w o m e n i n s t r u g g l e Interview with Ninotchka Rosca Feminism’s March From Nation to Home NINOTCHKA ROSCA, A writer “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights” to the of poetry and fiction as well as United States and we were amazed at its a long-time feminist and revo- immediate popularity. lutionary activist, received the It was both a good time and a bad American Book Award for her time to establish an organization since the novel Twice Blessed. Forced into Philippine-based movement was undergoing exile from the Philippines in 1977, a fractious time and there were splits all Rosca has lived and worked in the over the place. In the unleashing of what United States while maintaining came to be known as the “anti-deep pen- close ties with the revolutionary etration agent” hysteria [when the CPP and women’s movements in the leadership accused members of being infil- Philippines. In 2010, she helped trators — ed.], approximately a thousand to found Af3irm (Association activists were killed by their own comrades of Filipinas, Feminists Fighting and more were tortured, including men and Imperialism, Re-feudalization and women who’d been with the movement Marginalization), an anti-imperial- from the very beginning. ist, transnational feminist women’s This was a line struggle but it was also organization (www.af3irm.org). a power struggle. And it was somewhat Johanna Brenner interviewed her shocking to witness the absolute fury and for Against the Current. rage with which it was waged. <sigh> In the United States, the broader sol- Johanna Brenner: How has idarity movement crumbled and the only your feminist perspective and organization which remained was our wom- activism evolved in relation to the was agitation from international organiza- en’s organization. By accident, and perhaps experiences you have had, as a revolutionary, as tions like PEN and media organizations, the fortuitously, it grew up almost autonomous a diasporic writer, as an advocate of women’s military decided to claim I had something to in its line-making and operations. Although liberation? do with a little ship that smuggled arms for we carried issues from the Philippines, we the guerrillas. That was bizarre. Ninotchka Rosca: My life has been a focused on those with a direct link here. constant swinging between politics (as an I went through five interrogations and We were instrumental in organizing organizer and polemicist) and literature, spent six months in detention — which against U.S. military bases and raising aware- two extremes in character, one being very convinced me that the dictatorship just ness about the sex trafficking around them. social and the other, solitary. I fell into pol- simply had to be overthrown. So for the We launched the first campaign on the itics almost by accident while my wish to next five years, I did what I could and it was comfort women issue [women forced into be a writer was deliberate; I had no wish at getting worse all the time. People I knew — sexual slavery in wartime — ed.] as well as all to be involved in politics but had from middle class, intellectuals — were being tor- on Asian American children abandoned by childhood been afflicted with the impetus tured and killed; women were being raped fathers. to write. and assassinated. These campaigns led directly to the issue It just so happened that he who would When I got word that a case was being of mail-order brides and global sex traffick- become chair of the new Communist Party filed against me before the military tribunal, ing, for which we practically had to invent of the Philippines (CPP) was an English liter- I ran. I got a fellowship to University of Iowa a language as almost no one was interest- ature major at the university, so we writers and thought I’d cool off for a year. I was on ed in it. Our work led to IMBRA — the grew familiar with the burgeoning political my way home (1977) when word came that International Marriage Brokers Regulatory turmoil. I ended up involved somehow and my name was on the blacklist and I might be Act — passed by Congress in 2005. just kept saying yes, all right, sure I can do arrested at the airport. So I filed for political The Big Split (which we ironically that — not even aware we were making asylum. And then proceeded to do whatev- referred to as the BS) in the Philippines history. And the left-wing political argument er I could to help people back home while rolled along for a decade — 1988-1998; it was just so rational and explained a lot writing novels, short stories, articles. began at the top levels of the movement of things in the Philippines — in contrast around issues related to combat strategy to the obscurantism of religion and the The Movement in Crisis and tactics and occurred among a handful divine-ordained class structure I grew up in. In 1989 I helped create Gabriela of tight-knit men. The initial ideological When Marcos declared martial law, I was Network (GabNet), to provide solidarity for discourse would soon devolve into name imprisoned, of course. [Martial law under Gabriela, a large and militant women’s orga- calling and labeling; some friends who didn’t U.S.-backed dictator Ferdinand Marcos last- nization connected with the left back home. want to take a position were called count- ed from 1972 until 1981 — ed.] Since there Two years before, I had brought their slogan er — whatever and hounded out of the AGAINST THE CURRENT 15 movement. NR: The notion that circular migration is was a means to alleviate poverty was These events, which came to be known positive because it creates “transnational” accepted even by the Left. It was only last as the 2nd Rectification, had both negative people is convenient for imperialism as it year, I believe, that the call was made to end and positive aspects. Negative aspects: they hides the trap of impermanence for migrant labor export — a call GabNet made some destroyed the consolidation of organiza- workers who are forced to move from 15 years ago. tions, dumped practically all which had been country back to home and out again. We This question of focus became urgent kept hidden from the State into the open, have seen the institutionalization of circular when the demand came for us to become a distracted everyone from the business of migration through guest worker programs, formal chapter of the “home-based” wom- waging revolution, demoralized a great num- dual citizenships, work visas, overseas con- en’s organization. We had to take a long ber of forces. Positive aspects: they opened tracts with term limits etc. hard look at that word “home.” up ideological discourse, called into question The Philippine government’s current tar- The proletariat, as the saying goes, has some of the memes by which work and pro- get for overseas deployment has been dou- no country; in which case, we reasoned, it cess were conducted, and compelled some bled from one million to two million going was time to make every country a country to examine theory and strategy. to 200 different countries. The majority are for the proletariat, wherever he/she finds For those of us who would eventually women. The government has worked very himself/herself. There was also the question found AF3IRM, the question was, where do hard to ensure that migrants remain tied to of ideological, political and organizational we make history. By “we” I mean transna- their Philippine identity as part of a “border- leadership — which, through the years, had tional persons. If the focus of work is on less nation.” The condition of impermanence been selected often arbitrarily, based on the the movement at home, we are not there. created by circular migration justifies disen- “old-boys-network.” And because the focus is over there, rather gagement from the politics of the receiving than here, then we’re not here, either. We It’s a constant source of disappointment country and from the need and duty to cre- that despite 40 years of women’s engage- found ourselves simply trying to determine ate change wherever we find ourselves. which material condition or objective reality ment in the Philippine movement, we have Acceptance of this mythical “global should take precedence in our struggle. yet to see any formal ideological/theoret- nation” affects political work around trans- ical work that reflected this history. The Struggling Where We Are national labor. When a Filipino worker Philippine movement regards feminism, envi- JB: A few years ago you gave a talk in Canada suffers a mishap in, say, Saudi Arabia, the ronmentalism, etc. as petty bourgeois dis- where you pointed out that circular migration response is to attack the Philippine govern- tractions, although such issues are seen to has become the basis for a new ideal of the ment — which is fine; but there’s no com- be useful when they can be used to under- “borderless nation,” through which the Philippine mensurate attempt to change conditions in score class exploitation. government attempts to maintain overseas Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and other places. Gabriela Philippines is considered and workers’ ties to their home country. The idea that exporting surplus labor considers itself a national democratic orga- 16 MARCH / APRIL 2013 nization — following the analysis of the experience. We did learn a lot from the ing globalization, so we can take full measure CPP that the Philippines is a semi-colonial Philippine movement; we learned ideology; of the new phenomena it has unleashed and semi-feudal society and needs a rev- we learned practice; we learned how to act on the world.