CPI(ML)(PEOPLE'S WAR), Central Commitee
[India]

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

To Central Committee, Communist Party of Phillippines

Comrades,

On behalf of the CC of the CPI(ML)(People's war) and the entire rank and file of the Party throughout India, we send our revolutionary greetings to the CPP on occasion of your 35th anniversary celebrations of re-establishment of the Party. We were very keen to send a representative to attend the function, but due to conditions prevailing here we were unable to do so. Please accept our apologies.

Both our parties owe their origin to the stormy period of the late 1960s, amidst the great ideological upheavals against modern revisionism (led by the CPC). In India, the turning point came with the historic uprising of Naxalbari in 1967; in the Philippines it came with the re-establishment of the Party in 1968 in the course of the First Great Rectification Movement.

While our movement faced a severe setback in 1972, we still recollect the great strides made by your Party in the armed struggle, even after the declaration of martial law by the then reactionary Marcos regime in the early 1970s. At that time your struggle was an inspiration to us Maoists around the world.

Then again both our Parties had to wage serious ideological battles against right opportunism and left sectarianism to take the movement forward along the correct path of people's war, through a creative application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in our respective countries. In India this battle raged in the post 1972 period. The continuation of this political ideological struggle in the past two decades has led to most of the splintered M-L groups merging into the two main parties - the Maoist Communist Party of India(MCCI)and the CPI(ML)(People's war) . And now, with these two major parties coming closer, towards a ground unity and the re-birth of a single proletarian party in our country.

So also your party had to fight numerous ideological/political battles culminating in the second Great Rectification Movement since 1992. This has facilitated the consolidation of the CPP, on the basis of MLM, advance of the armed struggle to establish over 100 Guerrilla Fronts, and expansion and extension of the United Front.

In this process our two parties have grown closer. The seminar on Mao and People's war in 1998 was an important step forward. Since then, together with the TKP/ML, we have jointly brought out the international magazine Vanguard, issued joint statements of the three parties on international events, and are now, together with others, involved in other broad organisations. No doubt our process of cooperation will develop through struggle and unity - at each step leading to higher levels of unity. Together with Nepal it is our countries of Asia that have the most powerful Maoist movements and the only hope for the people of the region. In south Asia, in Nepal, the CPN(M) has marched ahead with leaps and bounds, taking the movement to the stage of strategic equilibrium with the formation of people's power and people's government through united people's committees, functioning in the Base Areas in vast tracts of Nepal.

In the countries of South Asia the Maoist parties of the region have formed the CCOMPOSA (Coordination Committee of Maoist parties of South Asia), which acts to further bind the Maoist parties in the region.

On this solemn occasion, we, from the CPI(ML)(People's war) declare our firm solidarity with the CPP and the entire struggling people of the Philippines. We vow to further deepen the unity between our two parties, basing on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

Long live the Unity between the Philippines and Indian people
Long live the Unity between the Communist Party of Philippines and CPI(ML)(People's war)

Prakash
for
Central Committee,
CPI(ML)(People's war)
10 December, 2003