BAYAN honors Ramsey Clark

Long live, Ramsey Clark! Long live International Solidarity!
BAYAN honors Ramsey Clark

BAYAN (New Patriotic Alliance) mourns the passing of Ramsey Clark, a fierce, compassionate and honorable human rights defender, anti-imperialist and a comrade of the Philippine national liberation struggle. Clark was a former US Attorney General and Senator who saw through US imperialist aggression and acted upon it as a true revolutionary internationalist. His legacy will continue to inspire and lift up the struggles of thousands upon thousands of peoples in the Global South.

Clark’s active participation in the Civil Rights movement in the US and the anti-Vietnam War movement during his younger years shaped his staunch support of peoples’ struggles for national sovereignty and right to self-determination. The peoples of Cuba, Iraq, North Korea, and the former Yugoslavia cherish Clark’s support of their important battles and his denunciation of the grave injustices committed against them by US imperialism.

Clark did not shirk from exposing the ecological destruction caused by US foreign policy especially during its Cold War arms race with the Soviet Union. Furthermore, he exposed and opposed US imperialist war crimes.
He was one of the great figures in contemporary history who compelled corporate media to use precise terms such as “crimes against peace”, “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” in describing the conduct of US imperialism in the Gulf War as well as in Bush’s War on Iraq.
He was also an educator who taught law and published numerous articles and books. Clark decried the US imperialist lie about the “clash of civilizations” —Islam versus Christianity— as the conflict that defines US intervention in the Middle East. Clark made it very clear that the “US war on Terror” is none other than its white supremacist and fascist war on Islam. It is US imperialism that sows terrorism worldwide, not Islam.

Our anti-war movement in the Philippines and in the Filipino diaspora had and continues to amplify the global struggle for just peace embodied in the calls,— “Stop the War in the Middle East!” “US imperialist, “Number One Terrorist!” and “No War for Oil!”—having learned and been inspired by Clark’s exemplary contributions.

Clark held the struggle for national liberation in the Philippines close to his heart as exemplified by his endorsement and active participation in Philippine people’s tribunals, namely, the Permanent People’s Tribunal, 2007 versus US-Macapagal Arroyo regime and the International People’s Tribunal 2015 versus the US-Noynoy Aquino regime, indicting both US-backed regimes for human rights violations, economic plunder and transgression of the Filipino people’s sovereignty.

He resolutely called for the release of Filipino patriot and revolutionary leader, Jose Maria Sison, who in 2007 was harassed, vilified and held prisoner by the Dutch government. Clark assisted in Sison’s successful defense, citing that the Dutch authorities’ case were invalid and incompetent since the murder charges against Sison, which originated in the Philippines, had already been dismissed by the Ph Supreme Court.

Our deepest sympathies to the family and friends left behind by Ramsey Clark. Together with all the anti-war and anti-imperialist forces in the world, BAYAN pays tribute to his unimpeachable legacy and honorable life. As we painstakingly arouse, organize and mobilize against US Imperialism, we will continue to cherish Ramsey Clark’s spirit of internationalism that waged a remarkable and principled struggle for the peoples of the Global South from the belly of the beast.

Long live, Ramsey Clark!
Long live International Solidarity!
Defeat US Imperialism!