Prepare against further U.S. military intervention, intensify and advance the people�s war!

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

On the 33rd anniversary of the establishment of the New People's Army(NPA), we salute all the Red commanders and fighters and pay tribute to the revolutionary martyrs and heroes for all their hard struggle and sacrifices in the service of the people.

The New People�s Army today stands as the brilliant revolutionary instrument of the proletariat and the people for seizing political power and defending the democratic organs of political power. The people�s army ensures the development of the people�s democratic government in the countryside even while the reactionaries are still entrenched in the urban areas.

The Filipino people fought for more than three centuries to liberate themselves from Spanish colonial domination. They have fought US imperialist domination and the local reactionaries for more than one century and will continue to do so.

In the last 33 years, they have nurtured and developed their own revolutionary army. This is an army outstanding in frustrating the attempts of US imperialism and the local reactionaries to suppress the revolution. It has become one among the best people�s armies in the world.

I. Victories of the New People�s Army

We congratulate the New People�s Army for all the political, military and organizational victories it has won under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines in the people�s democratic revolution against US imperialism and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords.

These victories have been the result of the Second Great Rectification Movement and the reaffirmation of the general line of new democratic revolution through protracted people�s war against the semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system. The perspective is to establish and build socialism in the Philippines until mankind has defeated imperialism and reached the ultimate goal of communism.

The rectification movement has frustrated and defeated the counter-revolutionary offensives of the imperialists and the local reactionaries, the incorrigible "Left" and Right opportunists, the revisionists and liquidationists and all sorts of other petty bourgeois anticommunists, including bourgeois liberals, populists, Trotskyites and so on.

The few incorrigible opportunists and revisionists and the unrepentant criminals, especially those responsible for bloody witch hunts and grave malversation of funds, have been removed from the revolutionary movement and some of them have exposed themselves as traitors to the revolutionary cause by openly becoming agents of the reactionary government, especially in psywar and intelligence offices.

Thanks to the rectification movement, the people and the revolutionary forces have won resounding victories in all forms of struggle, legal and illegal, nonarmed and armed. The most significant of the victories are in further building the people�s army and waging the people�s war. The advances of the people�s army have guaranteed the advances of the entire revolutionary mass movement.

In pursuing the current stage of the strategic defensive, the NPA is carrying out extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare on the basis of an ever widening and deepening mass base. The integral combination of the revolutionary armed struggle, land reform and mass base-building (including building the organs of political power and the mass organizations) has laid a strong anti-feudal basis for the new-democratic revolution under the leadership of the proletariat.

The total number of Red fighters runs into thousands, equivalent to several regiments or brigades. It has increased by 222% from 1980 to 2001 and by 53% from 1994 to 2001. The number of high-powered rifles also run into thousands and has increased by 197% from 1980 to 2001.

The ratio of Red fighters to high-powered rifles is 1.5 to one (1.5:1). The full-time Red fighters of the NPA are augmented by the militia units, acting as the local police force of the revolutionary government and serving as the auxiliary and reserve force of the people�s army. They are further augmented by self-defense units, consisting of all able-bodied men and women in the mass organizations.

To exaggerate its claim of victory over the people�s army in the second half of the 1980s, the enemy bloats the number of Red fighters with highpowered rifles to 25,000 then. This figure is false. The NPA had no more than 6,000 rifles in 1985 before any accounting of the self-destructive effects of Kampanyang Ahos in Mindanao could be made.

The fighting capacity of the full-time Red fighters ought to have been augmented by the local militia, self-defense units and the mass base in general. Instead, it was undermined by the "strategic counter offensive" line, the "Red Area-White Area" line in Mindanao and other "Left" opportunist currents in various regions at various times.

The growth of the NPA is necessarily related to the growth of the Party. Latest figures show that the Party has increased by 235% from 1980 to 2001 and by 129% from 1994 to 2001. For every Red fighter there are 3.5 Party members who are located within and beyond the guerrilla fronts.

The Party has developed the mass movement in both rural and urban areas. From the rural mass movement, the NPA has drawn its predominantly peasant Red fighters. From the urban mass movement, the NPA has attracted the workers and educated youth to serve in its ranks and the people in the countryside.

The NPA is now operating in 128 guerrilla fronts. These cover 823 or around 54% of the total number of Philippine towns and cities. They number 8,500 barrios or 18% of the total number of Philippine barrios. The number of barrios where the NPA operates has increased by 71% from 1980 to 2001 and by 28% from 1994 to 2001.

Membership in mass organizations (organized mass base) has increased by 71% from 1980 to 2001 and by 235% from 1994 to 2001. However, there is a crying need to increase membership in mass organizations relative to the unorganized supporters and sympathizers. There are several times more mass supporters and sympathizers than those who have become members of the mass organizations.

On the average, two platoons of the NPA operate in every guerrilla front. Older guerrilla fronts have at least three platoons, while newer ones have less. A platoon covers on the average the scale of at least three municipalities and the squad covers an average of eleven barrios.

In a guerrilla front, there is usually a platoon as center of gravity and one or more platoons in a more dispersed mode. The platoon serving as center of gravity is relatively concentrated, so that it can carry out effectively the tasks assigned to it by the guerrilla front command.

In tactical offensives, the main guerrilla unit can augment its armed strength and mastery of the terrain by combining with the more dispersed secondary guerrilla units. The size and frequency of the tactical offensives have taken into account the need for increasing the armed strength of the NPA and for expanding and consolidating the mass base beyond the capacity of the enemy to destroy it.

The most consolidated barrios have regular and elected organs of democratic political power on the basis of full-fledged revolutionary mass organizations. The less consolidated barrios have barrio organizing committees as provisional appointive organs of political power and have people�s organizing committees and organizing groups. In barrios along the path of expansion of the people�s army, underground contacts, liaison groups and organizing groups are nurtured and developed.

The key campaign for land reform has been vigorously and successfully carried out in the consolidated areas. Other campaigns include those for mass education, developing production in agriculture and side occupations, looking after the health of the people, promoting cultural activities, training the militia and self-defense units, settling disputes among the masses and so on.

The people cherish the people�s army. They give their best sons and daughters to serve in this army. They make contributions for its maintenance and expansion. They assist the families of the Red fighters. Their willingness and capability to support the people�s army increase when they benefit from land reform and other mass campaigns.

The NPA undertakes production for a portion of its needs in addition to the contributions made by the masses. The need of the NPA for firearms and other war materiel is met through successful tactical offensives against the enemy forces. The NPA is also the effective instrument for enforcing the taxation policy of the people�s democratic government.

More than ever before the New People�s Army has raised the level of its revolutionary consciousness and fighting capabilities. Never before in the history of the Filipino people has there been a revolutionary army as resolute, resourceful and vigorous as the New People�s Army in waging the people�s war to complete the new-democratic revolution.

The New People�s Army has gained rich experience and armed strength in people�s war. It is well-prepared against the military campaigns of suppression carried out by the local reactionaries as well as against direct US military intervention. It stands ready to wage a war of national liberation against a US war of aggression.

II. Favorable World Conditions

The objective conditions in the world are exceedingly favorable for the advance of the Philippine revolution. The US policy bias of "free market" globalization has proven bankrupt. It has aggravated the problems that the imperialists could not solve through its Keynesian policy bias up to the late 1970s. In a matter of two decades, since 1980, the current neoliberal policy bias of "free market" globalization has brought the world capitalist system to the worst crisis since the Great Depression.

At an unprecedented rate, it has overconcentrated and overcentralized finance capital in the chief imperialist country, the US. And yet this country is now wracked by the crisis of overproduction in all types of goods and by financial meltdowns. From the bursting of the "hightech bubble" to the biggest ever corporate bankruptcy of Enron, the US finance oligarchy has been exposed as a monstrous swindler, stealing the pension funds and savings of multitudes of people.

The collapse of the US "new economy" in the last two years has resulted in a contagion of economic and financial destruction at the expense of the proletariat and the people in the US itself and throughout the world. The long running crisis in Japan has worsened. The Euro zone is also now afflicted by a severe crisis. The most victimized are the people in the third world and the former Soviet-bloc countries.

The Bush ruling clique is unable to offer any solution to the worsening crisis other than giving more doses of the same "neoliberal" poison, topped by the scheme for massive increase in military production and in public spending for the military and for home defense. The US has become even more paranoid and bellicose after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Under the pretext of waging a global war against terrorism, the US has adopted the Patriot Act and other repressive laws and measures and has pushed similar fascist laws throughout the world. US propaganda is trying to whip up and sustain a hysteria aimed at promoting fascism and supporting US wars of aggression.

The grave crisis of the US and world capitalist system inflicts terrible suffering on the broad masses of the people. But the very escalation of oppression and exploitation drives the people to carry out more mass protest actions and revolutionary resistance.

Four major contradictions are intensifying at various rates. These are between the imperialist powers and the oppressed nations and peoples, between the imperialist powers and the countries or states that assert independence, among the imperialist powers themselves and between the monopoly bourgeoisie and the proletariat in imperialist countries.

Under the misleading slogan of "free market" globalization, the global market has actually shrunk in the last two decades. Direct investments and trade have become more and more concentrated among the US, Western Europe and Japan. Capital has flowed from the global economic hinterland to these centers of capitalism, chiefly to the US, in the form of profit remittance and debt service.

A massive destruction of the forces of production has occurred in Asia, Africa, Latin America and in the retrogressive countries of the former Soviet bloc. These have long been squeezed by the crisis of overproduction in raw materials and basic industrial products and crushed by mounting foreign debt and further on by speculation in currencies, stocks and bonds.

The few "newly industrializing economies" of the 1970s as well as the few "emerging markets" of the 1990s (engaged in the production of low value added semimanufactures for export or simply selling consumer manufactures from the imperialist countries to the upper 10% of society) have gone into economic collapse and stagnation.

More than 80% of humanity are in the third world and in the retrogressive countries of the former Soviet bloc. They bear the main brunt of mass unemployment, extremely low incomes, heavy indirect taxes and crushing debt burden. They suffer the worst conditions of poverty because of oppression and exploitation by the imperialists and local reactionaries. They are now increasingly launching mass protests and waging revolutionary resistance.

Revolutionary armed struggles are raging in Colombia, India, Mexico, Nepal, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Turkey and elsewhere. However, in certain countries, reactionary cliques engage in internecine warfare and raise the most reactionary slogans�chauvinist, religious fundamentalist, tribalistic or ethnocentric, racist and the like. Where they arise, the proletarian revolutionaries can take advantage of the bitter split among the reactionaries to advance the revolutionary movement.

During the Cold War, the US armed and used the most reactionary forces in order to attack the revolutionary forces and people. Some of these reactionary forces, especially certain religious fundamentalist groups, have now turned against the US as the big devil after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The US accuses them of being responsible for the September 11 attacks.

The US is suspicious of or averse to certain states. One point in common among these states is their being assertive or the tendency of being assertive of national independence in varying degrees. Among these are China, North Korea (DPRK), Cuba, Libya, Iraq, Yugoslavia (in the 1990s), Afghanistan (under Taliban rule), Iran and Syria.

Sometimes such states take an overt anti-imperialist position as a matter of principle or as a matter of practicality in the face of domestic popular demands. At other times though, such states are openly interested in seeking accommodation with the imperialist powers in certain respects, especially in economic and trade relations.

In recent times, particularly after the end of the Cold War, the biggest wars of aggression have been launched against Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. One point in common among the aforesaid US wars of aggression is the drive of the US to tighten its control over sources and supply routes of oil and gas.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks and what appears to be success in the US war of aggression in Afghanistan, the US is now openly threatening other states under the guise of combating global terrorism and preempting the use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons against the US.

The US has several lists of potential target-states for preemptive attacks. One such list is the so-called "axis of evil" which includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Another is the list of 11 states (including the Philippines) which are supposedly either unwilling or incapable of eliminating terrorism. Still another is the list of states that either have nuclear weapons (China) or have the potential of having them (North Korea, Iraq, Iran and so on) and supposedly are likely to use them against the US or US allies.

The US has so far managed to form coalitions among the imperialist powers to attack states targeted for aggression. But the US is increasingly taking positions and actions unilaterally. The unilateralism of the US today reflects the increasing contradictions among the imperialist powers.

It is in the nature of the imperialist powers to align themselves against a common enemy (like the peoples and nations that they oppress and exploit, anti-imperialist states and socialist states) or realign themselves against each other as on the eve of World Wars I and II in the 20th century in the fight for economic territory and spheres of influence, in the struggle for a redivision of the world.

The current extent of the crisis of the world capitalist system is already bringing to the fore the economic competition and political rivalries of the imperialist powers. The imperialist pretenses and the petty bourgeois illusion of a borderless and stateless global economy under the banner of neoliberalism are being negated by the protectionist policies and acts of the chief imperialist protagonist, the US itself.

The political contradictions among the imperialist powers will further surface and come to the fore when the polarization of economic and social conditions sharpens in each of the imperialist countries and when pressures rise abruptly from conflicts in semicolonies, dependent countries and independent-minded countries. The monopoly bourgeoisie prepares the way for war by fomenting and using chauvinism, racism and fascism to deflect the people from the antiimperialist and class struggles or to rationalize the brutal suppression of the people.

The contradiction between the monopoly bourgeoisie and the proletariat is simmering in imperialist countries as the economic crisis worsens. The working class is being forced to accept high levels of unemployment, loss of income, erosion of hard-won social benefits and the assault on trade union and other democratic rights. Thus, increasingly the workers are driven to fight back and engage in class struggle, in the form of strikes and other forms of mass action in concert with the nonproletarian masses.

We have witnessed the cumulative growth of general strikes and mass protest actions in the imperialist countries since the 1989-91 period when the imperialists celebrated the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the revisionist regimes and the great reduction of unionized workers from 1945 to 1990.

But now, as a consequence of the massive destruction of productive forces even in imperialist countries, in the form of rising levels of unemployment, bankruptcies and production cuts, employed and unemployed workers, the women, youth and immigrants at the bottom jobs are in deep social discontent. The most recent convergence of two million people in Rome from different parts of Italy to protest neoliberal antipeople policies is so far the largest demonstration of revolutionary potential in an industrialized capitalist country.

The monopoly bourgeois magnates and politicians cannot meet today in any imperialist country without arousing mass protest actions. Meetings of the Group of 8, the OECD, European Union, IMF, World Bank, WTO and other similar imperialist-dominated entities have engendered mass protest actions. The Battle in Seattle in November 1999 continues to inspire people to undertake mass actions against imperialist globalization.

The class struggle between the monopoly bourgeoisie and the proletariat in the imperialist countries is bound to intensify as the oppression and exploitation of the proletariat increases. It is bound to interact positively with the revolutionary struggles of anti-imperialist struggle of the oppressed nations and peoples. All the revolutionary struggles in both developed and underdeveloped countries are bound to gain more room for growth and maneuver as the imperialist powers struggle against each other and as they also find themselves at odds with countries and states assertive of national independence.

Amidst the grave crisis of the world capitalist system, which features chiefly the crisis of the US, threats made by the US imperialists and their puppets in the Philippines to use US military might against the revolutionary forces and the people in the Philippines are futile. The Filipino people see through such threats and recognize the rottenness of the world capitalist system and the domestic ruling system and the vulnerability of these as targets of revolutionary struggle.

III. Favorable Domestic Conditions

The Philippines is a semicolonial and semifeudal part of the world capitalist system. It is an impoverished, preindustrial country. The overwhelming majority of the people live on less than US$2.00 per day and 40% on less than 75 US cents per day. More than 85% live in abject poverty. As a consequence of the crisis of the world capitalist system, the domestic ruling system of the big compradors and landlords is far more severely crisis-stricken than the industrial capitalist countries.

The shift from the Keynesian policy bias to the neoliberal one under the auspices of the US and such multilateral agencies like the IMF, World Bank and WTO has meant less official concessional loans. The thrust is to let foreign direct investments take over profitable lines of business and let loose foreign private lending to benefit the foreign monopolies and the big compradors.

Since the late 1970s, the raw-material exports of the Philippines have been yielding less and less income for the country. Since the 1990s foreign orders for one type of low value-added semimanufactures after another (garments in 1994 and electronic assemblies in 1996) have fallen. Trade deficits have been countervailed by remitted earnings of overseas contract workers and by increasing injections of foreign commercial loans.

The Philippine economy has not recovered from the 1997 financial crisis of Southeast Asia, which resulted from the overproduction of semi-manufactures for export, excessive private construction of office and residential towers and unrestricted luxury imports and outflow of foreign exchange.

The contribution of agriculture to gross national product is usually undervalued by the reactionary government. But now it is being overestimated in order to come up with a fantasy figure of 3.7% growth. In fact, import liberalization in agriculture has undercut and undermined agricultural production for domestic consumption as well as for export.

The Macapagal-Arroyo regime clings to the policy bias of "free market" globalization, dictated by the US and the multilateral agencies (IMF, World Bank and WTO), despite the devastating effects of such a policy. Denationalization, privatization, deregulation and liberalization have weakened the economy and likewise the puppet state. The latter is reduced to being a mere tax collector amidst economic and social ruin.

The budgetary deficit is growing. Social spending for education, health, housing and infrastructure is being cut down as debt service and military spending are given higher priority.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the US has easily manipulated the Macapagal-Arroyo regime to deck itself out as the most rabid campaigner for the US policy of aggression and military intervention under the pretext of waging a global assault on terrorism.

In exchange for promises of more US direct investments and some measly amount of US military and economic assistance,the regime has gone so far as to allow US combat forces to engage in combat operations in the Philippines. US combat forces have moved into the Basilan combat zone, under the pretext of fighting the Abu Sayyaf bandit gang.

The regime is trying to prepare public opinion for the entry of more and more US troops under the guise of an indefinite series of joint military exercises. The highest officials of the regime have in fact threatened to use combined US and puppet forces against the New People�s Army and the revolutionary forces of the Bangsamoro.

The Macapagal-Arroyo ruling clique has contempt for the people and views them as lacking in respect for their own national sovereignty and the territorial integrity of their own country. It considers as very popular Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo�s pro-imperialism and anticommunism.

It thereby hopes to remain in power up to and beyond 2004 by playing the role of rabid puppet to the US and submitting to all its dictates, especially in matters concerning the military. Thus, the clique is now increasingly under the control and manipulation of rabidly pro-US military officers.

As their number increases, the US military forces in the Philippines are bound to suffer casualties and to inflict the wanton destruction of Filipino lives and property. They are also bound to commit rape and other outrageous crimes. They are a time bomb that can explode in the face of the regime.

Under the direction of US military advisers, military and police psywar and campaigns of suppression are escalating against the revolutionary forces and people in and outside the guerrilla fronts. Even the legal activists and mass organizations of the national democratic movement are being subjected to various physical attacks, including kidnapping, torture and murder. Human rights violations are rampant.

Following the footsteps of the Estrada regime, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime is blatantly pursuing an all-out war policy against the revolutionary forces led by the Communist Party of the Philippines and represented by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in the peace negotiations.

It has brazenly demanded that "back-channel talks" replace formal peace negotiations conducted by the negotiating panels. The sole purpose of the regime is to dictate the terms of capitulation to the NDFP. It is talking and acting arrogantly in a vain attempt to cover up its increasing weakness, isolation and desperation.

The economic and social crisis of the ruling system is generating an unprecedented political crisis. The bitter strife among the reactionaries in business and politics and in the military is sharpening.

Since the late 1960s, the inability of the reactionary classes to rule in the old way has deepened and aggravated. The fascist dictatorship of Marcos was a desperate attempt to preempt the rise of the revolutionary forces. But it merely served to put the entire ruling system in jeopardy and incite the growth of the armed revolutionary movement.

The US and the local reactionaries thought that the anti-authoritarian overthrow of Marcos would conjure the illusion of restoring democracy. But the chronic socioeconomic and political crisis of the system has worsened from one regime to another due to puppetry, corruption and repression.

The stagnation of the semifeudal economy, the ever rising trade deficits, the rapid increase of local and foreign public debt and the ever-increasing resort to high-interest commercial loans have limited the amount of loot for division among the reactionary political factions.

Many among the military and police officers are factionalized by conflicting political loyalties and by running competing criminal syndicates involved in kidnap for ransom, smuggling, illegal drugs, prostitution and gambling. They are emboldened and abetted by their political superiors and patrons. They consider their salaries too small, even as they get salary increases more often than the civil bureaucrats.

Like Marcos, Estrada was removed through political mass action rather than by any stipulated constitutional and legal method, i.e., resignation, impeachment or periodic elections. The unconstitutional and illegal position of the current regime merely becomes more obvious as it stresses the point that it has been put in power not by direct action of the sovereign people but by the military, the church and a hyperactive supreme court.

Fearing that the broad masses of the people will take action against it, the regime has solicited statements from ex-presidents Aquino and Ramos, Cardinal Sin and other entities that they are opposed to any mass movement to remove an incumbent president.

The regime is having nightmares over the call of the Party for developing a broad united front against it as the current enemy. The most rabid reactionaries are also frightened by the statement of the Party that the revolutionary forces and people can accumulate strength by overthrowing one ruling clique after another until they gain enough strength to overthrow the entire ruling system, in concert with a people�s army that has reached the strategic stage of the general offensive.

Even if the current regime were to survive up to 2004, because there are not enough unstable and temporary allies from reactionary ranks to realize a broad united front that can overthrow it, the revolutionary movement would still be in an advantageous position because it would gain more merit and initiative in opposing a regime that continues to stink.

The contradictions among the reactionaries will persist and sharpen. It is necessary to persevere in developing a broad united front against the regime, no matter how near or far in time is the overthrow of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime. The efforts at building a broad united front can facilitate the defense and advance of the revolutionary forces. It is of utmost importance that the basic revolutionary forces strengthen themselves in order to assure and increase their independence and initiative in the ever developing broad united front.

While the Macapagal-Arroyo regime continues to stink by being subservient to the US, by aggravating the economic and social crisis and by being corrupt, deceptive and repressive, the Party coordinates the revolutionary armed struggle and the united front in order to deliver lethal blows on the regime.

IV. Intensify and advance the people�s war

Because they have a people�s army, the Filipino people have the instrument for advancing their national and democratic rights and interests. They have the prospect of liberating themselves from the clutches of US imperialism and the exploiting classes and winning great victories, from the new-democratic stage to the socialist stage of the Philippine revolution.

The US and the local reactionaries unwittingly do a service to the Filipino people whenever they viciously and ferociously attack the revolutionary forces and the people and threaten to unleash further attacks.

The Party, the people�s army, the united front, the organs of political power and mass organizations respond to the armed counterrevolution with armed revolution. They raise the level of their fighting will and capabilities against escalating enemy attacks, including the threat of further US military intervention and aggression.

As in Vietnam and the whole of Indochina where the US war of aggression was defeated, we must be ready to use the social and physical terrain of the Philippines to inflict severe casualties on the invading US forces and to take punitive action against US economic and related interests.

We must do everything to uphold the national sovereignty of the Filipino people and Philippine territorial integrity. We try to prevent US military intervention and aggression. But if we cannot prevent it, we must fight well and realize by a war of national liberation the long delayed justice for the 1.4 million Filipinos murdered by the US when it conquered the Philippines from 1899 to 1916 and for the countless Filipinos victimized by exploitation and plunder by the US for so long.

The revolutionary forces and people have never feared the military might of the US, including extensive US military bases in the time of the Marcos fascist dictatorship, because in the first place they have the New People�s Army, led by the Party and pursuing the strategic line of protracted people�s war.

The NPA has already proven that it can preserve and increase its strength against such tremendous odds as the fascist dictatorship of Marcos, the existence of US military bases and the rising supplies of weapons from the US from 1972 to 1986. We have more strategic contempt than before for US imperialism because it is more crisis-stricken and overextended and for the local reactionaries because their system is weaker and more bankrupt.

The high-tech military power of the US is effective for threatening and actually destroying fixed and exposed structures of its foreign-government targets. But it is ineffective against a protracted people�s war, as carried out victoriously in China, Indochina and elsewhere. To seriously fight the Filipino people, the US has to send more and more combat troops to the Philippine ground and let them take the risk of suffering casualties.

The Party and the people wield the NPA as the principal instrument for defeating the enemy, for building the mass base in the countryside, for encouraging all the mass organizations and mass campaigns for the social benefit of the people and for guaranteeing the development of the people�s revolutionary self-government through the democratic organs of political power.

The Red fighters must be recruited from the local militia and mass organizations. The politico-military training of the Red commanders and fighters must be carried out systematically. The personnel needed for the various departments of the NPA must also be increased and trained as the people�s war expands and intensifies. <