modified
corn, sugar dumping by the EU and Australia, and stepped-up exploitation
at the hands of the big cane growers.
Theirs is a heroic story including land and granary occupations that
interconnects the daily struggle against hunger with the global struggle
against the US corporate empire, the ages-long labour of workers on the
land with the Brave New World of GM crops, and the hard reality of trade
liberalisation with the utopian fantasies of neoliberalism.
Ariel Guides is a leader of the Negros BMP (Solidarity of Philippines
Workers) and the Freedom from Hunger Coalition, actively involved in
grassroots organising with 22,000 sugar workers and their families.
Sponsors: Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP), Sydney
Social Forum, Globalism Institute (RMIT), Maritime Union of Australia
(Vic), Catholic Commission for Justice, Development and Peace,
Socialist Alliance Victoria
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