Author: narra

What We Do

Arouse, organize and mobilize workers along with the semi-proletariat in urban communities and struggle towards higher wage and benefits, upgrading working condition and strengthening their basic rights,.
Lead and give direction to worker’s struggles at the local level.
Conduct leadership and skills training among the ranks of Union Leaders.
Coordinate and lead sectoral struggles through the formation of broad workers’ alliances.
Coordinate with and participate in other sector and multi-sectoral struggles under a common issue and fight.

In 2000, unions and labor associations from the economic zones in Central Luzon and Metro Manila called for a National Conference, thus MAKABAYAN was born.
MAKABAYAN rapidly grew and now boasts of chapters in almost all the major provinces in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

#22 Libertad St. Brgy. Highway Hills
Mandaluyong City Philippines 1550
Tel.No.+632 5310787;FaxNo.+6325313748
Email add. makabayan2003@yahoo.com

MAKABAYAN or Workers for People’s Liberation
(Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan)

MAKABAYAN Is
a newly formed trade union and political center aiming to liberate the Filipino laboring masses from foreign domination and from all forms of oppression and exploitation
Draws its strength from workers and other laboring masses.
Recognizes the role and importance of other progressive sectors in working towards genuine social change.
Is inspired by and links with the struggle of liberation movements and labor movements in other countries against global monopoly-led globalization.
We Stand For
Emancipation. Free the Philippines from domination & control of global-monopoly capitalism, paving the way for the liberation of the Filipino working masses towards
socialism.
Strengthening the leadership of the working class along with other laboring masses.
Building of a self-sustaining and strong national economy through genuine agrarian reform and genuine national industrialization and eventually transforming this into a dynamic centralized planned economy for the common good of the laboring masses.

Establish a scientific & mass-oriented educational system free from colonial, feudal and patriarchal influence.
Emancipation of women from national, class and gender oppression.
Build a strong global labor front against mono-poly capitalism.
Member Unions and Associations
MAKABAYAN’s membership are workers from telecommunications, manufacturing, garments, service industries and community-based labor associations all over the Philippines.
Members include the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT)’s 6,000-strong rank-and-file union, Star Performance Inc. Union, a auxiliary company of the Triumph Bra Company, union of UNILIVER, Smart Shirt (Phils.) Inc and other unions found in ECONOMIC ZONES and INDUSTRIAL CENTERS .
Workers Under Globalization
Worker’s rights such as job security, just wages and improvement of the working conditions are set aside, while the gains of the Filipino working class through its past struggles are rapidly eroded.
Unemployment levels and informal sector are on the rise while union busting and moratorium of collective-bargaining-agreements (CBA) is fast being the norm.
The Philippine government crudely brushes aside the workers’ and people’s rights by subjecting the Filipino people to Martial Rule, where protests are violently dispersed.
Labor contractualization and other labor flexibility schemes only exacerbate the hapless plight of the Filipino working class. Globalization dictates that workers should be cheap, docile and flexible to meet the demands of global-monopoly capitalists.
These challenges only inspire the Filipino working class to lead the national democratic struggle and take up the cudgels for the oppressed and exploited Filipino people.
Our Advocacies and Campaigns
Campaigns are fast-paced and militant aiming to pressure the government to give in to the demands of the Filipino workers.
It guides local union struggles and actively takes part in sectoral concerns. It also engages in the political campaigns and activities of its multi-sectoral political center, Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (KPD) or the Movement for National Democracy.
MAKABAYAN conducts massive education campaigns and initiates protest actions against the ill effects of globalization on the Philippine economy. Recognizing the necessity for unity, it formed a broad anti-globalization Labor Coalition — PUMIGLAS (meaning ‘ to be free of’) consisting of more than 100 unions.
Last May 2003 it initiated another broad labor alliance against Labor Contractualization (Labor Caucus Against Contractualization) It has a network of more than 26 labor federation comprising hundreds of local unions with hundreds of thousands of membership. Lately, another coalition was formed— called KONTRA Koalisyon Kontra Kontrakwalisasyon, a more broader coalition against contractualization.
Realizing that the rise of informal sector is not only a phenomenon but a natural consequence of neo-liberal policy. We now started organizing informal sectors and campaign for their welfare such as unemployment benefits and promotion of their rights.

The hammer epitomizes workers’ strength and solidarity as well as a sign of wage enslavement.