Militant Music, Powerful Language & Atomic Bombs

Spring 2009 Speaker Series

INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL STUDIES CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

“Militant Music, Powerful Language and Atomic Bombs: Constitutional Change in the Philippines”

Dr. Vincent K. Pollard
Asian Studies Program, UHM

At the tipping point between the Marcos dictatorship and the Aquino presidency, the Anti-Bases Movement and the Women’s Movement were well-positioned to rid the Philippines of nuclear weapons. Yet it was not apparent to leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines or to officials in the administration of U.S. President Reagan. From protest songs, the presentation links the notions of kalayaan ("freedom") and isang malayang patakarang panlabas ("independent foreign policy") with phrasing in the new constitution designed to protect the lives and health of Filipinos from U.S. nuclear weapons. Replete with policy and procedural traps, that document would defeat the pro-U.S. President and her allies in their efforts to keep foreign military bases in the Philippines after 1991. Earlier, the Nuclear-Free Philippines Coalition had accumulated considerable political and cultural capital. In the end, Filipinos in the Anti-Bases Movement raised the bar for the Nuclear Freeze Movement globally. This presentation explains why—on the basis of song lyrics, newspaper reports, public opinion polls, government documents, memoirs, interviews and U.S. Embassy cablegrams.

Date: Wednesday, September 9th
Time: 12 pm – 1:20pm
Place: Burns Hall Room 2118

Sponsored by:
The UHM/EWC International Cultural Studies Program
Telephone: 808-944-7593
Fax: 808-944-7070
Office: Burns Hall #2069
Email:culture@hawaii.edu
Website: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~culture

Event Sponsor
International Cultural Studies Graduate Certificate Program, Manoa Campus

More Information
Program Manager: Patricia Hart, 808-944-7593, culture@hawaii.edu, http://www2.hawaii.edu/~culture/

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