A playlist for International Day of Action Against Peasant Killings
Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA Pilipinas)
Sama-samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo (SAKA)
Three years ago today, a group of sugar workers rested in a makeshift hut in Hacienda Nene in Sagay, Negros Occidental. They had tilled a small patch of land to grow food in during tiempo muerto—the dead season between harvesting and planting sugarcane—so that their families could eat while there was minimal waged work on the farm. They did this through ‘bungkalan,’ a form of political mobilization in which peasants would assert their sovereignty over disputed land through collective farming.
Such direct action normally took place in the middle of haciendas and plantations devoted to mono-crops, where food staples were barred from being grown to give way to high-value crops like sugarcane. And while the action was political, its necessity was economic: if they didn’t assert their right to grow food on land that should be theirs, what else was there to eat? For nine out of 10 peasants, hunger was the norm that came with systemic landlessness; even the right to grow their own food, they had to fight for.
Nine of those resting sugar workers never woke up; as they slept, their hut was strafed by paramilitary forces, some of them members of the Special Civilian Active Auxiliary of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Four of the peasants killed were women; two of them, minors. All were members of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), a labor federation consistently, though falsely, redtagged by state forces like the AFP as a front organization of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Horrific as it was, the incident was neither new nor exceptional. Several peasant massacres had taken place before it, and several more would take place after it. This was what made it even more tragic: even prior to the rise of the fascist Duterte regime, peasant killings were already the norm in the countryside. During Noynoy Aquino’s reign alone, 270 peasants had been murdered. But since Duterte came to power, peasant killings became not just the norm; they were the order of the day. 342 farmers, fisherfolk, and agri-workers have fallen under his watch, and his term has yet to end.
Every massacre committed to preserve land monopoly is a remix of peasant massacres past. The circumstances may evolve, victims vary from tragedy to tragedy, but at its heart it is the same melody of semi-feudalism: big landlords and corporations who refused to distribute their land among the peasants who worked it earned the favor and protection of the fascist state so it could continue to serve the demands of the world market.
In commemoration of the Sagay Massacre, Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) has partnered with Sama-samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo (SAKA), the Defend Negros #stoptheattacks Network, and Dang A Dang Radio to come up with “RESIST, REDISTRIBUTE, REMIX”—a playlist of six protest classics sampled and remixed by 10 musicians in solidarity with the peasant movement. At 7pm tonight, on International Day of Action Against Peasant Killings, we will launch it via FB Live, hosted by Dang a Dang Radio and cross-posted on UMA and SAKA’s Facebook pages.
The playlist features:
Apolinario – “Tano”
Calix x Tao – “Pahayagan”
Comrade Jones x Geril Lumawig – “Dapat Bawiin”
Eggboy x Teenage Granny x Tomas – “Bulok na Estado”
Menchie – “Manggagawa at Magbubukid”
Wicked Adobo – “Ang Masa”
The playlist will also be made available for anyone to download and listen to at no cost. All we ask in return is to spread the songs widely, as well as the message of resistance embedded in them: that the killings have to end, that land must be distributed to the tillers, and all must stand in solidarity with the peasant movement in order to make the emancipation of all exploited people a reality. Join us in asserting these calls:
Hustisya sa lahat ng biktima ng pasista’t pyudal na karahasan! #JusticeForSagay9!
Militar sa kanayunan, palayasin! #EndMilitarization and #JunkMO32! #DefendNegros from fascist attacks!
Itigil ang pamamaslang! Katarungan, ipaglaban! #StopKillingFarmers!
#LupaAyudaHustisya, ngayon na! Struggle for land, aid, and justice!
Tunay na reporma sa lupa, ipaglaban! #LandToTheTillers now!
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Our thanks and congratulations to all volunteer artists involved, as well as to Prints Para Sa Bayan for our announcement poster!
