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Sison: People's War Continues
Inquirer
Posted date: November 09, 2006
Following are excerpts from the e-mailed replies by Jose Maria Sison, founding chair of the Communist
Party of the Philippines based in Utretch, the Netherlands, to questions sent by the Inquirer.
Question (Q): What is the impact of the fall of the Berlin Wall on the Communist Party of the Philippines?
Answer (A): The fall of the Berlin Wall has adversely impacted on the Filipino revisionist followers of the Soviet Union
in the old Communist Party. They are the ones demoralized and debilitated by the fall of the Berlin Wall,
not the CPP as it has continued to this day. Guided by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, the CPP
has dared to oppose not only the Soviet-centered phenomenon of modern revisionism but also the
reversal of socialism in China. The CPP is glad that among serious revolutionaries, revisionism is thoroughly
exposed as the road to the restoration of capitalism, at first in a disguised way from 1956 onward in the
Soviet Union and ultimately in a barefaced way in the 1989-1991 period.
Q: Where is the CPP headed? What does it hope to accomplish? Is it still relevant?
A: In the concrete conditions of the Philippines, the CPP is playing an important role in leading the working
class and the rest of the people in the national democratic revolution against US imperialism and the local
reactionaries. It is a significant, relevant and consequential force in the struggle against the exploiters
and oppressors and against the semi-colonial and semi-feudal conditions. It is the most powerful political
force among the revolutionary forces because it leads a people's army and wages a people's war. In a
backhanded way, the reactionary government considers the CPP and the NPA (New People's Army)
the most dangerous threat to "national security." In the interest of the Filipino people and the people
of the world, the CPP is at the forefront of the global anti-imperialist movement, and has excelled in
opposing "neoliberal globalization," state terrorism and the wars of aggression unleashed by US imperialism
and its cohorts.
So long as the system of oppression and exploitation continues, there is material ground and just cause
for the CPP to continue and grow in strength as a revolutionary party of the proletariat. It deals with
the "here and now" when it fights for genuine national independence and democracy against US imperialism
and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords and when it contributes to the current global
anti-imperialist movement.
Mao's theory
The problem of building socialism continuously for an entire historical epoch is something to solve in the future.
The prospective solution for that is indicated by Mao's theory of continuing revolution under proletarian
dictatorship to combat revisionism, prevent the restoration of capitalism and consolidate socialism. But
meanwhile, the CPP and the Filipino people must fight for national liberation and democracy. These are
immediately desirable, necessary and realizable objectives. When these are achieved under the class leadership
of the proletariat, then the people and revolutionary forces can move on to socialist revolution and construction.
Beyond capitalism
For having a socialist perspective, the CPP goes beyond the confines of the world capitalist system and the
local reactionary system. The CPP is a party that can take advantage of the growing polarization between
the imperialist powers and the oppressed peoples, between the imperialist powers and recalcitrant dominated
states, among the imperialist powers and between the bourgeoisie and working class in imperialist countries.
At any rate, the epochal struggle between the proletariat and bourgeoisie, between socialism and capitalism,
will take a long time, hundreds of years, with ups and downs, twists and turns. In the last 150 years, since the
Communist Manifesto, the revolutionary proletariat has won great victories every 50 years after some big defeat.
Q: Why is the aboveground Left being targeted in extrajudicial killings?
A: We are confronted today by a world capitalist system and a local reactionary system that are in severe crisis. The
United States has taken advantage of its sole superpower status and the 9/11 incident in order to try to override
its problems by pushing further neoliberalism, pump-priming the US economy with military contracts, unleashing
wars of aggression and whipping up repression and fascism in the name of antiterrorism.
For political survival amidst charges of massive corruption, electoral fraud and other wrongdoings, the Arroyo regime
finds it expedient to follow the dictates of the United States, especially the Bushite policy of "war on terror," which
is actually a war of terror against the people. In this regard, the regime has made since 2001 the National Internal
Security Plan and specifically Oplan Bantay Laya to concentrate military attack forces on a number of selected guerrilla
fronts at every given time and to engage in assassinations against what you call the aboveground Left.
Assassinations
These assassinations of more than 760 unarmed leaders of progressive party-list groups and mass organizations (of
workers, peasants, youth, women and others), journalists, church people, lawyers, human rights activists and peace
advocates are aimed at destroying the suspected political infrastructure of the revolutionary movement. This mode
of attack is patterned after the infamous Phoenix Program of the United States in Vietnam during the late 1960s.
Philcag and martial rule veteran Gen. Eduardo Ermita and the clerico-fascist Norberto Gonzales are the key planners
of the United States and the Arroyo regime in the campaign of assassinations, abductions and torture.
All-out war policy
Arroyo and her Cabinet oversight committee on internal security and the presidential antiterrorism task force believe
that waging an all-out war policy against the CPP, NPA and other forces of the Left would unite the fractious military
and police and emasculate the broad united front of opposition forces. They believe that they must kill communists
and communist suspects in order to sow terror among the people. But the wanton extrajudicial killings are arousing
popular indignation and driving the people to wage all possible forms of resistance, including mass protests and armed
struggle.
Arroyo is aiming for a monopoly of political power. Her regime seeks to use the Charter change scheme to make her
an autocrat like Marcos, to curtail democratic rights, to sell out the national patrimony and to allow the US to operate
military bases in the Philippines and bring weapons of mass destruction. The regime is also hell-bent on enacting the
Anti-Terrorism Law to suppress not only the armed revolutionary movement but also the broad legal opposition.
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