From International Solidarity to Migrant Activism: Critical Junctures in Philippine-Australian History

This essay examines the social and political contexts of the establishment of the first
Philippine Australian Solidarity Group (PASG) and then its subsequent demise in the face of intragroup and external challenges. The demand to decolonise the conduct of solidarity within the PASG was more than a case of alleged racism, but a symptom of two intersecting phenomena. There was the growing population of immigrants who sought to find an identity in Australia through activism. Their solid political agenda, thus, intersected with the need to re-evaluate the structure and political agenda of PASG as an ‘old’ social movement. Drawing from the critical junctures in Philippine– Australian social movement, the essay sheds light on the risks of a centralised political body with a ‘diverse’ membership but also the benefits of responding to challenges to continuously re-write the rules of activist engagement, thus to re-invigorate the politics of resistance.