A Radical Guide Note: We are posting this on behalf of fellow comrades in Australia and the Philippines to help raise awareness of their project to help print and distribute Pangayaw and Decolonizing Resistance: Anarchism in the Philippines.
Dear comrades,
I’m writing as a member of Anarchist Communists Meanjin (Brisbane, Australia) and a long-term supporter of the Filipino anarchist movement.
I visited Manila and the comrades of the Etniko Bandido Infoshop in 2010 and have since then followed closely the continuing progress and development of anarchism in the Filipino archipelago. A recent contribution made in this direction was the publication in2020 of Pangayaw and Decolonizing Resistance: Anarchism in the Philippines by Bas Umali. Pangayaw aims to expand our understanding of anarchism in the Filipino context, finding inspiration in indigenous forms of communal organisation and in modern anarchist activity throughout the archipelago.
Though Pangayaw has been published abroad by PM Press, it remains largely uncirculated in the Philippines where it could reach the height of its relevancy. Bas Umali, Etniko Bandido, and other anarchists are hoping to publish it locally to allow groups and individuals around the Philippine Archipelago to study and discuss its contents. Etniko Bandido also hopes to reprint its 2016 research study Anarcha-Feminism in the Philippines.
The continued development of the Filipino anarchist movement opens new possibilities both domestically and for anarchists abroad. The deepening of anarchist theory unique to the Filipino context will help facilitate the strengthening of the Filipino movement, advancing its range of expression beyond familiar eurocentric themes that have little relevance to anarchists in the Global South. In this sense, it can help further the message, as Simoun Magsalin points out, that anarchist practices are “not foreign ideas”, but already existing elements of Filipino life, making it the “task of the anarchists in the archipelago … to identify these elements and contextualize these for an anarchist praxis.”
As Jason Adams’ valuable contribution Non-Western Anarchisms illustrates, the over-saturation of Western anarchist material has led to the unfortunate perception of anarchism as being a purely Western phenomenon. Frequently this is the only anarchist material available to comrades in the Global South and while it may be pertinent in at least introducing them to the general goals and principles of anarchism, they are frequently left without theory and information relevant to their own circumstances and lived experiences. It is therefore crucial in my view that anarchists globally support efforts in the Global South to build theoretical frameworks that can help boost the relevancy of anarchist theory in localised conditions and in doing so further enrich anarchist knowledge and theory worldwide. Just as Western literature can frequently serve as a loose guide for comrades in the Global South, we can learn from their experiences and incorporate these lessons into our own praxis.
The hope is to raise a total of P72,000 (US$1,500), which would cover the printing of 300 copies of each book. Given the difficulties involved with raising this sum in the Philippines, Etniko Bandido Infoshop is requesting help from abroad in reaching this goal. I’m therefore sending this message on their behalf to various anarchist studies organisations, federations, centres, and other groups to endorse their request and encourage comrades to contribute a small sum towards this goal.
I am happy to answer any questions via email and if people are concerned about the legitimacy of this message, they can also contact Etniko Bandido or Anarchist Communists Meanjin to confirm who I am.
If you’re interested in helping, donations can be sent through PayPal to Etniko Bandido Infoshop, PayPal account ganjuey@gmail.com
With regards,
Tom M
