About 40 anarchists wearing masks vandalized and disrupted downtown Manila near where the Philippine State of the Nation Address was held July 25. Anarchists acting without leaders were small in numbers in comparison to around 8000 authoritarian-leftist protesters, some of whom got food or money to rally in a permitted zone — wishing for their demands in conjunction with corporate media and state institutions who fuck up the lives of millions of people in the archipelago. These are everyday reflected in the unprecedented growth of poverty, ecological destruction, homelessness, unemployment, hunger and other miserable conditions most of the inhabitants of the country endure.
Massive numbers of riot cops with batons and shields faced the authoritarian left in a typical-protest ritual. Every time is another rallying cry of pacifism, persuading the masses to another form of government, wishing it will happen one day. Of course, they could not get near the Hall of Congress at the back of Sandiganbayan (office of the Ombudsman), where the president (Benigno Aquino III) proudly addressed his accomplishments. The state and the left know each other well. Each of them is a ruling and authoritarian form. They are a bunch of leftist politicians building their nests in congressional bodies making laws and profit at the expense of the obedient citizen.
When the anarchist demo began, we reclaimed the streets and disrupted the normal flow of traffic. It was an unexpected moment for most of the authorities. As the cops watched the permitted zone to control the leftist protestors, they were shocked when they saw anarchists marching against the flow of the permitted march. Our main banner read “There is no change in continued reform. Anarchist revolution is the solution. Destroy hierarchy. Defend ecology. End poverty.”
We were loud even without a megaphone with our screams, drums and brave passion. We handed out leaflets and threw paint bombs at buses covered with advertising. We covered the permit zone with graffiti, stickers and circle A symbols directed against the state and capitalist oppression. In front of UCPB bank we set off firecrackers and protested.
Fighting the political death machine by disrupting the State of the Nation Address was a new tactic for us–the local version of disrupting the WTO, JPEPA, ASEAN, APEC and other capitalist trade talks, which are ruining the world and dooming its inhabitants to annihilation and destruction.
It was war from our hearts. It was spontaneity. There were no arrests.