Why Did You Leave? A Life History Approach to Filipino Activists’ Disengagement from the Philippine National Democratic Movement in the Netherlands Organizations

Abstract

Using Olivier Fillieule’s career activist approach and life history method, this study explored the disengagement process of four Filipino activists from their National Democratic-oriented organizations in the Netherlands. Traversing through their life in the struggle trajectories of joining, persisting and leaving, changes in their behaviour, perspectives and choices unfold revealing a diversity of reasons for their movement participation. It appeared that while they shared similar reasons for persisting (i.e. commitment and continued participation) over time, their reasons for joining were not the same as their reasons for leaving, which illustrated the complexity of the process and the determinants. Their involvement in activism was due to their religious background, lives of Missionary doctors, family of Communists, Marxism and other Philosophical readings, class background and friends. Then, they persisted in the organization through their political education, positive experiences in marginalized communities, strikes and demonstrations, belief in radical changes, positive experiences in doing political work, and also due to Martial Law. However, they left their movement organization for emotionally-related reasons such as exhaustion due to political work, lack of personal growth and time for oneself in the organization, frustration, disappointment, disillusionment, fear and scepticism, family concerns and guilty feelings