Diosdado “Ka Fort” Fortuna, 51, was riding his motorcycle on his way home from the Nestlé picketline on September 22 when he was shot at close range. He was the chairman of PAMANTIK, the regional chapter of Kilusang Mayo Uno (May First Movement) in Southern Tagalog and union president in Nestlé. [more]

Hacienda Luisita, Tarlac City – Unidentified armed men rammed into a barricade of striking workers in Hacienda Luisita Wednesday night [January 5] and shot two [2] union members , at the exact spot where Congressman Benigno Aquino III told protesters on the night of January 2 that any talk with the strikers is doomed to fail.

Four gun men on board a Nissan Patrol driving from inside Las Haciendas De Luisita and coming out to the west gate drove through the makeshift barricade manned by striking workers at about 10 pm Wednesday night and shot Jorge Loveland, 32, resident of Barangay Balete, Tarlac City and critically wounded Ernesto Ramos, 50, of Barangay Mapalacsiao, uncle of CATLU president, Ricardo Ramos.

Doctors at the Ramos General Hospital, where the victims were rushed, pronounced Loveland, who was hit by a single bullet in the upper left breast, in stable condition. Ramos, who was also hit by a single bullet in the stomach is in critical condition and will undergo a major operation. (more)

Related story: KARAPATAN denounces new attempt on the lives of striking workers in Luisita

Quezon City, Philippines (Indymedia QC) -- In major cities all over the Philippines, workers and activists celebrated Labor Day with militant rallies.

In Manila, tens of thousands from all corners of the metropolis converged at Liwasang Bonifacio. The Manila rally turned into a campaign rally for Anakpawis, the party that represents the alliance of workers, peasants and urban poor in the coming May 10 partylist elections.

The rally was marked, among other things, by an impressive cultural presentation by Teatro Mayo Uno. Among the performers was the Anakpawis lead nominee himself, Crispin Beltran, who only days before had denounced a US plan to send some 100 observers to monitor the May 10 elections.

Pictures by arkibong bayan: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Even as the government and some sections of the media tried to discredit the March 30 nationwide transport strike staged by the Pinag-isang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) and a few other transport groups, it was definitely a success.

Aside from having been able to paralyze 85-97 percent of public transport in the routes it affected, which included Quezon City and a number of other areas in Metro Manila, it gained support from the commuting public, whom the government always uses as an argument against transport strikes.

However, the fare recalibration which the government gave in an attempt to avert the transport strike is still not enough, and oil prices have yet to be rolled back contrary to the demands of Piston and other transport groups.

Nevertheless, the strike is still a success because it compelled the government to take the transport sector's case seriously.

“Good food, good life”— thus goes the tag line of the food giant Nestlé Philippines Inc. in its advertisements. Apparently, these words are not for the company's own workers, as more than 300 of them continue to decry making do with “bad food” and suffering a “bad life” since they went on strike two years ago.

The Filipino masses are not likely to forget 2003 for a long time. They will most probably remember this year as one of the worst in recent history.

Aside from a crisis-ridden economy which the government tried to veil with lies (with hardly any success), the different basic sectors of the people had to put up with their own litanies of misery.

The workers, in this centennial year of Labor Day observance in the Philippines, had to endure high unemployment. The peasantry found themselves poorer than in previous years. Likewise the urban poor suffered from an acute lack of jobs, social services--and hope.

IMC-QC presents a series of yearend reports from Bulatlat.com.