The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) was formed out of the unity of farmers and farmworkers in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao to struggle against land monopoly, high land rent, usury, high production costs, low buying prices for farm products, and low wages of farmworkers. Until today, the agricultural system in the Philippines remains feudal; semi-feudal exploitation in the countryside continues, alongside state attacks against the toiling masses.
For decades, peasants and farmworkers across the Philippines have organized and struggled against the semi-feudal system. One prominent struggle occurred in Hacienda Luisita. Beginning in 1956, farmworkers in Hacienda Luisita began organizing the United Luisita Workers Union to assert their rights to land and decent livelihood. Over the years, repression has intensified, culminating in the brutal 2004 Hacienda Luisita massacre, which became a symbol of the failure of bogus land reform. In 2017, the #OccupyLuisita campaign was launched to continue the spirit of the struggle. 2024 marked the 20th anniversary of the Hacienda Luisita massacre, with continued resurgence of farmer & community actions in the hacienda.
Similar peasant- & indigenous-led struggles have occurred across the Philippines, concurrent with increasing bogus land reform programs that fail to properly redistribute land.
The KMP has vigorously advanced land struggles across the Philippines. One key initiative advanced by the organization has been bungkalan, or collective farming, in which peasants maintain, develop, and farm on unused public lands. Peasants form cooperatives and local markets to connect producers directly to consumers.
Under the new challenges of the current Marcos regime — including the opening of agricultural lands to foreign leasing for 99 years, and the presence of U.S. military bases and missile systems in rural communities nationwide — the livelihood and security of farmers are placed in even greater danger. Yet if there is one truth that KMP’s forty years of struggle has proven, it is that the collective strength of the oppressed classes, once organized and united, cannot be suppressed.
With full strength and determination, we must stand with peasants to resist the deepening intervention of the U.S. in the country.
The history of KMP stands as proof that land is not merely a natural resource — it is life, livelihood, and dignity. And so long as there are farmers tilling the soil without their own land, so long as lands are stolen and defenders are killed, the Peasant Movement of the Philippines will remain alive and militantly fighting!
