On Mar. 8 of every year, we celebrate International Women’s Day, originally called the International Working Women’s Day to commemorate the working women who have been the backbone of socialist and working-class resistance. First proposed by German Marxist theorist and activist Clara Zetkin in 1909, the day is both a protest and a celebration of womanhood—often, especially when women struggle, that is the same thing.
Ahead of this day, SAKA, a collective of anti-feudal artists and cultural workers, is hosting a gig at Catch272 on Mar. 6 at 7pm. Called “Babae, Babawi,” the gig zeroes in on the struggle of the women who have fought and lost their lives for the peasant movement. “A tribute to the women whose struggle will seize back our land,” the event’s description reads. It makes sense to shift the focus onto the women activists of the land reform movement; as the description duly notes, “peasant women are bound to landlessness twice over: On top of withholding land from peasant women, the state also withholds state machinery and social services that could empower them to till the land that should be in their possession.”
The event page also offers some sobering numbers on the current situation of our farmers:
“Since Duterte came to power, 247 peasants have fallen victim to extra-judicial killings. 34 of them are women. Most of them are martyrs of the peasant movement—killed for their membership in civilian organizations that advanced genuine agrarian reform as the means to end feudal bondage. Seven out of 10 farmers remain landless—outrageous for an agricultural country known for the wealth of its land—and the struggle to take back land first seized by colonizers has been shedding the blood of peasants for centuries.”
At the gig, which will feature acts like The General Strike, Sleep Kitchen, Identikit, BP Valenzuela, Alyana Cabral, The Shocking Details and Megumi Acorda, you can get tattoos courtesy of the Good Hand Tattoo. They will have on site flash tattoo designs by founder Minnehaha Calleja, who will also be administering the tattoos. The designs feature “the time and labor it takes to grow and harvest a crop—a long and arduous process before it reaches our table.” Starting at P1,000, the tattoos come in colored and black and white versions. “Suotin sa balat ang mga disenyong ito na marka ng iyong pakikibaka,” the Good Hand Tattoo post about the event writes.
Entrance at the event is pay-what-you-can, and all proceeds (which includes the tattoos) will go to fund the anti-feudal movement, “furthering the campaign to #StopKillingFarmers and for #FreeLandDistribution.”
If you can’t make it to the gig later but you still really want the tattoos, don’t worry: the designs will still be available after the event, and their proceeds will still go to fund our farmers.
Featured photo courtesy of Good Hand Tattoo
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Writer: ZOFIYA ACOSTA
