Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Belgium
[Belgium]

On the Occasion
of the 35th Anniversary of the reestablishment
of the Communist Party of the Philippines

Congratulatory message to the Communist Party of the Philippines on the 35th Anniversary of its Re-establishment

Brussels, 26 December 2003

The Central Committee and the entire membership of the Workers' Party of Belgium wholeheartedly congratulate the Central Committee and the membership of the Communist Party of the Philippines on its 35th Anniversary.

Without exception, the many cadres, members and sympathizers of our Party that have had the privilege to get to know and work with comrades from your party, the New People's Army, the National Democratic Front and the legal democratic mass movement in the Philippines, speak with great admiration about the political clarity, the ideological firmness, the organizational strength and the human warmth of the Filipino comrades they met. All of them have also been impressed by the enormous strength, width and depth of the mass movement, a direct result of the toiling masses having been systematically and judiciously aroused, organized and mobilized by the revolutionary forces. In boldly advancing the revolution on the basis of an ever widening and deepening mass base, thereby integrating revolutionary theory and historical experiences with the concrete and current conditions, the Communist Party of the Philippines is indeed setting an example for revolutionary forces anywhere in the world, including in advanced capitalist countries such as Belgium.

The Workers' Party of Belgium also particularly appreciates the major contributions of the Communist Party of the Philippines to the international communist movement and the broad anti-imperialist movement. The analysis of imperialist globalization and wars, and the strategy and tactics against them, as provided by the CPP and CPP-led forces in the most diverse international forums, events, rallies, conferences and publications, are among the most valuable to be found. They help guide revolutionaries and progressives far beyond the Philippine borders or nationality.

In today's world situation, with US imperialism, the number one terrorist, on a rampage against the peoples and workers of the entire world, the united front policy and practice of the CPP is worth studying, discussing and applying. In a situation when US imperialism choses for militarization and war as its strategic option to try and get out of the chronic crisis of capitalist overproduction, and when inter-imperialist contradictions are intensifying, the question of a broad united front against the most dangerous and immediate enemy on a world scale, takes on renewed significance.

Victim of the war-mongering and aggressivity of US imperialism - and its lackeys and camp followers in the European Union and in the Philippines - is, among others, Jose Maria Sison, Founding Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines and currently Chief Political Consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. We consider Comrade Joma, as we also fondly call him, as one of us. He has been a regular guest at the May First celebration of the Workers' Party of Belgium, and a regular and main speaker at the Brussels International Communist Seminar hosted by the Workers' Party of Belgium. We consider it our duty to have engaged in the worldwide campaign to defend Joma's rights, and to have invested cadres, legal assistance and financial support in this campaign.

We are convinced that the Communist Party of the Philippines and its allied forces will obtain many more and new successes and advances in their revolutionary work, building on the achievements of the victorious Second Great Rectification Movement.

Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines!
Long live the international communist movement!

On behalf of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Belgium

Ludo Martens
Chairman

Baudouin Deckers
Member of the Political Bureau, Secretary of the Department of International Relations