The tradition of anarchism in the Philippines reemerged in the 1990s and
2000s, partially driven by punk subculture, the great schism in thePhilippine left, and the general post-communist condition imposed by the
collapse of the Soviet Union. This historical crisis in the Philippine
left resulted in new libertarian traditions. Being largely a reaction to
highly formalized and hierarchical modes of organization in the
Communist Party of the Philippines and the legal expressions of National
Democracy, many of the first wave of anarchists gravitated towards
post-leftism and informalism. The critique of the left and the
party-form was an important part of the expression of anarchism given
the wide dissatisfaction and demobilization in the Philippine left.
Critiquing the program of national industrialization of the Communist
Party, many also turned to deep ecological politics and eventually
anticiv. This ecological turn also mirrors parallel developments by
Popular Democracy who developed Bookchin-esque assembly democracy paired
with green politics. As internet technologies facilitated exchange of
ideas from the global anarchist milieu to those in the Philippines,
cyber-anarchist articulations flourished alongside many of the other ideas.
By the turn of the 2020s marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, a number new
anarchists began learning about anarchist theory from the internet. Some
learned it from academic texts, others from The Anarchist Library, and
others from dissemination from the first wave and in participating in
the old milieu. Emerging from this new wave was the collective and later
distro known as Bandilang Itim (or black flag) which became a forum and
space for the generation of new ideas and theories. Our Struggles
Interlinked referred to the way that different sites of struggles needed
to be connected to one another, emerging in the context of global
uprisings in Hong Kong and the George Floyd protests and then connecting
these to struggles in the Philippines. Self-directed militancy referred
to a localized understanding of self-activity. The text "Wrath Over
Pride" critiqued the old milieu and many of leftists of neglecting
gender and queer struggles, namely abuse, sexual harassment, misogyny,
and transmisogyny. Despite the critiques of the post-left in other
countries of the failure to address these struggles in formalist
anarchist organizations (e.g. especifismo, platformism), these very same
dynamics were replicated in informal spaces in the Philippines. Other
ideas such as organizational dualism, joyful militancy (from the book
with the same name!), abolitionism, harm reduction, and care work were
explored and given emphasis over other prevailing currents in the local
anarchist scene. Joyful militancy in particular was an important
lodestar that spoke to a lot of emerging dissatisfaction with the
Philippine left, crystallized in the critique of rigid radicalism.
Abolitionist ideas and its related concepts of harm reduction,
decriminalization, and care work were often used as starting points for
engagement with the wider non-anarchist public. Indeed, it became
important to refer to the new wave as a milieu of "anarchists and
abolitionists" rather than merely as anarchists. After all, the point is
not to convert everyone to be anarchists, but for people to act for
themselves, especially in joyful, caring, and non-domineering manners.
New groups began to emerge that eventually superseded Bandilang Itim
such as ABOLISYON!, The Dinner Party, and PAGLAYA.
Parallel to these developments was a deepening of the crisis of the left
in the 2022 presidential and general elections. Authoritarian nostalgia
combined with Cambridge Analytics, fake news, the usual guns, goons, and
gold made the 2022 elections dangerous ground. National Democracy once
again hitched their wagon to another bourgeois liberal-democratic
politician, Leni Robredo, in the hope of preventing the election of the
son of the dictator (and eventual winner) Bongbong Marcos. Previously,
National Democracy had hitched their wagon to known mass murderer
Rodrigo Duterte, their opportunism having won no gains for their
movement as Duterte quickly and expectedly betrayed them. Leni Robredo,
however, made no promises to National Democracy, even refusing to
endorse them, yet National Democracy hitched their wagon to Robredo.
In the midst of all this opportunism, left groups that had split from
National Democracy in the 90s ran a futile, yet ambitious, campaign for
president around Laban ng Masa (fight of the people) with the
Leody-Walden tandem, pairing veteran unionist Leody de Guzman with
celebrated left sociologist Walden Bello. One can, of course, quote
Lenin on the use of electoral politics as propaganda campaigns, and this
was indeed precisely the point. Anarchists and abolitionists conducted a
dual campaign, promoting abolitionist, libertarian, prefigurative ideas
to the socialists while the socialists conducted their own campaign for
socialism in the election.
The 2022 elections was a huge defeat for the left across all sectors.
Not only had Duterte loyalists, Marocs loyalists, and kleptocrats won
huge gains, the electoral left with the National Democrats, the social
democrats, and the socialists lost many of their seats and were on the
retreat. This deepened crisis in the Philippine left was actually
generative and useful. While many groups took their poetry from the
past, variably from the 70s or 90s, many were emboldened by the new
ideas discussed in the Laban ng Masa campaign and attempted to find new
poetry. Old ideas were reassessed if no longer useful, other traditions
were assessed for viability. The group of volunteers for Laban ng Masa
(including anarchists) developed a pre-party formation and later formed
Partido Sosyalista. Inside and outside Partido Sosyalista, other ideas
were also being assessed: social ecology, carceral abolition,
prefigurative politics, libertarian socialism, degrowth, municipalism,
autonomism, communization and Trotskyism. The Rebolusyonaryong Partido
ng Manggagawa-Philippines (revolutionary party of workers-Philippines)
was rumored to have removed Marxism-Leninism from its program and
replaced it with "revolutionary Marxism." The Rebolusyonaryong Partido
ng Manggagawa-Mindanao (revolutionary party of workers-Mindanao) adopted
degrowth in the last congress of the Fourth International. Left
communist ideas, including autonomism and communization theory, were
reassessed. Trotskyists formed Talibang Anakpawis abroad and Friends of
the Spartacists locally. Meanwhile, National Democracy would suffer yet
another electoral loss at the 2025 elections (though managing to save
some seats), though social democracy under Akbayan found new resurgence.
A new left group with Kamanggagawa (co-worker) tried TikTok left
populism with great effect, winning one seat in their first election in
2025. While many of these latter groupings are not "libertarian"-indeed,
many still oriented towards either a "proletarian" state or
electoralism-these formations still reflect a new wave of
de-Stalinization and thus still a welcome development.
This regeneration of the Philippine left may not be anarchist, but
anarchists are vibrantly participating and spreading libertarian ideas.
The Local Autonomous Network persists with many infoshops and even an
eco-anarchist community in Davao. The zine culture remains strong,
enhanced as well by the Southeast Asian Anarchist Library which provides
a repository of zines. Anarchists are now active in the anti-corruption
campaign in the country, being active in communities, or doing
much-needed silent work on interlinking struggles or mutual aid.
Continuing challenges in the anarchist milieu remain. Abuse, misogyny,
and transmisogyny persist, and indeed are exacerbated by the
interventions of the openly transpobic Deep Green Resistance. The
failure as well of especifismo and syndicalism has not yet been wholly
assessed, but this does not necessarily represent a problem given
differing contextual and material reality in the country versus other
milieus like that in Indonesia. A lack of formal organizations is hardly
disorganization, after all. And even in informal groupings, anarchists
in the Philippines have shown themselves capable to intervene and interlink.
Those that choose to engage in pluralist, ecumenical, and multi-tendency
groupings like Partido Sosyalista face threats, however. Previously, the
home-grown libertarian socialist tradition of Popular Democracy failed
to cohere and then chose to participate in the social democratic
Akbayan. While initially doing good work in Akbayan, particularly in
participatory democracy, Popular Democracy eventually dissolved into
social democracy and lost their distinctiveness. As such, there is a
risk of a new dissolutionism into Partido Sosyalista.
While the current insurrectionary and revolutionary wave is reemerging
across Asia, most notably in Indonesia and Nepal, the mood and morale in
the Philippines seems to be ebb and retreat. But ebbs in class struggle
can quickly turn into flows and floods. As a milieu of anarchism grows
alongside new expressions of libertarian socialism, various ecologies,
and heterodox Marxisms, we shall see if formations remain in their
respective camps, or interlink struggles together and overcome
particular differences.
Simoun Magsalin
https://organisemagazine.org.uk/2025/12/04/developments-in-the-libertarian-left-in-the-philippines/
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