HIMAGSIK KAYUMANGGI

ANTONIO GRAMSCI’S THEORY OF THE ‘NATIONAL-POPULAR’ & SOCIALIST REVOLUTION IN THE PHILIPPINES by E. SAN JUAN, Jr. Though in substance, yet in form, the struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle. The proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all settle matters with its own bourgeoisie… The workingmen have no country. We cannot take from them what they have no got. Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political supremacy, must rise to be the leading class of the nation, must constitute itself as the nation, it is so far itself national, though not in the bourgeois sense of the word. --KARL MARX & FRIEDRICH ENGELS, “Manifesto of the Communist Party” (1848) (1971, 101,109) Recent political events mark the beginning of a phase in which insurrection has become the sole means for the masses to express their political will. --ANTONIO GRAMSCI, letter dated Feb. 1925 (1971, lxxviii) Gramsci has been pronounced “dea...

KAILANGAN LAMANG, IDUGTONG AT PAGKABITIN ANG MGA AKSIDENTE “Only connect….” --E.M. Forster, A Passage to India --E. SAN JUAN, Jr. ….Di na umasa sa pirasong ass ni Britney Spears “sneaking into the Philippines” tuluyang sumabak ang katawan sa rali ng GABRIELA mula Rotunda hanggang Plaza Miranda-- Nasulyapan kita Walang babala’y sinagi pinadaplisan mo lamang…. Ay, titi ng Ama, salbakutang kabuktutan ng rehimeng Arroyo! Paano maibubuo ang body politic mula sa pira-pirasong lamang ikinalat sa buong daigdig? Samantala, sentensiyado na si William Corpuz, Pinoy sa California, USA-- nilaslas niya ang lalamunan ng asawa, nilaslas ng walang premeditasyon-- Nagprotesta ang mga Pinay, pati si Eve Ensler ng “Usaping Puk….” Salbakutang seksismo ba ang dahilan? O situwasyon ng OFW sa buong daigdig? Nangyari ito sa “land of milk and honey”--Ay, titi ng American Idols at Lea Salonga! Saksi tayo sa krimeng extrajudicial killings, salvaging, terorismo ng Estadong neokolonyal habang U...

BUKAS, MAY-NILAD! ni E. SAN JUAN, Jr. “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion….” ---PSALM 137 Mula kay Ka Alegria, pasalubong ang cancion ng sosyalistang pakikibaka sa Venezuela, kalugod-lugod na balitang ipinaabot mo bilang balik-bayan-- Bagamat sinagkaan hinarang, patuloy ang agos ng Revolucion Bolivariano sa lupang binusabos ng imperyalistang dayuhan unti-unting bumabangon…. Sana’y magtagumpay ang mga makatarungan Habang dito sa Babilonya kami’y nakadukwang sa ilog, naghihintay tumatangis sa paggunita ng lupang tinubuan—kailan tutubusin? Paano namin isasatinig ang awit ng Panginoon sa bayang ipinagtapunan? Paano magdudulot ng tuwa sa pangungulila nang tangayin ng estranghero? Panalangin nating magtagumpay ang mga makatarungan Nakaupo sa pampang ng ilog Babilonya, lumuluha tumataghoy tangay ng agos kimkim ang alaala ng naiwang tahanan… bumabalik sa panaginip ang lupang sinakop bansang nagkawatak-watak di mapahinah...

EXILE’S RETURN: ON E. SAN JUAN’s Balikbayang Mahal/Passages from Exile by Tamara Powell Associate Professor of English, Louisiana Tech University E. San Juan, Jr.’s latest work is not a polysyllabic, hard-hitting work of critical analysis like those he is best known for. Instead, it is a poetry-filled work entitled Balikbayang Mahal/Passages from Exile. This work is a collection of old and new poems and also includes a long essay on exile and diaspora entitled “Sa Loob at Labas ng Bayan Kong Sawi: Emergency Signals from a Filipino Exile.” One of the most striking features of the work is the bevy of languages represented. The poems appear in their original forms in either Filipino or English. A few poems also appear with French and Chinese translations accompanying them, and there are poems in Spanish and Italian. Most of the 35 poems are accompanied by a translation into at least one other language. Some poems, like “Mask of the Poet,” appear in English and Filipino with German a...