After participating in the planning and execution and actually attending most of the events around the 39th anniversary of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution put together by the “Buhay ang People Power coalition (BAPP), I did a one-woman boycott of the rally last February 25, the culminating activity that saw BAPP, Tama Na, and Citizens and Clergy For Good Governance come together.

I would like to do a little credit-grabbing by saying that I am one of those who facilitated BAPP’s final decision to join that unity activity. I would also like to clarify that I have great respect for this move of the Catholic clergy to live up to their social justice principles.

After all, if there is one event that must be commemorated for its “unity” it was those historical days  when a large number of citizens united with military coup plotters, the political opposition led by Cory Aquino and the Roman Catholic Church to overthrow the cruel and corrupt dictatorship of Ferdinand E. Marcos. It was a template for a peaceful revolution that was emulated by other movements in many countries afterwards. 

But I am not a believer in unity. Honestly, I believe it is overrated. Or rather, unity has to be interrogated. 

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Often, social movements allow the representatives of organizations, institutions or systems they are trying to change to use the value of unity as a weapon.

How often are we told by some government officials that they cannot agree to our proposals, because “ there is no unity among the stakeholders?” As if it is not the job of our leaders to listen to the various stakeholders and even the various factions in a sector, in order to craft laws, policies, programs and solutions that can accommodate these differences. As if it is not their job to broker the necessary compromises where differences are too contradictory to be accommodated entirely. You would think these dolts would at least pretend they understand they are leaders of democratic country.

Suppressing independent thinking

How many times have autocrats, demagogues and fascists (many of whom label themselves progressives) used the call for unity to suppress independent thinking, minimize dissent and make adherents amenable to priorities and principles that they have set unilaterally? How often have feminists all over the world been accused of spouting “foreign,” “unpatriotic,” “immoral” ideologies and values as we have fought for women’s rights?

How many times have activists sold themselves and the sectors they represent short by playing games of being able to speak for a “united” group of marginalized persons when we know that  this is impossible?

We play lip service to diversity and to its strengths. We pay lip service to the endless creativity of human beings or the masses or the people which can only arise from difference, only to conceptually and practically homogenize our multiplicity under the banner of “unity.”

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Do not get me wrong. Where unity is possible we should go for it. But we must treat it as a transient thing. A tactical rather than a strategic matter. Because it is democracy that is the strategic goal and democracy must always be a matter of dealing with differences  without giving up on individual freedoms.

So after facilitating BAPP’s cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church-led unity rally last February 25, I boycotted the event. Why? Because as long as the Church does not change its position on issues like divorce, abortion, sexuality, LGBTQ plus  rights — it isn’t uniting me.

I figured my absence would be as inconsequential as one person would be in a communal undertaking of that sort. I figured I had done my share for this “unity” event.  I figured the members of the clergy and laity, who are my friends, would just continue to accept and rib me about my quirks.

I figured my boycott after working for unity would be a good way of asserting the strength of our diversity as a group.

Happy women’s month everyone. I began it by boycotting a unity rally for the sake of upholding women’s rights. – Rappler.com

Sylvia Estrada Claudio is a doctor of medicine who also has a PhD in psychology. She is Professor Emerita of the University of the Philippines, Diliman. She represents the group EveryWoman in the Buhay Ang People Power Coalition.