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Global Battlefields: My Close Encounters With Dictatorship, Capital, Empire, and Love
In this riveting, often funny, sometimes risqué narrative, a legendary public intellectual from the global south takes us through the moments of a life of engagement: childhood with artist parents, education under the Jesuits, antiwar activism at Princeton, underground work as a communist cadre against dictatorship, radical professor and prolific writer, globe-trotting crusader against empire and globalization, and parliamentarian who makes history with the only resignation on principle in the annals of Congress.
But this is more than a political diary. It is a search for the meaning of what the author calls the “lost generation”—his cohort of revolutionary youth that reached for the stars, fell short, but still made a difference.
But this is more than a political diary. It is a search for the meaning of what the author calls the “lost generation”—his cohort of revolutionary youth that reached for the stars, fell short, but still made a difference.
- GenresPolitics
393 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2025
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October 8, 2025
“It has been this tension between the demands of truth and the demands of action that has defined me.”
First, many thanks to Ateneo Press for sending me a review copy of this book. Bello appearing on my syllabi this semester and having a book launch on our campus pushed me to finally organize my scattered notes and thoughts.
'Global Battlefields' is a 360+ page autobiography of Walden Bello where he narrates his childhood up to the present, covering the different roles he has taken on and (some) off: activist, intellectual, professor, writer, CPP cadre, congressman, vice-presidential candidate.
He frames the whole book around his participation in two movements he considers have failed (in itself a source of debate): the Philippine National Democratic movement and the broader international movement for Socialism. These are failures he considers personal as much as they are generational. Initially hesitant to write about his life due to a lack of confidence in what he could impart, the book is brought about by the desire to unravel the value of his experiences to the would-be readers -- which could only be achieved with the process of actual writing and releasing thoughout. The writing thus felt rather retrospective and reflective.
‘Global Battlefields’ is dense and it’s hard to talk about it without recounting everything in it as all parts feel relevant, in defense of my review sounding more like a summary with side comments. Bello includes a comprehensive rundown of his views and involvement in countless protest actions, conferences, forums, organizations, administrations, dictatorships from the local to the international level throughout roughly sixty years. He also includes snippets from his previous works to support the narrative and allow his first-time readers to get familiar with his more straightforward political work.
The early parts of the book cover his family history and idyllic childhood on an island (a privately owned island!) and the formation of worldviews that will be challenged and transformed many times later. Perhaps the first of many contradictions would be his relationship with ADMU, surrounded by classmates whose wealths "had something to do with the poverty of the people". After college is a vivid and interesting stay in Sulu to teach as a fresh grad facing what could be considered as real life with real consequences. And consequences do get real and risky.
Exposure to a counterrevolution in Allende’s Chile and studies in the U.S. during the Vietnam War finds Bello deeper into Marxism until he makes a literal leap of faith to become an activist. I first discovered Bello as the firebrand vice-presidential candidate during the 2022 elections who had the guts to call out the obvious absences of our well-known ‘clowns’ that earned him a libel case. Turns out, that was only one of the latest in a long history of creative and life-threatening protest actions, which he enumerates. The highlight being the heistlike account of robbing confidential documents from the World Bank which became material of a detrimental exposé of the then US-Marcos economic policies and projects.
I was intrigued to read, and probably many would be too, with a possible tell-all about his time with Akbayan and his departure and resignation from being its representative at Congress; and his time in the CPP, departure and eventual tagging by the party as a counterrevolutionary. Both were addressed comprehensively and common questions were answered, including questions on his present relationship with both ‘factions’ of the Philippine Left and his views on its future.
'Retelling a Compelling Narrative' chapter is an account of the formation, principles, and inner workings of the CPP that made both the urban and rural parts of the revolution rise in power during Martial Law while 'EDSA…or the Revolution Derailed' and 'The Movement Disarmed' are analyses of the events leading up to EDSA, the part Washington played behind the shadows, and the non-involvement of the left that he believes made them lose power in the liberal administration that replaced Marcos. He then discusses the CPP in the post-Marcos arena and its Second Rectification Movement. His departure forms his standards on the organizational efforts he’ll participate in after.
He also recounts his time in Congress from Akbayan’s invitation and campaign (which made him aware of a disconnect with the Filipino masses and language) to days in Congress (his favorite tale to share is his avoidance of Imelda Marcos who was also in Congress at the time). This includes his role forwarding legislation such as the monumental RH Bill, his work on the House Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs working on cases of OFWs, the Aquino admin pushback to reclaim the West Philippine Sea, and his eventual resignation due to the sins of the ‘tuwid na daan’ administration with its involvement in the DAP corruption scandal. A few chapters include the struggle under the Duterte administration and the 2022 Presidential elections which feel like post-scripts to a life already filled with so much.
When the chapters on his life in politics took off, his personal life became a mere side note in the book, a stark contrast with the first parts where we get to know more of him. The book eventually revisits the personal for a while in a really bittersweet chapter on his late wife Ko Thongsila, a beautiful tribute to their relationship.
The chosen highlight of the book is the titular Global Battlefields. Between his time in the CPP and Akbayan, approximately 1990s-2000s, a period that covered the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, 9-11, the US military intervention in the Middle East, and the 2008-09 Global Financial Crisis; he was engaged with a transnational battle to dismantle corporate-driven globalization and neoliberalism as the prevailing framework and ideology with the organization/think tank Focus on the Global South and a global network of individuals and organizations with similar missions. This was to me the heaviest part of the memoir as the reader is taken to a dizzying trip around the world, jumping from country to country for conferences, meetings, debates, and protests while the nature and implications of US-neoliberalism is explained through case studies of the countries affected by it. The part most engaging to me were the essays on the neoliberal takeover of the Philippines that eroded both our agricultural and manufacturing sectors and pushed the service sector and labor export, which is an in-depth explanation of our economic hardships until today. However, even he is aware that while neoliberalism has been defeated and discredited on an intellectual level, it is still what shapes our world. The struggle goes on and on.
Despite initial qualms on what he can impart given the ‘failures’ of his generation, he concludes the book with messages to the youth on continuing the battle against the challenges of our time despite the struggle having ‘no permanent defeats and no permanent victories’. This dense book can be a source of points of disagreements and discussions as it can be a source of knowledge, both practical and theoretical. Nonetheless, when his advice to the youth is backed by a life defined by activism as extensively told in the memoir, it becomes a nugget of invaluable inspiration and an unmistakable call to action.
First, many thanks to Ateneo Press for sending me a review copy of this book. Bello appearing on my syllabi this semester and having a book launch on our campus pushed me to finally organize my scattered notes and thoughts.
'Global Battlefields' is a 360+ page autobiography of Walden Bello where he narrates his childhood up to the present, covering the different roles he has taken on and (some) off: activist, intellectual, professor, writer, CPP cadre, congressman, vice-presidential candidate.
He frames the whole book around his participation in two movements he considers have failed (in itself a source of debate): the Philippine National Democratic movement and the broader international movement for Socialism. These are failures he considers personal as much as they are generational. Initially hesitant to write about his life due to a lack of confidence in what he could impart, the book is brought about by the desire to unravel the value of his experiences to the would-be readers -- which could only be achieved with the process of actual writing and releasing thoughout. The writing thus felt rather retrospective and reflective.
‘Global Battlefields’ is dense and it’s hard to talk about it without recounting everything in it as all parts feel relevant, in defense of my review sounding more like a summary with side comments. Bello includes a comprehensive rundown of his views and involvement in countless protest actions, conferences, forums, organizations, administrations, dictatorships from the local to the international level throughout roughly sixty years. He also includes snippets from his previous works to support the narrative and allow his first-time readers to get familiar with his more straightforward political work.
The early parts of the book cover his family history and idyllic childhood on an island (a privately owned island!) and the formation of worldviews that will be challenged and transformed many times later. Perhaps the first of many contradictions would be his relationship with ADMU, surrounded by classmates whose wealths "had something to do with the poverty of the people". After college is a vivid and interesting stay in Sulu to teach as a fresh grad facing what could be considered as real life with real consequences. And consequences do get real and risky.
Exposure to a counterrevolution in Allende’s Chile and studies in the U.S. during the Vietnam War finds Bello deeper into Marxism until he makes a literal leap of faith to become an activist. I first discovered Bello as the firebrand vice-presidential candidate during the 2022 elections who had the guts to call out the obvious absences of our well-known ‘clowns’ that earned him a libel case. Turns out, that was only one of the latest in a long history of creative and life-threatening protest actions, which he enumerates. The highlight being the heistlike account of robbing confidential documents from the World Bank which became material of a detrimental exposé of the then US-Marcos economic policies and projects.
I was intrigued to read, and probably many would be too, with a possible tell-all about his time with Akbayan and his departure and resignation from being its representative at Congress; and his time in the CPP, departure and eventual tagging by the party as a counterrevolutionary. Both were addressed comprehensively and common questions were answered, including questions on his present relationship with both ‘factions’ of the Philippine Left and his views on its future.
'Retelling a Compelling Narrative' chapter is an account of the formation, principles, and inner workings of the CPP that made both the urban and rural parts of the revolution rise in power during Martial Law while 'EDSA…or the Revolution Derailed' and 'The Movement Disarmed' are analyses of the events leading up to EDSA, the part Washington played behind the shadows, and the non-involvement of the left that he believes made them lose power in the liberal administration that replaced Marcos. He then discusses the CPP in the post-Marcos arena and its Second Rectification Movement. His departure forms his standards on the organizational efforts he’ll participate in after.
He also recounts his time in Congress from Akbayan’s invitation and campaign (which made him aware of a disconnect with the Filipino masses and language) to days in Congress (his favorite tale to share is his avoidance of Imelda Marcos who was also in Congress at the time). This includes his role forwarding legislation such as the monumental RH Bill, his work on the House Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs working on cases of OFWs, the Aquino admin pushback to reclaim the West Philippine Sea, and his eventual resignation due to the sins of the ‘tuwid na daan’ administration with its involvement in the DAP corruption scandal. A few chapters include the struggle under the Duterte administration and the 2022 Presidential elections which feel like post-scripts to a life already filled with so much.
When the chapters on his life in politics took off, his personal life became a mere side note in the book, a stark contrast with the first parts where we get to know more of him. The book eventually revisits the personal for a while in a really bittersweet chapter on his late wife Ko Thongsila, a beautiful tribute to their relationship.
The chosen highlight of the book is the titular Global Battlefields. Between his time in the CPP and Akbayan, approximately 1990s-2000s, a period that covered the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, 9-11, the US military intervention in the Middle East, and the 2008-09 Global Financial Crisis; he was engaged with a transnational battle to dismantle corporate-driven globalization and neoliberalism as the prevailing framework and ideology with the organization/think tank Focus on the Global South and a global network of individuals and organizations with similar missions. This was to me the heaviest part of the memoir as the reader is taken to a dizzying trip around the world, jumping from country to country for conferences, meetings, debates, and protests while the nature and implications of US-neoliberalism is explained through case studies of the countries affected by it. The part most engaging to me were the essays on the neoliberal takeover of the Philippines that eroded both our agricultural and manufacturing sectors and pushed the service sector and labor export, which is an in-depth explanation of our economic hardships until today. However, even he is aware that while neoliberalism has been defeated and discredited on an intellectual level, it is still what shapes our world. The struggle goes on and on.
Despite initial qualms on what he can impart given the ‘failures’ of his generation, he concludes the book with messages to the youth on continuing the battle against the challenges of our time despite the struggle having ‘no permanent defeats and no permanent victories’. This dense book can be a source of points of disagreements and discussions as it can be a source of knowledge, both practical and theoretical. Nonetheless, when his advice to the youth is backed by a life defined by activism as extensively told in the memoir, it becomes a nugget of invaluable inspiration and an unmistakable call to action.
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