To: Communist Party of the Philippines

From: Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Dear Comrades,

It is with great sorrow that we learned of the passing of Comrade Jose Ma. Sison. The Freedom Road Socialist Organization extends our sincere condolences to Ka Joma’s many comrades, friends, Ka Julieta de Lima and his entire family. He will be missed wherever working and oppressed people are striving for their emancipation. We mourn the departure of a true titan in the world communist movement.

As a founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army, Comrade Sison made tremendous contributions to the people’s democratic revolution in the Philippines and helped bring closer the day when the burdens of imperialism, semi feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism are lifted off the backs of the Filipino people.

Ka Joma was an outstanding proletarian revolutionary whose life and work stands as example to communists everywhere. Enduring hardship and torture at the hands of the enemy, he embodied what it means to serve the people. He indeed feared neither hardship nor death.

Comrade Jose Ma. Sison made numerous contributions to Marxism – Leninism, thus enriching the content of scientific socialism. A relentless opponent of revisionism and opportunism, Comrade Sison’s thinking – his contributions to revolutionary theory – have an application internationally and deserve study by all serious communists.

Ka Joma was a true working-class internationalist, who took seriously the dictum “workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite.” As the leader of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, he spearheaded the building of international solidarity in practice.

The people of the Philippines and the people of the U.S. have a common enemy in the monopoly capitalists that rule Wall Street’s American empire. Comrade Sison stood in the front lines of those fighting to bring the empire down.

The leadership and members of FRSO appreciate the keen interest Ka Joma took in the development of a revolutionary movement in the United States, and warm friendship that he extended to our organization. When the U.S. government launched an attack on antiwar and international solidarity activists, and attempted to imprison key leaders of FRSO, he was among the first to speak out against the repression. His efforts helped to forge an unbreakable bond between the revolutionary movement in the U.S. and the revolutionary movement in the Philippines. We will miss him.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization shares the grief of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and we extend our solidarity at this difficult movement. We are also committed to learning from the life and work of Comrade Sison.

The contributions of Comrade Jose Ma. Sison will live forever!

With communist greetings,

Freedom Road Socialist Organization

#UnitedStates #Philippines #JoseMariaSison #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippinesCPP #Asia

I wish to convey my sincerest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of my friend and legal counsel William Ramsey Clark who passed away last April 9, 2021. I have the highest regard for him as a champion of human rights, a staunch defender of the people’s right to national and social liberation, a fierce advocate of just peace and a resolute opponent to the imperialist policies and wars of aggression of the US.

While he was US Attorney General under the Johnson administration, he was well known for standing up for civil liberties and civil rights, fighting against racial segregation and discrimination and enforcing anti-trust laws. It was in certain cases involving the US war of aggression in Vietnam that he had to agonize as a prosecutor on behalf of the US government. But after he was out of government, he visited North Vietnam as a protest against the bombing of Hanoi.

Ramsey Clark used his knowledge of history, political wisdom and legal expertise to identify the major aggressions which the US committed after World War II. These victimized Korea from 1951 onward, Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Republic of the Congo in 1961, Vietnam from 1959 to 1975, the Dominican Republic in 1965, Nicaragua from 1981 to 1988, Grenada from 1983 onward, Libya in 1986 and again in 2011, Panama in 1989-1990, the Gulf War in 1991, Somalia in 1991-1992, Iraq from 1993 onward, Yugoslavia in 1999, Sudan in 1988, Afghanistan from 2001onward, Iraq from 2003 onward and Haiti in 2004.

From 1998 onward while I was the Chairperson of the International Preparatory Committee that founded the ILPS in 2001, I was in communication with Ramsey Clark as the chairman of the International Action Center (IAC) concerning US imperialism in global affairs. Our communications became more frequent when the IAC and ILPS cooperated in opposing the US war of aggression against Iraq and the ensuing the so-called global war on terror. The relations of the two major international organizations became stronger and more fruitful.

I became deeply indebted to Ramsey Clark when he publicly defended me and opposed the act of the US government in designating me as “foreign terrorist” in 2002. Likewise he opposed my being named in the EU terrorist list in line with the US precedent. My Filipino lawyer, the late Atty. Romeo Y. Capulong, had extensive consultations with him in New York concerning these lists.

And when I met Ramsey Clark in The Hague in February 2005, I expressed to him my gratitude

for his solidarity and support to me against the “terrorist” listing initiated by the US government since August 9, 2002. We discussed the implications and the consequences of the “terrorist” listing, the legal and physical threats posed by the US and the possible legal and political counter-measures.

We also exchanged views on the situation in the US, Philippines and the world at large, the criminal impeachable acts of US President Bush, the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, the forthcoming global mass protests, the escalating US military intervention in the Philippines and the US sabotage of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations through the “terrorist” listing”.

Ramsey Clark came again to my defense on September 1, 2007 when he declared that the murder charges against had been trumped up by the Philippine authorities, that they had already been dismissed by the Philippine Supreme Court and that the Dutch authorities had no competency over the issue. Ultimately, the Dutch authorities would finally dismiss the false murder charges against me in 2009. And within that year the European Court of Justice also ruled and ordered the removal of my name from the so-called EU terrorist list.

I mention the solidarity and support that Ramsey Clark extended specifically to me by way of showing concretely his readiness to help others. But the Filipino organizations in the US and the Philippines can say more about the various ways by which he has been in solidarity and support for the Filipino people in their struggle for national and social liberation even as he had to pay attention to many issues and struggles in many countries.

Ramsey Clark won the respect of the people of the world and from the most respected institutions. In 1992 he received the Gandhi Peace Award and the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for his commitment to civil rights, his opposition to war and military spending and his dedication to providing legal representation to the peace movement. The United Nations awarded him in 2002 its Prize in the Field of Human Rghts for his steadfast insistence on respect for human rights and fair judicial process for all.

Long before his demise, William Ramsey Clark had won the love and respect of entire peoples of the world and received the honors in recognition of his greatness and concrete deeds in the service of the oppressed and exploited people in need of support and assistance.. He will always be remembered and will continue to inspire us to uphold, defend and advance the just cause of greater freedom, democratic rights, social justice, development, international solidarity and peace against imperialism and all reaction.

Prof. Jose Maria Sison, is the Chairperson Emeritus of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle

#UnitedStates #Remembrances #PeoplesStruggles #JoseMariaSison #RamseyClark

I wish to convey my sincerest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of my friend and legal counsel William Ramsey Clark who passed away last April 9, 2021. I have the highest regard for him as a champion of human rights, a staunch defender of the people’s right to national and social liberation, a fierce advocate of just peace and a resolute opponent to the imperialist policies and wars of aggression of the US.

While he was US Attorney General under the Johnson administration, he was well known for standing up for civil liberties and civil rights, fighting against racial segregation and discrimination and enforcing anti-trust laws. It was in certain cases involving the US war of aggression in Vietnam that he had to agonize as a prosecutor on behalf of the US government. But after he was out of government, he visited North Vietnam as a protest against the bombing of Hanoi.

Ramsey Clark used his knowledge of history, political wisdom and legal expertise to identify the major aggressions which the US committed after World War II. These victimized Korea from 1951 onward, Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Republic of the Congo in 1961, Vietnam from 1959 to 1975, the Dominican Republic in 1965, Nicaragua from 1981 to 1988, Grenada from 1983 onward, Libya in 1986 and again in 2011, Panama in 1989-1990, the Gulf War in 1991, Somalia in 1991-1992, Iraq from 1993 onward, Yugoslavia in 1999, Sudan in 1988, Afghanistan from 2001onward, Iraq from 2003 onward and Haiti in 2004.

From 1998 onward while I was the Chairperson of the International Preparatory Committee that founded the ILPS in 2001, I was in communication with Ramsey Clark as the chairman of the International Action Center (IAC) concerning US imperialism in global affairs. Our communications became more frequent when the IAC and ILPS cooperated in opposing the US war of aggression against Iraq and the ensuing the so-called global war on terror. The relations of the two major international organizations became stronger and more fruitful.

I became deeply indebted to Ramsey Clark when he publicly defended me and opposed the act of the US government in designating me as “foreign terrorist” in 2002. Likewise he opposed my being named in the EU terrorist list in line with the US precedent. My Filipino lawyer, the late Atty. Romeo Y. Capulong, had extensive consultations with him in New York concerning these lists.

And when I met Ramsey Clark in The Hague in February 2005, I expressed to him my gratitude

for his solidarity and support to me against the “terrorist” listing initiated by the US government since August 9, 2002. We discussed the implications and the consequences of the “terrorist” listing, the legal and physical threats posed by the US and the possible legal and political counter-measures.

We also exchanged views on the situation in the US, Philippines and the world at large, the criminal impeachable acts of US President Bush, the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, the forthcoming global mass protests, the escalating US military intervention in the Philippines and the US sabotage of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations through the “terrorist” listing”.

Ramsey Clark came again to my defense on September 1, 2007 when he declared that the murder charges against had been trumped up by the Philippine authorities, that they had already been dismissed by the Philippine Supreme Court and that the Dutch authorities had no competency over the issue. Ultimately, the Dutch authorities would finally dismiss the false murder charges against me in 2009. And within that year the European Court of Justice also ruled and ordered the removal of my name from the so-called EU terrorist list.

I mention the solidarity and support that Ramsey Clark extended specifically to me by way of showing concretely his readiness to help others. But the Filipino organizations in the US and the Philippines can say more about the various ways by which he has been in solidarity and support for the Filipino people in their struggle for national and social liberation even as he had to pay attention to many issues and struggles in many countries.

Ramsey Clark won the respect of the people of the world and from the most respected institutions. In 1992 he received the Gandhi Peace Award and the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for his commitment to civil rights, his opposition to war and military spending and his dedication to providing legal representation to the peace movement. The United Nations awarded him in 2002 its Prize in the Field of Human Rghts for his steadfast insistence on respect for human rights and fair judicial process for all.

Long before his demise, William Ramsey Clark had won the love and respect of entire peoples of the world and received the honors in recognition of his greatness and concrete deeds in the service of the oppressed and exploited people in need of support and assistance.. He will always be remembered and will continue to inspire us to uphold, defend and advance the just cause of greater freedom, democratic rights, social justice, development, international solidarity and peace against imperialism and all reaction.

Prof. Jose Maria Sison, is the Chairperson Emeritus of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle

#UnitedStates #Remembrances #PeoplesStruggles #JoseMariaSison #RamseyClark

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement by Jose Maria Sison, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Chief Political Consultant.

While it is frenziedly engaged in state terrorism and suppression of democratic rights in the Philippines, the Duterte regime has submitted to the UN Human Rights Office a 137-page report entitled “The Philippine Human Rights Situationer May 2020” to achieve two malicious purposes:

1) to make false accusations against the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’ Army and the National Democratic Front; and

2) to slander and vilify the human rights organizations and the victims who have presented well-founded complaints of human rights violations against the regime.

The declared purpose of the malicious report is to accuse the revolutionary forces of committing “crimes and atrocities” against the very people whose support they are relying on and whom they are fighting for. But in fact the real main purpose of the report is to slander and vilify the human rights organizations and victims of human rights violations as mere instruments of the revolutionary movement that is also glibly accused of being adept at “exploiting human rights and democratic spaces.”

The report carries a wild and wanton witchhunt list of alleged communist-created underground, front organizations, alliances, and networks. The list works on the malicious presumption of guilt by association, which makes the legal democratic forces and human right defenders as guilty of terrorism as the victims of human rights violations whom they defend against state terrorism.

The report goes so far as to accuse the human rights defenders of “weaponizing” human rights and using UN platforms and legal spaces to advance anti-human rights and anti-democratic political agenda, as the result of “communists” using sectoral-organizing work “for political manipulation and agitation, influence operations, and as a tool for launching diplomatic offensives against the state.”

The report lacks credibility because it comes from a regime that is accountable for gross and systematic violations of human rights and for crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court. This regime has not been honestly responsive to the complaints of human right violations and has allowed these to be violated with impunity and without letup. A new law of state terrorism has been adopted by the Duterte regime to realize a full blown fascist dictatorship.

The main line of attack of the report against the CPP, NPA and NDFP is that they are responsible for the “cost of 60,000 lives and destruction of billions of public infrastructure” in the civil war that has been going on between the revolutionary movement of the people and the reactionary government of big compradors, landlord and bureaucrat capitalists.

In fact, more than 90 percent of the lives lost in the civil war have been snuffed out by the reactionary armed forces and police in campaigns of military suppression waged against the civilian population in areas suspected of being under the people’s democratic government, especially after successful tactical offensives by the people’s army.

The people’s army is carrying out guerrilla warfare and is not destroying any public infrastructure. What is destructive to public interest and economic development is the pork barrel corruption involved in the overpricing of real or imaginary infrastructure projects by the office of the president and his political stooges in Congress.

Since the time of Marcos, the Duterte regime has been the most destructive to economic development because of its extreme corruption, military overspending, cheap sale of natural resources to foreign companies and the mounting foreign debt due to growing trade and budgetary deficits. Superprofits have been taken away from the country through the extreme exploitation of workers and through land seizures from poor peasants and indigenous peoples by logging, mining, plantation and real estate companies.

Duterte has terminated the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations despite the landmark Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law and the substantial advance in the drafting of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms, featuring mainly a program of genuine land reform and national industrialization that would have been financed by income expected from the development of oil and gas resources in the West Philippine Sea (with estimated value of at least USD 26 trillion) if not for Duterte’s sell-out of Philippine sovereign rights to China.

But the traitorous, tyrannical, genocidal and corrupt Duterte has been hell-bent on gunning for a fascist dictatorship, on getting US military assistance under the Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines (beyond the human rights oversight of the US Congress), on laying aside the sovereign rights of the Filipino people over the exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea and on obtaining graft-laden loans from China at high interest for overpriced infrastructure projects worth USD 24 billion. Thus, he has terminated the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations since 2017 by scapegoating the CPP, NPA and NDFP.

In its report, the Duterte regime boasts of being capable of destroying the revolutionary movement of the Filipino people but is anyway asking for the support from the international community for a scheme of state terrorism and fascist dictatorship, a brutal scheme that is now so notorious and well exposed to the people of the world. In fact, the regime is far more incapable of destroying the armed revolutionary movement than any previous reactionary regime.

Duterte has bankrupted the Philippine economy and his own government. His regime has aggravated the crisis of the semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system. It imposes the most intolerable forms of oppression and exploitation on the people. Thus, it has incited the people to join the armed revolution at a time when the revolutionary forces are far stronger nationwide than during the Marcos fascist dictatorship which Duterte emulates in his futile drive to destroy the revolutionary movement.

#Philippines #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #JoseMariaSison #PoliticalRepression #Antifascism #RodrigoDuterte #JunkTerrorBill

The Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) notice of termination takes effect after 180 days. The people cannot be sure that Duterte will not change his mind within that lengthy period. Previously, Duterte postured about terminating the Visiting Forces Agreement but after a few months allowed Balikatan exercises under VFA.

In the meantime, there are other military treaties with the US: Mutual Defense Treaty, Mutual Logistics Support Agreement and Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. The EDCA allows the US military to rotate more of its troops in the Philippines and build facilities in Philippine military camps, using the Filipino puppet troops as security guards.

Duterte is beggarly dependent on US military supplies and advice. One telephone call from Trump can fix Duterte. His own pro-US military officers trained in US military forts and organized as assets of the US DIA and CIA will tell him to comply with US orders or else.

#Philippines #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #US #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #NationalDemocraticFrontOfThePhilippines #JoseMariaSison #Antifascism #RodrigoDuterte #DonaldTrump

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement by Jose Maria Sison, Chairperson Emeritus, International League of Peoples’ Struggle.

By ordering the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and the Iranian and Iraqi officials accompanying him at the Baghdad airport, U.S. President Trump has blatantly committed multiple murder as well as aggression against the sovereignty of Iraq and Iran in violation of international law as well as U.S. law which prohibits such aggressive act without the prior declaration of war by authorization of the U.S. Congress.

Trump himself has boastfully and arrogantly admitted the criminal act that he ordered the assassination of Soleimani and his Iranian and Iraqi companions in two cars. His crime of multiple murder is in line with the aggressive and terrorist character of US imperialism. As the No. 1 terrorist in world history and contemporary times, U.S. imperialism has committed acts of aggression, destroying the lives and properties of millions of people, even without the formal declaration of war. Imperialist aggression is the worst kind of terrorism which the people suffer and abhor.

Those who support the terrorist act of Trump try to depict Soleimani as a terrorist. But in fact the latter is well known as a master strategist against terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State, Al Nusra and the Al Qaeda, which US imperialism has employed at one time or another. Soleimani and his Iranian and Iraqi companions are well known to have fought the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, starting from the time the US and Israel had just created and deployed the Islamic State as a weapon for invading Iraq, Iran and Syria.

In committing his criminal act, Trump is short-sightedly motivated by his selfish desire to overcome his current impeachment and to win the next presidential elections through warmongering and arousing the jingoistic sentiments that favor U.S. imperialism. But the criminal act has serious consequences. The oppressed peoples and self-respecting countries in the Middle East are justly outraged, aroused and mobilized to fight against US imperialism. So are the people of the world, including the American people, who are against the aggressive and terrorist acts of U.S. imperialism.

In accordance with its own original intent, U.S. imperialism will commit further terrorist acts of aggression as in the Middle East. It will continue to lose trillions of dollars in military expenditures without being able to expand stable economic territory. The U.S. public debt will increase at an accelerated rate even as the U.S. military industrial complex profits. But in the Middle East, the combination of Iran, Iraq, Syria and other countries will further isolate the US and will avail of the support of China and Russia. Thanks to Trump’s hyper terrorism, the strategic decline and downfall of U.S. imperialism is accelerating.

#UnitedStates #AntiwarMovement #Iran #JoseMariaSison

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) denounces in the strongest possible terms the US-Duterte regime for the issuance of a warrant of arrest on Prof. Jose Maria Sison, Chairperson Emeritus of the ILPS.

Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32 Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina issued the arrest warrant last August 22 for Sison and 37 others in connection with the so-called “Inopacan massacre” supposedly committed by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) in 1985 in Leyte province and the discovery of mass graves in 2006. They are being falsely charged with 15 counts of murder. There is no basis for the allegations.

As a matter of fact, Sison was in maximum security detention by the reactionary state forces under Marcos in 1985. He was arrested in 1977 and was in no position nor authority over the CPP and NPA.

The so-called “massacre” and “mass graves” are actually fabricated by former national security chief Norberto Gonzales and retired General Hermogenes Esperon, now national security adviser. Esperon gathered the remains from various cemeteries and thus the issue was known as the case of “walking skeletons”.

The Philippine Supreme Court under Chief Justice Reynaldo Puno already dismissed the case in 2007. Former Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo was also charged with the same accusation and was granted bail.

Among the accused is Joe Luneta who is already dead and Leo Velasco and Prudencio Calubid who were both abducted by the military and forcibly disappeared. Former peace negotiator of the National Democratic Front Luis Jalondoni was also included in the case when in fact he was overseas since 1976.

Prof. Sison is a recognized political refugee under the Geneva Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights. His passport was cancelled by Philippine authorities in 1986 and has since lived as a political refugee in the Netherlands and has tirelessly promoted anti-imperialist solidarity among workers and oppressed peoples and nations.

While there is no formal extradition treaty between the Netherlands and the Philippines and progressive lawyers can easily refute the baseless and false accusations against Sison, the international community must remain vigilant and express their solidarity with the Filipino people against the on-going escalation of fascist attacks in the Philippines.

The United States has been proven to be the Number One terrorist in the world and Duterte is fast being isolated in the global community for his extra-judicial killings and other grave crimes against the Filipino people.

With this latest political persecution against Sison and Philippine activists, the ILPS calls on all members and allies to demand the immediate dropping of all trumped-up charges, release all political prisoners, and support the Philippine struggle for national liberation and democracy.

[signed]

LEN COOPER

ILPS Chairperson

#Philippines #OppressedNationalities #US #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #JoseMariaSison #ndfp #Antifascism #RodrigoDuterte #DonaldTrump

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following August 14 statement by Jose Maria Sison, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Chief Political Consultant.

The proposal of General Ano, secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government, is one more manifestation of the frenzied drive of the tyrannical Duterte regime to impose a thoroughgoing fascist dictatorship on the people in a vain attempt to end the armed revolutionary movement as well as the broad legal opposition through red-tagging, harassments, threats, abductions and murders.

In line with the Duterte tyranny, the most vicious and bloodthirsty officials who love to kill people to solve problems are enamored of the long-discredited Anti-Subversion Law because it provides for the death penalty, for the prejudgment of people on the basis of guilt by association and for the arbitrary listing of people as “communists” for the purpose of extortions and mass slaughter.

Contrary to the view of the chief suspect in the abduction and forced disappearance of the young activist Jonas Burgos, the revival of the Anti-Subversion Law will not eliminate the Communist Party of the Philippines and the people’s democratic revolution. It will only serve to further violate the national and democratic rights of the people and will thus incite the broad masses of the people to rise up.

The fundamental cause of the armed revolution in the Philippines is neither the existence of the Communist Party in the Philippines nor the communist ideas of Marxism-Leninism but the exploitation and oppression of the Filipino people by imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism in a semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system now lorded over by the tyrant and plunderer Duterte.

The revival of the Anti-Subversion Law can give further license to Duterte’s armed minions to violate human rights and can further embolden them to witch-hunt, harass, threaten and kill those that they arbitrarily list as “communists” among the critics of the regime and the people in general. Such law can result in bigger mass murders than those perpetrated under Oplan Tokhang and Oplan Kapanatagan.

It must be recalled that the Anti-Subversion Law has long been discredited as an unjust and anti-democratic law by which anyone can be subjected to punishment on the basis of guilt by association, without the need to present evidence for the personal culpability of the accused for any crime.

Such law has long been condemned as a poison to the freedom of thought, expression and assembly.

Violations of democratic rights under the Anti-Subversion Law will drive more people to further oppose the regime and rise up in arms against it. Threatening to kill and actually killing people for their political ideas will compel them to act in a revolutionary way in order to get rid of the regime of terror that deprives them of the basic freedoms of thought, expression and assembly.

In my personal experience, red-tagging or anti-communist witch-hunts under the Anti-Subversion Law of the past never deterred me from studying Marxism-Leninism and aspiring to become a communist. Whenever the great anti-imperialist and patriot Senator Claro Mayo Recto was castigated as a communist, I became even more inspired to study the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism and learn how to apply the theory on the concrete conditions of the Philippines.

When I became a student activist in the University of the Philippines in the late 1950s, I was never afraid of the death penalty under the Anti-Subversion Law but on the contrary this anti-democratic law challenged me to organize Marxist-Leninist circles for the noble and patriotic purpose of reestablishing the Communist Party and continuing the democratic revolution started by Andres Bonifacio and frustrated by the war of aggression launched by US imperialism in 1899.

When the anti-communist witch-hunt was carried out by the Committee on Anti-Filipino Activities from 1959 to 196i in order to suppress academic freedom with the use of the Anti-Subversion Law, we the students and teachers of the University of the Philippines stood up for academic freedom and all democratic rights. Ultimately, we organized the 5000 protesters that literally scuttled the anti-communist witch-hunt on March 15, 1961. A major part of the demonstrators flooded into the CAFA hearing hall and put a stop to the proceedings.

The Anti-Subversion Law did not stop the rise of Filipino proletarian revolutionaries and their mass work. They succeeded in rebuilding the Communist Party and carrying out the people’s democratic revolution through protracted people’s war. Fidel V. Ramos repealed the Anti-Subversion Law in 1992 after recognizing the failure of this anti-democratic law to stop the growth and advance of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the revolutionary movement,

In the concrete semicolonial and semifeudal conditions of the Philippines, the Filipino communists are of the view that neither socialism or communism is the current issue. Thus, they have excelled at leading the people’s democratic revolution, which strives to realize full national sovereignty, democracy, social justice, economic development through national industrialization and genuine land reform, a patriotic, scientific and mass culture and international solidarity and cooperation of peoples for peace and all-round progress.

#Philippines #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #JoseMariaSison #PoliticalRepression #Antifascism #RodrigoDuterte

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following May 14 statement by Jose Maria Sison, National Democratic Front of the Philippines Chief Political Consultant.

As I have predicted, Duterte is successful in rigging the May 13 elections to deliver to his candidates a false victory in the crucial senatorial race. As I have pointed out, he has to rig the elections because he has the power and the criminal personality and motivation to do so because clean and honest elections would have allowed the opposition senatorial candidates to win and frustrate his greed for power and plunder.

The rigging included the deployment of huge amounts of public and private funds to generate propaganda in various forms in favor of the regime and against the opposition, the use of the military and police for redtagging, mass intimidation, selective murders and splitting the opposition, prolongation of martial law in Mindanao and declaration of trouble spots in Luzon and the Visayas and most important of all complete control of the Comelec and the deputization of military and police personnel for electoral functions.

Duterte is driven like crazy to rig the elections by all means within his power because of his scheme to establish a full- blown fascist dictatorship by scrapping the 1987 constitution under the pretext of shifting to federalism and to prevent impeachment and indefinitely his possible arrest and prosecution before the International Criminal Court for his gross and systematic human rights violations, especially the mass murder of suspects in his bogus war on drugs as well as in his war on the people’s revolutionary movement.

We can therefore expect that Duterte will use his false electoral victory to adopt and implement more draconian measures to suppress the legal democratic opposition as well as the people’s revolutionary movement. He gives no choice to the broad masses of the people but to unite and raise the level of their resistance. The certain worsening of the socio-economic and political crisis will further drive the Duterte regime to commit crimes against the people and will at the same time incite the people, especially the toiling masses of workers and peasants to fight back.

Duterte’s policies and acts of tyranny, treason, mass murder, plunder and swindling will eventually bring about the people’s resistance that is strong enough to end his rule. Elections are insufficient and ineffective in overthrowing a despotic monster like Duterte. By rigging the elections and continuing his tyrannical rule, Duterte has brought about the conditions favorable for the rise of the legal mass protest movement as well as of the more potent armed revolutionary mass movement.

#Philippines #PeoplesStruggles #JoseMariaSison #Duterte #Asia

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), which I represent as Chairperson of the International Coordinating Committee (ICC), hereby condemns in the strongest terms the attempt of the notorious Duterte regime to slander the ILPS and misrepresent it as the international network and International Department of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) for the purpose of intimidating the legal and patriotic and progressive organizations of Filipinos in the Philippines and abroad.

Contrary to the false claim of the Duterte regime, the ILPS is a broad alliance of hundreds of anti-imperialist and democratic mass organizations in scores of countries from all continents. The ICC, its supreme leading organ, is elected by the International Assembly and is restricted by the ILPS Charter from having more than three members from the same country, thus preempting control of the ILPS by any single country or organization.

The Duterte regime’s attack on the ILPS is an extension of the anticommunist witch hunt, state terrorism and fascisation being carried out by the regime in the Philippines. It is meant to attain certain malicious objectives, such as the following:

1) To red-tag and intimidate the ILPS and also to vainly reinforce its previous red tagging of legal patriotic and even religious organizations that are critical of the gross and systematic violations of human rights being perpetrated by Duterte.

2) To mislead world public opinion and deflect attention from the complaints on human rights violations already submitted to the International Criminal Court by aggrieved victims and survivors of human rights violations, who cannot obtain justice from Philippine courts which are now under the draconian control of the tyrant Duterte.

3) To blame the legal patriotic and progressive organizations and even religious organizations for supposedly causing the self-generated notoriety of the tyrannical, murderous and corrupt Duterte regime.

In the first place, the Duterte regime must be aware of its own crimes. Since he became president, Duterte no less has been publicly inciting and ordering the police to frame up and kill suspected drug users and peddlers in the thousands and assuring his armed minions of presidential protection and rewards in cash and promotions. Thus, more than 30,000 people have been extrajudicially killed in the fake war on illegal drugs undertaken by Duterte to monopolize the illegal drug trade.

The international and human rights agencies and organizations have been factual and truthful in their reporting of the mass murders and other human rights violations. Thus, Duterte is the subject of complaints to the International Criminal Court in The Hague by aggrieved Filipinos who cannot seek justice from the Philippines state because of Duterte’s unbridled brutality and tight grip on the judicial system.

Those being red-tagged by the Duterte regime include highly and widely respected Philippine organizations, like the IBON Research Foundation, GABRIELA, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, KARAPATAN, and the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), and religious formations like the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and the Iglesia Independiente Filipina (Philippine Independent Church).

The Duterte regime is maliciously spreading the big lie that its criminal ill repute or notoriety is because of the advocacy and social activism of the aforesaid organizations in support of the poor, exploited, and oppressed people and that these are merely CPP “front” or dummy organizations, which are used for raising funds abroad.

On their own account, the CPP and New People’s Army have time and again asserted and manifested their political, organizational and financial self-reliance because they enjoy the vigorous participation and abundant support of the people in the revolutionary struggle for national liberation, democracy, social justice, and all-round development.

Acting as the psywar agent of the Duterte regime, AFP Major General Parlade has gone to several countries in Europe and Southeast Asia to red-tag and slander the ILPS as a conduit of foreign funds for the CPP and revolutionary movement. He has done so at a time that the AFP is applying the brutal methods of Oplan Tokhang in Oplan Kapayapaan and escalating the selective and mass murders of people suspected of being linked to the New People’s Army.

Previously, it was another Duterte running dog, PNP General Albayalde who red-tagged the patriotic and progressive organizations on the outright lie that I identified them as CPP “front” organizations by maliciously misrepresenting a 1987 video, in which I sharply differentiated the forces of the armed revolutionary movement from the legal patriotic and progressive forces that had directly brought down the Marcos fascist dictatorship in 1986.

#Philippines #OppressedNationalities #US #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #JoseMariaSison #ILPS #Antifascism #RodrigoDuterte #DonaldTrump

Utrecht, Netherlands – Hundreds of cultural workers, youth, human rights and political activists, artists, academics, Filipino and other migrant nationalities and representatives of political parties and formations from all over the world, jampacked the auditorium of center for art and culture in this central Dutch city, December 29, to celebrate “Fifty Years of Art and Culture in the Filipino People’s Struggle for National and Social Liberation” and the anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on December 26, 1968.

The celebration was organized by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) International Information Office in Utrecht, together with the Linangan Art and Culture – a network of young cultural workers and artists in the Netherlands. The Basis voor Actuele Kunst (BAK) – a leading international platform for theoretically-informed, politically-driven art and experimental research, hosted the event.

The celebration which began in the morning, was highlighted with an exhibition of art works, performances and publications, video installations and film-showings produced in the course of the struggle of the Filipino people for national and social liberation.

The celebration was capped with speeches by Prof. Jose Maria Sison, Founding Chairman of the CPP, and NDFP chief political consultant, who spoke on the achievements of the revolutionary movement in the past 50 years; Luis Jalandoni, NDFP peace panel senior adviser, who gave a speech on building the third weapon of the revolution, the united front, and Coni Ledesma, NDFP peace panel member, who spoke on the road to a just and lasting peace.

A one-minute video on “What is Peace” preceded Ledesma’s speech. A choral singing of “Martsa ng Bayan” (March of the People) preceded Jalandoni’s talk, and a dance interpretation of the poem and song “NorthStar” preceded Sison’s input.

Earlier during the day, Julieta De Lima, NDFP peace panel member, gave a premier lecture on the role of art and culture in the struggle of the Filipino masses for national and social Liberation, and the role of the masses in the development of revolutionary art and culture.

The solidarity program included heartwarming and revolutionary performances by young militant cultural workers from the Philippines, Netherlands, the U.S., Canada, Belgium, Turkey, and Italy. They rendered revolutionary songs, dances that included the contemporary and traditional lumad (indigenous) dance, choric reading, and theater performances depicting the triumphs of the people’s army in the Philippines. These performances were always accompanied by visual presentations on the people’s struggle.

Representatives from many organizations in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Iceland, Norway, Peru, United Kingdom, Switzerland, the U.S. and Canada, India, Mexico, Turkey, and Indonesia attended. The Embassy of Venezuela in The Hague also sent a representative.

Solidarity messages from political parties and formations from the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Turkey, Kurdistan, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Norway, Indonesia, the U.S. and Canada. Chants of “Viva CPP-NPA-NDF!” and “Mabuhay ang CPP!” interspersed the reading of the solidarity messages from the friends of the Filipino people.

The film “Revolution Selfie: The Red Battalion” by American filmmaker Steven De Castro who tackled the portrait of the 48 year-old people’s army in the Philippines, and the documentary film “Moving Mountains” which tackles the life stories of the pioneers of the Philippine Revolution and the future of the protracted people’s war, were also shown earlier in the day.

During the solidarity program, youth organizations in the Netherlands gave a special recognition to Prof. Sison and Julie de Lima, for being among the most outstanding pioneers of the Philippine revolutionary movement and a guiding inspiration for young revolutionaries, particularly young guerrillas of the people’s army. They gifted Joma and Julie with bouquets of flowers and a Mao pen and Mao’s original classic “Red Book”. Youth activists in the audience chanted “ang karit at maso, dudurog sa estado” (the peasant sickle and worker’s hammer, will crush the state) as the couple received a standing ovation.

As a tribute, a moving video collage of contemporary Filipino revolutionaries – poets, human rights workers, cultural activists, writers, movie directors, academics, militant priests and nuns, solidarity workers, and NPA guerrillas who have passed on, became missing, killed by the Philippine military or died as guerrilla fighters and combatants, was shown.

The evening of celebration concluded with the community singing of the workers’ anthem “Internationale” while a video of exiled NDFP leaders singing the same song was also played, and was followed by a celebratory dance with indigenous music participated in by the Filipino migrants and their children who were garbed in indigenous attire from the Cordilleras and Mindanao.

#Utrecht #Philippines #PeoplesStruggles #JoseMariaSison #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippines #Asia

In view of certain recent acts of the tyrant Duterte, he is accelerating the realization of his scheme to declare martial law nationwide and impose a full-blown fascist dictatorship on the people.

Duterte is closing all doors to peace negotiations. He has caused OPAPP Secretary Dureza to resign in order to put OPAPP under total military control in line with Duterte’s policy of militarizing his cabinet. He is giving way to the demands of the military.

The military want to control OPAPP to prevent serious GRP peace negotiations with the NDFP by imposing the precondition of surrender on the New People’s Army (NPA). They also want to place the billions of pesos of OPAPP and Pamana funds under the control of the military. The issue of corruption against Dureza’s undersecretaries is a mere pretext because the Office of the President itself is the stinking center of corruption.

The military officers and some mayors have become notorious for pocketing privately E-CLIP funds for fake surrenders. Now, they want to take over the PAMANA under OPAPP. The racket in PAMANA is also in the invention of fake beneficiaries and in favoring political favorites among local officials.

In a flagrant expression of lawlessness and barbarism or even madness, Duterte has announced the formation of death squads with the license to kill just anyone who is suspected of being or still becoming NPA. He has specified as targets of the death squads any istambay (idler), any critic, any activist or just anyone whom the death squads suspect or think of becoming or being NPA.

He wants Oplan Kapayapaan to compete with Oplan Tokhang in murdering thousands of people. He is obviously becoming desperate because Oplan Kapayapaan has failed to defeat the NPA in the guerrilla fronts. Not a single guerrilla front has been destroyed even in Mindanao where he has concentrated 75 of his total of 98 maneuver battalions under conditions of martial law.

Now, the NPA is increasingly carrying out tactical counteroffensives in the countryside of Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon. But the NPA is not yet fielding commando teams to urban areas in consideration of the CPP policy that the character the urban mass struggle is legal and defensive.

It is only Duterte who has conjured the illusion that the urban areas are already swarming with “sparrow units” in urban areas in order to have the pretext for forming his death squads to threaten and use against his urban-based legal opponents.

Duterte has gone out of his mind. As Catholic Bishop David has observed, he is mentally sick. He needs psychiatric help and should be removed from his position.

#Philippines #PeoplesStruggles #NationalDemocraticFrontOfThePhilippines #JoseMariaSison #Asia