Long live Ka Joma! Long live international solidarity!
Fight Back News Service is circulating the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) statement on the occasion of the February 8 birthday of Chairperson Emeritus Jose Maria Sison.
The International League of Peoples’ Struggle commemorates the birthday of its Chairman Emeritus, Professor Jose Maria Sison. His guidance since the founding of the League has proved invaluable to the revolutionary forces of many countries and to the strengthening of the broad anti-imperialist united front across the globe.
Jose Maria Sison, or “Ka Joma”, dedicated his life ever since youth towards serving the people. Despite growing up in a wealthy landlord family in the Philippines, his work in the militant student and peasant movement to oppose feudalism and U.S. imperialism in the Philippines led him towards the revolutionary path to fight alongside the toiling and oppressed masses. In 1964, he was one of the founders of Kabataang Makabayan (KM), or Patriotic Youth, and soon after led the reformation of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in 1968, becoming its first Chairman.
Under his leadership, the CPP founded the New People’s Army (NPA) in 1969 and was the leading force in establishing the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in 1973, that served as a strong basis to wage a people’s war against U.S. imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism. The revolutionary movement in the Philippines flourished and quickly expanded, posing an existential threat to the US-Marcos I fascist regime, so much so that Martial Law was instated in 1972. Despite these unspeakably repressive conditions, the movement grew to even greater heights through the leadership of the CPP.
Ka Joma, from 1977-‘86, faced long years of imprisonment and torture under the US-Marcos I regime, but his commitment to proletarian revolution never wavered, never acceding to collaborate or even compromise with fascism. Upon being released from prison after the People Power Revolution in 1986, he again continued to serve his role as a revolutionary to widely propagate the fight for national democracy and socialism, embarking on a global lecture tour. His rigorous analysis and critique of the root problems of Philippine society led to his passport being cancelled by President Aquino in 1988, subsequently forcing him into exile in the Netherlands.
For the decades to follow, Ka Joma continued his commitment to fight for his homeland and against imperialism while overseas. He continued to write endlessly on problems of imperialism, reaction, and its solution: revolution. He served as Chief Political Consultant for the NDFP in the midst of peace talks between the revolutionary movement and the reactionary Philippine government to address the root causes of armed struggle.
With the fall of the Soviet Union, revolutionary movements across the world had entered a strategic retreat at the turn of the century. but his keen analysis and foresight was instrumental in the founding of the League. Among his many contributions to the struggles of the masses, globally a lasting contribution was that he garnered movements once again to unite to fight against imperialist domination.
Apart from steering the League to be one of the biggest anti-imperialist, anti-fascist movements, globally he was a beacon for providing revolutionary guidance to the people’s’ movements. In the midst of great disorientation in the International Communist movement, Ka Joma kept high the torch of proletarian revolution in his many writings on the world situation and the upsurge of peoples’ resistance movements against imperialism that were emerging. He served on the preparatory committee that led to the foundation of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle in 2001. As Joma said in his opening address to the ILPS Founding Assembly, “The League answers the urgent need of the broad masses of the people for international solidarity and a rallying force in the struggle for national independence, democracy, and socialism. It is their weapon against the intensifying exploitation and oppression unleashed by free market globalization and the new world disorder under the hegemony of US imperialism. The contradictions are sharpening between the imperialist powers and the oppressed nations and peoples, those among the imperialist powers, and those between capital and labor in imperialist countries. Under these conditions, the revolutionary mass movement can advance throughout the world.” These words, spoken 25 years ago, ring true as if they were spoken today.
After serving as Chairman of the ILPS since the 2nd International Assembly until the 6th International Assembly, he served as its Chairman Emeritus until his death. His leadership helped see the League grow to nearly 400 member organizations across every region of the world. He held high the banner of anti-imperialism unwaveringly until the end. In his final report on the world situation to the ILPS International Coordinating Committee in 2022, just months before his death, “The conditions are exceedingly favorable for the advance of the anti-imperialist and democratic mass struggles in all types of countries, be they imperialist or imperialist-dominated. They arise as a result of the intensifying major contradictions in the world capitalist system. Once more they lay the ground for great disorder and turbulence in this system and the resurgence of the world proletarian socialist revolution.”
The ILPS pays tribute to Ka Joma for his tireless service to the people of the Philippines and the world. As the League commemorates its 25th anniversary through a year-long campaign of political education, propaganda, and campaign festivals to celebrate the legacy of the ILPS in aiding the toiling and oppressed masses’ fight across the world, we remember the undying words and spirit of Ka Joma. Let us honor his revolutionary spirit by following his example of relying unconditionally on the masses and fighting with them for a better world, for an end to the evils of imperialism, fascism, and all reaction.
Ka Joma Lives!
Signed,
International League of Peoples’ Struggle