Correspondence Reports:
Southern Tagalog successfully convenes Second Mass Work Conference

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The Second Conference on the Conduct of Mass Work in the Countryside held in August is another big milestone in the history of the revolutionary movement in Southern Tagalog. It is a big victory considering that it was held amid the escalating campaign of military terrorism in the region�s countryside. According to a comrade, �This conference is a big blow to the enemy that has been trying to undermine the strength that the revolutionary movement and its mass base have achieved.�

The conference discussed the peasant masses� present condition and level of consciousness, and the level of open and underground mobilization and organizing among their ranks. The conference likewise starkly presented the peasants� worsening conditions and the intensifying forms of feudal and semifeudal exploitation they suffer from. Such conditions are the result of efforts by landlords, merchant-usurers and big local and foreign corporations to reconcentrate land under their control.

Landgrabbing has led to growing cases of peasant displacement and an increase in the number of semi-proletarians in the countryside. However, the emergence of such a condition has not changed the prevailing mode of production. On the contrary, it has merely intensified feudal and semifeudal exploitation.

Studies on the mode of production in crop lines such as coconut, rice, sugar cane and coffee and in the fishery sector have reaffirmed the Party�s analysis of the ruling feudal and semifeudal system and the line of people�s democratic revolution. The entire revolutionary movement in the region also united on the policy of nationalizing all landlord, comprador bourgeois and imperialist landholdings in the countryside.

The conference identified the problems faced by the revolutionary forces in consolidating the mass base. Discussions focused on the various forms of conservatism in the conduct of mass work that serve as obstacles in consolidating the mass base and advancing agrarian revolution. Both the open and underground mass movements have gained levels of strength far exceeding those of the past. Solid organizing, however, has as yet failed to keep in step due to conservative outlooks and methods in mass work. The conference became a channel for summing up the experience of every province and pinpointing weaknesses that hamper the consolidation of the revolution�s mass base.

Efforts to cull lessons from both positive and negative experiences in the conduct of mass work were fruitful. Tearing down the barrier of conservatism in order to advance revolutionary work in the countryside became a challenge to all.

At present, the New People�s Army in the region faces the enormous task of resolving the inertia wrought by conservatism in mass work at a time when state terrorism and the threat of US imperialist armed intervention looms in the countryside. The state is painfully aware of the revolution�s dramatic advance in the region and is thus employing all means to destroy the Red political power of the people�s democratic government.

Such conditions challenge the revolutionary forces to strive to consolidate the revolutionary mass base. Strengthening the revolutionary mass movement and invigorating the antifeudal and antifascist movement in the countryside is currently an urgent task. We must launch big tactical offensives to make the enemy pay dearly for its attacks on the mass base.

The present situation also challenges revolutionary forces to be creative in their means of organizing and mobilizing the masses. The current situation has already rendered obsolete certain old methods of operation.

At the close of the conference, the comrades brought with them the lessons and challenges of how to further invigorate mass work and establish bastions of the revolution in the countryside. All this proves that the vast countryside is a big school where one never ceases to study and learn.

21 November 2003
English Edition

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