LOS ANGELES, CA: Beginning with a caravan from Los Angeles to San Diego where a Hip Hop concert was held, three of GabNet/Mariposa Alliance chapters launched a new year-long campaign against the traffick of women, under the aegis of the eleven-year-old Purple Rose Campaign.

The Stop the Traffick Jam caravan included five stops along the way, with community teach-ins at each stop on topics that ranged from sex trafficking to labor export and globalization. At each stop, over 50 people gathered to hear the impromptu discourse. Cars honked, drivers and passers-by waved in support.

The Purple Rose Campaign was expanded by the last GabNet congress to include labor trafficking. "We returned to our original conception of the campaign," explained interim Chairperson Annalisa Enrile. "We have been working on Labor Export since 1997 and wanted to push this issue of Modern Day Slavery into the forefront of the Purple Rose Campaign."

In San Diego, Kuttin Kandi, Mystic and Bambu wowed a sell-out audience of 250 who came to support GabNet and the campaign, as well as enjoy the poetry and music of the evening. Kandi, chair-elect of GabNet, also debuted her new band, The Heart. GabNet chose Hip Hop for the evening because of the prevalent bias that this kind of music and performance aid in the traffick of women. One article at the women's e-news website claimed, for instance, that "Hip Hop is commercially hot, culturally influential and replete with references to pimping and prostitution. Critics say this not only sends teens a pro-pimp message, it puts some girls even more at risk for becoming prostitutes." (Women's eNews, 11/9/03)

Contrary to the cited sentiment, the Stop The Traffick Jam Concert was replete with messages about empowerment and activism -- and the rage of women so long oppressed, their determination to emancipate themselves. Bambu delivered the men's message of solidarity for the women's revolt and the men's acceptance of their responsibility to enable women to achieve their liberation.

Using Hip Hop as the medium, said Chair-elect Kandi, "brings the message directly to young men and women most affected by this resurgence of patriarchal and feudal values exploitative of womankind. It is part of GabNet's determination to create a progressive culture for our community in the U.S. -- one that will enable us to dare to struggle and to obtain victory..."

Secretary-General Jollene Levid echoed the sentiment: "We are now on the road to a higher level of struggle, one that will see us directly addressing contradictions that keep women of Philippine ancesty marginalized in this society. We are excited by the unleashing of creativity and originality among our ranks."

GabNet plans to tour the Stop the Traffick Jam concert throughout North America, as more artists volunteer for the Purple Rose Campaign. Other GabNet chapters are preparing their theatre pieces for the Export Quality monologues, based on true stories of mail-order brides from the Philippines.