Editoryal:
The workers� militant struggle is gaining breadth and strength

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The simultaneous and coordinated struggle for a P125 increase in the workers� daily wage in the private sector and a P3,000 increase in the salaries of public workers and teachers is now gaining widespread support not only among workers and employees but also among the broad masses of the people. Repeated oil price increases imposed by foreign monopolies further underscore the need for a wage increase.

The workers and semiproletariat are likewise at the forefront of the struggle against oil price increases. Paralyzing transport strikes accompanied by massive rallies and other people�s protests have already erupted in a number of cities in Mindanao and the Visayas. The current is moving towards

Workers are also active in the broad protest movement of different political forces and sectors of society against the intensifying suppression of press freedom, the US-Estrada regime�s maneuvers to rewrite the reactionary constitution to skew it even more in favor of foreign monopoly capitalists and bureaucrats in power, widespread corruption and anomalies in government, cronyism, the collusion of the Marcos and Estrada cliques to deny justice and indemnification to the thousands of victims of fascist abuses under the Marcos dictatorship and the return to power of the Marcoses and the late dictator�s most hated minions.

The destruction wrought by the capitalist crisis that has further impoverished the working masses and intensified the exploitation and suppression of labor is the most compelling force that drives the workers to struggle. The official policy that requires workers to toil for slave wages under sweatshop conditions and indulges the insatiable appetites of foreign capital has grown even more repulsive in the wake of the collapse of the so-called �newly emergent markets� and the global crisis� invalidation of the supposed leapfrogging that �globalization�, deregulation and liberalization would bring about.

As proven by experience under the Marcos fascist dictatorship, fascist union busting and suppression of strikes can only temporarily stop the rising and resistance of the masses of workers. Sooner or later, even the concentration camp-like barracks in �export processing zones� will eventually be penetrated through efforts by workers to unite and wage collective struggle. It is the workers� bitter experiences that have taught them not to rely on the benevolence and goodwill of profit-greedy capitalists or on the reasonableness and humaneness of bureaucrats who kowtow to the interests of big capital. Sooner or later, they will learn that they can rely only on their own unity and struggle in their defense of their rights within and outside the factory.

The newly resurgent militant workers� movement likewise mirrors the victory of the Second Great Rectification Movement in the urban revolutionary movement. The workers� movement could never steadily advance along the correct revolutionary path until it has rectified and repudiated the serious deviations and errors that wrought great damage and setbacks to the entire revolutionary movement, including the revolutionary workers� movement. The rapid deterioration, exposure, isolation and disintegration of the revisionist traitors present proof that the erroneous insurectionist, militarist, revisionist, economist and populist line is the most virulent poison that could destroy the workers� movement from within.

Due to the pernicious influence of urban insurrectionism, revisionism, economism and bureaucratism, the workers� movement that boldly opposed the strike ban of the Marcos fascist dictatorship and reaped glorious victories in struggles waged even during the height of fascist terror was not able to firmly and effectively combat the initial onslaught of contractualization, casualization and anti-union and anti-strike policies under the Aquino and Ramos puppet regimes. Opportunities, forces and resources were wasted on insurrectionist projects and wishful thinking; basic ideological, political and organizational work were seriously neglected; and the proliferation of the revisionist, economist and populist line and thinking created an ever-deepening and -widening vacuum within our ranks. Great harm was wrought by the outright factionalism and anti-Party demolition campaign led by urban- based revisionist renegades.

Although the revolutionary workers� movement is now once again vigorously advancing in various urban centers, it continues to reel from the extensive damage and setbacks of the past. There are important areas of workers� concentration that have to be recovered or where revolutionary work is extremely narrow in scope. We have yet to reach a large number in order to recover previous levels of organized strength. There is need to produce and train more organizers and union leaders, augment forces that are very thinly spread and improve on the disposition of tasks in many parts of the country. There are areas where the tasks of expansion and restrengthening continue to be complicated and difficult due to the revisionist traitors� sabotage and trouble-making.

Above all, the foreign and local big bourgeoisie and their network of bureaucrats, police forces and propagandists work nonstop to suppress, divide and destroy. From their experience of having engaged us in major struggles in the past three decades, they continuously come up with new and more brutal ways and tactics of suppressing, dividing and deceiving the people. The revolutionary proletariat need to address this firmly. There is need to tirelessly arouse, organize and mobilize an everincreasing number of the masses of workers, even as we relentlessly study and master different forms and arenas of struggle.

In advancing the workers� struggle, we should prepare for and firmly resist the widening and intensifying fascist suppression and attacks of the US-Estrada regime. The Estrada regime�s entire economic policy is based on impoverishing and suppressing the workers, so that it is ready to unleash the full brutality of fascism to hinder the advance of the workers� struggle. Thus, there is need to raise the workers� level of militancy and fighting will to boldly and firmly confront and defeat the regime�s fascist campaign.

The latter will be forged in the furnace of boldly advancing and intensifying workers� strikes in factories. Special attention must be given to building step-by-step the labor unions� unity and collective determination to concertedly face sacrifices and overcome difficulties in the process of waging arduous and, at times, protracted strikes. Such unity and collective determination will ensure

In waging their struggles, workers need to concentrate their strength from time to time and during opportune occasions through the mobilization of ever-growing numbers in mass actions. The outpouring of tens of thousands of workers into the streets and the waging of coordinated strikes serve as one of the most effective ways of asserting the demand for wage increases. It is also one of the most important elements in the Filipino people�s struggle against the pro-imperialist and fascist policies of the reactionary US-Estrada regime. The workers� movement serves as the strongest fortress of the democratic mass movement in the cities, inspiring, emboldening and arousing the militancy of the democratic and patriotic forces.

As the workers wage militant struggles, their consciousness concerning the national-democratic revolution needs to be raised, with particular attention being given to the armed struggle in the countryside, in order to provide them an all-sided view of the revolutionary process of transforming Philippine society. While unions can be an avenue for revolutionary education, there will be continuing need to organize workers in underground groups and Party branches for the purpose of organizing illegal propaganda, gathering support for the armed struggle, integration in the countryside and recruitment into the New People�s Army. We expect this task to gain momentum as the workers� struggles intensify.

00 September 1999
English Edition

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