Podcast: Organizing in Asia with Jhay de Jesus - World BEYOND War
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Jhay de Jesus, World BEYOND War's organizer for Asia, talks about the political, social and activist environment in the Philippines, his background in university politics in Manila, and his current work interacting with peace groups and activists all over Asia. #WorldBEYONDWar

Jhay de Jesus speaking at Human Rights Week, Bawat Tinig MahalagaBy Marc Eliot Stein, World BEYOND War, July 31, 2026

Following last month’s focus on World BEYOND War’s worldwide regional organizing in our interview with European activist Annachiara Canetta, this month’s episode of the WBW podcast is a conversation with Jhay de Jesus, our organizer in Asia and another key to our growing presence around the world.

Listeners to this podcast know my favorite question is always “How did you get started in the peace movement?” In our interview, Jhay explains that everything began when he went to college at a large state university in Manila and discovered that the issues students were coping with – economic deprivation, inequality, injustice, intolerance – made the university a microcosm of Phillippine politics at the national level.

I really enjoyed the unstructured, anything-goes conversation I had with Jhay, who seems illuminated by an inner conviction about the importance of the work of international peacebuilding even in a region of the world where global politics has a painful and contradictory history. We talked about the daily lives of the agricultural workers Jhay lives and organizes among, about the USA’s historic betrayal of Filipino independence under the leadership of racist President Theodore Roosevelt, and about the irony that USA’s continued dominance in Phillippine politics is not even focused on the needs of the Phillippines but rather on USA’s military rivalry with China. Of course, we also talked about Bongbong Marcos, about the 2014 murder of Jennifer Laude at the Subic Bay military base, and the vast empire of military bases that USA maintains in Asia and the Pacific.

Jhay de Jesus speaking at a Global Days of Action to #CloseBases event in 2026

Jhay de Jesus adding his message and signature to a poster labeled "Filipinos Sign for Cuba"

Musical excerpt: “Rise Up” by Morisette Amon.

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