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Category: Democracy

  • Your Party North Essex member says ‘leave egos behind, because the alternative is scary’

    In our #YourPartyLocal series, we’ve been speaking to local Your Party groups around the country about how things have been going so far, and what their hopes are going forward.

     

    Solma Ahmed from Your Party North Essex spoke to us about how important it is for the party to succeed. As she said:

    I just want to see that we don’t let the country and our members down because the alternative is scary. I hope we leave our egos and factions behind and work together to make this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity happen, because the status quo is not an option.

    The local group, she insisted, has “gone extremely well” so far, emerging from a modest Transform North Essex meeting once a month to a much bigger following after the announcement of Your Party.

    From that point, it:

    began meeting weekly as an organising group, focusing on building an open, grassroots structure that avoids factionalism and encourages broad participation.

    Local members have also “elected an interim executive, including officers for social media, education, and communications”. Because Your Party helped to give people “a huge sense of motivation and purpose”, Ahmed argued, there has been “remarkable energy and enthusiasm” and:

    There is a real readiness to push for meaningful socialist policies and to build something genuinely hopeful.

    Your Party— the lessons so far…

    Ahmed pointed out that:

    Engagement has been strong and diverse—young and old, with genuine gender balance and inclusivity at the core of our organising.

    We’ve been directly involved in several significant local campaigns, including the Palestine solidarity campaign and the creation of an anti-racist group that brings together people from all communities and faith backgrounds, as well as those of no faith.

    There have been challenges too, though. As she admitted:

    Finding affordable venues has been difficult, and limited financial resources have naturally restricted some of our plans… Maintaining a genuinely non-sectarian approach has required constant attention, and the lack of access to membership data has made communication and coordination more complicated.

    Finally, one ongoing challenge has been explaining socialism versus capitalism in a way that is accessible, engaging, and meaningful to people from all backgrounds.

    Importantly, she stressed:

    We’ve learned to stay focused and avoid being distracted by factional noise. Managing relationships constructively is crucial. We’ve also learned the value of transparent, open local structures; ongoing education programmes; and making the most of the skills and expertise within our group.

    ‘Listen to ordinary people, not the social media noise’

    Ahmed is “optimistic about our future” following last weekend’s Your Party conference, saying:

    After two days of listening to our delegates—rather than the noise on social media—I feel more positive than before. I welcome the collective leadership model and the dual-membership approach, which I believe gives members more flexibility and greater control… What matters is that we remain non-sectarian, grassroots, and focused.

    And a key focus locally has been the campaign for solidarity with the Palestinian people during Israel’s genocide in Gaza:

    Our Palestine campaign will continue. It began with Transform members and has grown to involve the wider community. Alongside supporting Colchester United Against Racism, members of Transform – and now Your Party – have held weekly vigils for Palestine since October 2023.

    This week marks our 112th vigil, held regardless of weather. We’ve organised two marches, monthly Barclays boycotts, and helped establish Essex Divestment of Pension Funds. We are also preparing to expand our campaigning on housing and the cost-of-living crisis.

    In the spirit of collaboration, meanwhile, she asserted that:

    We currently work alongside the local Green Party and plan to formalise that cooperation for next year’s local and mayoral elections. Our focus is defeating Reform and the wider right. We will continue working together to push back against fascism and prevent the spread of hate.

    Ahmed’s hope and focus may seem surprising for some who spend a lot of time on social media. But it’s very much the type of sentiment we’ve heard from Your Party members around the country. And we’re absolutely here for it.

    Featured image via Facebook

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Your Party MPs tackle the right’s ‘divide-and-rule tactics’ head on at Muslim Network launch

    A lot of Your Party debate has often centred around how broad the alliance should be, and how religious left-wingers fit in. Party members tackled this head on at the Muslim Network launch last weekend, calling out the right’s divide-and-rule tactics. And MPs Zarah Sultana, Shockat Adam, and Ayoub Khan surprised them by turning up in support.

    The event took place on the fringes of Your Party’s first conference. And facilitator Khalid Sadur, whose Enfield Community Independents are now the main challenger to the Labour-Tory axis locally, insisted:

    This network is not about factions. It’s not about supporting one particular faction over another… It’s about members. Members are going to make this happen.

    Members are the ones that are organising this party. So we have to have the focus on members, hear their voices.

    The panel speakers were all independent challengers in the 2024 general election. And in their speeches and answers, they focused on the importance of having internal democracy in Your Party and giving members a real say in what happens. They also described the obstacles they faced when running against Labour’s genocide-backing neoliberal elitism.

    From the panel members to the attendees, there was an emphasis on the need for respectful spaces where ordinary people can speak freely without self-censorship, and how to organise effectively on a grassroots level to ensure disengaged voters register and lifelong Labour voters finally break the chains tying them to the party.

    When the MPs spoke, meanwhile, they stressed the urgent need to make Your Party work.

    Your Party: ‘When one minority attacks another minority, the establishment gets what it wants’

    Shockat Adam stood up first and asserted that:

    regardless of our small differences, as long as we have mutual respect, anti-discrimination, and understanding for each other, we must make this work. We have no choice, for our children’s sake… Because when one minority attacks another minority, there’s somebody rubbing their hands in the background going ‘great, they’re doing the work for us’.

    We must not be the pawns in that game. We must make sure that we care for our neighbours regardless of who they are, regardless of their sexuality, regardless of whether they belong to a faith, regardless of their gender.

    He insisted that all people should “be able to express our views as long as we’re not discriminating or harming anybody else”.

    Ayoub Khan followed on from Adam, arguing that:

    as long as our key objectives are in line, then I think we can make this work

    He added that:

    as long as we can respect each other, as long as we can have that space to have discussion, I genuinely believe that we can make this work

    Next up was Zarah Sultana.

    ‘An attack on one is an attack on all’

    Sultana said:

    I see [fighting] injustice as crucial to my Muslim faith… and it is my faith that allows me to call injustice out every single week in parliament, every time I’m on the TV, in my day-to-day life

    A white man then stood up and started heckling her. But people of all genders stepped in to challenge his behaviour firmly. And Sultana continued by pointing out that:

    As a Muslim woman in politics, I have endured Islamophobia for the past six years and it has come in every single space I have been in. And sadly, I have become completely normalised and numb to it.

    This party is not about me, it is not about any other MP, it is about you the membership, and we have seen tactics used by the right-wing in this country, the media and political parties, to divide us. It is an old tactic, divide and rule, find a culture war, stoke it up and divide people to stop us focusing on where the threat comes from.

    She stressed:

    We are an inclusive party. We are seeking to represent the entire country. What we cannot accept is people who seek to destroy our movement by stoking up culture wars. We have to fight for everyone because an attack on one is an attack on all, and we have to make this work!

    A Your Party member for whom Sultana has been an inspiration told us after the event that:

    what we’ve seen over decades… [is] community has died somewhere. People don’t talk to each other. People can’t understand each other… And it just creates so much alienation and distrust.

    She added:

    I have to work harder because I am Brown, I have to work harder because I am unashamedly Muslim, I have to work harder because I am a woman, I have to work harder in our community because I’m a woman surrounded by misogyny, sometimes from our Muslim brothers, and then I also have to prove them wrong because I’ve got to be perfect, have a career, and then come home and also have a perfect home. And it is tiring, it is exhausting.

    But she also insisted:

    it takes a lot of time and understanding, but once people see the different types of faces that socialism has, the different types of faces that progressive left people have, I think it would make it a lot more of a welcoming environment.

    ‘We need spaces where people can talk through their views’

    Reflecting on the event, Sadur told us:

    It was a really great event. To have Zarah, Shockat and Ayoub speak just showed how important this space really is in terms of being able to give the Muslim community a real chance to express their views, whether you’re more progressive, whether you’re more conservative. It was really good to hear different views, and the feedback and interaction was great.

    We need spaces where people can talk through their views, talk through their differences, but come together and say, ‘ultimately, we all feel that we can stand together against the opposing forces that we see in Farage and Reform’.

    The comments of the panel members, meanwhile, gave a clear message about the importance of unity and organisers with strong roots in their communities. They expressed a need for government action to ensure human wellbeing, but greater freedom in terms of people’s private lives. And they shared their campaign challenges, including voter apathy and fear, ID barriers, and smear tactics. But they got a lot of votes too by building hope through meaningful community interactions. Indeed, Michael Lavalette even became the main opposition to Labour in Preston.

    The panellists learnt that most voters aren’t hostile to people from different backgrounds, but that mass education, registration, and empowerment are vital to actually boost participation. They also emphasised that everyone essentially has the same problems — crumbling services and the rising cost of living — and that came through on the doorsteps and at local assemblies. For them, the key to unifying people is focusing on the 80% of things most people across diverse communities have in common, rather than focusing on the 20% we don’t.

    If Your Party is going to hold together a broad left-wing alliance that can stop neoliberalism and the rise of fascism, this is exactly the kind of event it needs more of. Because the more we understand each other and work together with mutual respect, the harder it is to divide us or defeat us.

    Feature image via Twitter

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Your Party members told to stop waiting for orders from above, push democracy from the ground up

    A statement the Canary has seen from the Platform for a Democratic Party praises the democratic gains at last weekend’s Your Party conference, but calls on members ‘not to wait for instructions from above’.

    Speaking about the conference, it says:

    overall it was a success for socialists, despite many problems and even obstacles encountered by members and supporters.

    It mentions Zarah Sultana’s “massively successful fringe meeting on the Friday night”, at which Platform speakers Ian Hodson and Audrey White “hammered home the importance of transparency, democracy and accountability in the new party”.

    While criticising some features of the conference that restricted completely open debate, the statement hails strong member votes on socialism, a working-class focus, an anti-discrimination commitment, dual membership, and collective leadership. It laments, however, that “hundreds of amendments submitted by members never saw the light of day” and that there was too little time for “the voice of the rank and file to be heard”.

    It adds that:

    the task which faces us all is to carry out the conference decisions decisively and urgently

    Your Party—”Don’t wait any longer for instructions from above!”

    The statement asserts that:

    The democratic gains on the conference floor must now be genuinely reflected in the party’s day-to-day life, rather than remaining merely words on paper. YP’s commitment to socialist ideas needs to be developed and connected with the struggles of today through consistent engagement with grassroots work as well as being reflected in the party’s election campaigns, social media and written material.

    And it gives “five main priorities which we urge YP members to engage with”, including:

    1. Urgently establishing local strong, independent and democratically organised branches early next year, based on existing proto branches and local Alliances
    2. These branches must forge a clear and strong local identity, campaigning on issues relevant to the local working class, grounded in real struggles on the streets and workplaces.
    3. Branches must prepare for the local elections in May 2026 alongside the Scottish and Welsh Holyrood and Senedd elections.
    4. Mobilise for the ‘We are Together’ national march against the far right on 28th March with a strong block of thousands of YP supporters
    5. Ahead of the party’s upcoming Central Executive Committee elections, we support forming a joint, democratic, socialist slate of candidates to maintain, consolidate, and expand on the gains won by the rank-and-file.

    It finishes by stressing:

    Don’t wait any longer for instructions from above! History weighs heavily on our shoulders and we have to ensure we do all we can to build a party that can set about the task of confronting the far right and building a mass membership capable of replacing Labour as the real voice of the working class.

    The Platform initially sent an open letter in September, signed by “community and union activists including filmmaker Ken Loach, union leader Ian Hodson, Liverpool legend Audrey White, Jewish activist Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, and more’. This called for “democratic participation” to be at the core of Your Party.

    Featured image via ChronicleLive

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Labour accused of ‘utter chaos’ as Starmer delays more elections

    It’s widely expected that the local elections in 2026 will be another bloodbath for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. As such, any attempt to delay elections will be seen as an attempt by Starmer to avoid embarrassment. This is precisely what’s happening now that the government is set to delay four mayoral elections.

    While there is some complexity as to why the elections are being delayed, it’s a mess for Labour whichever way you look at it.

    Dither and delay

    As reported by the BBC, 18 councils requested a delay to local elections in January this year. This was because they were over taxed as a result of reorganising themselves into eight unitary authorities. As reported:

    The new mayors are part of a simplification of local government, aimed at reducing the number of councils, by merging district and county authorities to create unitary authorities.

    The unitary authorities will be headed up by new mayors, who will be handed more funding and extra powers to run their area, intended to hand greater power to local communities.

    However, the body representing district councils warned at the time that the plans could spark “turmoil” and argued “mega-councils” could undermine local decision-making.

    Now, the government says more time is needed to reorganise these councils before they vote for their new mayors. Given that Starmer’s ‘trustworthiness’ is at historic lows, people are understandably not taking him at his word:

    Starmer trustworthiness YouGov polling

    Green Party deputy leader Rachel Millward had this to say:

    MAYORAL ELECTIONS DELAYED TIL 2028! Labour: incompetent, scared & zero regard for democracy. The devolution agenda they sprung on us a year ago is in utter chaos, they are terrified of their plummeting in the polls, and – most importantly – are completely failing to solve the real problems of local government.

    Inequality rises, the housing crisis continues, our bills keep rising – the cost of living is staggering. But Labour just pour resource into chaos, rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic like real lives Mayors have serious powers to bring change. And Labour know they’d not be winning any of it.

    But the Greens are rising. We’ve doubled membership in 2 months. We’re beating Labour in some polls. Thanks for the extra time. We’re coming.

    Canary contributor Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu made a similar statement:

    People are also linking the cancellation to Labour’s other anti-democratic moves:

    As you’d expect, Nigel Farage is planning to maximise his political capital from this, with the media no doubt dropping everything once again to listen to him:

    On the ropes

    It’s important to remember that other local elections will still go ahead in 2026; that Labour will no doubt do catastrophically, and that his MPs will likely give him the boot as a result. Given that, it’s not impossible to believe Labour are delaying the mayoral elections for non-cynical reasons.

    At the same time, there are very few people in the country who are willing to extend Starmer any charitability, and as such this will be another bruising for him.

    The moral of the story is to not betray an entire country’s trust if you expect its citizens to ever vote for you again.

    Featured image via Number 10 (Flickr) / David Williams (Wikimedia)

    By Willem Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Can Your Party leapfrog the Greens and lead Britain’s left?

    Away from noxious social-media debates, there’s a grassroots buzz about what Your Party could become. And now the founding conference is over, that energy could potentially help Your Party to catch up with the surging Greens. But it won’t be easy.

    The challenge of doing things differently

    The conference opened with comments from Garston councillor Lucy Williams saying that the party shouldn’t be ‘Team Jeremy’ nor ‘Team Zarah’, but ‘Team Working Class’.

    She was absolutely right.

    If Your Party is going to become a major force for progress, the focus must be on the communities that sorely need it, not on personal differences. And it seems its members overwhelmingly wanted that, voting for a united socialist party with working-class people at its heart. They also voted for collective leadership – a mould-breaking shift for a political system where ‘main characters’ are the dominant players.

    There is some refreshing clarity at last. But in the challenging months leading up to conference, hundreds of thousands of potential members took a cautious step back. Just over 1% of the 800,000 who initially expressed interest became full members participating in the weekend’s votes. A combination of secrecy, public spats, poor communication, and leaks to the corporate media have seriously hurt Your Party’s image. Despite the positive developments at conference, the negatives have seen them trailing behind the Greens in popularity.

    While Your Party definitely offers a new approach that inspires hope, outdated practices linger and must change.

    Push past the Greens, while learning from them

    All of Your Party’s hiccups came just as the Green Party elected a media-savvy leader in Zack Polanski. He hit the ground running, visibly rattling the political establishment. The clarity of his messaging and member-centric approach stood in stark contrast to quibbles within Your Party, helping him to attract new support. The new party can absolutely learn from Polanski’s messaging strategy.

    The birth of Your Party is now official, so it can start learning to walk. And as humans historically raised children collectively, members must nurture the young party with dedication and patience in time to stop fascists from entering Number 10.

    The Greens, now over 50 years old, have a headstart in terms of organising and ironing out internal issues. And while they’re arguably the most democratic and left-wing of the old parties, the plan for Your Party is to go beyond that by empowering communities and rooting itself within working-class struggles. Regular assemblies promise to ensure Your Party is about grassroots power, and not party leaders. This, alongside a much better communication strategy, may well bring back a big chunk of the cautious initial supporters.

    Another issue that Your Party needs to deal with is how broad an alliance it wants to be. Because there’s some disagreement on that. And it needs to resolve that asap — clearly marking its red lines and ensuring united public positions.

    Focus anger at the system, not ordinary people

    Most left-wingers will find that, in most parts of the country, they’re unlikely to find people around them who agree with them on absolutely everything. And the more radical we are, the less favourably society will see us.

    But does that mean we refuse to work with everyone who disagrees with us? Or does it mean we accept our differences and align with people who agree on shared priorities? The answers Your Party members give to those questions will absolutely determine whether it will be a broad election-winning alliance or another minor left-wing party that gets little done.

    Particular personal social views are a clear challenge for Your Party. For example, its understandably strong support for trans rights has caused heated debate recently, with some people leaving as a result. Most British people are accepting of personal differences but, on trans rights, acceptance has been slower. However, some people have stayed in Your Party despite differences of opinion on this and other issues because they prioritise unity in the fight against fascism and neoliberalism. And members have overwhelmingly voted in favour of letting local members recall their party officers if they don’t act in line with member expectations.

    All this suggests that, at its heart, Your Party has the ability to do politics differently. Its members want unity and community empowerment. And if they can focus their justifiable anger against the political and economic system that has hurt the country so much, rather than inwards, it can grow in coming months.

    A stronger left is key to stopping fascism

    We need a strong left. And we don’t have the luxury of time. Fascism is creeping further and further into the public domain, with rising intimidation and attacks against minoritised communities. Its electoral wing, meanwhile, is banging at the door of 10 Downing Street. Zack Polanski wasted no time in taking the fight to Reform UK after getting his mandate as Green leader. Your Party must do the same.

    The left as a whole will absolutely need to unite come election time. But if Your Party and the Green Party can learn from each other in the meantime, the country will be in a much better position to resist encroaching fascism.

    Featured image via Your Party

    By Ed Sykes

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Mamdani & Sanders join Starbucks workers’ strike in NYC


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  • Mamdani & Sanders join Starbucks workers’ strike in NYC


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  • Why Trump’s boat strikes are illegal


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  • Trump’s Cuts to AIDS Prevention Are Devastating LGBTQ+ Communities Globally: Steven Thrasher


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  • “This Is a Union Town”: Zohran Mamdani & Bernie Sanders Join Striking Starbucks Workers’ Picket


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  • “A War Crime & Murder”: David Cole on U.S. Killing of Survivors of Boat Strike in Caribbean


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  • Top U.S. & World Headlines — December 2, 2025


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  • A coming of age moment for democracy #shorts


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  • Trump’s Cuts to AIDS Prevention Are Devastating LGBTQ+ Communities Globally: Steven Thrasher

    Seg aids

    President Trump has gutted the U.S. government’s support for AIDS healthcare around the world while ordering an end to commemorations of World AIDS Day, observed annually on December 1. Cuts to U.S. foreign aid are having a disproportionate impact on LGBTQ+ communities in many countries, says journalist and scholar Steven Thrasher, speaking from Uganda. “There are people who’ve been harmed very immediately,” he says. Thrasher, who teaches at Northwestern University, also comments on the school’s $75 million payout to the Trump administration to settle a discrimination probe and restore frozen federal funding, calling it a “travesty.”


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  • “This Is a Union Town”: Zohran Mamdani & Bernie Sanders Join Striking Starbucks Workers’ Picket

    Seg zohran bernie

    New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders joined striking Starbucks workers on the picket line Monday to demand the coffee giant reach a fair contract with its unionized workforce after years of delay tactics.

    Speaking outside a store in Brooklyn, Mamdani said New York is a “union town,” and vowed to continue joining pickets even after he is sworn in as mayor on January 1. Responding to a question from Democracy Now!, Sanders said Mamdani’s successful campaign for mayor was a blueprint for the Democratic Party, with affordability and workers’ rights at the center of the agenda. “We have the grassroots of America behind us,” Sanders said.

    Starbucks workers at unionized stores across the United States launched an open-ended strike November 13 accusing the company of unfair labor practices. Starbucks Workers United has been bargaining for a contract with the company since early last year. Monday’s picket came just hours after Starbucks reached a $38 million settlement with New York City for labor violations including denying workers stable and predictable schedules.


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  • “A War Crime & Murder”: David Cole on U.S. Killing of Survivors of Boat Strike in Caribbean

    Seg cole trump boat

    As bipartisan criticism intensifies over U.S. attacks on alleged “drug boats” in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, the White House is defending a September 2 operation that killed 11 people. The Washington Post reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a second attack to kill two survivors of an initial strike, an order that legal experts say would constitute a war crime. The White House on Monday confirmed the second strike but said the authorization came not from Hegseth, but from Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, then head of Joint Special Operations Command.

    This comes as Hegseth threatens to court-martial Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a former naval officer, after Kelly and five other Democratic veterans urged service members to refuse unlawful commands.

    “Killing civilians who are not engaged in armed conflict against us is a war crime,” says law professor David Cole of Georgetown University.


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  • Democracy Now! 2025-12-02 Tuesday

    Democracy Now! Tuesday, December 2, 2025


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  • Headlines for December 2, 2025


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  • DN! Tuesday, December 2, 2025

    Tuesday Democracy Now! show for rebroadcast – HD


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  • “Kill Everybody”: Could Hegseth Face War Crimes Probe for Killing Survivors of U.S. Boat Strike?


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  • Don’t Believe The Simulated Coup D’État In Guinea-Bissau

    It is important that African (Black) people around the world not fall for the latest amateurish attempt by the neo-colonialist puppet government in Guinea-Bissau, led by President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, to subvert the democratic will of the Bissau-Guinean people. Before completing the country’s November 23rd election process, military leaders loyal to Embaló suspended it and seized “total control” of the country, claiming to have done so to prevent election manipulation.

    The Black Alliance for Peace’s (BAP) Africa Team and U.S. Out of Africa Network (USOAN) unite with the assessments and positions of our member organizations.

    The post Don’t Believe The Simulated Coup D’État In Guinea-Bissau appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

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  • “Imperial Blowback”: Suspect in D.C. Shooting Was Part of CIA Death Squad in Afghanistan


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  • Suspect in D.C. Shooting Was Part of CIA Death Squad in Afghanistan


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  • Trump Announces New Immigration Restrictions After D.C. Shooting


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  • Could Hegseth Face War Crimes Probe for Killing Survivors of U.S. Boat Strike?


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  • Trump Meddles in Honduran Election & Vows to Pardon Ex-President Jailed in U.S. for Drug Trafficking


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  • Trump Meddles in Honduran Election & Vows to Pardon Ex-President Jailed in U.S. for Drug Trafficking


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  • Trump Meddles in Honduran Election & Vows to Pardon Ex-President Jailed in U.S. for Drug Trafficking


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  • Top U.S. & World Headlines — December 1, 2025


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  • A ‘forgotten hero’ against Imperial Japan, but the legacy of ‘Bintao’ Vinzons is being revived

    COMMENTARY: By David Robie

    Vinzons is a quiet coastal town in the eastern Philippines province of Camarines Norte in Bicol. With a spread out population of about 45,000. it is known for its rice production, crabs and surfing beaches in the Calaguas Islands.

    But the town is really famous for one of its sons — Wenceslao “Bintao” Vinzons, the youngest lawmaker in the Philippines before the Japanese invasion during the Second World War who then took up armed resistance.

    He was captured and executed along with his family in 1942.

    One of the most interesting assets of the municipality of Vinzons — named after the hero in 1946, the town previously being known as Indan — is his traditional family home, which has recently been refurbished as a local museum to tell his story of courage and inspiration.

    “He is something of a forgotten hero, student leader, resistance fighter, former journalist — a true hero,” says acting curator Roniel Espina.

    As well as a war hero, Vinzons is revered for his progressive politics and was known as the “father of student activism” in the Philippines. His political career began at the University of Philippines in the capital Manila where he co-founded the Young Philippines Party.

    The Vinzons Hall at UP-Diliman was named after him to honour his student leadership exploits.

    Student newspaper editor
    He was the editor-in-chief of the Philippine Collegian, the student newspaper founded in 1922.

    At 24, Vinzons became the youngest delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention and six years later at the age of 30 he was elected Governor of Camarine Norte in 1941 — the same year that Japan invaded.

    In fact, the invasion of the Philippines began on 8 December 1941 just 10 hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbour in Hawai’i.

    The invading forces tried to pressure Governor Vinzons in his provincial capital of Daet to collaborate. He absolutely refused. Instead, he took to the countryside and led one of the first Filipino guerilla resistance forces to rise up against the Japanese.

    His initial resistance was successful with the guerrilla forces carrying out sudden raids before liberating Daet. He was eventually captured and executed by the Japanese.

    The bust of "Bintao" outside the Vinzons Town Hall.
    The bust of “Bintao” outside the Vinzons Town Hall. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    The exact circumstances are still uncertain as his body was never recovered, but the museum does an incredible job in piecing together his life along with his family and their tragic sacrifice for the country.

    One plaque shows an image of Vinzons along with his father Gabino, wife Liwayway, sister Milagros, daughter Aurora and son Alexander (no photo of him was actually recovered).

    A family of Second World War martyrs
    A family of Second World War martyrs . . . their bodies were never recovered. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    According to the legend on the plaque:

    “Wenceslao Vinzons with his father disappeared mysteriously – and were never see again. The Japanese sent out posters in Camarines Norte expressing regret that on the way to Siain, Quezon, Vinzons was shot while attempting to escape. ‘So sorry please.’

    “The remains of the body of Vinzons, his father, wife, two chidren and sister have never been found.”

     

    The Japanese Empire as portrayed in the Vinzons Museum. Video: APR

    Imperial Japan showcase
    One room of the museum is dedicated as a showcase to Imperial Japan and its brutal invasion across a great swathe of Southeast Asia and the brave Filipino resistance in response.

    A special feature of the museum is how well it portrays typical Filipino lifestyle and social mores in a home of the political class in the 1930s.

    The author, Dr David Robie (red t-shirt) with acting curator Roniel Espina
    The tourist author, Dr David Robie (red t-shirt) with acting curator Roniel Espina (left), Tourism Officer Florence G Mago (second from right) and two museum guides. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    When I visited the museum and talked to staff and watched documentaries about “Bintao” Vinzons’ life, one question in particular intrigued me: “Why was he thought of as a ‘forgotten hero’?”

    According to acting curator Espina, “It’s partly because Camarines Norte is not as popular and well known as some other provinces. So some of the notable achievements of Vinzons do not have a high profile around in other parts of the country.”

    Based at the museum is the town’s principal Tourism Officer Florence G Mago. She is optimistic about how the Vinzons Museum can attract more visitors to the town.

    “We have put a lot of effort into developing this museum and we are proud of it. It is a jewel in the town.”

    The Vinzons family home
    The Vinzons family home . . . now refurbished as the town museum under the National Historical Institute umbrella. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.