Welcoming GABNET LA Summer 09 Interns! August 6, 2009

 

 

*Justine May Calma *  (UCI)                                       *Priscilla Farinas*  (UCLA)                                                 

Friends, please join me in welcoming our wonderful 2 new summer interns. I encourage you to click on the links to the right to learn more about them and to keep up with their process for the weeks ahead.

This summer they will be spreading the word about trafficking to local community orgs and working on expanding GABNET’s Culturally Sensitive Toolkit regarding Trafficking in the Filipino Community by creating podcasts.

Visit often for updates!

Gabnet/Ma-Al Chair Tells Washington Advocates, Legislators: Society Must Stop Treating Children like Throw-away Population June 15, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 10, 2009
Jollene Levid
secgen@gabnet.org
Tel: 323-356-4748

Gabnet/Ma-Al Chair Tells Washington Advocates, Legislators: Society Must Stop Treating Children like a Throw-away Population

LOS ANGELES: Dr. Annalisa Enrile, interim national chairperson of Gabnet of the Mariposa Alliance, did not mince her words at her presentation on trafficked children at the “Children Uniting Nations” conference in Washington, DC.

“Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is one of the major driving forces of trafficking,” said Dr. Enrile.

She pointed out that “In the last 10 years, the population of CSE in the United States has gone from 300,000 to 3 million. Children are often trafficked within and across borders and may also be trafficked multiple times. Most child victims of trafficking come from rural communities and from impoverished families. Because of the poverty areas they are from, most children are also members of the most marginalized populations in their countries with a lack of educational or economic opportunity.”

True to her activist roots, the Chair of Gabnet/Ma-Al highlighted the importance of advocacy and grassroots organizing as a response to the plight of trafficked women and children. She discussed the need and efficacy of organizing the youth citing the example of GabNet Youth in Los Angeles.

Afterwards, Dr. Enrile had discussions with participants on further partnerships between CUN and Gabnet to develop a mentoring program for CSEC victims in areas where there are GabNet chapters.

“GabNet has a long history working against the trafficking of women and children,” she told the participants. “CUN on the other hand has developed one of the best mentoring projects for foster children in the country. This partnership will be rely on our strengths as organizations to address the growing epidemic of girls in the child welfare system who are being exploited as CSEC victims.”

Dr. Enrile met advocates Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam and Phat Farm, and Gabrielle Union, along with several key legislators and social service providers like the Casey Family Foundation.

Gabnet of the Mariposa Alliance has waged the Purple Rose Campaign against the sexual trafficking of Filipinas and Filipino children for more than a decade. Recently, Gabnet expanded its anti-trafficking coverage to include Filipinas exported for manual labor, principally domestic work.

Gabnet will hold its 20th anniversary this September in Berkeley, California and will help formally launch the Mariposa Alliance, a center for joint work by US and transnational women. For more information on these events, contact: secgen@gabnet.org. — ##

May Day Statement of the GABNet/Ma-Al April 21, 2009

 

May Day Rally Los Angeles. March with GABNET LA. 05.01.09 @ 1:30pm, Echo Park, Los Angeles

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2009
Jollene Levid
Gabnet Secretary-General
secgen@gabnet.org
Tel: 323-356-4748
 

 

 

May Day Statement of the GABNet/Ma-Al:
 Demand Immigration Reform; Act to Dismantle Imperialism  
 
The call for a Comprehensive Immigration Reform must be made in conjunction with steadfast  resistance to the globalization policies and practices by US-led imperialism, and an equally steadfast support for people’s movements in the much-imposed upon continents of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
 
May First being International Labor Day, we must recognize the role that imperialism plays in the burgeoning of migration the world over. GABNet of the Mariposa Alliance understands that while comprehensive immigration reform may well solve certain basic issues afflicting our transnational communities here, the root cause of migration is US-led imperialism which has virtually made our home countries economically uninhabitable. 
 
Women the world over have suffered exponentially under imperialist globalization, which exacerbates the patriarchal view that they are a disposable segment of the national population.  Women are driven to acute poverty by the destruction of their traditional livelihood as multinational conglomerates take over national resources and re-organizes national economies into profit-generating machinery for their own benefit.  Women are transformed into cheap labor and sex commodity, as witness in the export processing zones of the world and in the global sex trade.  As if this injury is not sufficient, imperialist culture insults women by pandering the idea that women have value only in terms of how their sexuality can become a source of cash and profit.  Women are being asked to ignore the history of prostitution as originating in slavery.  Truly, imperialism exacerbates patriarchal values, disguising the objectification of women as “choice” and “agency.”
 
On this year’s International Workers’ Day GABNet of the Mariposa Alliance calls on all women to reaffirm their commitment to women’s liberation.  March against imperialism and women’s exploitation;  march for workers and immigrant rights!  
 
GABNet honors all women — migrant, transnational and citizens — for the nobility of their sacrifice to enable their families, communities and nations to survive.  At this time when the financial system’s collapse reveals how greed and selfishness are rewarded the most, women continue to be expected to be selfless and generous, to the extent of suspending their own lives to become workhorses for nations ravaged by imperialism. 
 
 Women in developing countries across the world have long been the engine of development and growth, taking risks and working impossibly hard to provide for their families.  Every day, approximately 3000 Filipinas leave their homes and children to enter precarious situations that can only be described as modern-day slavery.   Sadly, from Nepal to Senegal, from Iraq to Palestine, our sisters have become a symbol of what imperialism means to women: sexual slavery, relentless exploitation, violence, and death.
 
The global economic crisis is devastating the lives of women workers and their families.  In  Asia and Latin America, women working in export manufacturing industries, like clothes and electronics, are often first to be laid off, frequently without pay or compensation. In the Philippines, sex traffickers prey on women who have been laid off from factory jobs, asking them if they want to go and work abroad.  Over one million women and children are trafficked internationally every year, becoming victims of sexual exploitation, labor exploitation and abuse.    
 
There is a direct line between the transformation of women into private property in 4500 B.C. and their continuing oppression and exploitation in the 21st century.  Time to put a stop to this!  Lay down the New Women’s Agenda!  Equality for all in all spheres of human life! 
 
 
STOP ALL ICE RAIDS AND DEPORTATIONS!
LEGALIZATION OF ALL WORKING MIGRANTS!
STOP THE TRAFFICKING AND PROSTITUTION OF WOMEN! 
GENUINE EQUALITY FOR ALL!
A WOMAN’S PLACE IS AT THE HEAD OF THE STRUGGLE FOR THE LIBERATION OF HUMANITY!

US SOLDIERS ARE LIABLE FOR VIOLATION OF RP LAWS IN BALIKATAN-RELATED PROSTITUTION – MAZA April 3, 2009

NEWS RELEASE

03 April 2009

 

 

For Reference:            REP. LIZA LARGOZA MAZA 0920-9134540

                                    Francis Uyanguren (Public Information Officer) 0929-4511305

 

 

 

US SOLDIERS ARE LIABLE FOR VIOLATION OF RP LAWS IN BALIKATAN-RELATED PROSTITUTION – MAZA

 

 

“US troops who patronize prostituted women are liable under Philippine laws. This should be immediately investigated and US servicemen should be prosecuted.”

 

This was the statement of Assistant Minority leader and Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Liza Maza over reports that US soldiers in Bicol were supplied with women nightly.

 

“This is a public crime and under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 (RA 9208), any person who buys or engages the services of trafficked persons for prostitution shall be penalized,” said Maza.

 

Furthermore, Maza said that under Sec.10 of the same law, an offender who is a foreigner shall be immediately deported after serving his sentence and be barred permanently from entering the country.

 

“At the height of the US military bases in the Philipines, around 50,000 women have been prostituted in Olongapo and Angeles City from 1985-1991. Many of these women were trafficked from poor provinces like Samar and Bicol. The presence of US bases has institutionalized prostitution and sex trafficking in the country through the Rest and Recreation industry that primarily catered to US troops,” Maza stressed.

The Gabriela solon expressed alarm that as long as the US-RP VFA is in place, US troops who violate Philippine laws will again run scot-free.

 

 

–
Gabriela Women’s Party National Headquarters
118 Scout Rallos, Brgy. Sacred Heart,
Quezon City
Telefax: (632) 9295342
Email: gabrielawomensparty@gmail.com
Website: www.gabrielawomensparty.net

Office of Gabriela Rep. Liza Largoza Maza
Rm 309 South Wing Bldg.,
House of Representatives, Quezon City
Telefax: (632) 9316268
Email: lizalmaza@yahoo.com

Office of Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan
Rm. 601 South Wing Bldg.
House of Representatives, Quezon City
Telefax: (632) 9315586
E-mail: repluzilagan@gmail.com

 

GABNET PREPARES TO LAUNCH NEW OFFENSIVE AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING March 31, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 29, 2009
Jollene Levid, Gabnet Secretary-General
secgen@gabnet.org
Tel: 323-356-4748
 
 
GABNET PREPARES TO LAUNCH NEW OFFENSIVE AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING
 
March 28, 2009, Los Angeles – On Saturday, March 28, 2009, GABNet of the Mariposa Alliance prepared to launch Purple Rose Campus Committees, the latest in it’s arsenal of weapons against the trafficking of women and children.  The initial twelve campus-based Purple Rose Committees are in the works to combat the near pandemic proportions of human trafficking and modern day slavery.  Annually, over 850,000 persons are trafficked internationally.  Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, generating billions of dollars in profits from the modern day slave trade. 

 
GABNet began the Purple Rose Campaign as part of an international effort in 1999.  The Purple Rose Campaign was established to address the growing numbers of Filipinas who are trafficked into the sex trade, particularly Filipina Mail Order Brides in the United States.  The campaign recently won successes as part of the advocacy group pushing the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA), which was re-authorized last year.  “It’s not enough to just work on legislation.  We have to talk about trafficking at the community level.  That’s the way to identify and service victims.  It’s also the way to address the root causes of why so many Filipinas are trafficked- namely poverty and militarization in the Philippines” said Jollene Levid, Secretary General of GABNet.

 
The Purple Rose Campus Committees are composed of students, faculty members, and community members who are interested in organizing and raising awareness about the trafficking issue.  Each committee has pledged to hold two main events during the year: a fundraiser and a community awareness raising training.  The funds raised from their efforts will benefit victim services.  “We felt it was time for students to become more involved.  The youth have a great capacity to create change and educate others on what is going on.  The Purple Rose Campaign is a formal way for high schools, colleges, and universities to show their support,” stated Loralei Bingamon, Director of GABNet LA’s Filipinas Not For Sale Campaign.

 
The first wave of the Purple Rose Campus Committees will be in the Southern California area, but will eventually be a national effort.  The first twelve campuses include the University of Southern California (USC), Mount Saint Mary’s University, Universities of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Irvine (UCI), and San Diego (UCSD), California State Universities Long Beach (CSULB), Los Angeles (CSULA), and Northridge (CSUN), and Santa Monica Community College (SMCC).  There are also high school committees at Civitas School of Leadership, Narbonne, and Cerritos High Schools. 

 
The creation of the Purple Rose Committees and a Women’s Month celebration in Los Angeles with over 250 people in attendance on Saturday night, March 28th closed Gabnet’s 2009 national Women’s Month activities. –###

Silent No More March 31, 2009

Reading List

1) “Feminism is for Everybody” by bell hooks

2) “Sister Outsider” by Audre Lorde

Today I was motivated to study more on feminism and the various perspectives which exist, hence the booklist above. 

 

As a woman devoted to the empowerment of all women, I feel the first step to building with my sisters is to educate myself. And, although this post may not deal directly with human trafficking issues (as is indicated by the Purple Rose Campaign reference in the title), I hope that you find my reflections today just as significant or even, just as interesting and enlightening.

 

What I want to digest onto the pages of this virtual journal are my thoughts on global feminism and how important it is that we all, men and women, do our part to dismantle the blatant oppression which holds us all back from sharing in a just society and engaging in true community. bell hooks says that the “goal of global feminism is to reach out and join global struggles to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” It is only in relation to the struggles of other women around the globe that we can better understand ourselves and our experiences, our similarities and our differences. Only within a global context can we come to fully undertand the ties between sexist practices  in relation to the site of the abuse- women’s bodies and minds. Thinking globally would allow us to, for example, examine the  sex trafficking of Pilipinas around the globe, link it to what women are going through in China, Africa, South America and connect this to our positionality in the United States.

 

 

What is the point of thinking globally and engaging in a global feminism? It is to ensure that we continue to make moves which encourage the dismantling of neo-colonialist patriarchical ideologies which dominate the world and our society. Practicing global feminism is neccessary in order to change our realities so that we live can live in a world where racism, sexism, and classism are no longer dividers to our solidarity work.

 

Believing in global feminism is one thing, but practicing it is another. Practicing global feminism means using your voice to educate the community. It means letting your beliefs transend beyond your mind and out into the streets via praxis (theory put into action). Whether this means mobilizing for a rally, coordinting educational workshops, or hosting various events, the point is that silence and non-action, in this case, do not serve the purpose. In her speeach, The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, Audre Lorde says,

 

” In the transformation of silence into language and action, it is vitally necessary for eachone of us to establish or examine her function in tha transformation and to recognize her role as vital within that transformation…it is neccessary to teach by living those truths which we believe and know beyond understanding. Because in this way alone we can survive, by taking part in a process of life that is creative and continuing..And where the words of women are crying to be heard, we must each of us recognize our responsibility to seek those words out, to read them and share them an examine them in their pertinence to our lives. That we not hide behind the mocieries of separations that have been imposed upon us and which so often we accept as our own…We can learn to to work and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak when we are tired…for it is not difference which immobilizes, but silence. And there are so many silences which need to be broken.”

Indeed, there are many silences which need to be broken. Speaking up about human trafficking and the sexploitation of women, children, and men locally and around the globe is pertinent as many don’t know this grievance against human life is going on in their own backyards.

Here is a link to a recent trafficking case that occured in Long Beach, CA.

Enslaved in Suburbia: Filipino Indentured Servants and Visa Violators Caught in the Eldercare Trap Two different ways to be illegal in America
By Gendy Alimurung
published: February 19, 2009
http://www.laweekly.com/2009-02-19/news/enslaved-in-suburbia-behind-the-tract-house-door-filipino-indentured-servants-and-visa-violators-caught-in-the-eldercare-trap/

 

Department of Justice Press Release regarding follow up to the case above

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/March/09-crt-267.html

 

Let us not be silent to actions which strip people of their dignity and humanity! Let us be silent no more!

Planting Seeds March 10, 2009

Hello to the world!

Welcome to a blog documenting the process of what it is like to be an organizer in this chaotic world. More specifically, what it is like to be an organizer pushing for women’s right and for the mental, physical, social, economic, etc. empowerment of women.

My name is Loralei Rose Bingamon. I am the Trafficking Programs Coordinator for the GABRIELA Network, Los Angeles Chapter. Within the next twelve weeks, I will be blogging my reflections about what I am learning about the human trafficking situation in the US and abroad. I will be expressing my thoughts and feelings in a vulnerable way.

On this sight you will also find links to the blogs of my two fabulous interns- Jo Ann Paanio & Mutya Brioness. They will be documenting their process as Gab Interns and reflecting upon all the things they will be learning, all the events they attend, the people they meet and how this experience fits into who they are now and whom they want to become.

Are u ready? I think I am.

Let’s begin this journey…