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Never again to martial law!
We stand in solidarity with our Muslim brothers and
sisters fighting imperialism!
September 21, 2012 marks forty years since the declaration of martial law and the establishment of
theUS-backed dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. The dictatorship lasted for over 13 years and was
ultimately ousted by a peoples power uprising in February 1986. It is well established that the
dictatorship lasted so long because Marcos was a staunch ally of the United States and was propped
up militarily and economically by the US government. This included a permanent presence of US
troops at Subic and Clark bases in Central Luzon. Thousands of communist activists, were assassinated
and killed by the dictatorship, with the support of the United States in overt and covert operations.
Classified military intelligence reports have recently been released which expose the level of US
involvement in the day to day functions of the Marcos dictatorship. It’s now been revealed, for
example, that the establishment of the infamous ‘safehouses’, which served as half-way houses
for the torture of communist cadre, was first proposed by US embassy officials. These ‘safe’
houses were institutionalized as the torture chambers of the dictatorship where communist party
members were routinely tortured and murdered.
The military documents dated 2 January 1973, and entitled “Institution of safehouses”, states
that: “It was upon the suggestion of our friend from the US embassy that we institutionalize the
system of safehouses based on their experience in Central America and Vietnam.”
“Arrested communists, especially those in the party leadership must, as much as possible not
be brought to military camps or detention centers after arrest. We must maintain rented houses
that will serve as safehouse or half way house for the initial custodial investigation [of] the suspects….
The interrogation and physical extraction of information must be conducted in these safehouses.
This shall [also] ensure that in the event that something happens to the detainee, the organization
will have no liability. Proper disposition of the evidence, however, is adviced.”
These chilling instructions for the institutionalized torture of communist party leaders in a system of
safehouses, where information was “physically extracted” to the point of murdering them and for the
“proper disposition” of the “evidence”, resulted in thousands of cadres who were ‘disappeared’ and
whose bodies and graves have as yet to be found.
Today such practices continue in the guise of the campaign against terrorism conducted by the US
and other imperialist countriesagainst our Muslim brothers and sisters, who are facing the torture
chambers and killing machines in ‘safehouses’ such as Guantanamo Bay, through extra-judicial
‘renditions’, murderous drone attacks and other forms of carnage and destruction. We see and
hear some of their stories, and through our own experience of a US-backed dictatorship,
understand the brutality that they suffer.
The embassies of the United States have, in our experience, always been establishments of dens
of spies of the CIA and other repressive arms of the US state and military establishment. We
therefore stand in solidarity with those demonstrating in their tens of thousands outside US
embassies around the world today. The scope of the mobilizations indicate to us that this is not
just about a video and it would be naive to believe that this is the case. These mass mobilizations
are an expression of the distrust and anger against imperialism, especially the main imperialist
military power the US, that continues its campaign of occupation, war and militarization around
the world.
Therefore we stand in solidarity with them, in their rage and in their struggle.
September 21, 2012
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