This article uses a socio-semiotic lens to analyze the representation of social actors related to the welgang bayan (people's strike) that can be read in the communist paper Ang Bayan (The People) during the height of the anti-dictatorship struggle in the 1980s.
The welgang bayan, the Filipinization of the general strike, are large-scale and coordinated militant actions of various sectors in urban centers — including barricades, boycotts, work and transport stoppages — that caused the paralysis of economic activities and everyday life.
Towards the end of the article, I use the welgang bayan to reflect on what Moufawad-Paul calls "normative insurrectionism", the a priori acceptance of insurrection as the magic formula for revolutionary victory to be applied mechanically in all contexts.
While the welgang bayan would become the center of debates on strategy that preoccupied the revolutionary movement after the fall of Marcos, its representation highlights the need for unity between different classes and sectors as a people struggling against an oppressive system.
This article is a revised version of the last chapter in my 2020 masteral thesis, "Ang Bayan sa Ang Bayan: Rebolusyonaryong Peryodismo at Representasyon ng Panlipunang Aktor sa Rurok ng Anti-Diktadurang Pakikibaka, 1982-1985".
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