Local conference to study case of Professor Jose Maria Sison and expose ‘anti-terrorism’ laws and labels

Participating Organizations in Canada of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle
Press Release
13 March 2008

A local conference to be held this Sunday will study the precedent-setting case of exiled Philippine revolutionary Jose Maria Sison in an effort to expose how governments around the world are using anti-terrorism legislation and terrorist lists to misrepresent legitimate national and social liberation movements.  A discussion will also take place looking at the situation of other national and social liberation movements and how the particular Canadian anti-terrorism legislation is undermining support and solidarity for genuine people’s struggles.

“Laws, Labels and Liberation (Revisited)” will be held this Sunday, March 16, 2008 from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Vancouver Public Library, (Van Dusen Room) at 350 West Georgia. The conference is being organized by local participating organizations of the International League of Peoples Struggles (ILPS), an international anti-imperialist formation with community organizations and activists concerned about the Canadian government’s arbitrary terrorist-tagging.

Sison, most well-known for founding the Communist Party of the Philippines has been living in exile as a political refugee in the Netherlands since 1988. In 2002, the CPP and the New People’s Army (NPA) were included in the “foreign terrorist organizations’ list of the US Department of State. Sison was also listed as a “foreign terrorist.” The Dutch, European, Australian and Canadian governments then also included Sison on their own so-called ‘terrorist’ lists.  He won a landmark ruling in 2007 annulling his listing by the European Council.  He is currently waging another legal battle against the European Council and his case has won the support of such prominent personalities and organizations as former U.S. Attorney General Ramsay Clark and the US-based National Lawyers Guild.

In 2004, local organizations of the ILPS organized an international conference, “Laws, Labels and Liberation” in Montreal and in 2006 the “Towards a Just and Lasting Peace” conference took place in Vancouver which brought international participants together in solidarity with people’s movements for national and social liberation.  When Professor Sison was unjustly arrested and detained by the Dutch government in August 2007, similar forums entitled “Revisiting Laws, Labels and Liberation” were held in Toronto and Montreal.

Speakers at the forum will include: Professor Jose Maria Sison – ILPS Chairperson and Chief Political Consultant to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (via recorded message), Professor Hari Sharma – teacher, writer and board member of South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy, Ning Alcuitas – lawyer and Canadian representative to the International Coordinating Committee of the ILPS, Billie Pierre – Indigenous organizer and activist, Roberto Carrasco – community activist with solidarity ties to Cuba and Latin America, Khaled Barakat – Palestinian writer and organizer, active with the Free Ahmad Sa'adat Campaign and Jon Nieto – Vice-Chairperson of the BC Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines.

Participating organizations of the ILPS in Vancouver include: BC Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Bus Riders Union, Filipino Nurses Support Group, SIKLAB, Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance/ Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada, Grassroots Women, Alliance for People's Health, Group of Relatives and Friends of Political Prisoners in Mexico, South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy, La Surda Latin American Collective, Free Ahmad Sa'adat Committee, and Al Shorouq Newspaper.

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For more information, please contact: 604-215-1905 or e-mail: ilps_canada@shawcable.com