Reviews

Triumphs, blunders

of Philippi

Ines

revolution probed

INSIDE THE PHILIPPINE REVOLU-
TION: The New Peoples Army and Its
Struggle for Power. By William Chap-
man. Penguin Books, Canada Ltd. $24.95
hardcover. Available at People’s Co-op
Bookstore.

Inside the Philippine Revolution shows
that the Philippine insurgency in many ways
resembles the other Third World upheavals
in the 20th century. The same pattern of
middle-class radicals providing organiza-
tional skills with the poor providing the
armed mass emerges.

However, revolution in the Philippines,
author William Chapman claims, has never
been recognized in the full sense by world
opinion. Elections are regularly held and
cities such as Manila look prosperous and
modern, so the situation does not appear to
be ripe for revolution. And The Philippines
are an archipelago, so that from one island
to another it is difficult to judge the political
and social situation.

The picture of prosperity is simply not
true, Chapman writes. It was and still is a
predominantly rural nation of haves and
have-nots, where three out of four people
live in poverty and where 70 per cent reside
in the countryside. Nowhere in Asia is the
contrast between rich and poor more vivid.

The widespread notion that poverty and
inequality are a legacy of Ferdinand Marcos
is also untrue, Chapman says. These condi-
tions preceded Marcos’ reign, and the exer-
cise of political franchise has always been a
privilege of the elite.

In fact, the country has been seething
with peasant revolts, banditry and violence
throughout its history, from the Spanish
occupation through the American con-
quest.

I personally became interested in the Phi-
lippines after the second world war, when
we became aware of the “Huks” and their
peoples army, and the heroic guerilla war-
fare they maintained against the Japanese
invaders. It is history that these heroes were
hunted down as outlaws and their leaders
arrested as subversives by the U.S. armed
forces in connivance with the Philippine
Army and the great land holders.

The Americans granted the Philippines
“independence” in 1946, but to many Fil-
ipinos this only meant that the U.S. flag was
lowered while American economic control
of the islands remained the same. It is this
situation which had a lot to do with the
formation of the New Peoples Army
(NPA).

In 1960, two forces of Philippines history
came together: nationalism and agrarian
revolt. That led to the formation of NPA in
1969 at the instigation of the Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP) under the
leadership of Jose Ma Sison from the urban
sector and Commander Dante of the pea-
sants.

The political strategy was at the first
greatly influenced by Mao and his guerrilla
war tactics, but as time went on the strategy
and philosophy changed to become more
suitable to the Philippines situation.

Chapman writes that although the revo-
lutionaries did not have the military
strength to take the country, they were win-
ning it politically. The guerrilla army was
beginning to receive heavy support from the
rebel Catholic priests, and was also becom-
ing more closely involved with the left wing
in urban centres.

When Marcos declared martial law, the
movement gained thousands of supporters,
and these young people, many of them
simply nationalists — dubbed the “Martial
Law Babies” — had no other place to
go but to the CPP and to the mountain
hideaways and illegal cells. These outlawed
trade unionists, students and middle class
leftists became future cadres in the NPA
and later the NDF.

From the late 1970s the country rang
with protests, strikes, teacher walk-outs,
demonstrations against the American mil-
itary bases and so on. The assassination of

Benigno Aquino, a high-profile Marcos |

opponent, drew millions to the streets in a
national protest that endured for months.

The 1980s became a period of rapid
growth in the CPP. The NPA numbered
more than 20,000. Some 30,000 people had
been admitted to the party and one fourth
of the nation’s 41,600 barrios were influ-
enced by local cadres. Chapman claims that
the underground movement, the NDF or
National Democratic Front, was, in fact,
the de facto government in many areas.

It was in this sense of euphoria that the
party misjudged the emotional quality of
the campaign to elect Cory Aquino, and
made its worst tactical error — the “boy-
cott blunder.”

The boycotts had been particularly suc-
cessful in 1981 and in 1984, and the party

leadership in general (there were some who

were hesitant) saw no reason to abandon

the policy in the 1986 election. But they’

misjudged Aquino’s popular appeal. Many

CPP members supported her campaign.
Aquino is not a dictator, nor is she a

terrorist. She has administered some con-

trol over the army and has called for a.
ceasefire and peace talks. The NDF is rec- .

ognized as a legal movement.

However, the NDF demands a full coali-
tion government, and since Aquino will not
accept power-sharing with a Communist-
led movement, it leaves the country in a
stalemate which could lead to civil war.

This book has been so well researched
that it lives up to the publishers’ claim of
being a riveting contemporary history of the
Philippines and U.S. policy there.

— Jonnie Rankin

The Screen: Vancouver East Cinema
features an Australian double bill May
15-16 with The Year My Voice Broke at
7:30 p.m. and the acclaimed My Brilliant
Career at 9:30 p.m. For May 17-18, it’s
another Australian entry, A Cry in the
Dark at 7:15 p.m., coupled with the post-
junta Argentinean groundbreaker, The
Official Story at 9:30 p.m. From May
19-25, several films from Channel Four
are presented in ”A Festival of British
Cinema.” Phone 253-5455.

Massacre at My Lai recalled

ee, Ses ok

The Tube: KCTS in Seattle presents:
*Remember My Lai,” a Frontline install-
ment recalling the infamous massacre of
500 villagers during the Vietnam War.
It’s on Tuesday, May 23, 10 p.m. for one
hour. Closed captioned. The Public Tele- _
vision station also presents the acclaimed
account of wrongful imprisonment,
1988’s The Thin Blue Line. It runs on
American Playhouse Wednesday, May
24, 9 p.m. Closed captioned.

10 Pacific Tribune, May 15, 1989

Josette Simon, Richard Mills in Milk and Honey.

Jamaican immigrants’
story finally on film

MILK & HONEY. Starring Josette Simon,
Lyman Ward, Richard Mills. Written by
Glen Salzman and Trevor Rhone. Directed
by Rebecca Yates and Glen Salzman. At
local theatres.

Toronto and other communities back
east — less so B.C. — are home to thou-
sands of former Caribbean residents who
have come to Canada to escape the grinding
poverty of their island nations. Many must
leave close family members behind and seek
work in low-paying, highly exploitative jobs
unprotected by trade unions or minimum
wage regulations.

Domestic workers, which include gover-
nesses Or nannies, are among the most
exploited in Canada. Although there has
been a bit of publicity due to some organiz-
ing drives, their story has remained
unknown to most Canadians. It has also
been inexcusably ignored in films seeking to
dramatize the Canadian mosaic.

Setting the record right is Milk & Honey,
a gutsy Canadian film that earned its lead
actor an award last year but which has
surfaced only recently, and virtually unan-
nounced, in Canadian movie houses.

Actor Josette Simon is effective as
Joanna, a young single parent who must
leave her small son in the care of the family
in Jamaica to work as a nanny for an
upscale family in Toronto. The contrast
between the two places is both apparent and
symbolic: Joanna’s town is poor, but the
subtropical countryside is lush and warm,
and the people are close-knit; in Canada,
the snowswept streets of restored brick
houses reflect the northern city’s icy exterior
and materialism.

Betrayal of the dream of citizenship and
prosperity comes early, when Joanna is
handed her first week’s wage. It’s $20,
instead of the $220 she was expecting. The
woman of the household (Fiona Reid, of
King of Kensington fame) tells Joanna —
with appropriate embarrassment — that
she is deducted money for room and board,
and for her plane fare.

As a landed immigrant who can be
deported at any time, there is little Joanna
can do but find comfort through a cathartic
confession in the humble church where
Caribbean immigrants worship, and through
camaraderie with other domestics she meets
at the local playground where the nannies
take the children.

Joanna will face other adversities, includ-
ing the advances of an adult education
teacher (not entirely undesired but a bit
intense for the morally correct Joanna), the
betrayal of a friend and the alienation of her
son David (Richard Mills). Joanna’s deci-

| of immigration laws and her relationship

sion to keep David in Canada in violation :

with the teacher Adam (Lyman Ward, ina
fine performance as a man whose inner
warmth betrays a stern exterior) provide the
dramatic focus.

Milk & Honey’s opening scenes indicate
this film might be about organizing domes-
tics and take on a pseudo-documentary ~
character. It isn’t and doesn’t. Joanna’s —
story is personal and the plot development, —
which includes: coincidence and ties up the ~
loose ends, follows the conventions of a —
drama. i

But that doesn’t rob Milk & Honey ofits —
validity. It puts a human face on contem
porary issues, most notably the recent reve-—
lation about a Trinidadian woman, Irma —

~ Demkiw, who faces deportation for work-—

ing in Canada without landed immigrant ~
status. That real-life story gives the movie —
even greater significance in that Demkiw’s —
former employer, Toronto Star columnist —
Janet Enright, is the sister of Immigration Ey
Minister Barbara McDougall, in charge on '
the Conservative government’s hotly critic =
ized policies designed to stem immigration. —

Immigration laws hang over Milk & —
Honey’s principle characters like a storm
cloud — and are as ever-threatening as the ~
predominantly white faces of education
Officials, the police and employers. It can be
discomforting seeing our society as the
oppressor, but the effects of the racial and —
class oppression many Third World immi-
grants really face gives this movie an unusu-
ally assertive tone for Canadian cinema. —

Milk & Honey suffers a few editing and
continuity flaws, but these do not mar the
powerful story. Reggae and spiritual songs
make an effective musical soundtrack.

* * *

It is uncertain how long Milk & Honey
will be playing in Vancouver, and even less
certain that the film will run outside the -
Lower Mainland. Its showing was accom-
panied by even less advance publicity than is
usual for Canadian films, and its advertise-
ment in the movie pages gives no indication
of the film’s content. So it wasn’t surprising
that it played to an audience of about cit
people the night I attended. 4

But we live in the age of home video, and
chances are that the feature which won
Josette Simon a best actress award at the —
Atlantic Film Festival will be out on video —
cassette. For the record, Milk & Honey is a
Zenith film and was made with the assist-
ance of Telefilm Canada, the Ontario Film —
Development Corporation and First Choice.
Canadian Communications Corporation.

— Dan Keeton —