Friday, November 11, 2011

"Unyonista: The Chronicles of a Social Justice Crusader" by Edmundo F. Nolasco

      Edmundo "Ka Ed" F. Nolasco was born in1921 in Dapitan, Zamboanga. He went to high school at the Ateneo de Cagayan (now Xavier University), and to college at the Ateneo de Manila, where he earned his AB degree and graduated class valedictorian in 1949.

     The social encyclicals, especially Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum, and his Jesuit mentors, notably Fr. Joseph Mulry, S.J., and Fr. Walter Hogan, S.J., inspired him to take the road less travelled, a road the led to his lifetime work in the Filipino labor movement.

     "Unyonista: The Chronicles of a Social Justice Crusader" is a story of his journey through the changing historical circumstances of the Philippines in the 20th century and the the different ways he expressed his steadfast commitment to social justice—from fighting in the trenches of Bataan as an Ateneo ROTC volunteer during the Pacific War, to organizing workers to fight for their rights, helping build the nationwide movement against the Marcos dictatorship and today, working to address the plight of the forgotten war veterans and their families.