By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples´ Struggle
December 1, 2012
We, the International League of Peoples´ Struggle, extend our warmest greetings of solidarity to the Filipino youth in Toronto who have come together as the Founding General Assembly of Anakbayan-Toronto. We salute you as a worthy chapter of Anakbayan, which is a comprehensive national democratic organization of the Filipino youth and a member organization of the ILPS.
We congratulate your organizing committee and all the delegates for your success at convening the assembly after one and a half year of preparations. You have relied well on your previous experience of youth organizing and you have drawn from it the lessons regarding the importance of painstaking mass work and following the mass line, of being daring and militant in taking up the issues of the Filipino youth and people.
We appreciate that you have learned from previous anti-imperialist and democratic struggles and against attempts to derail the national democratic movement of Filipinos in Canada and that more than ever you are resolved to remain committed to this movement in the interest of the Filipino youth and people in Canada and in the motherland.
We are deeply pleased to know that you are inspired by the revolutionary youth in Philippine history, like Andres Bonifacio and others in the Katipunan, those who belonged to the Kabataang Makabayan, those who joined the revolutionary movement against the US-directed Marcos fascist dictatorship and, of course, those who have preceded you in Anakbayan.
We welcome your theme for the assembly; Magbunyi ang Kabataang Pilipino Patungo sa Malayang Bukas (Celebrating the Youth Marching Towards Emancipation). It is fine that you invoke the the Filipino youth´s continuing history and commitment to arouse, organize and mobilize the Filipino community to fight for their rights and welfare.
We join you in honoring the Filipino youth who have acted in unison to demand justice for young compatriots like Jeffrey Reodica, who have protested the ill effects of the Live-in Caretaker Program on the Filipino youth and entire family and who have made relevant the national democratic movement in the Philippines to the Filipino youth in Canada.
Your assembly is an occasion for clarifying the historical background of your families and community, your current situation and the implications and consequences of the current grave crisis of the world capitalist system, for summing up your experiences and learning lessons from these and for setting forth the tasks to strengthen your organization and be of service to the Filipino youth and people in Canada and the Philippines.
Your assembly is a process of consolidating your ranks politically and organizationally. We are confident that consequently you will gain strength, you will expand your ranks and you will be able to act and speak effectively as a collective force. You will be in a better position to contribute to the anti-imperialist and democratic movement in your community, in the Philippines and in the world.
Mabuhay ang Anakbayan-Toronto!
Mabuhay ang pambansa-demokratikong kilusan!
Mabuhay ang Anakbayan at sambayanang Pilipino!
