Editorial:
Oppose and thwart the repression
of the legal democratic movement

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

This order is a desperate measure in the face of the successive victorious and resounding tactical offensives of the NPA. Because of its failure to stem the advance of the armed revolution despite its �all-out counter-terrorist war,� the Arroyo regime is now further turning the legal patriotic and democratic organizations into scapegoats and maliciously putting them on the same plane as the CPP and the NPA in order to justify the use of state violence against them.

As with previous regimes, militarism and fascist terrorism are the Arroyo regime�s responses�done at the prodding of its US imperialist master�to the widening and growing opposition of the masses who suffer great hardship because of the crisis of the reactionary ruling system. The broad masses� intense discontent and restlessness are due to the rapid decline of the economy and their livelihood, the ruling classes� inutility to address even the most basic needs of the greater number of people and the intensified oppression and suppression of the people.

US imperialism and the local reactionary classes have not only failed to resolve the very deep economic and political crisis of the rotten semicolonial and semifeudal system. They have exacerbated the crisis in the last decade as successive regimes foolishly condemned the country to suffer the relentless onslaught of imperialist globalization and neoliberal polices being imposed by US imperialism through the IMF-WB. This has resulted in the regime�s further isolation and in intensified infighting among the ranks of the reactionaries.

Even after the downfall of the Marcos regime, the fascist military bureaucratic machinery has remained at the center of power of any reactionary clique, and so have the repressive laws and decrees of the dictatorship against the democratic and progressive actions and struggles of the masses of the people.

The Arroyo regime has been relentlessly attacking the legal and democratic movement. The brutal murder of leaders and activists opposing and fighting large-scale militarization and the fascist terrorism of the reactionary state in the countryside and cities is widespread. Striking examples are the attack on the leaders of CAGUIMUNGAN in Baggao, Cagayan (see related news on page 3) and the murder of activists Eden Marcellana and Eddie Gumanoy in Southern Tagalog in April.

There has been intense fascist intimidation and harassment and attacks on legal organizations of peasants, workers, youth, women and other organizations fighting for the democratic interests and rights of the most oppressed and exploited sectors of society.

The repression of workers� strikes and the busting of their unions and associations are widespread. Lately, both foreign monopoly and big comprador capitalists have been asking the government to implement a 10-year moratorium on changes to Collective Bargaining Agreements and, together with this, a ban on strikes.

In the face of all this, it is of vital importance to continue persevering in expanding and strengthening the legal democratic movement. It is necessary to further broaden and intensify protests and mass struggles to oppose fascist terrorism and continue to defend and assert the people�s political and economic rights. It is necessary to militantly take a stand and not be fazed by the fascist terror being inflicted on the people and the democratic and progressive forces.

These fascist schemes and attacks will fail if the people and the movement persevere in opposing them, continuously win over the broadest ranks of the people and the alliance of forces opposed to them, and employ a combination of various means of organization and resistance. Simulta- neously, we must likewise expand and deepen the revolutionary underground movement so that we could persevere in and remain effective in waging resistance even if the local reactionary ruling classes resort to the worst of measures�open fascist terrorist repression.

In the face of intensifying fascist terrorism, the further invigoration of the people�s army and the thorough advance of the revolutionary armed struggle are even more crucial to the all-sided advance of people�s struggles. It is necessary to continue intensifying the tactical offensives of the NPA based on the capacity of the people�s army and the mass base. We must do our utmost to further expand and strengthen guerrilla fronts in all strategic parts of the archipelago.

Let us make the imperialists and reactionaries pay dearly for relentlessly exacerbating their extortion of the masses of the people and imposing fascist violence on them.

21 July 2003
English Edition

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