From the Website of PRWC CPP-NPA-NDF
Article links: https://www.philippinerevolution.info/2019/02/10/highest-honors-to-comrade-jose-ma-sison/
Highest honors to Comrade Jose Ma. Sison
The
Second Congress of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) extends
its profound appreciation and expresses deepest gratitude to Comrade
Jose Ma. Sison for his immense contribution to the Philippine revolution
as founding chair of the Party, founder of the New People’s Army and
pioneer of the People’s Democratic Government in the Philippines.
Ka
Joma is a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist extraordinaire and indefatigable
revolutionary fighter. He applied dialectical and historical materialism
to expose the fundamental nature of the semicolonial and semifeudal
social system in the Philippines. He put forward an incisive class
analysis that laid bare the moribund, exploitative and oppressive rule
of the big bourgeois compradors and big landlords in collusion with the
US imperialists.
He
set forth the program for a people’s democratic revolution as immediate
preparation for the socialist revolution. He always sets sights on the
ultimate goal of communism.
Ka
Joma was a revolutionary trailblazer. In his youth, he joined workers
federations and helped organize unions. Ka Joma formed the SCAUP
(Student Cultural Association of the University of the Philippines) in
1959 to promote national democracy and Marxism-Leninism and wage
ideological and cultural struggle against the religio-sectarians and
anti-communist forces among the student intellectuals. Together with
fellow proletarian revolutionaries, he initiated study meetings to read
and discuss Marxist-Leninist classic writings.
Under
Ka Joma’s leadership, the SCAUP organized a protest action in March
1961 against the congressional witchhunt of the Committee on
Anti-Filipino Activities which targeted UP faculty members accused of
writing and publishing Marxist materials in violation of the
Anti-Subversion Law. Around 5,000 students joined the first
demonstration with an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal character since
more than ten years prior. As a consequence, Ka Joma became a target of
reactionary violence and survived attempts on his life. Unfazed, he and
the SCAUP continued to launch protests against the Laurel-Langley
Agreement and the Military Bases Agreement and other issues as land
reform and national industrialization, workers rights, civil and
political liberties and solidarity with other peoples against US acts of
agression up to 1964.
He
and other proletarian revolutionaries eventually joined the old merger
Socialist and Communist Party in 1961. In recognition of his communist
and youthful fervor, he was assigned to head the youth bureau of the old
Party and appointed as member of the executive committee. He initiated
meetings to study the classic works of Marx, Lenin, Mao and other great
communist thinkers which challenged the stale conditions of the old
Party.
He
founded the Kabataang Makabayan (KM) in November 1964 and led its
development as one of the most important youth organizations in
Philippine history. As KM chair, and as a young professor and militant,
he went on campus tours and spoke before students as well as young
professionals to espouse the necessity of waging a national democratic
revolution. His speeches compiled in the volume Struggle for National
Democracy (SND) served as one of the cornerstones of the national
democratic propaganda movement. The KM would eventually be at the head
and core of large mass demonstrations during the late 1960s up to the
declaration of martial law in 1972.
As
one of the leaders of the old party, Ka Joma prepared a political
report exposing and repudiating the revisionism and opportunism of the
successive Lava leadership as well as the errors of military adventurism
and capitulation of the Taruc-Sumulong gang of the old people’s
liberation army. The old party had deteriorated as an out-and-out
revisionist party.
Despite
Ka Joma’s effort, the old party proved to be beyond resuscitation from
its revisionist death. Gangsters in the old party would carry out
attempts on his life to snuff the revolutionary revival of the Filipino
proletariat.
As
Amado Guerrero, Ka Joma led the reestablishment of the Communist Party
of the Philippines on the theoretical foundations of
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. He prepared the Party constitution, the Program
for a People’s Democratic Revolution and the document Rectify Errors
and Rebuild the Party and presided over the Congress of Reestablishment
held in Alaminos, Pangasinan on December 26, 1968. In 1969, he authored
Philippine Society and Revolution which presents the history of the
Filipino people, analyzes the semicolonial and semifeudal character of
Philippine society and defines the people’s democratic revolution. He
prepared the Basic Rules of the New People’s Army and the Declaration of
the New People’s Army and directed the Meeting of Red commanders and
fighters to found the New People’s Army (NPA) on March 29, 1969.
He
led the Party in its early period of growth. He wrote the
Organizational Guide and Outline of Reports in April 1971 and the
Revolutionary Guide to Land Reform in September 1972 which both served
to direct the work of building the mass organizations, organs of
political power, units of the people’s army and the Party, as well as in
mobilizing the peasants in waging agrarian revolution. He authored the
Preliminary Report on Northern Luzon in August 1970 which served as a
template in the work of other regional committees.
While
directing the development and training of the New People’s Army from
its initial base in Central Luzon to the forests of Isabela in Cagayan
Valley, he also guided the youth activists in waging mass struggles in
Metro Manila against the US-Marcos dictatorship.
Ka
Joma was ever on top of the revolutionary upsurge of the students and
workers movement in 1970 and 1971. Chants of Amado Guerrero’s name
reverberates in Manila and other cities in harmony with calls to join
the people’s war in the countryside.
The
CPP grew rapidly in its first few years under Ka Joma’s leadership. The
Party established itself across the country and led the nationwide
advance of the revolutionary armed struggle. He personally supervised
the political and military training of Party cadres and NPA commanders
in the forested region of Isabela from where they were deployed to other
regions.
In
1971, he presided over the Central Committee and presented the
Summing-Up Our Experiences After Three Years (1968-1971). He prepared in
1974 the Specific Characteristics of Our People’s War which
authoritatively laid out the strategy and tactics for waging people’s
war in the Philippines. In 1975, he authored Our Urgent Tasks,
containing the Central Committee’s report and program of action. He
served as editor-in-chief of Ang Bayan in its first years of
publication.
In
the underground movement, Ka Joma continued to guide the Party and the
NPA in its growth under the brutal fascist martial law regime of
dictator Marcos. He issued advisories to underground Party cadres and
mass activists. Inspired by the raging people’s war in the countryside,
they dared the fascist machinery and carried-out organizing efforts
among students and workers.
The
first workers’ strike broke out in 1975 preceding the growth of the
workers movement. Large student demonstrations against rising school
fees and the deterioration of the educational system were carried out
from 1977 onwards completely shattering the terror of martial law.
Ka
Joma continued to lead the Party in nationwide growth until 1977 when
he and his wife Julie were arrested by the wild dogs of the Marcos
dictatorship while in transit from one guerrilla zone to another. He was
presented by the AFP to Marcos as a trophy. He was detained, subjected
to severe torture, put under solitary confinement for more than five
years interrupted only by joint confinement with Julie in 1980-1981, and
later partial solitary confinement with one or two other political
prisoners from 1982-1985.
While
in prison, Ka Joma was able to maintain contact with the Party
leadership and revolutionary forces outside through clandestine methods
of communication. With the collaboration of Ka Julie, lifelong partner
and comrade of Ka Joma, they produced important letters and advisories.
In 1983, Ka Julie released the article JMS On the Mode of Production
which served as a theoretical elucidation and clarification of the
nature of the semicolonial and semifeudal social system in order to cast
away confusion brought about by claims of industrialization by the
US-Marcos dictatorship. It counterattacked claims made by pretenders to
socialism who insist that the Philippines had become a developing
capitalist country under the fascist dictatorship.
A
powerful upsurge of the anti-fascist mass movement followed the
assassination of Marcos archrival Benigno Aquino in 1983. This was
principally propelled by the workers and student movement which could
mount demonstrations of 50,000 or greater from the late 1970s and early
1980s. In 1984, Ka Joma released the paper On the Losing Course of the
AFP under the pseudonym Patnubay Liwanag to assess the balance of forces
and to signal to or sway the Pentagon to better drop Marcos, which
would entail causing a split in the AFP. In September 1984, the Pentagon
acceded to the Armacost formula and decided to join the US State
Department and other US agencies to drop him. By early 1985 Reagan
signed the National Security Directive with definite plan to ease out
Marcos.
Ka
Joma also asserted the need to weaken the reactionary armed strength in
the countryside and expand the people’s army to a critical mass 25,000
rifles and one guerrilla platoon per municipality as constructive
criticism of the plan to carry out a “strategic counter-offensive.”
The
anti-fascist upsurge culminated in a people’s uprising supported by a
military rebellion of elements in the reactionary AFP. The Party’s
persevering and solid leadership of the anti-fascist movement and
revolutionary armed struggle created favorable conditions that led to
the overthrow the US-Marcos dictatorship in 1986. Despite strong
opposition by the US and reactionary defense establishment, the Aquino
regime was compelled to open the detested gates of the Marcos dungeons
allowing Ka Joma to be released.
He
wasted no time resuming revolutionary work. In a few months time, he
mounted a major lecture series to propound a critical class analysis of
the Corazon Aquino regime and expose it as representative of big
bourgeois comprador and landlord rule. The series of lectures which
later comprised the volume Philippine Crisis and Revolution countered
the “political spectrum” analysis of populists which pictured the Aquino
regime as a bourgeois liberal regime to goad the revolutionary forces
along the path of class collaboration and capitulation.
These
populists as well as other charlatans carried out a campaign to
undermine the basic analysis of classes and production system in the
Philippines to justify the convoluted concept of a strategic
counter-offensive wishfully thinking that the people’s war can leapfrog
to strategic victory bypassing the probable historical course. A number
of key leaders of the Party and revolutionary forces were drawn to the
self-destructive path of insurrectionism and premature regularization
and military adventurism. This would later bring about grave and almost
fatal losses to the Party and the NPA, as well as to the urban mass
movement.
Forced
to exile in 1987 by the Aquino regime which canceled his passport and
travel papers, Ka Joma sought political asylum in The Netherlands while
on a lecture tour. He eventually resided in Utrecht and work with other
comrades in the international office of the National Democratic Front.
Although thousand of miles away from the Philippines, he continued to
maintain close contact with the Party leaders in the country and provide
advise and guidance to help them in their work.
Ka
Joma served as one of the steadfast exponent of the Second Great
Rectification Movement launched by the 10th Plenum of the CPP Central
Committee in 1992. The Party leadership actively sought Ka Joma’s
theoretical insights and analysis. In preparing the key document
Reaffirm Our Basic Principles and Rectify Errors, the Party leadership
referred to Ka Joma and the Party’s founding documents which he
authored. With Ka Joma’s full support, the rectification campaign of
1992-1998 united and strengthened the Party to ever greater heights.
Ka
Joma also played a key role in authoring the paper Stand for Socialism
Against Modern Revisionism which illuminated the path of socialist
revolution during the dark hours of the complete restoration of
capitalism in the Soviet Union in 1990 touted in the monopoly bourgeois
mass media as the fall of socialism, a refutation of communism, and the
“end of history” and final victory of the capitalist system.
Reflecting
Ka Joma’s sharp Maoist critique of modern revisionism, the paper
presented a clear historical understanding of the process of capitalist
restoration in the USSR from 1956 onwards. This served as key to
understanding the continuing viability of socialism and to inspiring the
Filipino proletariat to persevere in the two-stage revolution and the
international proletariat to carry forward the socialist cause.
Ka
Joma’s Utrecht base eventually became a political center of the
international communist and anti-imperialist resistance movements. He
played an important role in the centennial celebration of Mao Zedong in
1993 which served as a vigorous ideological campaign to reaffirm
Marxist-Leninist views and to proclaim Maoism as the third epochal
development of Marxism-Leninism.
Up
to the early 2000s, he also played a lead role in the formation of the
International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations
(ICMLPO) which serves as a center for ideological and practical exchange
among communist and workers parties which stood for socialism and
opposed modern revisionism. He provided valuable insights and practical
assistance to numerous communist parties from Asia to Europe and the
Americas.
Over
the past decade, he has led the International League of People’s
Struggles or the ILPS which has served as coordinating center for
anti-imperialist movements around the globe. He authored the paper “On
imperialist globalization” in 1997 which clarified that the proletariat
remains in the era of imperialism and socialist revolution.
Because
of his role in guiding the advance of the international
anti-imperialist struggle, Ka Joma was put in the crosshairs of US
imperialism. He was included in the US list of “foreign terrorists”,
together with the CPP and NPA. At 68 years old, he was arrested in 2007
by the Dutch police and detained for more than 15 days.
Since
1992, together with the NDFP Negotiating Panel, Ka Joma has also ably
represented the interests of the Filipino people and revolutionary
movement in peace negotiations with successive representatives of the
Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP). He has been
appointed as Chief Political Consultant of the NDFP Negotiating Panel
and has deftly guided it in negotiations with the GRP over the past 25
years.
Over
the past several years, Ka Joma continued to provide invaluable
insights into the domestic crisis and the situation of the revolutionary
forces. He continues to provide advise to the Party and the
revolutionary forces in the Philippines on resolving the problems of
advancing the revolution to a new and higher stage.
He
has set forth critical analysis of the objective international
conditions. He has put forward a Marxist-Leninist critique of the
capitalist crisis of overproduction which is at the base of the
international financial crisis and the prolonged depression that has
wracked the global capitalist system. He has reaffirmed that we are
still at the historical epoch of imperialism, the last crisis stage of
capitalism.
Ka
Joma is the torch bearer of the international communist movement.
Through the dark period of capitalist restoration, he has kept the
flames of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism burning and inspired the proletariat
to take advantage of the crisis of global capitalism, persevere along
the path of socialism and communism and bring the international
communist revolution to a new chapter of revival and reinvigoration.
Resolutions:
The
Second Congress of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)
resolves to give the highest honors to Comrade Jose Ma. Sison, great
communist thinker, leader, teacher and guide of the Filipino proletariat
and torch bearer of the international communist movement.
In
recognition of Ka Joma’s immense contribution to the Philippine
revolution and the international workers movement, the Second Congress
further resolves:
1.
to instruct the Central Committee to continue to seek Ka Joma’s
insights and advise on various aspects of the Party’s work in the
ideological, political and organizational fields.
2.
to endorse the five volume writings of Jose Ma. Sison as basic
reference and study material of the CPP and to urge the entire Party
membership and revolutionary forces to read and study Ka Joma’s
writings.
The
Second Congress of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is
certain that with the treasure of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist work that Ka
Joma has produced over the past five decades of revolutionary practice,
the Party is well-equipped in leading the national democratic revolution
to greater heights and complete victory in the coming years.
CPP/NPA/NDF Website
Article links:
https://www.philippinerevolution.info/2019/02/10/highest-honors-to-comrade-jose-ma-sison/
https://www.philippinerevolution.info/2019/02/10/highest-honors-to-comrade-jose-ma-sison/
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