Organize! Urban Poor Citizens Claim Their RIght to the City

This account tells the story of how masses of urban informal settlers, through strong community organizing over the fifty-year period spanning the Marcos to Duterte eras, directly or indirectly confronted the government and the private sector. They demanded to secure land tenure, decent and affordable housing, basic services, and a strong voice in decision making. It describes how the urban poor in cities throughout the Philippines in the years 1972-2022 have struggled to gain their right to the city. Significant attention is given to the beginnings of issue-based community organizing (CO-“cee-oh”) in the 1970s on the Tondo Foreshore, utilizing nonviolent conflict-confrontation strategies and tactics to pressure power figures into accepting the people’s demands.