Kadamay calls on the urban poor to join the youth-led Mendiola camp out vs poverty, crisis

PRESS RELEASE (05 DEC 2011)
KALIPUNAN NG DAMAYANG MAHIHIRAP
REFERENCE: Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national sec-gen (09213927457)

QUEZON CITY, Philippines—Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) has announced today its plan to join the Mendiola camp out against poverty and crisis. The said camp out will start tomorrow, December 6, to be led by the militant youth organizations.

“We are more than obliged to affirm our commitment of making this camp out successful as we call on our members to participate and spread the news about this local ‘Occupy Movement,” Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national secretary-general says.

“The chronic poverty afflicting some 30 million urban poor nationwide does not seem to bother those who are in the authority. There will be no other way but for the millions of urban poor to join hands with other sectors of the society to bring down the system that oppresses them,” Arellano adds.

The First Quarter Storm that had shown the world the progressive minds of the Filipino youth and their collective action against imperialism will once again be witnessed in the Philippine history as they start the Mendiola camp out tomorrow, says Kadamay.

“The Filipino youth has defied and will defy the current system as they seek answer for the longstanding problem of poverty and the cyclical crisis that plagues the neo-colonial and neo-feudal Philippine society,” says Arellano.

“The Mendiola camp out must be differentiated from the Kilusang 99% led by some social democrats that has long been in connivance with the big corporations and landlord clans against the people. Their movement only aims to maintain the status quo merely calling for corporate responsibility,” she adds.

According to Kadamay, compared to Kilusang 99%, the Mendiola camp out aims as it is necessary to bring down the system that has oppressed millions of Filipinos and generations of farmers, urban poor and the rest of oppressed 99% of the population.

“It is a real solution to crisis and poverty, biased only for the poor and the majority,” Arellano ends. “It aims to enlighten primarily the Filipino youth, so to bring back the prestige that they once own, as the driver of societal change in the Philippines.”###