Of friends, professors, and their books

by Levy Abad

Lately, I perused some of the highlights of the book of Alison R. Marshall, Bayanihan and Belonging, Filipinos and Religion in Canada. Alison Marshall is a professor and researcher of Asian religion and history at Brandon University. Aside from the extensive research that Alison did for this book, she also interviewed countless personalities from the Filipino Community who arrived in the late sixties up to 2016.

Her treatment of Filipino religiosity and how it weaves the Filipino community in the diaspora in their struggle to integrate with mainstream Canadian life is so relevant in understanding the community. The book highlights the different tendencies in the community, particularly the economic migrants and how religiosity ties them all in the different expressions found in community events.

The Knights of Rizal, for instance, is analyzed by Alison as showing its voluntary nature, religious roots and efforts at integration with the multicultural terrain of Canada. Bayanihan and Belonging is an extraordinary approach of a mainstream Canadian professor to understand the Filipino community. I hope members of the community will have a copy of this book and be inspired by Alison’s efforts to further research and chronicle Filipino religiosity as the community expands. It would be interesting to know if this religiosity would be sustained in the context of capitalism or be transformed into another form or perish. Filipino religiosity is basically a product of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial contexts where the Roman Catholic Church played a large part in reinforcing colonialism and neocolonialism. But to be fair, the Catholic Church also produced radical religiosity that critiqued the empire.

Another book that I read lately is Henry Heller’s A Marxist History of Capitalism. Henry Heller was a Professor of History at the University of Manitoba. This reminded me of the books I read in the early 80s: John Eaton’s Political Economy: A Marxist Textbook; Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by Vladimir Lenin; A Science in Its Youth: Pre-Marxian Political Economy by Andrei Anikin; and Amado Guerrero’sPhilippine Society and Revolution. These books helped me become familiar with the concept and terms that paved the way for a slow and steady grasp of Marxism in the Philippine context. Reading the book by the late Henry Heller, I realized that he used references from the latest Marxist scholars, which caught my interest. I wanted to read all the books and authorities that he cited to update myself.

Knowing the late Professor Heller and hanging out with him at Tim Horton’s pre-pandemic to talk about Philosophy, Theories of Social Change, reform and revolution gave me a window into his approach. I like his book not just for its relevance, but because I know him as someone critical of the imperialist behaviour of powerful countries. Henry was a speaker in some of the solidarity events that I helped organize for Migrante, Las Americas and the Chilean Human Rights Council and Solidarity Committee for Ethiopian Political Prisoners. I really hope activists will critically review his book, leading to a deeper understanding of capitalism and its nature.

The third book is Dennis Lewycky’s Magnificent Fight: The 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. I met Dennis when I was still working as a staff member of the Minister of Culture of the Province of Manitoba. Dennis is a long-time community activist. When I heard of his book launch, I immediately went to McNally to attend and get a copy of the book to review. I know how important it is to understand the struggle of the working class in North America. The great Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 radically changed the condition of the lives of workers in this part of the world, if not the whole world. I reckon when I was still in the university in Manila, I used to go to a bookstore and just stare and stare at the Winnipeg General Strike book, but I couldn’t buy a copy because it was expensive. Never in my wildest imagination that one day I would be standing and walking at some of the landmarks of the great struggles of the working class. On the cover of the book, I read Paul Moist’s (past National President of CUPE) quote, “Magnificent Fight should be a required reading for all activists striving to build a better world.”

I would like to end this with a quote from Karl Marx in his letter to one of the leaders during his time. Marx wrote, “Ignorance has never helped anybody yet.” I couldn’t agree more.