Message to the LFS and NKE in Cebu Forum on Philippine Society and Revolution on February 4, 2011
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
On behalf of the global leadership and entirety of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), I wish to convey warmest greetings of solidarity to the League of Filipino Students (LFS) and the Nagkahiusang Kusog sa Estudyante (NKE).
We join you in celebrating the anniversary of the publication of Philippine Society and Revolution, the First Quarter Storm of 1970 and the Nationalist Youth Week in the University of the Philippines Cebu College.
We welcome and support your thematic call, “Ignite the flame of nationalism, learn to struggle and defend the rights of the youth and the people towards genuine freedom”. Your theme is in consonance with the spirit of the First Quarter Storm.
We thank the LFS and Nagkahiusang Kusog sa Estudyante (NKE) for inviting us to participate in the forum entitled LIPUNAN AT REBOLUSYONG PILIPINO: Revisiting the Past and Its Undying Struggle.
As the author with the nom de plume et de guerre of Amado Guerrero, I am honored and delighted that the forum seeks to elucidate the relevance of the book, Philippine Society and Revolution and its analysis to the current social conditions.
I am not in a position now to be one of the panelists via Skype because of previous commitments related to preparations for the resumption of formal talks in the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations. But I am glad that you give me the leeway to write to you a few thoughts.
The book is not only a historical document of great significance, having inspired and guided millions of youth and people in more than four decades of revolutionary struggle for national liberation and democracy against foreign monopoly capitalism, domestic feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.
It is a book of continuing relevance because it sheds light on the persistent semicolonial and semifeudal character of Philippine society. It unfolds the contending revolutionary and counterrevolutionary classes and forces. It continues to give revolutionary direction to the revolutionary forces and people that persevere in the new democratic revolution with a socialist perspective.
The semicolonial and semifeudal conditions have not only persisted but they have become far worse, deeper and graver. We continue to confront and fight an ever rotting ruling system of big compradors and landlords servile to the imperialist powers, chiefly the US.
The Marcos fascist dictatorship and the series of post-Marcos pseudo-democratic regimes have all proven to be fundamentally the same. They ride roughshod over the people and they reek of the intolerable stink of puppetry, corruption, brutality and mendacity. They know no limits to exploiting and oppressing the Filipino people.
The new US-supported Aquino regime has not offered anything to satisfy the people’s demands for national liberation and democracy. It has failed to fulfill even its promise of holding its predecessor Arroyo regime to account for gross and systematic corruption and human rights violations. It has released from prison 400 military prisoners but has so far refused to release some 349 political prisoners who have sacrificed and contributed greatly to the struggle against the Arroyo regime.
The Aquino regime obviously relies on shallow gimmicky and on the manipulation of the bourgeois mass media and the poll surveys in order to conjure the illusion of popularity. It continues to toe the US line of neoliberal globalization. This has brought about the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the worst forms of exploitation, high rate of unemployment, the soaring prices of basic commodities and the breakdown of social services.
The regime is carrying out the Oplan Bayanihan under the US Guide on Counterinsurgency and the US global policy of terror. The new oplan is a futile attempt at making state terrorism and US military intervention look acceptable and become effective against the revolutionary forces and the people through palliatives and psywar claims of good governance, delivery of services, economic development and security reform.
Nevertheless, through the peace negotiations between the reactionary government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the revolutionary forces and people are challenging the Aquino regime to come to an alliance and truce in order to assert national independence, empower the people, carry out land reform and national industrialization, promote a patriotic, scientific and democratic culture and contribute to international solidarity and peace. Let us see how the Aquino regime reacts to the call for patriotism and progress.
There is the continuing necessity and urgency for the broad masses of the people, especially the toiling masses of workers and peasants and the middle social strata, to unite and fight for national and social liberation against US imperialism and the local exploiting classes. We all hunger for genuine national independence, democracy, social justice, development and peace.
As the class leadership of the working classes prevails in the people’s democratic revolution, the subsequent stage of socialist revolution becomes possible in order to make a radical rupture from all systematic forms of exploitation and oppression. Through revolutionary struggle, we take our destiny into our own hands and we can look forward to a bright future. ###
