A Time to Rise: The Collective Memoirs of the Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP), edited by Rene Ciria Cruz, Cindy Domingo and Bruce Occena.

This book is the most vivid recounting yet published of young activists confronting U.S. racism and Washington’s empire in the 1970s and ’80s. If you want to get a taste of how Marxist analysis and organizational cohesion can unleash both individual creativity and collective power, read this book.

Summary Execution: The Seattle Assassinations of Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes, by Michael Withey.

On June 1, 1981, two labor activists and members of the KDP, Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes, were murdered in Seattle in what was made to appear like a gang slaying. But the victims’ families and friends suspected they were considered a threat to the dictatorship of Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his regime’s relationship to the United States. Combining grassroots organizing, coalition building, political investigation, and legal action, the Committee for Justice for Domingo and Viernes proved that Marcos and his co-conspirators had ordered and funded the assassinations, and won an unprecedented $23.5 million judgement against the Marcos estate. This is the story of that effort.  

San Francisco’s International Hotel: Mobilizing the Filipino Community in the Anti-Eviction Movement, by Estella Habal

The struggle to save the International Hotel, in the San Francisco neighborhood known as Manilatown, was a years-long battle that galvanized tens of thousands of people in support of the elderly tenant activists, mostly Filipino bachelors who had emigrated to the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s for menial labor. It culminated in an eviction consisting of assault by horseback-riding sheriff deputies against more than 3,000 people defending the hotel with linked arms. When finally forced to leave their home, each evicted tenant was accompanied by at least one young activist who had come to find their roots in the lives of the “manongs” (respected elders). In telling this compelling story, Estella Habal features her own memories of the Anti-Eviction Movement, focusing on the roles of Filipino Americans and their participation in both the anti-eviction protests and the nascent Asian American movement.

Women Against Marcos: Stories of Filipino and Filipino American Women Who Fought a Dictator, by Mila De Guzman

Under martial law in the Philippines, tens of thousands of activists were arrested and detained and countless tortured and murdered; women prisoners were raped, subjected to others forms of sexual violence, and killed. Besides clamping down on all civil liberties, the totalitarian state used all branches of its military to spy on citizens and suppress dissent. The regime also extended its repression to the Filipino community in the U.S. The Marcos dictatorship drew out great courage from thousands of women in the Philippines and in the U.S. Despite the exigencies of fighting a dictator, they asserted women’s empowerment and opposed patriarchy within the anti-dictatorship movement. This book highlights the first-person stories of six women who joined the historic struggle against the Marcos dictatorship.

The Forbidden Book: The Philippine-American War in Political Cartoons, edited by Abe Ignacio, Enrique de la Cruz, Jorge Emmanuel and Helen Toribio

The campaign to bury the history of U.S. manipulation, racism, pillage and annexation in the Philippines began even while the war was still underway. Now, 104 years later, this work brings to light events that have been subject to a 100-year long cover-up. The volume is also a vivid illustration of the direct continuity between the ideologues of “manifest destiny” in 1900 and the neoconservative Project-for-a-New-American-Century crowd that is in charge of Washington’s policies today.

Reviews of three of these books by Max Elbaum can be found at:

Our Generation of Youth Knew No Boundaries: A Review of A Time to Rise

An Active Recovery of the Past: A Review of San Francisco’s International Hotel

Vivid Images Bring History to Light: A Review of The Forbidden Book

And for much more information about the KDP and additional resources, go to the special website, Legacy of the KDP