The tradition of anarchism in the Philippines reemerged in the 1990s and 2000s, partially driven by punk subculture, the great schism in the Philippine left, and the general post-communist condition imposed by the collapse of the Soviet Union. This historical crisis in the Philippine left resulted in new libertarian traditions. Being largely a reaction to highly formalized and hierarchical modes of organization in the Communist Party of the Philippines and the legal expressions of National Democracy, many of the first wave of anarchists gravitated towards post-leftism and informalism. The critique of the left and the party-form was an important part of the expression of anarchism given the wide dissatisfaction and demobilization in the Philippine left. Critiquing the program of national industrialization of the Communist Party, many also turned to deep ecological politics and eventually anticiv. This ecological turn also mirrors parallel developments by Popular Democracy who developed Bookchin-esque assembly democracy paired with green politics. As internet technologies facilitated exchange of ideas from the global anarchist milieu to those in the Philippines, cyber-anarchist articulations flourished alongside many of the other ideas.
By the turn of the 2020s marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, a number new anarchists began learning about anarchist theory from the internet. Some learned it from academic texts, others from The Anarchist Library, and others from dissemination from the first wave and in participating in the old milieu. Emerging from this new wave was the collective and later distro known as Bandilang Itim (or black flag) which became a forum and space for the generation of new ideas and theories. Our Struggles Interlinked referred to the way that different sites of struggles needed to be connected to one another, emerging in the context of global uprisings in Hong Kong and the George Floyd protests and then connecting these to struggles in the Philippines. Self-directed militancy referred to a localized understanding of self-activity. The text “Wrath Over Pride” critiqued the old milieu and many of leftists of neglecting gender and queer struggles, namely abuse, sexual harassment, misogyny, and transmisogyny. Despite the critiques of the post-left in other countries of the failure to address these struggles in formalist anarchist organizations (e.g. especifismo, platformism), these very same dynamics were replicated in informal spaces in the Philippines. Other ideas such as organizational dualism, joyful militancy (from the book with the same name!), abolitionism, harm reduction, and care work were explored and given emphasis over other prevailing currents in the local anarchist scene. Joyful militancy in particular was an important lodestar that spoke to a lot of emerging dissatisfaction with the Philippine left, crystallized in the critique of rigid radicalism. Abolitionist ideas and its related concepts of harm reduction, decriminalization, and care work were often used as starting points for engagement with the wider non-anarchist public. Indeed, it became important to refer to the new wave as a milieu of “anarchists and abolitionists” rather than merely as anarchists. After all, the point is not to convert everyone to be anarchists, but for people to act for themselves, especially in joyful, caring, and non-domineering manners. New groups began to emerge that eventually superseded Bandilang Itim such as ABOLISYON!, The Dinner Party, and PAGLAYA.
Parallel to these developments was a deepening of the crisis of the left in the 2022 presidential and general elections. Authoritarian nostalgia combined with Cambridge Analytics, fake news, the usual guns, goons, and gold made the 2022 elections dangerous ground. National Democracy once again hitched their wagon to another bourgeois liberal-democratic politician, Leni Robredo, in the hope of preventing the election of the son of the dictator (and eventual winner) Bongbong Marcos. Previously, National Democracy had hitched their wagon to known mass murderer Rodrigo Duterte, their opportunism having won no gains for their movement as Duterte quickly and expectedly betrayed them. Leni Robredo, however, made no promises to National Democracy, even refusing to endorse them, yet National Democracy hitched their wagon to Robredo.
In the midst of all this opportunism, left groups that had split from National Democracy in the 90s ran a futile, yet ambitious, campaign for president around Laban ng Masa (fight of the people) with the Leody–Walden tandem, pairing veteran unionist Leody de Guzman with celebrated left sociologist Walden Bello. One can, of course, quote Lenin on the use of electoral politics as propaganda campaigns, and this was indeed precisely the point. Anarchists and abolitionists conducted a dual campaign, promoting abolitionist, libertarian, prefigurative ideas to the socialists while the socialists conducted their own campaign for socialism in the election.
The 2022 elections was a huge defeat for the left across all sectors. Not only had Duterte loyalists, Marocs loyalists, and kleptocrats won huge gains, the electoral left with the National Democrats, the social democrats, and the socialists lost many of their seats and were on the retreat. This deepened crisis in the Philippine left was actually generative and useful. While many groups took their poetry from the past, variably from the 70s or 90s, many were emboldened by the new ideas discussed in the Laban ng Masa campaign and attempted to find new poetry. Old ideas were reassessed if no longer useful, other traditions were assessed for viability. The group of volunteers for Laban ng Masa (including anarchists) developed a pre-party formation and later formed Partido Sosyalista. Inside and outside Partido Sosyalista, other ideas were also being assessed: social ecology, carceral abolition, prefigurative politics, libertarian socialism, degrowth, municipalism, autonomism, communization and Trotskyism. The Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa–Philippines (revolutionary party of workers–Philippines) was rumored to have removed Marxism-Leninism from its program and replaced it with “revolutionary Marxism.” The Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa–Mindanao (revolutionary party of workers–Mindanao) adopted degrowth in the last congress of the Fourth International. Left communist ideas, including autonomism and communization theory, were reassessed. Trotskyists formed Talibang Anakpawis abroad and Friends of the Spartacists locally. Meanwhile, National Democracy would suffer yet another electoral loss at the 2025 elections (though managing to save some seats), though social democracy under Akbayan found new resurgence. A new left group with Kamanggagawa (co-worker) tried TikTok left populism with great effect, winning one seat in their first election in 2025. While many of these latter groupings are not “libertarian”—indeed, many still oriented towards either a “proletarian” state or electoralism—these formations still reflect a new wave of de-Stalinization and thus still a welcome development.
This regeneration of the Philippine left may not be anarchist, but anarchists are vibrantly participating and spreading libertarian ideas. The Local Autonomous Network persists with many infoshops and even an eco-anarchist community in Davao. The zine culture remains strong, enhanced as well by the Southeast Asian Anarchist Library which provides a repository of zines. Anarchists are now active in the anti-corruption campaign in the country, being active in communities, or doing much-needed silent work on interlinking struggles or mutual aid.
Continuing challenges in the anarchist milieu remain. Abuse, misogyny, and transmisogyny persist, and indeed are exacerbated by the interventions of the openly transpobic Deep Green Resistance. The failure as well of especifismo and syndicalism has not yet been wholly assessed, but this does not necessarily represent a problem given differing contextual and material reality in the country versus other milieus like that in Indonesia. A lack of formal organizations is hardly disorganization, after all. And even in informal groupings, anarchists in the Philippines have shown themselves capable to intervene and interlink.
Those that choose to engage in pluralist, ecumenical, and multi-tendency groupings like Partido Sosyalista face threats, however. Previously, the home-grown libertarian socialist tradition of Popular Democracy failed to cohere and then chose to participate in the social democratic Akbayan. While initially doing good work in Akbayan, particularly in participatory democracy, Popular Democracy eventually dissolved into social democracy and lost their distinctiveness. As such, there is a risk of a new dissolutionism into Partido Sosyalista.
While the current insurrectionary and revolutionary wave is reemerging across Asia, most notably in Indonesia and Nepal, the mood and morale in the Philippines seems to be ebb and retreat. But ebbs in class struggle can quickly turn into flows and floods. As a milieu of anarchism grows alongside new expressions of libertarian socialism, various ecologies, and heterodox Marxisms, we shall see if formations remain in their respective camps, or interlink struggles together and overcome particular differences.
Simoun Magsalin
This article appears in Spindrift 2025 which you can read online here.
