18 January 2001

MASS MOVEMENT MUST SURGE FORWARD

By Jose Maria Sison

NDFP Chief Political Consultant

Acting through his fellow rogues in the Senate, Estrada has scuttled the Senate trial by suppressing vital evidence. He has in effect acquitted himself in advance of the previously scheduled February 12 judgment day.

The broad masses of the people are seething with just anger and are determined to remove Estrada from power through the exercise of their own democratic will outside the processes and mechanisms under the control of the Estrada ruling clique.

The mass movement to oust Estrada must surge forward under the policy of the broad united front. The patriotic and progressive forces must actively cooperate with their allies in carrying out immediately on a nationwide scale and in Metro Manila the largest possible mass actions in quick response to the shameless deviltry of the ruling clique.

Converging at Edsa can be advantageous if this is the consensus of the broad united front and has the purpose of encouraging the active military and police officers to join in the mass uprising and shutting down the factories and offices served by the Edsa trunkline.

If necessary, the encirclement of the palace can be done eventually, with marches from several assembly points, including Edsa, Luneta, Liwasan and other points. There is time to develop the most effective way to oust Estrada. This can be accomplished within this month, within a few months or within the year.

The broad united front to oust Estrada or to compel his resignation includes the forces and personages of the national democratic movement, the opposition parties, respected institutions and organizations of various types and growing sections of the reactionary military and police.

Military and police personnel can play a positive role if they withdraw support from the Estrada ruling clique, shift to the side of the people, neutralize the rabid military and police running dogs of the ruling clique and do not seek to form any military or civilian-military junta.

The Estrada ruling clique is poised to further repress the people, assault mass actions and explode more bombs to kill and maim civilians. In this connection, the CPP has made a timely announcement that the New People’s Army will intensify the people’s war in the countryside and carry out precise commando operations against the most notorious plunderers and human rights violators belonging to the Estrada ruling clique.

The economic and political crisis of the ruling system of big compradors and landlords is daily worsening. The conditions are exceedingly favorable for the advance of the revolutionary mass movement and the overthrow of the Estrada ruling clique.

Everyday that this clique remains in power, the Filipino people becomes more resolute and militant in advancing the legal democratic mass movement and the revolutionary armed struggle as complementary and interacting forms of struggle on the road of new-democratic revolution against foreign monopoly capitalism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. #