Activism blues

Richard James Mendoza

(Dedicated to all my comrades-in-arms)

I’m a proud member of Anakbayan, a comprehensive mass organization of the youth. So yes mother, I’m an activist just like my sister. Those times when I got home late? About more than half of those instances, I was either attending a meeting or having educational discussions with my comrades. I’m that noisy and jobless bum that does nothing but rant on the internet and loiter on the streets. I’m that super duper evil guy who deceives my fellow youth with what can be said in the vernacular as “matatamis at mapanlinlang na mga salita,” the same method that’s also being utilized by those money-making pyramid scams, but I digress. So what led me into this path? I honestly don’t know. And then came one particular day.

Sometime before the day of the elections last year, I attended a forum about the state of the upcoming elections as well as a short discussion of the PCOS machines, which was the main reason I attended the forum in the first place since it kinda related to my interest in IT stuff back then. Though I knew about the relationship between US imperialism and the 2013 elections, it still shocked me back then when one of the speakers related it to the three problems that pester the country, which is imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism, with the latter being a new term to me back then. After the forum, some of them invited me to a rally which took place at the Comelec office in Intramuros, to which I admittedly hesitated to accept.

It was in that rally that I saw various progressive groups and alliance express their grievances against an institution which has often favored the ruling class by its railroading of the PCOS machines as well as harassing progressive groups such Piston by filing disqualification cases against them based on flimsy and subjective grounds. It was there that I saw people take collective action to assert their rights so that they can be heard. It was also there that I was offered to join Anakbayan, in which I evaded at first since I had a lot of reservations about joining progressive organizations (yes, I did have those) and that I didn’t want to experience what my sister went through inside the household in her first few years that she became a full time activist. However, the option of joining Anakbayan never left my mind.

A few months later, I finally attended an orientation and eventually became a member. This was around a week before Noynoy Aquino’s SONA. When I was handed the membership form, I hesitated (as usual) and as I accomplished the form, It thought to myself with something like “I probably should say to him that I’m not joining Anakbayan” but it soon changed into “I don’t know what world I’m entering into, but I’m going in anyway. Let’s see what happens.” I announced this to my sister and to Ka Mentong and the response was positive, which helped ease my mind about it.

Several months have passed since I became a member that I’ve begun to appreciate the value and importance of collective action. Sometimes, I would remember a time when I attended an ERC hearing sometime around September 2011. Before the hearing, we were telling the other “kabansa’s” that the hearing would start at 9AM. However, we came to the venue only to stumble upon an empty room! A few days before, we double-checked the schedule by visiting ERC’s website as well as calling the ERC just to make sure. But when we checked the time on the website, it suddenly became 2:30PM!

But as we found out, the bulletin board outside the hearing room listed the hearing at 9AM! Of course we simply couldn’t let this pass us up. We decided to obtain a copy of the schedule and had it marked as a “certified true copy.” Meanwhile, we decided to “campout” the hearing room and thought of what course of action we should take. At the advice of some lawyers, we decided to attend the hearing lest we might get defaulted. The Meralco lawyers finally arrived at 2:30PM. Interesting, isn’t it? Regardless, we motioned for the hearing to be moved to another date because of all the shenanigans that just transpired. Our motion was granted

But why did I join Anakbayan anyway? Why did I become an activist? Did I really have to join this organization just so I can say that I’m fighting for our rights; “para panindigan ko talaga ito,” as my mother said? Not really. I didn’t choose to walk this path; I was simply led into it by “some Will infinitely stronger than my own,” to paraphrase Paul Laurence Dunbar. In those times where I visited the studio talking about various things as well as attending those hearings at ERC, there was always a thought that some things were missing. We may have had an audience, but we weren’t really reaching out to others, except perhaps to some other “force” (the radio program had been an occasional victim of signal jamming). Somehow, I felt that these things were simply not enough.

Back then, I often said and thought that educating and informing the people would be enough for them to take action. That is partly correct, but I learned that one should also organize the people into a group and then mobilize them into action. So why did I join again? I want… no, I have to serve the people. There are many others who are suffering from the chicanery and oppression of this God-forsaken land because of our inaction, hesitation, and sheer indifference.  I joined because I realized that the revolution that we have been longing for so long can only be achieved if we can collectivize ourselves into an organized force for this the only answer to the organized exploitation of the ruling classes. There is no room for apathy in this f’ed-up world.