Ambition, Cooptation, and Betrayal in the Formative Years of the Philippine Labor Movement

Abstract

This work re-examines the rise and fall of the Union Obrero Democratica (UOD)/Union Obrero Democratica Filipina (UODF), the country’s first labor federation, and more critically how its Ilustrado leaders dissipated the movement’s initial gains. At a period when the American colonial authorities were bent on pacifying the resistance and the labor movement was transitioning from the artisan guilds and gremios, it became the platform for the incursion of these leaders in the rising waters of colonial politics to the extent of collaborating with the Americans in capturing the leaders of the anti-colonial resistance, with tragic and bloody results.