GABNet Statement In Response to GABRIELA Philippines' Resolution

We are GABRIELA Network. We were incorporated under that name. We have carried it for over 18 years. This is the name we have built, by which we have been known in times past and will be known, in times coming… We are a women's mass organization, which has worked with GABRIELA Philippines.

GABNet has always held the national democratic line to be the correct line for social transformation in the Philippine archipelago. It is a line derived from the correct analysis of the Philippines as semi-feudal and semi-colonial. In fulfillment of this recognition of a necessity for the women of the Philippines, indeed for all the people of the Philippines, GABNet has consistently supported and has stood with our sisters in the Philippine National Democratic Movement.

Nevertheless, since 1997 when it was first proposed, GABNet consistently resisted pressure to turn itself into a chapter of the Philippine-based organization, for the following reasons:

Historically, transnational power relations between a constituency that has been colonized and one based in a colonizing power have been difficult. In two instances, the Philippine movement was affected negatively by the tremendous influence that its own quasi-constituencies in the US wielded. While there have been many diverse explanations given to these two crises, we viewed this as inevitable result of tension between the essence of the social changes needed by the Philippines, on the one hand, and the essence of changes needed by the concrete conditions in the U.S.

Historically, from the time of organizing against Marcos and Martial Law to the present, the organizing model used has been characterized as a "multiplicity of organizations with one center." In electing to have a national formation, GABRIELA Network based its organizing strategy on the contiguous nature of the terrain of the United States. GABNet's national formation was also meant to ensure that women born in the Philippines who migrated to this country had equal access to national political leadership, that their voices were in concert with and not subsumed by the voices of the local-born. The struggle of Filipina immigrants, who have been particularly vulnerable to gender violence, cannot be viewed as separate from the struggle of all women of Philippine ancestry in the U.S,. especially low- income women, against class exploitation and gender violence.

Historically, whatever group/organization/center established in the US supposedly as part of the progressive movement in the Philippines has ended up trying to change the style, course and tactic of the Philippine movement itself. Out of respect for and in recognition of the sovereignty of the Philippine movement, GABNet elected to remain a half-step removed from the organizational parameters of that movement, electing instead to work on U.S. foreign policy decisions that impact women and children of the Philippines. The issue of who should wield political power in the Philippines was a question we viewed as the exclusive preserve of the Filipino people, because first and foremost, we are NOT there.

Historically, GABNet was the first organization to publicly identify itself as a conduit and an arm of a Philippine-based organization, so as to make clear that we supported the national democratic line of struggle for the archipelago. On the one hand, we are pleased to see the validity of this proposition; on the other, we hope that our respect for the sovereignty and independence of the Philippine movement will also be respected by those who carry the names of the organizations of the Philippines.

What will this mean for GABNet? GABNet has always enjoyed a degree of freedom in its work for sisters in the Philippines. This enabled it to innovate on its approach and discourse on such issues as the US bases in the archipelago, the AmerAsian children, Comfort Women, trafficking of women, the labor export policy, and the so-called war on terror. In this age of globalization, being exclusivist is no longer tenable. The struggles against class exploitation and race and gender oppression have become indivisible. It is with utmost resolve that GABRIELA Network continues to contribute to the global movement towards women's emancipation.

Dr. Annalisa Enrile
GABNet National Chairperson

Doris Mendoza
GABNet Secretary General