Global Social Rights

Duterte, covid19, and populist-authoritarianism in the Philippines: Contentions and contradictions

In dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, the Duterte government responded too late in stopping local transmission, too little in preparation, and too much force in lockdown enforcement. The Philippines has the strictest and longest lockdown in Asia, yet the steady increase of covid infections from June 2020 until the surge on March 2021, show that…

Read More »

Social Democracy or “Dutertismo”?

Image by Mayday Multimedia Although the official vote count only began today, the results of the 2022 Philippine presidential election are already more or less clear: Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., the son of long-time dictator Ferdinand Marcos, appears to have won a landslide victory and will become the next President of the Philippines. Although he…

Read More »

Class Struggle at the Ballot Box

Prior to the 2022 elections, the Left in the Philippines had fielded candidates only at the middle and lower levels of government, including the party list system in Congress. At the presidential level, left-wing groups would either support candidates who were of a liberal bent and less repressive towards them, or else simply adopt a…

Read More »

Global Solidarity for An Internationalism Of The Future

In left-wing discussions worldwide, the call for a “new internationalism” is growing ever louder. In the Guardian, former US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has called for the foundation of an “international progressive movement”. According to Sanders, a political project should be established that opposes the “international authoritarian axis”-a project that stands for a “vision of shared prosperity,…

Read More »

A Report on Southeast Asian Community Responses in Covid-19 Times

As the whole world reels under the impact of the unprecedented health crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been little attention on its effect on grassroots communities and marginalized sectors. This is particularly important given the haphazard and erratic manner of some governments to contain the contagion given a situation where health…

Read More »

Social media platform features alternative grassroots narratives in Southeast Asia

With assistance from RLS Manila, the Program for Alternative Development (AltDev) of the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative Studies (UP CIDS) produced the social media platform, Lawan. Lawan is the vernacular of resistance in much of Southeast Asia, an apt name for a platform created to showcase grassroots narratives in the time of Covid-19 in various…

Read More »