Growth of Philippine revolutionary movement the memory and historical experience of the Philippine people.
However, by the very fact that this struggle developed so early, the political movements of the time left a tradition of class collaborationism and prepared the ground for neocolonialist ideology.
The Propagandist Movement, represented most prominently by Jose Rizal,
The continuing mass upsurge against the Marcos regime forced Reagan to call off a planned visit to the country.
Reagan's retreat represents a major political defeat for the Marcos regime and its
Marcos himself had said that such a move "would be a blow to the country, because we have a ticklish monetary situation.
That is, even his banker friends might get the idea that he was a goner.
In the last issue of International Viewpoint, we analyzed the significance of the assassination of Benigno Aquino at Manila airport and the framework in which it was
The following article takes up in more detail the development of the perpetrated.
mass struggles and movements in the Philippines.
This chain of islands, which represents the U.S.'s major remaining base in Southeast Asia and an arena of fierce economic competition between the U.S. and Japan, has been one of the places in the world where struggles have taken on the greatest intensity in recent years. They are now reaching a crucial stage.
These mass struggles, which are being fought on all levels - military, political, and social - and have not been stopped by severe repression, now need active international support.
Paul PETITJEAN month after Benigno Aquino's murder, on the anniversary of President
Ferdinand Marcos' proclamation of maron September 21, 1972, a vast crowd, estimated at half a million people, assembled in the heart of Manila in response to a call issued by the leaders of young workers, high-school and university students, and shantytown dwellers headed for the presidential palace.
The "forces of order"
opened fire, and after violent clashes, eleven people were found dead, and hundreds of others
In the days that preceded and followed this bloody day of struggle, the Makati business district was the scene of several antigovernment demonstrations.
The shock created in the country by
Aquino's murder cannot in itself explain the extraordinary breadth of the demonstrations that followed this murder.
is not sufficient to account for the radicalism of the slogans, which demanded
President Marcos' resignation, or for the variety of the political forces involved in bourgeois opposition to the Communist
Party of the Philippines.
The crisis that has opened up today has revealed the profound decay of the regime and the acuteness of the social
It represents a tensions in the country.
test for the opposition ments and holds very high stakes for the future of the revolutionary struggles.
also illustrates certain specific features of the mass struggles in the Philippines.
The specificity of the situation in this island country, by comparison with the one that prevails in the others in the region, is a result in particular of the contradictory heritage of the colonial period, the special history
Communist movement, and the consequences of the policy the Marcos regime has been following for over a decade.
Since the Philippines became a colony of Spain in the sixteenth century and were a direct colony of the U.S. for half a century after being taken over from the Spanish empire, they have quite a different history from the surrounding coun
A CONTRADICTORY HISTORICAL HERITAGE
From the standpoint of revolutionary the heritage of this long colonial period is contradictory.
In 1896-1898, when in Vietnam the French had not yet been able to break the resistance to their domination led by the mandarins, in the Philippines a refor all practical purposes, put an end to the 350-year-long rule of Spain.
The mass uprising was led by illusintelligentsia trained in Spain, representatives of bourgeoisie of mixed Philippine Chinese blood that was made up of planowners, merchants, and entre-
The armed groups of peasants and urban workers generally followed the lead of members of the petty bourgeosie and professionals, provincial administrative personnel, and teachers.
So, the Philippines were the first coun try in Asia to throw off the colonial yoke, even if this was only for a very brief period, because in 1898 the Americans took over formally from Spain.
The political and social forces that led this liberation struggle already exhibited a "modern" character. They did not represent any old order but were the product of the cultural and economic shakeups created by the colonization and early integration of the country into the world
This uprising against Madrid and the stubborn resistance by sections of the masses to American occupation left an invaluable revolutionary tradition.
nationalist movement can "uninterrupted revolution" so as to link up the present struggle with reflected the anticolonialist, anticlerical, and democratic aspirations of the big Philippine planters (the sugar plantations grew rapidly in the nineteenth century on the Isla de Negros and in Luzon), the Chinese merchants, and intellectuals from well-to-do local families.
The Katipunan movement, founded by Andres Bonifacio, had deeper roots in the masses and followed a radical course. In addition, local leaders emerged who were to continue the struggle to the end, such as "Papa" Isio on Negros, who was captured in 1908 by the Americans.
Katipunero leaders (after Bonifacio was assassinated) were to remain under the ideological influence of the illustrados of the new bourgeois and plantation owning social elite.
It was the government that came out of the 1896-1898 uprising that made an supposedly to hasten the defeat of the
The theme of national unity of all classes predominated. pervasive that the first workers organization, which was founded at the start of the century, was led by an illustrado, de los Reyes, who advocated collaboration between capital and labor and a neocolonial pact with Washington.
This brings up one of the contradictory aspects of the colonial history of the Philippines. Although for a long period Madrid did nothing to develop the coun try, the early imposition of colonial rule favored the development in certain regions of an export economy (such as sugar production). Often in fact it was British capital that played the leading role. This gave rise to new social classes that were capable of opposing the Spanadministration and the Catholic
However, the fact that a retrograde, feudal Catholic clergy was able at an early stage to get control of the education of the masses and block the development education effectively cut off the population from the influence of the preceding article in IV, No 37, A Past Revisited, Quezon published by Monthly Review Press, New York
A History of the Philippines from Spanish Colonialism to the Second
Foundation for Nationalist Studies, Quezon City, 1978.
On this subject, see Jonathan Fast and Jim Philippines, Foundation for Nationalist Studies. moderne, Maspero, Paris, 1970.
Solidarity with the
Philippine people's struggle
European socialist and workers movement and from the Asian revolutionary movements.
Moreover, many regions of the coun try have not been directly affected by the spread of the market economy.
The revolutionary traditions are rooted only in certain areas, in particular in issued on September 25, 1983, by the United the central and southern parts of the island of Luzon and the island Negros.
At the origins of the national move-
Following the assassination of former senator Benigno Aquino, Philippine ment, the leadership remained in the government forces have attacked several opposition demonstrations violently hands of essentially bourgeois forces.
About a dozen people have been killed.
And these were not victorious and self-
Today President Ferdinand Marcos is talking about reinstituting the martial law that he clamped down on the country in 1972 and formally lifted two years confident forces but a leadership that negotiated capitulation to the U.S. on be-
In response to gigantic mass demonstrations demanding that the government half of a movement that had triumphed resign and that those really responsible for the murder of Aquino be punished, over the Spanish.
the regime is stepping up repression and trying to intimidate people.
In order to justify themselves, the new
The Marcos regime is being rocked by a deepgoing social and economic crisis.
Philippine administrators had to present
It faces the spread of social mobilizations and mass struggles. The guerrillas led the U.S. expeditionary force as a liberthe Communist Party are growing stronger.
ating army and do everything possible to archipelago, the government faces stubborn resistance from the Moro National
Liberation Front and the people of the area.
wipe out the memory of the heroic mass
At the same time, disaffection is growing among the middle classes, divisions resistance that lasted up to 1908.
are opening up in the bourgeoisie itself, and the government is more and more
The formation of the Philippine nadiscredited in the eyes of international public opinion.
tional consciousness was thus than ten years, the Marcos regime has directed an increasing miliboth by the revolution of 1896-1898 and tarization of the country, which has brought a train of pillage and massacre.
by the early imposition and deep imprint of arbitrary arrests and growing numbers of "missing
The use of torture has increased. Paramilitary terrorist groups have
THE FAILURE AND REVIVAL
However, this repression has not succeeded in stopping the growth of the
The Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People's
OF THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT
Army, and the National Democratic Front have played an important role in
In the beginning, the union movement
The democratic and revolutionary struggles in the Philippines have entered a and the peasant movement were led by
The regime has the power of the army behind it and the direct elements that were both nationalist and support of the U.S., which has established some of its main military bases in the politically conservative.
In the mid-1920s, a bipolarization de-
In particular since the defeat of U.S. imperialism in Indochina, the Philippines veloped in the mass movement under the have held a key place in the deployment of American air and sea forces in the impact of several factors. One such factor was the indefinite postponement of
Of all the regimes that belong to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the one in the Philippines is the closest to, and the most dethe date when the country would become independent.
The economic crisis that
The riches of the country have, moreover, been pillaged by the imperialist was driving down the standard of living capitalists, in particular the Americans and Japanese, and by the Marcos clan of the masses was another. The reverberand its cronies. The democratic struggle against the Marcos dictatorship is at the ations of the Russian revolution and the same time a social struggle and a fight that the working people and the oppressed founding of the Third International also had an effect.
The stakes involved in the ongoing struggles in the Philippines are consider-
In 1925, the Workers Party was foundable, and not just for the peoples of the archipelago but also for the future of ed. It developed in a Marxist direction.
the revolutionary struggles in the region and for the fight against imperialism
In 1927, the union movement split into
Active solidarity is urgently needed from all democratic, progressive, and conservative and radical wings.
The United Secretariat of the Fourth International calls for broadening and strengthening the movement of solidarity with the struggle
Union Secretariat of the Profintern (the against the U.S.-backed Marcos dictatorship.
red trade-union International).
regime and the power of the United States, the peoples of the Philippines must
In 1930, the PKP (Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas, Communist Party of the
Philippines) was formally constituted. It exercised a mass influence among the urban workers and the peasantry respectively through the KAP (Katipunan ng mga Anak-Pawis ng Pilipinas, Workers
Congress of the Philippines) and the
KPMP (Katipunan Pambansa ng mga
Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, National Confederation of Tenant Farmers and Agriccultural Workers). (3)
For reasons that were largely objective, the new Communist movement took form essentially in the Manila region and certain areas on the island of Luzon. It came under repression and enjoyed only rare periods of legality.
However, more and more the line the
PKP adopted under Moscow's influence kept the Communist movement from
10
The following statement was
Secretariat of the Fourth International in an attempt to suppress them.
There has been a rise gone on the rampage.
mass struggles.
leading and widening these battles.
crucial period.
Pacific and the Indian Ocean.
are waging against imperialism. taking advantage of the real possibilities for growth that existed despite the repression.
In these early years, it advocated a very sectarian and ultraleft line (oriented toward an armed insurrection), which corresponded to the so-called Third Period line then being put forward by the Third International.
After 1933, however, and especially after 1938, in the name of the need to fight fascism, the PKP advanced a "demoanti-Japanese line that was once again to lower the movement's defenses against the American forces.
On the eve of the second world war, the PKP managed to root itself in sections of the population where it had been very weak, such as the students and intellec-
In the southern part of the In their fight against the Marcos And during the Japanese occupation, it greatly extended its influence and its organization thanks to its guerrilla forces (the Huks or Hukbalahap, the People's Anti-Japanese Army, which were set up in March 1942.
The PKP's line called for putting off the social struggle against the landlords to a later period. But in reality the growth of the Huk guerrilla movement itself led to a class polarization in the areas concerned. Frightened by the mass move. ment, the landlords either fled or collaborated with the occupiers. 3. On the first decades of the Philippine Com-
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see also Norman Lorimer, munist movement, "Philippine Historical Over- Communism, An view" Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol. 7. No 4, 1977.
since the 1946 elections had been too banditry, for example the one led by
Commander Sumulong in the province of Pampanga.
The mass movement did not regain the initiative until the end of the 1960s, and then it was essentially the students who were the moving force. The student population, which had been very elitist, had begun to change.
Reflection on the failure of the PKP, the impact of the Sino-Soviet split and the cultural revolution in China, and the revival of political struggles led to a split
A handful of activists, most of whom had joined the party in the early 1960s formed a new party (or "reestablished" the old one, which was the formula they used, trying to claim the mantle of con-
It was called the PCP (Communist Party of the Philippines, Marxlater, the PCP formed the NPA (New
Symbolically it chose the anniversary of the founding of the Huks to launch the new force. (5)
influence of the new party, which identified completely with Maoism, was mainly in the student movement, but it gained peasant and military cadres coming from the Huks, and it started to get a foothold in the trade. union movement, where the PKP remained very active.
The relationship of forces between the two parties was far from settled when President Marcos decreed martial throughout the country on September 21, 1972. This was to be the first serious test for the young PCP, and, politically, the last one for the PKP.
At the beginning, the PCP and its armed wing, the NPA, suffered severe blows as a result of the repression and a militarist, guerrillaist orientation, which was reflected in an attempt to set up an overly ambitious guerrilla foco in the Valley of Cagayan in northeast Luzon. But it gradually recovered from these
Today, even Reagan is rather cool to his ally Marcos (DR)
In the wake of the war, the PKP emerged stronger than ever, politically, socially, and now militarily. following the line of Moscow, it greeted the American forces as a liberating rather than an occupying army. (All the PKP's propaganda had stressed the need for an alliance with the U.S. as a democratic power against Japan).
administration immediately dealt severe blows to the
Then, following formal independence and the first elections in 1946 (in six candidates of the Democratic Front led by the PKP were elected), the new president, Manuel Rozas, unleashed a witch hunt against the Communists.
In 1947, the Huk guerrillas, who had not given up their arms, began to reorganize. In the following year, the supporters of armed resistance gained the majority in the leadership of the PKP.
Despite repeated delays, the PKP and the Huks had a number of factors in their favor. The regime was badly discredited, grossly fraudulent. Social tensions were strong in a number of rural areas. The and the Huks also benefited from the impact of the Chinese revolution and from the resistance aroused by the mas-
PKP leadership believed that it could win a quick victory. It deployed it guerrilla forces as widely as possible and thus exposed itself militarily. cities, the pacifist education of the past period disarmed the militants. regime got major support form the U.S And the new president, Ramon Magsaysay, pursued a demagogic policy
In 1952, the PKP and the Huk guerrillas were smashed, to all intents and
The peasant movement suf fered a major setback, along with the union movement in the cities, which had reorganized after the war in the CLO (Congress of Labor Organizations).
leaders gave themselves up. Some of the guerrilla units turned to
The PKP also had to go underground. But the leadership decided to try to make an arrangement with the Marcos regime, in which it discerned the virtues of the national bourgeosie. It physically liquidated a number of leaders of a faction that opposed this orientation (that is, the Marxist-Leninist Faction).
So, in October 1974, the PKP accept-
"national unity agreement" with the Marcos administration. 4. On the Huks, see (although the author seems clearly to underestimate the role of the PKP in the struggle of the Luzon rural masses) Benedict J. Kerkvliet, The Huk Rebellion, a Study of Peasant Revolt in the Philippines, New Day
Quezon City, 1979.
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See also the Publishers, of William Pomeroy, an American memoirs the Moscow line who Communist faithful to the Huk guerrilla movement. participated in under the French published in It has been Huks dans la foret des Philippines, Les title Maspero, Paris, 1968. On the analyses and orientations of the PCP 5. see Amado Guerrero, chairman in the 1970s, the Central Committee, Philippine Society and Revolution, IAFP, Oakland, 1979. See also Jose M. Sison,. for National Democ Struggle Hernandez Memorial Founda- Amado racy, tion, Manila, 1972. 11
the PKP enjoyed a certain semilegality, and some of its leaders turned up in the Ministry of Labor in particular.
The PKP continued to some extent to function as an organization and maintained its allegiance to Moscow. It probably still had a significant influence in the trade-union movement and perhaps bases of support in some rural areas. But as a revolutionary force it was finished, both as a result of the physical liquidations ordered by its leadership and of its long-lasting alliance with the martial law regime.
The fact that the PKP always maintained formal criticisms of the government and the fact also that for some time it has been taking more and more distance from the regime have not by any means counterbalanced the disastrous effects of the capitulationist policy that it pursued throughout the 1970s and subsequently. THE IMPACT OF THE MARTIAL LAW
PERIOD ON SOCIAL STRUGGLES
For a whole series of reasons, the revolutionary movement and movement able to respond effectively to the proclamation of martial law in 1972.
There was the failure, followed by the total capitulation of the PKP. The PCP suffered from political and organizational inexperience. The effects of the political and social crisis were very uneven from region to region. The level of organization of the mass movement was inadequate. Finally, the U.S. and the World Bank pumped in substantial aid to Marcos.
Nonetheless, despite its initial successes, the government followed an orientation that recreated the conditions for a new upsurge of mass struggles in the
Marcos quickly adopted an aggressive policy on the southern island of Mindanao, the heart of Bangsa Moro Land, the territory claimed by the Muslim forces in the southern part of the archipelago.
A series of very important islands are in fact historically Muslim. Sultanates were established on them before the arrival of the Spanish, who, moreover, never succeeded in bringing these regions effectively under their colonial rule.
However, since the interwar period, Christian peasants from the northern island of Luzon and from the Visayas (the island group in the middle of the coun try) have been systematically settled on Muslim territory by the governments in Manila. As a result, there is now quite a large Christian population on Mindanao. (6)
Because of its climate, the island of Mindanao is agriculturally very rich. It also offers other advantages. The Marcos regime decided to open it up for the growth of agribusiness (which is dominated by U.S. and Japanese capital), and this meant in fact pushing the Muslim and animist population back into the remote 12 the regime provoked a long war with the forces of the MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) and the Bangsa Moro Army. For a long time, two thirds of the government's military forces were stationed in the southern part of the archipelago for use against the Muslim
Despite attempts at mediation and short-lived accords, a state of war continues in the Bangsa Moro terri-
The militarization of the country took on a particular momentum in Mindanao, and the Christian population in turn was affected by the presence of an army engaged in a military campaign.
The Communist forces were weak on the island of Mindanao. been growing along with the mass movement. Mindanao has also been a favorite stomping ground for the paramilitary groups, and their exactions and massacres have created many scandals and aroused widespread resistance.
What has happened in Mindanao is also taking place in many other regions. In order to open up the country to foreign capital (generally American and Japanese but also Australian and European), the government is attacking the local pop-
To crush the resistance of the local people, the government has embarked on a policy of militarization. And, in a situation where the PCP and the NPA offer an alternative, this has led to a radicalization of activists and social strata without past revolutionary experience. diverse from region to region and island to island. (7) But by creating a real army and a real national policy for the first first national "development" military as the principal instrument of the regime has created common, clearly identifiable enemy for persed and atomized, divided by geography (the sea and mountains), language (Tagalog, the national language is spoken by only 20% of the population), and by
Now their common enemy is the national state and its personification, the Marcos-Romualdes family.
Of coutse, the process of the spread and unification of the struggles is developing slowly. This is one of the reasons for the present caution of the opposition groups with respect to the Marcos regime.
For the first time in the history of the archipelago, a struggle for power has begun on a really national scale, and there are still a lot of obstacles to overcome. But the process got underway years ago and then began picking up
One of the first things the martial law system was supposed to accomplish was to make it possible to housebreak mass movement and assure cheap labor for the multinationals and the capitalists close to the president.
According to the government's own figures, under martial law the standard of living of the peasant masses and of the urban and rural workers dropped by about 30% on the average.
In the industrial free zones, the meager trade-union rights that were formally recognized elsewhere were generally wiped out.
However, the workers movement began to raise its head again, with an important strike in the La Tondena distillery. More generally, strikes began again, with ups and downs.
In 1980, a radical trade-union current took form in what was in fact a new labor confederation, the KMU (Kilusang Mayo Uno, or May 1 Movement), which included national unions as well as locals that might also belong to other federations.
A broader alliance was formed - the PMP, which included the KMU, the unions affiliated to the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and some in-
At its May 1 rallies in Manila the from 20,000 to 40,000 workers, depending on the year. toward a broad, militant class-struggle
In 1982, moreover, a very important strike was waged, which briefly paralyzed the major free zone in the country, the Marivles zone across the bay from Manila.
One of the first sections of the population to mobilize after the imposition of martial law was the people of the shantytowns on the outskirts of the cities. In Greater Manila, a metropolis of about 8 million inhabitants, there are vast shanty-
The main one, Tondo, which lies behind the port, experienced a very long and well-organized struggle.
Today, even though it has been weakthe partial demolition of this shantytown, ZOTO (Zone One organization has nonetheless played an exemplary role, which has been very important in encouraging the spread of organizations of the urban poor who shantytowns and people in the so-called "marginal" tors or "minor trades."
As a result of the big projects undertaken to provide the infrastructure and development, people in one local area after another or6. On the struggle of the Moros and the MNLF. see Permanent Peoples' Tribunal Session on the Philippines. Philippines: Repression and Re sistance, KSP Publication, London 1980. The magazine Southeast Asia Chronicle published an interesting issue on this question (No 82. February 1982). It has also published other important issues on the Philippines, such as its No 62, May-June 1978. 7. On economic developments, mainly CUL agriculture, see Third World Studies Program, Political Economy of Philippine Commodities, TWSC (University of the Philippines). Quezon City, 1983. Lussa Research Staff, Countryside Report, Manila, 1982 Rene E. Ofreneo, Capitalism in Philippine Agri culture, Foundation for Nationalist Studies, Quezon City, 1980.
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See also the book publish- ed after the session of the Permanent Tribuna of the Peoples, cited in footnote No. 6.
were the boatmen and the people of Navotas north of Manila. In this area, the Japanese started building a container port that would eliminate their jobs. The building of a series of hydroelectrie dams on the Chico creek (a World Bank project) threatened to drive the Kalinga and Bontoe mountain tribes off their land in northern
The small fishermen on the island of Samar found their fishing grounds wrecked by the activity of the big sloops that overfished the area to meet the demands of the Japanese market.
In a more general way, the agrarian reform undertaken in the rice-growing areas soon showed its limits. the peasants who "benefitted" from it had their land seized for debt before they even finished paying for it. That is, the land "distributed" by this reform had to be purchased. The objective, moreover, was to develop modern agriculture (the Green Revolution), which may be very productive but is also very costly in fertilizer, seed, pesticides, labor, and so
The situation of the sugar plantation workers on Negros, already horrific, was further aggravated by intense mechanization, which threatened thousands and thousands of jobs.
The coconut producers were hard hit by declining sales on the world market. And in general Philippine agriculture, largely export oriented, was rocked by the falling prices on the world market for agricultural raw materials.
To a considerable extent, all these factors - the social crisis and repression, the effects of systematic militarization of the country, the hardening of the regime as it formal lifting of martial law in January 1981) - explain why the NPA guerrillas spread out to cover a wider and wider
At the same time, they lie behind the of growing sections social activists in religious organizations as well as of a small but significant minority of priests and members of religious orders who have identified with the mass
The Catholic church, which remains influential in the central parts of the country, is shot through with the same contradictions as the society. This is the for the uneasiness expressed by the upper echelons of the hierarchy about a regime whose policy is fomenting civil
THE EVOLUTION OF THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT
By no means all the democratic and social mobilizations in recent years have been initiated by the PCP, the NPA, and the NDF (National Democratic Front, ied by the PCP), far from it. They have in fact at times been taken by surprise by developments such as the unleashing of a movement against martial law in the cities led by Christian activists. This struggle developed at a time when the PCP's urban networks were preoccupied with
-Cavagan de Oro V organizing support for the rural guerrillas.
PCP-NPA-NDF managed to link up with, organize, or take the leadership - either partially or entirely — of a very great number of such movements which at the start were more or less spontaneous. the backbone of the mass resistance to
In order to achieve this position, the PCP had to modify by successive adjustments its original orientation, which was close to Latin American guerrilla foco-
Since the PCP, unlike the Thai CP, did not have the benefit of a friendly border and of substantial aid from outside, it had to build a base among the people in the rural areas where its guerrilla forces
Moreover, the PCP had to give a more and more important place to work in the cities and to legal or semilegal organizational work outside the guerrilla areas
In view of the evolution of the Chinese leadership, the PCP in fact took its distance from Peking and undertook an ideological reassessment.
However, as a result of its successes, as the movement's influence has been spreading rapidly to new regions and new sections of the population, the PCP-NPANDP have continually run up against new problems or old weaknesses that have not yet been overcome, such as the shortage
The movement has already been confronted with problems of orientation, which are becoming more complex with the present evolution of the situation and the extension of its political activity among the masses.
What sort of alliances should it make, with what political forces and in what forms, under what conditions? A debate has started up on the lessons of the Cenparticularly on these questions.
How should the party operate in autonomous mass organizations outside the guerrilla areas? What orientations should it propose for the unions? How can it broaden the NDP and build up a formal structure? How can it extend and consolidate international solidarity work?
There are problems of political ideological questions also. The "Chinese model" has had its day. But how should the party systematically re-evaluate the ideological heritage of the movement and its analysis of the world situation?
The PCP has long remained prisoner of schemas regarding the "definition" of Philippine society (characterized as semifeudal and semicolonial). the considerable growth of its mass work in the rural areas (and in the cities as well), it has suffered from an accumulated lag in this field. (9)
These problems aside, the PCP - along with the NDF and the NPA - today holds a central and essential place in the organization of the mass struggles. But it is not the only organization in the progressive and revolutionary camp. (10)
There are also some currents that have come out of the "Social Democratic" Front (which was led by Jesuits and not by a Socialist Party), small groups of independent Marxists, loosely radical Christian currents (which are coordinated to some extent by the Christians for National Liberation, who include founding members of the NDF). There are also groups active in intellecsuch as the KAAKBAY (Movement for the Sovereignty of the Philippines and for Democracy), which is led by the lawyer
However, the PCP, along with the NPA and the NDF, is the only movement able to coordinate struggles nationally, to combine political, social, and military
It alone can offer a concrete perspective for the relatively near future and offer a viable framework for bringing together the various progressive forces. It has earned this position by the work and sacrifices of its members and leaders, many of whom have been killed
A still greater responsibility now falls the shoulders of the PCP, since Aquino's murder has opened up a political crisis that had been building up for
The situation is evolving rapidly, and even if a decisive struggle for power cannot yet be undertaken on scale, all the political forces are going to have to adjust their orientations and tactical options to a situation in flux.
the question of the highland minority groups in the Philippines and the role of their struggle in the context of the • country as a whole, see Anti-Slavery Society, The Philippines, Authoritarian Government, Multinationals, and Ancestral Lands, London, 1983.
lo get an idea of this debate, which is through the various currents in the Philippine left, see Symposium. Feudalism and Capitalism in the Philippines Trends and Implications. Foundation for Nationalist Studies, Quezon City, 1982 10. As regards the bourgeois opposition to the Marcos regime, see my article in the preceding issue of International Viewpoint.
13
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2 1
New setbacks for went over the head of the UPD. Peasants meeting in an assembly are one thing. Peasants in the street are another.
In a country where there is a very sharp confrontation between the classes, where there is a terrible civil war, the streets are by nature "subversive."
In fact, in this demonstration, we saw the people raise such excellent slogans as imperialism in Salvador
"No
People Without Land, No Land
Without People," and "Only the People
Will Save the People."
These in effect revolutionary are slogans. To demand the land in a country