Social Movements After Martial Law
Social Movements after Martial Law
Even after the martial law, social movements still existed because the basic issues remained ignored by the state. Post-Martial Law period was a transition between the authoritarianism to democracy. Therefore, they are challenged to find ways on how to take advantage of the resources available under the new political dispensation. The three dominant social movements in this era are the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army (NPA) and National Democratic Front (NDF). There came a coalition between these three and with other organizations to have a greater force because according to Morales, “no single organization could win power legally and govern effectively alone and for itself.” CPP-NPA-NDF continues to be part of social movements that are influenced by the concept of revolution. They wanted to sweep away the current social and political institutions in order to attain the desired development. In order to address this, they identify the political opportunity structures and other strategies which could help them in the pursuit of democratization. First, was creating a broad coalition front based on the people’s concerns. It was an easier way to gain support from the people who are the ones that are greatly affected with the issues like sudden increase on prices of basic commodities. These are the peasants, workers and the urban poor. Second is through electoral politics. This was given impetus by the party-list system which allotted the maximum of three seats in the House of Representatives. It was a strategy to intervene in the decision-making of the government. These social movements also had taken advantage of the developing information and communication technology. This had helped them to communicate effectively and have enhanced the mission of the social movements.
However these social movements still wasn’t able to succeed in addressing socioeconomics equalities and poverty. The government
Even after the martial law, social movements still existed because the basic issues remained ignored by the state. Post-Martial Law period was a transition between the authoritarianism to democracy. Therefore, they are challenged to find ways on how to take advantage of the resources available under the new political dispensation. The three dominant social movements in this era are the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People’s Army (NPA) and National Democratic Front (NDF). There came a coalition between these three and with other organizations to have a greater force because according to Morales, “no single organization could win power legally and govern effectively alone and for itself.” CPP-NPA-NDF continues to be part of social movements that are influenced by the concept of revolution. They wanted to sweep away the current social and political institutions in order to attain the desired development. In order to address this, they identify the political opportunity structures and other strategies which could help them in the pursuit of democratization. First, was creating a broad coalition front based on the people’s concerns. It was an easier way to gain support from the people who are the ones that are greatly affected with the issues like sudden increase on prices of basic commodities. These are the peasants, workers and the urban poor. Second is through electoral politics. This was given impetus by the party-list system which allotted the maximum of three seats in the House of Representatives. It was a strategy to intervene in the decision-making of the government. These social movements also had taken advantage of the developing information and communication technology. This had helped them to communicate effectively and have enhanced the mission of the social movements.
However these social movements still wasn’t able to succeed in addressing socioeconomics equalities and poverty. The government