We have long waited for this moment - the establishment of the workers’ very own political party.
We herald the good news—to those who live by the drop of their sweat and blood; to those who create the wealth yet survive in dire poverty; to those made inutile by lack of employment and those overworked yet underpaid; to those who toil by the sweat of their brow in the motherland and in distant shores; to all workingmen and women in industry, agriculture and service, in the cities and in the countryside, unionized or otherwise—we now have a political party that we can proudly call our own.
The Party ng Manggagawa was born on the very day the late labor leader Ka Popoy Lagman was laid to rest, on the very place where the working class champion was treacherously slain. The triumphant formation of the Partido ng Manggagawa marks the assumption of the working class to the center stage of the country’s political arena. From time on, no longer will labor’s voice be unheeded and our demands be disregarded.
The religious sects Iglesia ni Cristo and El Shaddai rose to positions of influence and are serenaded by politicians for their members vote as a solid block. Through the labor vote during elections and then labor power in the streets, the Partido ng Manggagawa will compel the government to heed the cry and yield to the power of the working class.
The Partido ng Manggagawa will be the effective instrument to unite the fragmented labor movement and organize the millions of non-unionized workers. It will be the potent talisman to advance the struggle of labor for protection against the scourge of globalization and for the emancipation of the working-class from the bondage of wage-slavery.
Unlike the parties of traditional politicians who claim to represent the people and the poor but are really for the propertied and the elite, the Partido ng Manggagawa proudly declares that it exists for the working people above all. It will defend welfare and future of the working class. It will fight the schemes and scams of capitalists and their agents in government against labor.
Unlike other parties, the platform of the Partido ng Manggagawa lists completely labor’s most urgent problems and comprehensively lay down the solutions. On this basis, we may pass judgement on the Partido ng Manggagawa if it is genuinely a party of the working class.
If only the millions of workers would unite through the Labor Party, we can forge our own destiny. We can even change the world.
If every workingman and woman will desire labor unity and aspire for social change, this would become a concrete reality.
Our future is in our hands, in our unity, in our struggle, in our party.
Labor Vote . Labor Power
PARTIDO ng MANGGAGAWA