HAIL THE 30th ANNIVERSARY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINESBY ARMANDO LIWANAG
CHAIRMAN, CENTRAL COMMITTEE
COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES
DECEMBER 26, 1998 With boundless joy, we hail and celebrate the 30th anniversary of the reestablishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines, as the advanced detachment of the working class, under the theoretical guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, on December 26, 1968.
Since then, the Filipino people under the leadership of the Party have won brilliant victories in the new-democratic revolution against the ruling system of the comprador big bourgeoisie and landlord class, which are in the service of US imperialism.
Our victories have been won through revolutionary struggle, hard work and sacrifices. For these we salute and honor our revolutionary martyrs, the Party cadres and members, the Red commanders and fighters, the personnel of the organs of political power, the militants in the mass organizations, all allies in the united front and the broad masses of the people.
Thirty years ago, the Party was reestablished with only a few scores of full and candidate-members concentrated in two regions of the country. Now, it has some tens of thousands of Party members who are deeply rooted among the workers and peasants on a nationwide scale. It is present in more than 60provinces, hundreds of towns and cities and thousands of villages. It has grown in strength and advanced through fierce revolutionary struggle.
There were only a few hundreds of advanced mass activists in trade unions, in peasant associations and in the youth movement in 1968. Now, they run into several tens of thousands and they support the Party cadres and members in leading a wide array of aboveground and underground mass organizations whose total membership run into hundreds of thousands.
When the Party established the New People�s Army on March 29, 1969, this had only some 60 Red fighters, armed with only nine automatic rifles and 26 inferior | IN THE LAST 30 YEARS, THE PARTY HAS BEEN ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE TO THE ENTIRE WORLD THAT IT IS POSSIBLE AND NECESSARY TO WAGE PROTRACTED PEOPLE�S WAR IN A SEMICOLONIAL AND SEMIFEUDAL COUNTRY THAT IS AN IMPORTANT FOOTHOLD OF US IMPERIALISM IN ASIA. |
weapons. The rural mass base consisted of some 80,000 peasants in one district of one province.
Now, the NPA has thousands of Red fighters equivalent to several regiments. It operates in some 60 guerrilla fronts covering substantial portions of 15 regions of the country. It is armed with firearms seized from the enemy.
It is augmented by tens of thousands of men and women in the militia and self-defense units. Its mass base runs into several millions of people, mainly in the rural areas. The domestic semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system and the world capitalist system are now in the throes of an unprecedented crisis.
Because of the rectification movement, the Party is in a strong position to take advantage of this crisis. It is working hard to further arouse, organize and mobilize the broad masses of the people for the revolutionary cause, for their own national and social liberation from oppression and exploitation.
In the last 30 years, the Party has been able to demonstrate to the entire world that it is possible and necessary to wage protracted people�s war in a semicolonial and semifeudal country that is an important foothold of US imperialism in Asia. We are confident that people�s war can arise in more countries in the face of the grave economic and social crisis that has impoverished and oppressed most countries of the world.
The Communist Party of the Philippines is ever determined to uphold, defend and advance Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and wage the new-democratic revolution through protracted people�s war as a matter of proletarian internationalist duty. We are ever hopeful that by carrying out armed revolution in the Philippines, we can help bring about the resurgence of the anti-imperialist and socialist movement. We are certain that the world proletariat and oppressed peoples will intensify all forms of revolutionary struggle.
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