LFS - League of Filipino Students, UC Berkeley

URGENT: We have received word that Alma along with other detainees may be moved from the Stewart Detention Center to another facility in Kentucky. This is extremely alarming as Alma's family and support team are in Georgia. Relocating her would potentially exacerbate her chronic health issues and further complicate her case, which is already under active investigation by ICE. CALL AND EMAIL ICE TO DEMAND THAT ALMA SHOULD NOT BE MOVED! SHE MUST STAY IN GEORGIA!

Stewart Detention Center @ 229-838-5000
ICE @ [email protected]

More contact info:

ICE Field Office @ 404-893-1210

OPLA/Atlanta Immigration Court
404-653-2142
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The Berkeley Tanggol Migrante (Defend Migrants) Network launched this past March! The Tanggol Migrante Network is a coalition of students and workers in Berkeley fighting for the protections of our Filipino migrants through education and community outreach.

We rallied around both national migrant campaigns and local issues. Some student volunteers were able to interview a Filipino dining hall worker about his experiences working in the Philippines and in the US. He like many other Filipino migrant workers came from the provinces, yet work in the US to send remittances back home.

The stories of Filipino migrants inform the construction of our local Tanggol Migrante Network. We set objectives to: provide legal services, connect with migrant workers, write letters to detained migrants, create an emergency fund, and set up a rapid response plan of action!

Join the Berkeley Tanggol Migrante Network! Sign up: tinyurl.com/berktmnetwork

DM , or email [email protected] for more info!

PROTEKSYON HINDI DEPORTASYON!

On the anniversary of the founding of the League of Filipino Students fourty-four years ago, we celebrate international expansion of the militant, anti-imperialist, socialist student movement with the historic launch of LFS UC Berkeley as an official full-fledged chapter!!! MAG-ARAL (STUDY), MAGLINGKOD (SERVE), MANGAHAS NA MAKIBAKA (DARE TO STRUGGLE)!!! L-F-S!

The League of Filipino Students at UC Berkeley Chapter Organizing Committee stands in unwavering solidarity with the people of Myanmar in their ongoing resistance against the Tatmadaw’s coup and subsequent fascist rule. We condemn the ongoing campaign of brutal repression waged by Myanmar’s armed forces to suppress the Burmese people’s deepening discontent against an abusive government which does not hesitate to take the lives of hundreds of civilians and continues to arrest and detain thousands of protestors. The League of Filipino Students expressly condemns the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, which continues to collaborate with the private corporate interests of Chevron and Total to quell the Burmese people’s growing thirst for genuine democracy. As an anti-imperialist mass organization, we are no stranger to the cowardice of a reactionary government which remains at the beck and call of foreign corporations. The LFS protests today because we understand that under the rule of a puppet government to U.S. imperialism--which sells the lives and livelihood of a nation’s people for profit--it is right to resist!

Not too far from San Ramon, the presence of the Chevron refinery in Richmond continues to occupy indigenous land to extract the health and livelihood of neighboring residents. For over a century, this refinery has caused concern among residents of Richmond in specific, but also the Bay Area at large. Chevron’s oil spill in February of this year is but the latest and most obvious example of the devastating impacts of their presence in local communities, who have and continue to experience health issues as a result of the refinery’s pollution.

In the Philippines, the Cordillera region is abundant in natural resources and is the source of wealth and livelihood for the people who live there. The struggle of the Cordillera peoples to defend their ancestral land and right to self-determination is a struggle that puts them at the front lines against none other than Chevron itself. Despite being harassed, unlawfully arrested, and even killed, the people of the Cordilleras continue to resist the “development” of large-scale mining, dams, energy and other foreign projects like those imposed by Chevron on their ancestral land. Just as it is in Myanmar, the interests of Chevron--and ultimately the interests of U.S. imperialism to profit from our homelands--employs the reactionary government like an obedient lapdog to achieve its exploitative ends.

Brandon Lee, a Chinese-American born, raised, and currently living in San Francisco; and an alumni of the LFS-SFSU, was labeled a “terrorist” and was targeted in an assassination attempt by Philippine state forces for his work among the Ifugao peasant community in the Cordilleras. But we know that the fascist dictator Rodrigo Duterte, his government, and his armed lackeys--the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines--are the true terrorists! And they are employed by none other than corporations like Chevron, which we know colludes not just with the fascist regime of the Philippines, but with fascist regimes all over the world, like the one which is imposing military rule in Myanmar today. We understand that we must link with the people of Myanmar--and all nations oppressed by U.S. imperialism--to topple the bureaucrat capitalists and imperialists once and for all.

As U.S.-based activists, we call on all pro-people forces to support Indigenous communities in the Philippines in their fight for self-determination. We uplift and urge you to join our efforts to pass the Philippine Human Rights Act, which will cease billions of tax-payer dollars of U.S. military aid to the Philippines until these human rights abuses are addressed and the proper state forces are held accountable.

The LFS at UC Berkeley COC extends its hand in solidarity to all peoples resisting imperialism!

Long live international solidarity!
Defend land defenders!
Defend Ifugao!
End Corporate Plunder of the Cordilleras!
Justice for Brandon Lee and all victims of state terrorism!
End the military coup!
U.S. Imperialist! Number one terrorist!

MABUHAY ANG INTIFADA! LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!

The League of Filipino Students at UC Berkeley condemns the Israeli government’s Zionist settler colonialism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing and stands in resolute solidarity with Palestinians in their fight for liberation and return! Bearing witness to the forced evictions happening in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and the military violence at the Al-Aqsa mosque, we are now, more than ever, faced with the gruesome horrors of Israeli occupation.

We must, however, be reminded that this has been the catastrophic reality of the Palestinian people for much longer. Today, on May 15th, also known as Nakba Day, we commemorate the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians forcibly exiled and whose homes were violently stolen and destroyed in 1948. For seventy three years, the Palestinian people have shown immense commitment and resilience in their struggle for liberation and right to land, and we, too, will continue to stand by them until victory.

We also, however, recognize the role that U.S. imperialism has played in directly supporting and aiding Israel’s fascist state. As we demand the passage of the Philippine Human Rights Act, which would end U.S. military aid to the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as well as hold the Duterte regime accountable for its numerous human rights abuses, we demand the same for our Palestinian siblings. Every year, the U.S. provides the Israeli government over $3 billion in military aid and has continually sold even more in military equipment and weaponry that we know have killed families and children. The U.S.’ blatant prioritization of profit and disregard for human lives has skirted under the radar for far too long. As U.S. tax-payers and internationalists, it is our duty to not only stand in solidarity with Palestine but to also bring down this imperialist power.

Today, on the seventy-third anniversary of Nakba (catastrophe), we urge all of you to join us in protesting and rallying for the liberation of Palestine. Let us recommit ourselves to organizing and doing all that we can to support and uplift the Palestinian people to the very end. From the river to the sea, we know that, together, Palestine will surely be free. LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY! LONG LIVE PALESTINE!

(See graphic text or Facebook for full statement: fb.com/ucblfs)

JOIN OUR PHILIPPINES IN SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE CONTINGENT IN THE STREETS TODAY:
🇵🇸 WHEN: Saturday, May 15, 2021 @ 1:30 PM
🇵🇸 WHERE: Meet-up at Kidpower Park on Hoff St. between 16th and 17th Street