In no other moment in our contemporary history has the struggle of Andres Bonifacio resonated so glaringly. The tyranny of local elites and foreign powers that Bonifacio fought against more than a hundred years ago has proven its resilience and remains to be the same oppression that burdens and confronts our nation. The country’s working class is facing its worst moment with the onslaught of a predatory globalization that spreads and deepens inequality and alienation. The national elites are fighting each other for power, not solely for survival, but to amass more wealth by colluding with transnational corporations against national interests.

The bankruptcy of this system shall manifest itself again in the forthcoming presidential elections. We shall once again rage and bear witness to the worst symptoms of elite patronage politics. Popularity will supersede political platforms. Deceit will supplant standards of good governance. Narrow elite factional interests will shroud national survival and the working people’s welfare.

The current crop of presidentiables represents the stark absence of options among the existing elite leaders. No national leader has so far dared to submit a social blueprint that emphasizes the national interest and directly confronts the desperation of the poor, the hopelessness of the youth, the cynicism of the middle class, and the insensitivity and voraciousness of our elites.

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, for instance, dismissed the demands for her platform of governance by claiming that her track record already speaks for her plans. On the opposite camp, Fernando Poe Jr., whose announcement of his presidential candidacy was met both with scorn and accolades, banks on his “bida”and “masa” image and relegated his platform to his questionable economic and political advisers. We urge the public to take extreme caution and discernment in looking at the intentions of both candidates, since both FPJ and GMA represent the interest of elites that are vying for political power without any vision of national rejuvenation or any strategy of political regeneration.

The main issue in the forthcoming elections is no longer confined within GMA’s elitist agenda or FPJ’s lack of experience in governance and virtual simulation of a screen hero. The issue is already the troubling contradictions in the Philippine political system. It is a system that limits the choice of the masses between sections of the elite. It is a system that appears to be democratic, but in fact deepens the marginalization of the majority of Filipinos.

We shall also continue the struggle for deeper and meaningful changes in our political system that shall ensure the interest of the workers and the marginalized Filipinos. The bankruptcy of our political system necessitates the continuing struggle for a truly equal and representative structure of governance and the birth of new leaders from the ranks of the oppressed, and we affirm our fight for that goal. We also affirm our commitment to carve out spaces of democracy and equality at the local level to contest elite politics even at the lowest rung of our politics.

We can never forget and leave behind the nationalist and proletarian spirit that Andres Bonifacio imbibed on us. He, too, blended the toilers’ cause with that of the national interest. The elite’s factional manuevers abruptly impeded his dream.

Let us not fall prey to another national tragedy this time around.

We bring the Stop the New Round! (SNR!) campaign to a close. It has been a most grueling and glorious eight months for the farmers, fishers, workers and public interest groups and individuals who came together in February to push for wide-ranging reforms in Philippine trade, agriculture, industrial and general development policy.

We take this opportunity to take stock of what we have accomplished. In the eight months of the Stop the New Round! Campaign, SNR was able to raise the level of trade policy discourse in the country and brought the heretofore shadowy realm of Philippine trade policymaking into the light of national consciousness. With patience, tenacity and a sincere desire for dialogue, we were able to engage both the executive and legislative branches of government, bringing forward a clear-cut and integrated policy agenda as an alternative to the often nebulous positions of our top trade negotiators. The belated disclosure by Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas II of Philippine negotiating positions for Cancun was a concrete product of this engagement.

Recognizing the crucial importance of education work to the success of the campaign, SNR took on the difficult task of raising the consciousness of its core constituencies and the public at large. Through the successful conduct of local fora/consultations, SNR was able to raise local awareness and provide a venue for stakeholders to ventilate their concerns on trade and development issues.

SNR could not have done it alone. We acknowledge the invaluable contribution of friends in the media in this campaign. We thank them for bearing with us and for their patience in sifting through tomes of boring figures and sterile jargon in our shared desire to inform the public. We were keenly aware of the difficulty of making the complexity of international trade accessible to the average Filipino as well to our own members. For both the members of SNR! and of the media, it has been a steep learning curve indeed. But the quality of media reportage as well as the broad reach of the campaign was a testament to the success of our efforts.

We knew from the beginning, however, that ultimately the campaign would take us to the streets of the country’s capital and major cities. And so while an SNR! delegation monitored the progress of the on-going ministerial in Cancun, we marched through the familiar streets of Manila, Cebu and Davao to add our voices to the collective cry of the world’s marginalized farmers, fisherfolk, workers, women and small manufacturers.

We numbered ten thousand from our mobilized constituencies as well as those we were able to reach through our education work at the grassroots, to put pressure on the national leadership to remain steadfast in the face of the arm-twisting and intimidation tactics of the Northern powers.

We made it clear to our negotiators that we would watch them closely in Cancun and hold them accountable to government’s stated positions. The Philippines’ strong stand in the negotiations was, in no small measure, due to the pressure from SNR! and other domestic stakeholders. This was our contribution to the international campaign to prevent the launching of a new round of negotiations in the WTO including talks on the new issues of investments, government procurement and competition policy.

As the dust of the WTO ministerial’s collapse settles, we see the post-Cancun scenario taking shape. The US has announced that it will put more emphasis on bilateral trade talks, where it can more effectively bludgeon other countries into submission. Already, the Group of 21 developing countries, whose refusal to bow to US-EU pressure provided the death blow to any hopes of forging consensus, is being decimated. Meanwhile, the bold rhetoric which Philippine negotiators wielded in Cancun seems to have been abandoned in favor of pragmatism. The Department of Agriculture for instance, has launched a process of consultation to determine which products to include in a “special products” list. This is a clear indication that government is still bent on reducing tariffs, and is generally unwilling to pursue other option especially for threatened products.

Much work remains to be done in the days ahead. And while we close this campaign, we do not see this as a parting of ways. The various sectors that make up SNR! will sustain their campaign for policy change in agriculture, fisheries, industry and services. Many of us will still be working together in our various advocacies and through our other networks and alliances to face the bigger challenge ahead.

We claim the campaign as a success and vow to intensify our varied struggles to ensure that the victory in Cancun we helped bring about does not deteriorate in the face of political expediency.

The Stop the New Round! Coalition