The Southeast Asian Sea Should Be Shared by All
Towards peace and demilitarization in Asia
For hundreds of years, what has long been known as the “South China Sea”—including what we are now being told to call the “West Philippine Sea”—belonged to everyone without being possessed by anyone. All who wanted to fish there could fish there; all who sought to travel through it could do so freely. The fish that swam in its waters had no country. Like all the unenclosed fields in the countryside where carabaos graze unimpeded or the unfenced rainforests in the mountains where birds fly unrestricted, what we prefer to call the Southeast Asian Sea was part of the commons: all of us were its stewards, none of us its owners.
In recent decades, however, the Southeast Asian Sea has become the site of an increasingly violent struggle for control and possession, now threatening to erupt into a full-scale conflagration. Various states in the region have drawn lines on maps to claim all or parts of this life-giving body of water, goading everyone to rally behind their claims and to prepare for a war aimed at turning all or part of the high seas and its islands as part of their realm.
We, members of Partido Sosyalista, refuse to be stampeded into supporting such claims and fighting such a war.
A war for power and profit
Our reason is simple: turning the commons into national property hurts instead of benefits working people and oppressed groups across countries, not only in the Philippines but also in China, Vietnam, the United States, and elsewhere. Indeed, we ordinary people across the region are likely to suffer more as states divert more resources from social services to weapons procurement, fan the flames of racism and national chauvinism, and prod us to get ready to slaughter each other to secure their ownership claims. In the end, the main winners will be big extractive corporations determined to privatize the oceans, political oligarchs desperate for support through territorial and resource appropriation, and imperialists bent on control and conquest.
What will benefit working people in all countries—and what we are therefore advocating as a Party—is for the Southeast Asian Sea to again be made part of the world’s commons: that is, as the shared patrimony and heritage of all peoples in the region, possessed by no one and yet belonging to everyone, cared for by all and accessible to all, with its riches equitably distributed and its sea lanes and airspace dominated by none .
This proposed path to peace is doable. The fact that the Southeast Asian Sea has been a common resource for centuries shows it is possible. What is naive is the belief that we can fence off the high seas without unending conflict or massive bloodshed.
In line with our view, we unequivocally reject China’s outrageous claim that it owns 90% of the disputed territory and we condemn its repeated use of violence to force everyone to accept such a claim. At the same time, however, we also strongly oppose the US’ deployment of nuclear-armed warships in the Southeast Asian Sea, its construction of military bases in the Philippines, and its establishment of military agreements with Japan, Australia, and other countries, all of which are only driving China to become bellicose.
Let us be clear: China’s actions are a response to US efforts to contain it, so the US bears primary responsibility for escalating conflict. But China is also not just a victim: it could have chosen to refrain from resorting to coercion against weaker countries in response to US aggression. Though not equivalent in character and aims, the US and China ultimately belong to the same side: both are enemies of peace. To condemn one’s actions without also condemning the other’s is to rally behind the flag of an imperialist power.
The role of the Philippine state
But it is not just the US or China that is driving us to war in pursuit of power and profit. The Philippine state—a state that has been responsible for depriving many working people of access to land, fishing grounds, and other resources in Philippine territory—has also been a party to unprovoked aggression.
In a move that reminds us of the Philippine states’ program to push tens of thousands of landless families to settle and colonize lands long occupied by the Moro and Lumad peoples as part of their Bangsamoro state and Lumad homelands in Mindanao, the Marcos dictatorship unilaterally began moving people to the Spratlys in the 1960s, at a time when others had already asserted competing claims in the area, thus making peaceful resolution of the conflict more difficult for decades.
During the 2000s, President Aquino helped the US contain China by allowing US military installations to be re-established in the country, thereby inflaming tensions in the region and taking us away from a non-violent settlement of the matter. Attempts at settler colonialism, collaboration with US imperialism, rejection of non-violent modes of conflict resolution—all these actions by the Philippine state have also brought us closer to the precipice of an all-out conflagration.
One simple reminder bears constant repeating as ultra-nationalist hysteria grows louder: the Philippine state—which also largely functions in the service of the dominant classes—is not to be equated with the Filipino people, just as the Chinese and US states should not be confused with the Chinese and American people. We can and should stand with all Filipinos threatened by aggression without having to rally behind the Philippine state.
Towards an independent force for peace
For us to defend ourselves and achieve peace with justice, we working people in the Philippines but also in China, Vietnam, the US, and other countries need to assert our autonomy from states, counter efforts to divide us, and work together across borders for peace.
As short-term measures to pull us back from the brink of regional war, we call for the following provisions of
immediate relief and assistance for all those Filipino, Chinese, Vietnamese, and other fisherfolk affected by aggression, as well as protection for all those caught in the conflict, including those currently residing in the Spratlys;
resumption of bilateral and multilateral negotiations aimed at reaching a peaceful and comprehensive agreement to settle territorial and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) issues in the Southeast Asian Sea;
immediate closure of all US military bases and other forms of military presence in the Philippines and abrogation of all military treaties with the US (MDT, VFA, MLSA, EDCA, etc.);
immediate dismantlement of all Chinese facilities and withdrawal of all Chinese warships and troops in the disputed areas;
full demilitarization and denuclearization of the Southeast Asian Sea;
establishment of regional multilateral institutions tasked with the joint management; and
development of the Southeast Asian Sea considered as commons.
We also believe that such proposals are unlikely to go far so long as states dominated by capitalist interests remain in power, propping up a global system oriented towards endless growth and expansion. We call on all oppressed groups in the Philippines, China, US, and other countries to come and work together to resist aggression by any state—US, China, or the Philippines; to mobilize in our own countries against regimes bent on privatizing the commons; and to create a new world order founded not on accumulation and competition but on sharing and compassion.
Partido Sosyalista
14 July 2024
