Editorial:
Advance the revolution on all fronts!

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Unbridled imperialist plunder and the Macapagal-Arroyo regime's utter puppetry, brutality and corruption have spawned an unusually severe socio-economic crisis and the unprecedented exacerbation of the living conditions of the broad masses.

The severity of the current economic and political crisis is almost akin to the gravity of the crisis during the Marcos period. It is set to worsen in the coming years due to Macapagal-Arroyo's all-out puppetry to US imperialism, her regime's utterly brutal terrorism and intense graft and corruption especially of the Arroyo couple and persons close to them.

The economy is set to plummet even more in 2003. The budget deficit, external debts, the devaluation of the peso and unemployment are expected to reach unprecedented levels. Government funds and foreign investments are woefully inadequate. In her desperation, Macapagal-Arroyo could think of no other way out but to condemn the government to further indebtedness and impose more taxes on the people.

The people live in abject poverty due to the policies of liberalization, deregulation, privatization, denationalization and other IMF dictates. Production has slumped. The army of the unemployed continues to grow. Wages are extremely low. Farmers are bankrupt and up to their necks in debt. Local businessmen are in dire straits. Despite all this, Arroyo has persisted in enforcing such policies.

The Macapagal-Arroyo regime supposedly plans to modernize agriculture. In fact, farms will be converted to large plantations of non-traditional export crops heavily reliant on imported chemical inputs. This will only make the Philippines even more dependent on the importation of rice and other food products.

Macapagal-Arroyo's puppetry to US imperialism knows no bounds. She does everything to please her master, who is the world's foremost terrorist. She has recently reinforced the country's status as a vast US military base with the signing of the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA). Beginning January 2003, the country will be swamped by a huge number of American troops, the largest since the US military bases were booted out in 1991. The US plans to use the Philippines as launching ground for its impending war of aggression against Iraq.

Broad sections of the people and even Macapagal-Arroyo's allies strongly object to such policies. She is severely isolated politically and the ruling system is now mired in grave crisis, comparable to that which existed before the collapse of the Marcos dictatorship.

To cover up the intense economic and political crisis and arbitrarily impose even more detrimental policies on the people, Macapagal-Arroyo, together with her master George Bush, has been sowing an anti-terrorist hysteria. They have been using the "terrorist threat" as a pretext to suppress the people's resistance, launch an all-out terrorist war against the people and the New People's Army (NPA), open the doors to even more intense US imperialist military intervention and run roughshod on the peace talks.

This has so far been the clearest manifestation of the regime's militarism, its rabid reactionary character and brazen puppetry. Also in the name of antiterrorism, the US has arrogantly been throwing its weight around as the sole superpower, coercing countries especially in the Asia-Pacific to adhere to its "anti-terrorist agenda," intensified warmongering and intervention. The imperialist terrorism of Bush and that of Macapagal-Arroyo are far more extensive, more evil and more devastating than the terrorism of the al Qaida and Osama bin Laden.

Worldwide, oppressed peoples and countries are beset with graver unrest and suffering due to imperialist war and aggression and the acute crisis of capitalism.

Actually, Bush and his Philippine puppet�s heightened bullying stance mark their intensifying anxieties over the explosive problems and crises of imperialism and reaction.

Developments have run contrary to Bush and Macapagal-Arroyo's desire of seeing the revolutionary movement's isolation and decline due to its having been declared as "terrorist." The revolutionary movement has heightened its resolve to defend its integrity against US imperialism and the puppet Macapagal-Arroyo regime's moves to malign and disparage it.

Overseas the resurgence and renewed expansion of economic struggles, anti-war struggles and other people's struggles are praiseworthy, and further shake the capitalist system and portend the emergence and resurgence of the international proletarian movement.

The past three years have seen the significant continued resurgence of the revolutionary movement on the basis of the victories of the Second Great Rectification Movement in 1992-1998. The Party and the revolutionary movement have fully recovered from major losses and setbacks. As the Party advances, it consciously adheres to the lessons of the rectification movement in order to avoid deviating once more from the correct line.

The present size of the organized mass base as well as the number of barrios and towns covered and the numerical strength of the Party almost equal if not surpass the peak reached during the 1980s. Guerrilla fronts, now numbering more than 120 and well-positioned in almost all regions and in the majority of provinces are continuously expanding and consolidating.

The overall plan of the Party and the revolutionary movement at present is to further intensify the struggle against the reactionary, puppet, repressive and rotten Macapagal-Arroyo ruling regime and its master, US imperialism, which relentlessly exploits the country and intervenes in its affairs. The Party and the revolutionary forces are ready and well-positioned to further strengthen the mass base, the NPA, the Party and the united front in the countryside and cities all-sidedly in all regions, and to further hasten the advance of the major arenas of struggle.

The Party and the revolutionary movement will continue giving the highest premium to strengthening the organizations and struggles of the worker and peasant masses and other poor sectors in the countryside and cities.

Among these are: 1) antifeudal campaigns in the countryside along with other campaigns against the onslaught of imperialist "globalization" on agriculture; 2) workers' struggles for a living wage and against exploitation and the severe repression of their democratic rights by the fascist state; 3) livelihood and political campaigns of the millions of the people in the countryside and cities who are unemployed or who lack employment and the thousands who swell the ranks of the unemployed daily due to the grave crisis; and 4) struggles of employees and small entrepreneurs who have been seriously affected or are in danger of going bankrupt due to the crisis.

The CPP will also support all local businesses, especially the middle bourgeoisie who are now increasingly opposed to and taking action against the onslaught of "free market globalization."

Next year and in the years to come, we expect the NPA and its military offensives to further intensify after having resolved the problems that hindered the more rapid advance of the armed revolutionary movement. As shown in the last half of 2002, tactical offensives are determinedly and steadily being intensified. There is an urgent demand from the peasant masses and other poor sectors to intensify the revolutionary struggle, both armed and unarmed.

There will be more numerous, more frequent and more widespread tactical offensives against AFP and PNP units and paramilitary forces who have perpetrated the most serious abuses against the people. The worst elements among those who exploit the poor and ordinary folk, who cause the people to suffer and suppress them will likewise be targeted.

The intensification of armed revolution and the various forms of people's revolutionary struggles is the just and correct response to unbridled imperialist and fascist terrorism, imperialist intervention and the merciless exploitation of the masses of the people.

We are now forming the broadest unity of all progressive and democratic forces in the face of the terribly severe crisis and onslaught of imperialism and reaction. We affirm our readiness to unite with all sincere forces and elements that oppose and resist the onslaught of imperialist globalization, imperialist intervention and aggression, fascism and corruption in the government.

We foresee an extremely severe crisis in the country this 2003 and in the coming years, and that imperialist plunder and reaction will become more brutal and relentless. But we are likewise confident that people's struggles will be more widespread and intensified. The Bush-Macapagal-Arroyo cabal will quickly reap the whirlwind born of the evil they have sown.

January 2003
English Edition

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