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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2022
This article documents a significant and previously unknown episode in the history of Philippine labor, the explosive Manila Port Strike of the arrastre service workers—stevedores and longshoremen—in 1963. The strike was among the largest, costliest and most politically charged labor struggles in the nation's history and yet not only has no account of it been written, it has found no mention in over a half-century of historiography. Using confidential US State Department memoranda, contemporary newspaper accounts, Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) publications, and material published by the Lapiang Manggagawa (LM), I reconstruct the history of the strike. This article examines how an event of this magnitude, while still part of living memory, could disappear from the historical record. The case of the 1963 Port Strike highlights the need to recover the histories of the oppressed by reading not only the official archives, but also the narratives of the workers’ own organisations, against the grain.
The author wishes to thank Peter Zinoman, John Sidel, and Vicente Rafael for their support.
1 Manila Chronicle (MC), 25 Aug. 1963.
2 Manila Times (MT), 14 Aug. 1963, 2-A.
3 Sison was expelled from the PKP in 1967, an expression of the tensions manifested in the Sino–Soviet split. He founded a party tied to Beijing's political line, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), in 1968. See further Joseph Scalice, ‘Crisis of revolutionary leadership: Martial law and the communist parties of the Philippines’ (PhD diss., UC Berkeley, 2017). By 1966, social tensions in Philippine society had sharpened factional disputes within the party to breaking point. In 1963, however, the leadership of the party acted with unanimity in their support for Macapagal.
4 Katipunan ng mga Samahan ng mga Manggagawa (KASAMA), ‘Unang Pambansang Kongreso’, Feb. 1972, Philippine Radical Papers (henceforth PRP), University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, 09/10.02, p. 28.
5 Confidential US State Department Central Files, Philippine Republic, 1955–63, 896.00/5-1561, p. 16; 896.00/9-1362, p. 11 (hereafter CUSDPR). CUSDPR was microfilmed from National Archives, College Park, Maryland, Record Group 59, decimal nos. 796, 896, and 996 (the Philippine Republic internal affairs) and decimal nos. 696 and 611.96 (the Philippine Republic foreign affairs and US relations with the Philippine Republic).
6 MC, 14 Sept. 1963.
7 See Kerkvliet, Benedict, The Huk Rebellion: A study of peasant revolt in the Philippines (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977)Google Scholar.
8 I explore this argument in Scalice, Joseph, ‘The geopolitical alignments of diverging social interests: The Sino–Soviet split and the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas, 1966–67’, Critical Asian Studies 53, 1 (2021): 45–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
9 On Sison's political background and entry into party leadership, see Scalice, Joseph, ‘“We are siding with Filipino capitalists’: Nationalism and the political maturation of Jose Ma. Sison, 1959–61’, Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 36, 1 (2021): 1–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
10 The CPP was founded in January 1969 but its official documents were backdated to December 1968 to coincide with Mao Zedong's birthday; Jones, Gregg, Red revolution: Inside the Philippine guerrilla movement (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1989), p. 17Google Scholar.
11 My account of Ignacio Lacsina's political career is based largely on material in the CUSDPR, and in particular reports submitted by Lacsina to his embassy contacts. The documents in the CUSDPR from 1955 to 1963 are divided into two sets of microfilm. The first consists of 24 reels covering 1955–59, and the second of 14 reels from 1960 to January 1963. The CUSDPR comprises the daily and weekly briefings produced by the US intelligence, diplomatic and economic apparatus in the Philippines. Given US concerns to protect its economic interests, prevent labor revolts, and monitor and control political activity in the country, these documents are exceptionally detailed. They provide a unique historical window on labor in the Philippines, no other contemporary account is so regular and so detailed. These accounts, however, were produced in the interests of Washington, in many ways, an enemy of Philippine labor. Thus, while the CUSDPR is a valuable source, it can only be used with caution and suspicion. It is organised by subject heading/date: entry 896.062/2-2756, e.g., corresponds to the subject heading 896.062, dated 27 Feb. 1956.
12 The FFW was founded and funded by Jesuits, militantly anti-communist, and often used to provide scab labor to break up strikes. See Despatch 360 in CUSDPR, 896.06/10-1656, p. 8; Tolosa, Benjamin Jr., ed., Socdem: Filipino social democracy in a time of turmoil and transition, 1965–1995 (Manila: Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, 2011), p. 219Google Scholar.
13 Bernard, Théo, ‘Commission Internationale contre le Régime Concentrationnaire (CICRC) and the ICFTU consolidate their joint activity’, Saturn Monthly Review 2, 1 (1956): 92Google Scholar; Kuby, Emma, ‘In the shadow of the concentration camp: David Rousset and the limits of apoliticism in postwar French thought’, Modern Intellectual History 11, 1: 147–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
14 Saturn Monthly Review 2, 1 (1956): 2, 21–22, 67.
15 Memo re: Lacsina plans visit to Communist China, in CUSDPR, 896.062/2-1759.
16 CUSDPR, 896.062/4-2059, p. 7.
17 CUSDPR, 896.062/5-159, p. 2.
18 CUSDPR, 896.062/7-1859; Richardson, Jim, Komunista: The genesis of the Philippine Communist Party 1902–1935 (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2011), pp. 210, 228Google Scholar; Fuller, Ken, A movement divided: Philippine communism, 1957–1986 (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 2011), p. 44Google Scholar.
19 CUSDPR, 896.00/2-962, p. 10. The only sizeable labor organisation in 1961 to back Macapagal was Tan's FFW. Macapagal dedicated a chapter of his memoirs to his administration's relations with labor; Macapagal, Diosdado, A stone for the edifice: Memoirs of a president (Quezon City: Mac Pub. House, 1968)Google Scholar.
20 MC, 28 Jan. 1962. The MC carried the exclusive story because of Lopez's close ties to a number of labor leaders, including Cid and Oca. Pedro Castro died of a heart attack two weeks before the meeting.
21 Israel Bocobo and Vicente Rafael drew up the organisation's constitution, Adrian Cristobal wrote its manifesto, and Baltazar Cuyugan carried out organisational planning. Felixberto Olalia submitted a proposed resolution on the need for unity in the trade union movement. Like Olalia and Castro, Cuyugan was a PKP member (Teodosio Lansang, In summing up: A personal and political history [Quezon City: New Day, 1999], p. 66). I have been unable to locate any original documents from this meeting. Lacsina met in secret on several occasions with US labor attaché Jorma Kaukonen, to provide details on the meetings. My account is based on Kaukonen's memo of Lacsina's reports (CUSDPR, 796.00/2-1562).
22 CUSDPR, 796.00/2-1562, p. 3.
23 CUSDPR, 796.00(W)/3-2362, p. 2.
24 Lacsina's NATU joined a Labor Day rally with the FFW, an event at which Macapagal spoke. Lacsina read a joint manifesto of NATU and the FFW, but skipped the first portion of the document which ‘denounced communism’ and favoured ‘free enterprise over socialism’. CUSDPR, 796.00(W)/5-462, p. 1.
25 Raul Rodrigo, The power and the glory: The story of the Manila Chronicle, 1945–1998 (Pasig: Eugenio Lopez Foundation, 2007), p. 159.
26 CUSDPR, 796.00(W)/8-2062, p. 2.
27 Fuller, A movement divided, pp. 12–13; Jose Ma. Sison and Rainer Werning, The Philippine Revolution: The leader's view (New York: Taylor & Francis, 1989), p. 44; Jose Ma. Sison, Defeating revisionism, reformism and opportunism: Selected writings, 1969 to 1974 (Quezon City: Aklat ng Bayan, 2013), p. 173; Jesus Lava, Memoirs of a communist (Pasig: Anvil, 2002), p. 247.
28 CUSDPR, 896.00/8-2462, pp. 8–9.
29 CUSDPR, 896.00/9-2162, p. 6.
30 Arrastre workers, longshoremen who move goods around the port, are distinct from stevedores, who load and off-load goods on board ship. Among those who noted Oca's intimate connections with the Lopez family was leading Communist and political prisoner, Angel Baking. Jesse Galang and Angel Baking, ‘Dialogue with an ex-Collegian editor’, Philippine Collegian, 11 Sept. 1963, p. 4.
31 The Manila Port Service funded the construction of the PTWO headquarters in 1958: P300,000, to be repaid from subsequent years’ dividends.
32 CUSDPR, 796.00/10-3161, p. 2. Allegations of corruption against Oca, including evidence of his ownership of a nightclub and sizeable personal wealth were the subject of a congressional investigation in 1962–63, cropping up occasionally in the press, including during the 1963 strike. See MT, 15 May 1963; 16 May 1963.
33 CUSDPR, 796.00/10-3161, p. 2.
34 CUSDPR, 896.061/11-2162.
35 CUSDPR, 796.00(W)/10-2662.
36 CUSDPR, 896.00/10-1962, p. 8.
37 CUSDPR, 896.061/11-2162; Sunday Times Magazine, 11 Nov. 1962; Manila Bulletin, 10 Nov. 1962.
38 CUSDPR, 796.00(W)/11-2362, p. 5.
39 ‘Manila's Port Strike’, International Transport Workers’ Journal 23, 11 (1963): 235.
40 CUSDPR, 896.062/11-2662.
41 Complicating matters further, Justice Secretary Juan Liwag issued an announcement that the Perez-Oca agreement, concluded that morning, was not binding on the Bureau of Customs.
42 In the same address, Macapagal appointed Romualdez to head the Bureau of Customs. Romualdez had been leading the drive against Oca and as head of Customs he would be in direct conflict with the PTGWO at the port.
43 CUSDPR, 796.00(W)/12-762.
44 CUSDPR, 896.062/12-462.
45 The most notable absence from its membership was Tan's FFW.
46 MC, 3 Aug. 1963.
47 Fuller, A movement divided, p. 16; Alfredo N. Jr. Salanga, ‘The politics of labor’, Asia Philippines Leader, 16 June 1972, p. 66.
48 Jose Ma. Sison, ‘Ka Felixberto “Bert” Olalia: Hero and martyr of the working class and the Filipino people’, Aug. 2003.
49 Lapiang Manggagawa, ‘Lapiang Manggagawa Platform’, Progressive Review 1, 58 (1963).
50 Ibid., p. 58.
51 Ibid., p. 60.
52 Ibid., p. 61.
53 The founding document attempted to make an additional appeal to the masses when it declared that ‘Land for the landless shall be transformed from a slogan to seduce votes into a concrete program of land reform’ (ibid., p. 59), but not another word was written about this.
54 Ibid., p. 60.
55 Ibid, p. 61.
56 Ibid.
57 MC, 2 July 1963, 14; MT, 14 May 1963.
58 MC, 18 Sept. 1963.
59 MT, 8 May 1963; 14 May 1963; 17 May 1963, 11-A.
60 MC, 2 July 1963, p. 14.
61 Ibid.
62 Quijano de Manila, ‘Labor enters politics’, Philippines Free Press, 7 Sept. 1963, pp. 40–41.
63 Sison, Ka Felixberto ‘Bert’ Olalia.
64 MC, 31 July 1963.
65 MT, 9 May 1963; 4 June 1963, 10-A; MC, 13 Aug. 1963, p. 10.
66 This was clearly expressed, for example, in the introduction by Sison to Lapiang Manggagawa, Handbook on the Land Reform Code (Manila: M. Colcol, 1963).
67 MT, 19 May 1963. My account of the strike is based on a reconstruction of events using daily reports in the Manila Times, Manila Bulletin, and Manila Chronicle. The MC dedicated the most space to the events, and my citations are primarily drawn from its pages. I bring in material from the Times and the Bulletin where necessary to supplement the MC's account.
68 MT, 12 Jun 1963.
69 ‘Manila's Port Strike’, p. 237.
70 MC, 11 July 1963, pp. 1, 16.
71 MC, 13 July 1963, p. 4.
72 MC, 12 July 1963.
73 MC, 14 July 1963, p. 8.
74 MC, 28 July 1963, p. 3.
75 MC, 3 Aug. 1963, pp. 7, 17.
76 Scalice, ‘Crisis of revolutionary leadership’, pp. 158–76.
77 MC, 7 Aug. 1963, p. 4.
78 Liberal Party and Lapiang Manggagawa, ‘Liberal Party–Labor Party Coalition Agreement’, Appendix N in Macapagal, A stone for the edifice, pp. 466–7.
79 Ibid.
80 MC, 10 Aug. 1963, p. 14; 11 Aug. 1963, p. 4; 1 Oct. 1963, p. 20.
81 MC, 7 Aug. 1963.
82 Ibid., p. 8.
83 MC, 8 Aug. 1963.
84 MC, 10 Aug. 1963.
85 MC, 9 Aug. 1963, p. 18.
86 MC, 13 Aug. 1963, p. 10.
87 MC, 14 Aug. 1963, p. 2.
88 MC, 15 Aug. 1963, p. 15.
89 MC, 14 Aug. 1963.
90 MC, 15 Aug. 1963.
91 MC, 17 Aug. 1963.
92 MC, 11 Aug. 1963, p. 7.
93 Ibid.
94 MC, 15 Aug. 1963, pp. 1, 15.
95 Ibid., p. 15.
96 MC, 16 Aug. 1963. Having lost the LP nomination to Villegas, Ramon Bagatsing began to campaign for Oca; MC, 13 Oct. 1963.
97 MC, 17 Aug. 1963, p. 9.
98 V. Cesar de Leon, ‘Why Philippine labor is supporting the Liberal administration’ [1963], in Charles TR Bohannan Papers, 29/18, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, CA.
99 MC, 23 Aug. 1963.
100 MC, 18 Aug. 1963.
101 MC, 1 Sept. 1963, p. 17.
102 MC, 18 Sept. 1963, p. 7.
103 MC, 16 Sept. 1963.
104 CUSDPR, 896.00/8-2561, p. 5.
105 MC, 5 Sept. 1963.
106 MC, 8 Sept. 1963.
107 MC, 9 Sept. 1963.
108 Lapiang Manggagawa, Handbook on the Land Reform Code.
109 Ibid., pp. viii, x.
110 Inter alia, MC, 27 Sept. 1963, 3-A.
111 MC, 24 Aug. 1963.
112 MC, 25 Aug. 1963.
113 MC, 30 Aug. 1963.
114 MC, 26 Sept. 1963.
115 Ibid.
116 Philippines Free Press, 5 Oct. 1963, p. 12.
117 MC, 26 Sept. 1963.
118 MC, 28 Sept. 1963.
119 MC, 13 Oct. 1963.
120 MC, 12 Nov. 1963.
121 Macapagal, A stone for the edifice, p. 220; Republic of the Philippines Official Directory 1965 (Manila: Public Information [Press] Office, Office of the President of the Philippines, 1965), pp. 39, 49, 178.
122 Scalice, ‘Crisis of revolutionary leadership’, pp. 226–39.
123 The CLPP formed under the leadership of Vicente Rafael, national president of the Philippine Labor Unity Movement (PLUM), and Antonio Policarpio, national vice president of the National Labor Union (NLU). The CLPP was officially founded on 17 Jan. 1965. Manila Bulletin, 18 Jan. 1965.
124 Macapagal, A stone for the edifice, p. 222.
125 Macapagal later wrote, ‘In retrospect the struggle with Oca was an unfortunate phase of our Administration. Coming to know Oca more later, whatever may be the truth about the imputations against him, I found him to be a personable and intelligent labor leader. It was gratifying that he too, must have seen at least the good intentions of the Administration for he backed my bid for reelection’ (ibid., p. 218).
126 Jose Ma. Sison and Kabataang Makabayan, Stand of the Filipino youth, Aug. 1965, PRP 08/13.31, p. 2.
127 Jose Ma. Sison, ‘Nationalism and land reform’, in Struggle for national democracy (Quezon City: Progressive Publishers, 1967), pp. 67–105; ‘Labor Party breaks with LP’, Philippines Free Press, 18 Sept. 1966, p. 97.
128 Scalice, ‘Crisis of revolutionary leadership’, pp. 314–19.
129 Leon Trotsky, The Stalin school of falsification (New York: Pioneer, 1937), p. xxxix.
