During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Filipino and Filipino American progressives pivoted to online actions and remote organizing work to continue the fight against fascism in the Philippines. Through social media campaigns and Zoom events, organizations like Malaya Movement were opened up to people across the country who hadn’t been reached by traditional organizing work before, like those of us in Kansas.

The Malaya Movement national campaign “Palayain: Free all Political Prisoners” aims to build awareness about the conditions of the growing number of political prisoners in the Philippines, highlight the causes they are fighting for, and provide tangible support for their well-being while calling for their immediate and unconditional release.

We are Malaya Tri-City! Our chapter is based in Northern California, encompassing four neighboring cities: Fremont, Newark, Union City, and Hayward. The Tri-City area is home to tens of thousands of Filipinos, many of whom are migrant workers. One in five Union City residents are Filipino, roughly equivalent to 14,000 Filipinos. Tri-City Filipinos mostly work in the service and retail industries. Our area has popular Filipino businesses such as Seafood City, Red Ribbon and Jollibee, where a lot of migrant workers can be found. The large demographic of Filipinos in our area serve as a strong basis for why we, as Malaya, need to organize in the Tri-City area to fight for human rights and democracy in the Philippines.

The Malaya Movement made history in 2020 with the founding of the Florida chapter, spreading the fight for genuine democracy in the Philippines to a new region in the American South. Despite the challenges of its creation during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and building a progressive Filipino organization on reactionary and conservative ground, our growth in membership and in the community serves as a reminder that the cause of anti-fascism and anti-dictatorship is just and that it is right to arise.