On the tactical alliance with anti-Estrada reactionaries and the pseudo-Left rhetoric of Lagman
Upholding the anti-Estrada tactical alliance between the patriotic and democratic forces and reactionaries who are not in power is in accordance with the revolutionary united front principle of taking advantage of rifts within the ranks of reactionaries to isolate and fight the reactionaries in power.
This is being proven correct by the broad range of forces belonging to the anti-Estrada front and its capacity to mobilize hundreds of thousands of people across the nation; and by negative example, the isolation of the Contras, especially Sanlakas and BMP, who in their attempt to lead the people astray are calling for the resignation not only of Estrada, but also of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, vice president of the reactionary government and one of the forces opposing Estrada.
In dealing with anti-Estrada reactionaries, there is need for both unity and struggle. While recognizing that the Arroyo-Aquino-Ramos camp is an ally in the anti-Estrada struggle, there is no denying that they are basically reactionaries like Estrada. The fundamental interests of the people are not compromised; rather, they are firmly upheld and advanced.
The revolutionary forces are aware that the anti-Estrada struggle is not equivalent to, but is part of, the entire effort to overthrow the ruling system. It is much simpler and faster to topple a puppet in power than to overthrow the entire reactionary ruling system. The revolutionary movement is prepared to resist the Estrada regime and all the puppets who would succeed him, even as it continues to accumulate organized and armed strength until this is sufficient to bring down the entire system. While arousing and mobilizing the people to oust the Estrada government, it tirelessly explains the national-democratic program to them and organizes and mobilizes them along the path of revolution.
In an attempt to undermine anti-Estrada unity and desperately cast aspersion on the correct revolutionary policy of the united front, Filemon "Popoy" Lagman and Sanlakas-BMP, pseudo-Leftist organizations notorious for defrauding the workers' movement in Manila, insist that the tactical alliance policy with anti-Estrada reactionaries is tantamount to reformism and collaborationism. They want to make it appear that acknowledging Macapagal-Arroyo's important role in the anti-Estrada struggle is equivalent to endorsing her and compromising the "independent class-line".
Nonetheless, despite their rhetoric that purports to be more leftist than the Left and their muddled-up slogans, Lagman could not conceal their sheer reformism. This is because in the final analysis, what they claim as the "people's authentic clamor for genuine change" has nothing to do with waging a revolutionary struggle to overthrow the ruling system. After screaming themselves hoarse in calling for the resignation of leading government officials and the "overthrow of the government", it turns out that all they want is snap elections, which Lagman believes to be "the more significant struggle" and means to achieve "genuine change".
It is good that Lagman's scheme has been exposed and criticized early on. Because of this, not only has Lagman failed to sow division within the anti-Estrada united front; his forces have been swept to the sidelines and isolated from the mainstream of protest. To be able to impose themselves and take center stage, Sanlakas-BMP dumped the call for Macapagal-Arroyo's resignation and replaced it with a more deceiving slogan ("Topple Erap but to topple him is not enough"). The tone was slightly modified to target the "trapos" or traditional politicians who are allegedly at the root of the rotten political system (as if Lagman is not himself a "trapo" who has connived with bureaucrats in pocketing millions of pesos in exchange for selling out the struggle of workers and the urban poor). It is a huge reformist illusion to say that "genuine change in the political system" can be achieved outside the framework of the revolutionary overthrow of the reactionary ruling system.
Lagman and Sanlakas-BMP are rendering the Estrada government a special service in attempting to divide the anti-Estrada united front. They wave the banner of the anti-Estrada struggle, but only to obscure or conceal it with the various other banners they wave in the name of "heightening and deepening" the struggle. This broadens the target of the people's loathing so as to blunt the aim of protest.
Lagman and Sanlakas-BMP must not be allowed to freely spew venom against the anti-Estrada united front and against the revolutionary movement and its correct principles. The rottenness of the Lagman clique must be continuously exposed along with its counterrevolutionary principles and deeds.
| 
