By Jose Maria Sison
Founding Chairman, Kabataang Makabayan
& General Consultant, International League of Peoples’ Struggle

30 November 2001

I wish to convey warmest greetings of solidarity and congratulations to Anakbayan on the occasion of its third founding anniversary.

In so short a period of time, you have accomplished a lot in arousing, organizing and mobilizing the Filipino youth along the line of the new-democratic revolution against US imperialism and the local reactionaries. You have expanded and consolidated well as a comprehensive youth organization with a patriotic and progressive orientation.

You have been outstanding in the victorious mass movement to overthrow the US-Estrada ruling clique. And you are in a better position than ever before to oppose the current US-Arroyo regime in the revolutionary spirit of overthrowing one puppet regime after another and accumulating strength in order to weaken and eventually overthrow the entire ruling system.

You owe your accomplishments to favorable objective conditions and to your hard work and arduous struggle. You have taken advantage of the rapidly worsening crisis of the domestic ruling system and the world capitalist system by adopting the correct political line, by waging resolute and militant mass struggles and integrating with the entire people.

The broad masses of the people are suffering terribly from the social and economic devastation wrought by "free market" globalization. The US-Arroyo regime has not offered anything to alleviate the plight of the workers, peasants and the middle social strata. Instead, it is hell-bent on aggravating the exploitation and oppression of the people against US imperialism and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords.

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is euphoric over the result of her recent pilgrimage to Washington and over US pledges of investments, loans and trade concessions as well as the more definite military assistance of USD92.3 million in exchange for the further violation of Philippine national sovereignty and territorial integrity in a so-called mutual logistics support agreement.

No amount of US "aid" can extricate the ruling system from the crisis generated by both the US and the local reactionaries. Ms Macapagal-Arroyo deludes herself in the belief that she has gotten enough manna from her Great White Father George W. Bush to be able to overcome the social and economic crisis and to wage any number of wars in the Philippines under the US slogan of "anti-terrorism".

The economy is ravaged by superprofit-taking by the imperialists, feudal and semifeudal exploitation by the local reactionaries, the heavy debt burden, the drastic slump in the export of semimanufactures and raw materials, the relentless depreciation of the peso, rampant corruption in the bureaucracy and official and private criminal operations of military and police officers.

"Free market" globalization inflicts intolerable suffering on the people and generates social unrest and revolutionary armed resistance. In effect, it also discredits, weakens and isolates the ruling system, particularly the current US-Arroyo ruling clique.

The reactionary regime is faced with the growing strength of the people and revolutionary forces who are waging a protracted people’s war under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines. The Bangsamoro and their revolutionary forces are also gaining strength in their struggle for self-determination.

The US-Arroyo ruling clique is extremely fragile. It can be overthrown like the US-Estrada ruling clique by a broad united front. At the least it can be weakened and isolated to the point that it loses all chances of winning in the 2004 presidential elections.

The current regime has limited ground for maneuver. The support it gets from its US imperialist master is not limitless. In the first place, it is US imperialism which has caused the current grave crisis and disorder in the world capitalist system.

The US itself is now in the throes of a grave social and economic crisis after the bursting of the high-tech bubble. It is putting itself in a worse situation by engaging in large-scale acts of terrorism, such as waging aggression and instigating repression on a global scale.

The objective conditions for further strengthening the patriotic and progressive forces and waging mass struggles are excellent. The unbridled plunder and terror perpetrated by the US and its puppets drive the people to wage revolution, the nations to fight for liberation and countries to assert independence.

You must seize every moment to arouse, organize and mobilize the youth and link them with the rest of the Filipino people in order to carry forward the national-democratic revolution. I hope that you will win ever greater victories in the year to come.