FORCES OF CHANGE NATIONAL UNITY

Tañada expounded on the need for national unity based on a nationalist framework.

Country Above Party

Tañada believed that national unity must be devoted to the welfare of the people who have so long been neglected.

It must seek to raise the people’s standard of living, not with political dole outs but with sincere program of land reform, intensification of agriculture, gradual industrialization, government economy and official integrity

The Need for Equality

Equality of Sacrifices Equality of Opportunity

THE PROBLEMS OF LABOR

Labor policy as policy of attraction - dangling different manner of seductive inducements before the prospective investor to ensure investment. These inducements can be in the form of:

Little or no taxation Guarantees on profit remittances Special enclaves (export processing zones) Even Filipino citizenship and patrimony Largest inducement – CHEAP and DOCILE LABOR

LABOR’S STAKE & LABOR AS A CATALYZING FORCE

He believed in the power of labor and that the labor movement should follow the tradition of political unionism rather than remain “mere bargaining agents” true to the mold of economism.

He declared that the labor must be a “vehicle of national solidarity and progressive nationalism” as well as a “force for ordering of a better society”

The Right to Strike

Work is basic to man and the right to work, a basic fundamental right. The right to work and all rights needed to support and make it effective, like those to organize,

to earn a minimum wage, to strike, to picket, must be guaranteed and jealously protected. When these rights are denied, or curtailed, there will be unrest, there will be turmoil.

Strength of an Overwhelming Majority

Labor is almost the entire country. They represent an overwhelming majority and this is labor’s potential strength, but is yet to be harnessed and demonstrated.

Although Tañada believes that the labor force represents an overwhelming majority, the rest of the community (professionals, tradesmen, middle-income classes, student and progressive

religious groups) must be one with its action in order to promote change. It is still important to relate to other sectors.

Whether labor must organize a party of its own or merely lend its united weight to one of the existing parties and force such a party to reflect more strongly the sentiment of labor?

Organizing a party of its own is impracticable at this stage, considering that the wage-earning force (although augmented by the first strides in industrialization), is still too small to provide a wide political base.

The second alternative then offers better possibilities. This, according to Tañada, should bring about greater differentiation of principles between the major political parties.

“With substantial labor support, a party with pronounce pro-labor policies could emerge in the Philippines.”

THE ROLE OF THE PRESS IN NATION BULIDING

He believed that dissent is the yeast in the bread of society and that search and articulation of truth is a never-ending process best carried forwarded by writers

Writers are in all societies a special class of people. How special, one may estimate from the proportion of writers, compared to men and women of other professions, that

have been detained or are still in political detention camps.

Writers are given a greater responsibility than those of other professions Writer’s sustenance is truth and truth being the nemesis of all dictatorships, writers during

such regime find themselves jobless, in jail or prostituted

Filipino journalism rendered a soul-stirring service in the formulation of Filipino nationality in the attainment of our freedom as a people, through the ordeals of war

and the hardships of a colonial regime.

The Philippine Revolution began with printed word (Diariong Tagalog, Florante at Laura, Noli me Tangere, La Solidaridad etc.). Kalayaan as an example of the role the press can play in the building of a nation

Journalism in the finest sense—the kind that raises the press to the level of Fourth Estate Little divides the career of journalism in the Philippines from that of politics Filipino Journalists being given the mission to rid the people of their colonial-mindedness

(mission to free the Filipino mind)

THE ROLE OF THE YOUTH IN THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT & THEIR RIGHT TO STAGE RALLIES

Like Rizal, Tañada placed his full confidence on the youth as the country’s hope For him, it is good to give vent to youthful passion in the form of rallies and demonstrations

Youth as the pristine force who will commit their fierce idealism to a cause larger than themselves.

Speaking out is the most significant task the youth can undertake towards building the nation. Youth should be familiar with societal issues and be critical about them. Rallies and demonstrations are integral and vital part of democracy. They are the last resort in the

democratic process

Rallies—“peaceful assemblies”—are used to draw attention to issues to make manifest popular will or the will of the important segments of the citizenry when the usual methods have been tried and proved unavailing

If this is the language they will listen to, then let us speak in that language, the language of mass demonstrations and rallies, provided of course that we always

conduct ourselves in an orderly and civilized manner.

A rally should be judged on what it stood for, what issues it projected what cases it dramatizes and whether these were for the good of the country or not

If there is something wrong with the system, organizing and joining rallies are rights and duties of the youth

Remember the Cry for Balintawak was itself a rally. What would have been the course of Philippine history had the young men and women of 1898 limited

themselves to conferences, discussions and debates, as one critic of the recent rally claims the students should have elected?