"Kapatiran" ("Solidarity")

"Kapatiran" ("Solidarity")

"Kapatiran" ("Solidarity") is the newsletter of the Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa (PSNA). The latest issue is out, containing articles on the following:

* Michael Gilchrist, secretary of the NZ Trade Union Federation (TUF), has written a detailed cover story on his visit to the Philippines to take a leading role (including singing solo to a 25,000 strong rally!) in the annual May Day activities organised by the militant KMU (May First Movement). Whilst there he attended an international conference and was taken on an exposure tour, meeting workers and peasants

* Paul Watson, TUF Vice President, has written a hard hitting obituary on the December 1999 Lyttelton picketline death of Christine Clarke.

* Robert Reid, TUF International Officer, has written up the KMU's campaigns and struggles for the first few months of 2000, including fighting back against the giant TNC, Nestle.

* Keith Locke, Green MP (and former national coordinator of PSNA) reports on his April 2000 Parliamentary visit to the controversial Bukidnon Forestry Project, on Mindanao, NZ's biggest aid project in the Philippines. Matt Robson, the Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs, has written to us saying that NZ will pull out of the decade old project.

* Nick McBride, PSNA member, reports on his February 2000 visit to the Philippines and participation in a day long protest against the Visiting Forces Agreement, which allows the US military back in for war games. We cover the latest on the Agreement, and the Pentagon's continuing to deny responsibility for cleaning up toxic wastes at its former massive bases (which it was forced to quit after the historic 1991 Philippines Senate vote to close them).

* Tim Howard, our correspondent on peasant issues, writes on how the Philippines is being used as a guinea pig for genetically modified food, specifically rice, and the place of the "Green Revolution" in this drive.

* Nick McBride, our human rights correspondent, details how peasants are being intimidated, tortured and murdered to clear the way for a golf course.

* We have an obituary of Margaret Hales, a founder member of PSNA, a participant in the 1989 International Peace Brigade to the US bases in the Philippines, and a veteran NZ peace and social justice activist.

* Eileen Shewan, our correspondent on women's issues, looks at subjects including domestic violence against Filipino women in Australia; Filipino mail order brides in Finland; and issues affecting prostitutes in both the Philippines and Christchurch, NZ.

* We look at the relentless incursions of the tobacco transnationals into the Philippines (as they are forced to retrench in the First World), including the revelation that TV commercials for Filipino cigarettes are filmed in NZ.

* We look behind the headlines that a Filipino paid the highest ever price for an NZ racehorse at this year's sales, and reveal the buyer as the most notorious crony of both Marcos and Estrada, the very Godfather of Filipino cronyism, and a notorious human rights abuser.

A subscription to "Kapatiran" comes with membership of the Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa. Annual membership costs a very reasonable $NZ15.

Make cheques to: PSNA, Box 2450, Christchurch, New Zealand.

NB: There is no Website.

Murray Horton Secretary, PSNA & Editor, "Kapatiran"

CAFCA Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa PO Box 2258, Christchurch email: cafca@chch.planet.org.nz

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