Revolutionary Movement in Manila
Rebuilding and Advancing Anew

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Proletarian revolutionaries in Metro Manila have completed the process of regrouping and rebuilding the Party organization. Before this, the Party organ in the region was on the verge of collapse. The Party and the revolutionary forces are assiduously reinvigorating themselves on the more solid basis of the Second Great Rectification Movement and the conscious repudiation of revisionism, insurrectionism and opportunism especially of the Trotskyite Lagman clique.

To thwart the unbridled attacks of counterrevolutionary enemies within and outside its ranks, the Party regrouped the relatively few but loyal proletarian revolutionaries and mass activists. The regional Party organization has improved its ideological, political and organizational capabilities in the course of struggling against the revisionism and opportunism of the Lagman clique and consciously upholding Marxism- Leninism-Maoism (MLM) and the general line of people�s democratic revolution.

Alongside its internal consolidation, the Party actively leads and advances the revolutionary struggles of the people, especially the masses of workers and other urban poor. In the past few years, the recruitment and training of new forces to replace those who have been corrupted, have reneged or dropped out have been proceeding at a faster pace.

Among the measurable fruits of the reinvigoration of the revolutionary mass movement in the region are the more than 35,000 workers who joined the rally commemorating International Workers� Day in 1997 and the thousands mobilized for the March- Rally Against Poverty (Lakbayan) held in October that year. The masses also enthusiastically responded to strike calls against oil price hikes as well as other mass protests. The mass movement in factories, communities and schools is vigorously expanding.

The regional Party organization�s mass work directly encompasses hundreds of enterprises. Majority of the unions in these establishments are effectively led or influenced. From April to November 1997, the number of worker activists in factories increased by 31%. More than 100 urban poor communities with tens of thousands of residents are covered by the regional urban poor movement. For six months in 1997, membership in mass organizations rose by 11% in these communities. The urban poor enthusiastically join protests and mass struggles. More and more factory workers are being drawn out to participate in street demonstrations.

The student movement in the region covers scores of schools with student population in the tens of thousands, a few thousand employees and hundreds of teachers. Due to militant struggles, a number of schools now have student councils. Student activists lead, influence and maintain links with academic and traditional organizations encompassing almost 10,000 students. The number of student activists in the region has virtually increased three-fold from April to November 1997.

Cultural work is developing and advancing in communities and schools. Cultural presentations are consciously integrated into all gatherings and mass actions. One outstanding example was the participation of close to 90 dramatic artists, singers, dancers, painters and other cultural workers in the Lakbayan.

Revolutionary Mass Movement and Struggle in Metro Manila

From the beginning, the Party has had the highest regard for the revolutionary movement and struggle in the capital region, believing this to be an essential requisite in the solid and all-sided advance of the people�s democratic revolution. This, the Party firmly understands, for it is in Metro Manila where the movement regrouped and reinvigorated itself from the ashes of the old merger Party and people�s army which were liquidated by the Lavaites� revisionism.

Proletarian revolutionary cadres took the lead in laying the foundations of the revolutionary urban mass movement in the �60s. This was in direct preparation for the reestablishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines under the guidance of MLM in 1968 and the formation of the NPA the following year. The advance of the revolutionary urban mass movement enabled the Party to deploy immediately cadres from Metro Manila and other cities and town centers to assist in the establishment of guerrilla zones and fronts in the countryside.

The advance of the democratic mass movement in the region was the product of painstaking organizing work among the ranks of youth and students, workers and professionals.

It was also the result of propagating the line of people�s democratic revolution through study circles, publications and progressive writings. Militant mass actions were likewise waged to advance the people�s democratic interests and welfare and expose and oppose US imperialism and its local puppets.

From these efforts exerted in the �60s, the reinvigorated revolutionary mass movement in the region reached its height during the years of upsurge from 1970-72. A most notable development was the First Quarter Storm of 1970. Alongside, the foundations of the revolutionary urban mass movement were established nationwide.

The reestablished Party never abandoned revolutionary work and struggle in urban areas even during the darkest years of the fascist USMarcos dictatorship. The democratic revolutionary mass movement in the region resisted and overcame the initial shock inflicted by fascist terror. The Party was able to expand its membership from 800 before the imposition of martial law to more than 1,000 by the middle of the �70s, despite arrests and the dictatorship�s attempts to cripple and crush the revolutionary urban mass movement. It continued contributing to the nationwide effort to establish guerrilla fronts in the countryside.

Revisionist Distortions

The revisionist distortion of the line of urban struggle in the Philippines lies at the core of such serious deviations and insurrectionist, putschist, adventurist and opportunist errors which wrought severe damage to the Party and movement in the region since the second half of the �70s. To push its line of urban insurrectionism, the Trotskyite Lagman clique propagated the erroneous view of a capitalist or backward capitalist Philippine society. According to such analysis, the working class ought to be the revolution�s leading force and insurrection, the correct revolutionary strategy, instead of protracted people�s war. The clique propagated the fantastic notion that conditions in 1989-90 were ripe for urban insurrection. It claimed that the revolutionary forces were on the verge of advancing towards strategic and decisive engagements in urban areas.

On the other hand, the clique also advocated adventurist and putschist tactics to incite the outbreak of insurrection. This it did by employing agents provocateur, militarist and populist methods. These methods rely mainly on the spontaneous consciousness and actions of the masses and factional differences among reactionaries.

They propagated the small group mentality, ultrademocracy and finally, factionalism and a brazenly anti-Party line.

All this led to unprecedented damage, loss of initiative and passivity on the part of the Party and movement in the region.

Such deviations from the orientation of the urban mass movement can only lead to the complete isolation of urban struggles from the overall revolutionary struggle. Once isolated from people�s war, the revolutionary movement in the cities will be unable sustain itself or undertake any endeavor over a prolonged period. On the other hand, neither can the people�s war attain victory without the advance of the urban mass movement and the latter�s thorough and continued support.

The path of rectification lies only in steadily and determinedly advancing the legal democratic urban mass movement and patiently accumulating solid revolutionary strength while firmly supporting the movement and war in the countryside.

Continued and All-Sided Advance

When the revisionist renegades led by the madman Filemon �Popoy� Lagman bolted, the Party organization in Metro Manila was slowly able to recover and strengthen itself by persevering in the task of ideological building and conducting painstaking mass work.

From the severe dislocations suffered in 1992, district committees as well as other levels of the Party organization in the region have not only been rebuilt, but have been assiduously strengthened.

On the other hand, forces carried away and deceived by the Lagman clique have been fast disintegrating. After organizing a few noisy but empty spectacles for the mass media, the Trotskyite clique has lost steam. They unashamedly grovelled before and compromised with the reactionary ruling classes. They endorsed the antinational and anti-people Philippines 2000 program of the reactionary puppet Ramos regime. Thus has the Lagman clique been swiftly exposed and isolated from the broad masses.

It has further been weakened and its logistics diminished when the Sergio Romero-led Alex Boncayao Brigade split from Lagman due to personal and factional differences.

Now conscious of the clique�s true character, unions and other forces deceived and carried away by Lagman are once more gravitating towards the revolutionary movement.

The Party and revolutionary mass movement in Metro Manila are now in an excellent position to further advance and lead the legal democratic mass movement amid the intensifying crisis of the ruling system. The people�s anger is seething at their rapidly worsening enslavement and oppression.

Objective conditions are extremely favorable for daringly advancing and bolstering the anti-imperialist, antifeudal and anti-fascist movement and struggles.

Protests and mass struggles are enthusiastically advancing. There is need to sustain and further strengthen this momentum to defend and advance the interests of the exploited and oppressed people. It is the duty of the Party regional organization in Metro Manila to exert all efforts to lead, support and popularize mass resistance. These should be strengthened and linked with the people�s broad economic and political struggles which vigorously denounce and inflict heavy blows against neocolonial, feudal and fascist rule.

The Party and revolutionary mass movement in the Metro Manila region have made notable progress since the Second Great Rectification Movement was launched.

Nonetheless, there remain deepseated and widespread errors which have to be criticized and repudiated for rectification to be thorough and continuous. It is natural for counterrevolutionary influences and ideas to be widespread in urban centers. There is need to be vigilant to and resist them.

Guided by basic principles and determined to rectify errors, the Party and revolutionary forces in Metro Manila have sharpened their vigilance to any emergence of errors and deviations. They will surely reap greater victories in the future.

09 July 1998
English Edition

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