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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS |
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Dear Participating Organizations of ILPS, Warm greetings of solidarity! We are requesting you to give your support for Prof. Jose Maria Sison,
Prof. Sison has been continuously the target of imperialists and their
We hope to receive your brief note of approval at the soonest possible
Thank you for your cooperation. General Secretariat Visit http://www.ilps-news.com/central-info-bureau/statements/attack-on-ilps-chairperson/ for this statement on the ILPS website and for the latest signatories. ============================================================= Attack on ILPS Chairperson Serves US Imperialism We, the participating organizations of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), express our full support for Professor Jose Maria Sison, Chairperson of ILPS, who is once again the focus of attack apparently initiated by pseudo-progressive, anti-communist groups like Akbayan and Focus on the Global South but in fact directed by US and Philippine intelligence and psywar agencies. The groups spearheading the attack are openly subsidized by the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund and secretly or indirectly by US government-funded agencies like the US Agency for International Development, National Endowment for Democracy and the US Institute of Peace through conduits and partnerships. The special task of the aforesaid groups is to pretend to being progressives and then attack the truly progressive organizations and leaders. Akbayan and Focus on the Global South do not have a mass following but they try to conjure the illusion of having it by undertaking conferences and publications made possible by large financing from the US and other imperialist funding agencies. They misrepresent themselves as part of the broad movement against imperialist globalization but they merely pretend to criticize imperialism and make proposals for improving it. They use the glittering phrase “civil society” to mean that they are loyal citizens of the violent state of the exploiting classes. They advocate a tripartite civility among the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the state and big business. They claim to be against “corporate-driven globalization and US militarism” (their own words) but they receive funds from the imperialist funding agencies, like the US imperialist private foundations and state agencies. They are in fact NGO racketeers, pretending to be for the people but always seeking to swindle and mislead them. Walden Bello, executive director of the Focus on the Global South, and Etta Rosales, an Akbayan officer, launched a surprise attack on ILPS chairperson Prof. Jose Maria Sison by issuing to the press on December 26, 2004 an open letter to him, holding him responsible for a political diagram which they misrepresented as a “hit list”. The diagram drawn by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to update its membership shows the status of the pseudo-progressive groups in the Philippines and their connections with Trotskyite and other political groups abroad. Any honest person can visit www.philippinerevolution.org to look at the diagram in the December 7, 2004 issue of Ang Bayan and make a judgment whether it is a “hit list” or not. But Walden Bello & Co. shamelessly continue to peddle their malicious claim and ask organizations and personalities within their reach through the Internet and conferences to sign a petition against a non-existent” hit list” and impute it to Professor Sison. They are assisted by the Trotskyite groups and other rabid anti-communist and pro-imperialist groups abroad. The persistent attack of Walden Bello & Co. is orchestrated with the “terrorist” listing done by the US and other governments to demonize and stigmatize Prof. Sison and the Philippine revolutionary forces, to violate his human rights and deprive him of basic means of subsistence and to pressure the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to fall for the demands of the Washington and Manila governments for the pacification and capitulation of the Filipino people’s revolutionary movement. In the letter being frantically circulated by Focus on the Global South, Bello & Co. engage in red-baiting by naming progressive Philippine organizations which they say are “associated with or closely working with the CPP”. They are practically campaigning for the US and other governments to likewise include these organizations in their so-called “terrorist list” and for political parties and people’s organizations abroad to shun and attack these organizations. In maligning the New People’s Army as a “paramilitary” engaged in senseless violence, they follow the imperialists and their puppet governments in demonizing genuine liberation movements as “terrorists”. Bello & Co. are doing an errand for US imperialism by attacking the ILPS Chairperson and red-baiting progressive Philippine organizations belonging to the ILPS. They expose their real pro-imperialist and anti-people character. They are likewise contributing their cowardly part to the so-called US war on terrorism which includes unjust “terrorist listing”, repression and wars of aggression. They parade themselves as the “new” activists of the 21st century who would change the world by using exclusively peaceful methods of “vigorous democratic debate” towards “opponents as people to be won over, not eliminated”. So after all, Bush and Blair and Ariel Sharon can be persuaded to mend their ways through “vigorous democratic debate”? Must the Iraqi people now stop their armed resistance and merely engage the American occupiers and torturers in “vigorous democratic debate?” No wonder, the imperialists applaud the ludicrous antics of this cabal of fakes. No wonder, Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund are so happy bankrolling their activities. The truly progressive organizations and personalities in the broad movement against imperialist globalization and war, including some of those that participate in the World Social Forum, must be vigilant against the tricks and maneuvers of Trotskyites, Right wing social democrats and US-funded pseudo-progressives like Bello & Co. They play the role of the 5th column to sabotage the broad people’s movement from within. If they are not exposed and opposed, they can be even more dangerous and harmful than the more easily recognized agents of imperialism. ILPS is an international alliance of more than 300 progressive organizations from Asia, North and South America, Africa and Europe that is committed to fighting imperialism and all forms of reaction. It applies the policy of broad international united front. It cooperates and coordinates with other organizations and alliances that take up the just cause of the people of the world for national and social liberation. At the ILPS Second International Assembly held in November last year in the Netherlands, we overwhelmingly elected Professor Sison as the Chairperson of the alliance. This was in recognition of his invaluable contributions to the anti-imperialist cause of the most exploited and oppressed peoples of the world. His timely and astute analysis of current political and economic situation serves to illuminate the path of struggle and inspires us to remain steadfast and united in fighting those who cause the oppression, exploitation and impoverishment of all working people and prevent their genuine emancipation. We are aware of Professor Sison's standing as a revolutionary and his track record of unwavering commitment to the struggle of the Filipino people for genuine independence and democracy against US imperialism and the local exploiting classes. That Washington has tagged him a terrorist is concrete testament to his being an effective articulator of the resurgent anti-imperialist movement worldwide. Professor Sison will continue to enjoy our trust for as long as he remains true to the cause of anti-imperialist struggle and genuine liberation. For those who continue to malign him and the just cause we share with him and the world's people, we have nothing but contempt. # # # SIGNATORIES TO STATEMENT ON ILPS CHAIRPERSON |
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