Dear Friends,
We are extremely alarmed at the recent attacks by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on Walden Bello, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South. Walden is also a long standing Fellow of the Transnational Institute (TNI) and a current TNI Board Member.
We believe that this threat to Walden's life and to other Filipino activists named as “counter- revolutionaries” in the CPP diagram of December 7, 2004 cannot be ignored. Two of the persons named in the list have already been eliminated – one just a few months ago.
Walden is a lifelong and outstanding activist and writer and is internationally acknowledged for his contribution to the struggle against neo-liberal globalisation and war and to building alternatives are equitable, democratic and pluralist.
We unreservedly condemn violence, terror and assassination as a way of resolving differences and appeal to the CPP to desist from its attacks on Filipino activists and refrain from this destructive course of action.
We agree with Focus on the Global South that these attacks deserve a response from global civil society. We are therefore circulating this widely on TNI's list serves and urge you to add your name to the Focus Statement posted below.
Fiona Dove
TNI Director
