Kilusang Mayo Uno

In disagreeing with the Labor Code and all the inhumane practices running rampant in the government, the Filipino people banded together to form a genuine, militant, and nationalistic union on May 1, 1980, to fight for workers' rights and emphasize their importance in the economic sector. This was promptly named Kilusang Mayo Uno or KMU for short to refer back to their origins as a group and to remember the workers' manifesto they released that day to symbolize their movement. Strengthened by the powerful La Tondera Strike in 1975 which established the importance of each citizen's voice especially in a democratic turned dictatorial state, their main point of opposition comes from the belief that the foreign monopolistic capitalism reigning in the country is the root cause of the political and economic problems the people were facing.

Symptoms of under-development were observed and analyzed by the union as a continuous cycle of investment turned national indebtedness to overseas loans, an adamant persistence for lower wages and working class impoverishment, and the high rates of profit repatriation rising as each day passes slowly but surely dooms the nation. As the trade deficit rose to 2.2 billion dollars and foreign debt reached 14.8 billion dollars in 1981, the Marcos administration and their allies continued to prosper despite these major losses which subsequently questioned the people's trust in their leaders. The radical movement was all the more supported as years passed by due to the KMU's orientations on workers' education and the solidarity it shares with the ordinary people going through the same problems as one another. As the beginning years of the union were focused on strike fever from individual factory strikes to Peoples' Strikes or also known as Welga ng Bayan, their advocacies flourished and prospered in the minds and hearts of the Filipinos which played an important role in overthrowing a government previously believed to be untouchable.