Pete Tagalog
Template:TOCnestleft Pete Tagalog , 80, died on May 28, 2012 at Pali Momi Medical Center after a long illness.
The son of Oahu Sugar Plantation mill worker, Tagalog helped his Filipino community in Waipahu successfully fight against an eviction in the 1970s and eventually relocate a few miles away to Westloch. Ota Camp included many Filipinos who were retirees living on small pensions or had large families who said they could afford to live nowhere else.
Pete Tagalog not only helped poor and working people in his community, but also shared his experiences and gave hope to other ethnic communities facing similar evictions in Kalihi, Chinatown, and Niumalu-Nawiliwili.
He played a key role in supporting a successful sit-in protest at the University of Hawaii to establish an Ethnic Studies Program, focusing on history of minorities in Hawaii.[1]
Hawaii People’s Fund
In 1971 John Witeck founded Hawaii People’s Fund.
The fund’s first board included activists Larry Jones, Randy Kalahiki, Pete Tagalog, Rev. John Heidl and Prof. Walter Johnson.
“Over the years we’ve supported peace projects, environmental action, some of the early Hawaiian sovereignty groups, tenants and public housing organizations. Our grants may run as little as $100 needed to prepare a slide show, or $50 to print up fliers to advertise a meeting. Our grants are capped at $2,500. And we don’t require a lot of paperwork.”
Over the past two years, the Hawaii People’s Fund has given grants to more than 60 local organizations, ranging from the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii to Micronesians United to the Waianae Coast Community Alternative Development Corporation.
“We raise approximately $200,000 a year,” says Witeck, “and we can now support - inadequately - two staff members.”[2]
"A call to build an organization for the 1990s and beyond"
Unity, January 28 1991, issued a statement "A call to build an organization for the 1990s and beyond" on pages 4 to 6.
This group was a split in the League of Revolutionary Struggle which soon became the Unity Organizing Committee.
Those listed as supporters of the call included Pete Tagalog, president Ota Camp/Makibaka Association, Wapahu Hawaii. .
Endorsed Unity
Pete Tagalog endorsed Unity in June 1991.