Labour union support for democracy in the Philippines

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On October 28, 2010, The Train interviewed Carleton University graduate student and TA union organizer Precillia Lefebvre and Ottawa activist and Staff Representative for CUPE 4600 (TAs and Contract Instructors at Carleton) Stuart Ryan about their activisms, their union battles, their solidarity trips to the Philippines, and the brutal situation in the Philippines.


We started with the campus-wide labour battle at Carleton University where four unions are poised to strike... and we moved into labour and human rights in the Philippines.

The Philippines is clearly a police state and a brutal regime in the corporate fascism project of the US and Canada.

The killing, torturing, raping, and disappearing of civil and labour organizers is widespread and systemic; to support corporate exploitation interests, not the least of which are the foreign labour mill and Canadian mining interests.

Philippine resistance is diverse and resourceful. It has lessons for Canadian social justice activists and has deeply and personally inspired Precillia and Stuart.