1. CARRY FORWARD THE ANTIFASCIST, ANTIFEUDAL AND ANTI-IMPERIALIST MOVEMENT!

We must resolutely carry forward the antifascist, antifeudal and anti-imperialist movement. This is the current combative expression of our general line of people's democratic revolution against U.S. imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.

The Marcos fascist dictatorship is the main force of armed counter-revolution and is ruthlessly conducting a civil war. Thus, we must give first place to the antifascist movement. We must do everything we can to push forward the democratic armed revolution against the fascist armed counterrevolution.

Everywhere in the country we must focus on the abuses of the Marcos fascist dictatorship. In the entire semicolonial and semifeudal history of the Philippines, there is no regime more infamous than this for the political tyranny and economic crisis it has unleashed against the broad masses of the people.

The "new society" (variably calling itself "constitutional authoritarianism", "crisis government" and now lately "new democracy") is but the old society gone far worse and far more intolerable. The reactionary state has shorn itself of all its bourgeois democratic embellishments and is nakedly acting as the coercive instrument of the big comprador-landlord-bureaucrat clique of Marcos and U.S. imperialism.

We have the Marcos fascist dictatorship as the narrowest and weakest target on which to concentrate the broadest and strongest possible attack by the people. But to achieve the most profound, most wide-ranging and most forward results in the antifascist movement, we must deliberately and clearly link it to the antifeudal and anti-imperialist movements. It is only thus that we can effectively strike at the very essence and main body of the reactionary state.

Otherwise, we would be merely calling for the restoration of formal democratic rights and worn-out processes of the ruling system. Like bourgeois democrats, and not proletarian revolutionaries, we would be going after forms and we would be missing the content of a people's democratic revolution.

To deepen the antifascist movement, we must vigorously wage the antifeudal movement. By doing so, we develop the main force for overthrowing or causing the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship. We respond no less to the main demand of the people's democratic revolution and win the abiding interest of the most numerous class, the peasantry, in the armed revolution.

To raise the level of the antifascist movement, we must vigorously undertake the anti-imperialist movement. We must make U.S. imperialism pay the ultimate price for having masterminded the Marcos fascist dictatorship and having been the most aggrandized by it. The longer Marcos stays in power, the stronger the anti-imperialist movement should become.

So long as we pay comprehensive attention to the antifascist, antifeudal, and anti-imperialist movement, there is no chance for U.S. imperialism and the local reactionaries to confuse the people and derail the revolution one day by simply replacing the current fascist dictatorship with another.

The Marcos fascist dictatorship is a measure of the weakening and desperation of the entire ruling system, rather than of strengthening and stability. This open terrorist rule is the absolute proof that the ruling classes can no longer rule in the old way.

The political crisis continues to worsen. The split among the reactionaries has continued to widen and become more virulent. The revolutionary mass movement, under the leadership of the revolutionary proletariat, has proven to be resilient and has expanded and intensified, instead of being crushed by the fascist counterrevolution.

Though at first taken by surprise by the ultra-rightist coup, Marcos' political rivals have gone on to disseminate anti-Marcos propaganda in their so-called bailiwicks and maneuver for influence in the very same reactionary armed forces manipulated and used by Marcos for his fascist autocratic purposes. In the years to come, the gun will become more important than ever in the conflicts of the reactionaries.

The alliance of the Macapagal, Aquino, Lopez and Manglapus groups is not idle. Though U.S. imperialism continues to get what it wants from the Marcos fascist dictatorship, it has already assured this alliance that it should do what it can to stand in reserve in the face of Marcos' gross unpopularity. U.S. public opinion and certain U.S. business interests recognize the fact that even as the Marcos fascist dictatorship is a short-term asset for U.S. imperialism, it is a long-term liability.

The Marcos fascist dictatorship has given no quarters to its political rivals. The ultra-rightist coup of the executive against co-equal branches of the reactionary government, against the constitutional convention and against all kinds of opposition carried extremely vindictive measures. Properties have been extorted for the personal gain of Marcos and his henchmen. The Marcos press monopoly and other Marcos assets in far larger enterprises consist mainly of robbed property.

The series of fake referendums have in progression served to merely endorse the arbitrary martial law proclamation and the autocratic rule of Marcos. The "new" constitution, the indefinite nonconvening of the interim national assembly, the supplantation of national and local elections by presidential appointment and the projection of Imelda as second-in-command and successor of the fascist dictator close every peaceful avenue to political power for Marcos' political rivals.

The broad masses of the people have suffered most from the fascist counterrevolution. More than 95 percent of victims of illegal mass arrests and mass detention, massacres, assassination, torture, forced mass evacuation, illegal searches and looting, sexual molestation, bombardment, extortion and the like come from the ranks of ordinary people. Hundreds of thousands have become victims of direct physical abuse by the fascists.

At least three million people have been displaced, especially in the countryside, through fascist intimidation. People have been forced to abandon their homes, crops and small landholdings due to enemy "counterinsurgency" campaigns, expansion of corporate farming, "infrastructure" projects and real estate speculation.

The elimination or drastic diminution of political and economic rights and opportunities is causing incalculable suffering to the broad masses of the people. In such a situation, more people are liable to suffer oppression of the most direct and brutal kind.

The mass organizations of national-democratic character and the critical press are banned. The workers are deprived of their right to strike and the effective exercise of their trade union rights. The right of the peasants to self-organization is sabotaged by military operations and by the imposition of the "samahang nayon". The students, together with their teachers, are under close guard and even student governments and publications are prohibited.

Every means of democratic expression is shut off. All forms of mass action opposing fascist, feudal and imperialist abuses are expressly prohibited. Even private conversations are liable to be considered "rumor-mongering". Ownership and operation of even mimeographing machines and other minor printing equipment are also severely restricted. There are not only the written penalties but also the far more severe penalties imposed by the fascist torturers, murderers and extortionists.

Under the suffocating fascist martial rule, the broad masses of the people have no course but to fight back. They learn daily to resist their enemy. The Marcos fascist dictatorship has stood out as the best teacher by negative example. The learning process is so deep-going that the people increasingly detest not only the Marcos fascist dictatorship but also the entire ruling system.

The Marcos fascist dictatorship has, instead of effecting "peace and order", fanned the flames of armed resistance. The New People's Army, led by the Party, has only strengthened itself and expanded in the face of fascist abuses and barbarities. There are now tested guerrilla forces of the people's army in all regions outside Manila-Rizal.

The armed resistance for self-determination among the people of southwestern Mindanao has been ignited and fueled by the abuses of the Marcos fascist dictatorship. This has constituted a great though indirect support to the revolutionary armed struggle of the New People's Army.

A revolutionary underground is thriving all over the country. This is composed mainly of basic revolutionary forces led by the Party. Allied forces and other antifascist forces also have their own underground activities. In time to come, a powerful groundswell will overthrow the Marcos fascist dictatorship.

The Marcos fascist dictatorship is extremely isolated and is under fire from all directions. Contrary to its wishes it cannot be at the center of a "balancing act" between left and right. It is the ultra-right. It has made itself the target of a broad antifascist movement.

The economic crisis has rapidly worsened, making the core of the political tyranny more rotten everyday. This crisis is generated by the Marcos fascist dictatorship through its own profligacy and corruption and its subservience to U.S. imperialism which is shifting the burden of its crisis to a semicolonial dependent like the Philippines.

All our Party cadres and members must be well acquainted with the fast changing economic data in the country as a whole and in the local areas where they are so that they can give clear substance to their propaganda and agitation.

Prices have been soaring since 1970 but these have been soaring even more rapidly since the imposition of fascist martial rule. Price increases have been by several hundreds of percent since 1972. Imported commodities lead the way. The repeated oil price increases obtained by the U.S. oil companies alone have been a major factor in pushing up prices in the country.

Severe scarcities of locally produced commodities have been occurring and have been pushing up price because the main focus of the fascist regime is to encourage production of raw material for export and build up the "infrastructure" for it. Domestic prices of exportable commodities have risen so fast because exports are being made without prior attention to local needs. Food production is also grossly inadequate and food requirements are dependent on imports.

The income of the toiling masses are forced down to yield high profits to the U.S. and other foreign monopolies and the local exploiting classes. Wage levels have sunk too far below the price of basic commodities. The wage increases recently announced by the fascist regime do not correspond to the inflation since 1970 and can be completely circumvented due to the loopholes provided by the antilabor fascist regime.

It is openly admitted in watered-down statistics of the reactionary government that the purchasing power of the peso has gone down from 1965 to 1970 to 74 centavos and more rapidly from 1970 to l975 to 33 centavos. This is bad enough. But the fact is that the purchasing power of the peso has certainly gone down to far less than 20 centavos.

According to no less than the National Economic Development Authority, the top economic agency of the fascist regime, a worker must earn P45.00 daily for his family to subsist. Another agency, the Private Development Corporation of the Philippines, has also arrived at the slightly higher figure of P46.00. Even when applied faithfully, the new minimum wage of P10.00, P9.00 and P7.00 for nonagricultural workers in Greater Manila, nonagricultural workers in the provinces and regular agricultural workers, respectively, are far below the level of subsistence.

Unemployment is more rampant than ever. Forty percent of the employable population is without employment. This exceeds the chronic level of 25 percent noted in 1970. Most of the unemployed are in the countryside, under the guise of being irregular farm workers. Many of the unemployed continue to flock into the cities to look for jobs that are not available.

There is no land reform whatsoever. It is a big hoax, obvious from the very start. The tenant masses have been merely offered to buy land from their landlords at prohibitive prices. The bogus land reform has been used as cover for divesting the tenant masses of their tenancy rights, for arranging high fixed land rent and promoting usury, for expanding corporate farming and for enriching Marcos-controlled corporations on fertilizer, pesticide and farm equipment sales contracts with the reactionary government.

U.S. and other foreign investors are encouraged to extract superprofits on their direct investments, loans and trade. Restrictions that should have fallen on U.S. investments upon the termination of the Parity Amendment and the Laurel-Langley Agreement have been overridden by obnoxious antinational provisions of the Marcos constitution and presidential decrees enlarging those privileges already available to foreign investors in those foreign investments incentives laws before fascist martial rule.

U.S. investments and assets amount to far more than the well-known figure of $3.0 to $4.0 billion and comprise 85 percent of all foreign investments. Ownership is often camouflaged by the various nationalities of U.S. multinationa1 firms.

The U.S. monopoly capitalists, followed by the Japanese, have increased their direct investments especially in banking, investment houses, mining, oil exploration, foreign and local trading, plantations, repacking and reassembly, real estate and the like in accordance with their schemes of quick profit and misshaping the economy. The basic character of the economy remains as semifeudal as ever, restricted to being a producer of raw material and consumer of finished products from abroad.

Foreign loans with usurious rates of interest and other onerous conditions are being rapidly unloaded on the Philippines by the imperialists. Whereas the foreign debt of the Philippines stood at $2.2 billion at the end of 1972, accumulated through seven years of Marcos misrule, it now stands at more than $5.0 billion after only three years of fascist rule.

This is already far beyond the critical point. New and bigger loans have been incurred to pay old debts thus there is no end to the enlargement of the debts. What is most silly is that those who take most advantage of these loans are the foreign investors and the Marcos clique of big compradors and big landlords.

The deficit in the balance of trade has gone beyond the $1.0 billion level in comparison to the few hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars three years ago. It is still mounting. A greater volume of exports at lower prices is being made, while a greater volume of imports at higher prices is being made. With their tighter stranglehold on the local financial system, the foreign monopoly capitalists are using foreign trading more rapaciously than ever before to camouflage the remittance of superprofits.

The deficit on the balance of payments keeps on rising. It went beyond the level of $500 million at the end of 1975 and is now approaching the level of $1.0 billion. As usual, bigger foreign loans are resorted to in order to cover the deficit. Taking aside the private foreign exchange deposits in commercial banks, the international reserve fund of the Philippines is composed almost entirely of foreign loans in the process of being rapidly spent and replenished by new borrowing.

A great deal of foreign loans incurred by the Marcos fascist dictatorship has been used to put up ill-planned and inflationary "infrastructure" projects beneficial essentially to the foreign investors and the local exploiting classes. The purpose is not only to make propaganda out of showy public works but also to enrich the fascist dictator and his henchmen through contract-pulling, kickbacks and real estate speculation. Marcos has controlling interests now in the major local construction firms and related companies.

The manipulation of public works is an old bureaucrat-capitalist method of self-enrichment which Marcos has indulged in an unprecedentedly colossal manner. "Infrastructure" projects are always priced high above the actual inflationary trend. A major part of the "cost" of every construction project represents the corruption of the fascist dictator and his top henchmen. The burden that is the fascist dictatorship's profligacy and corruption is always passed on to the people in the form of higher taxes and higher toll charges or service fees.

The tax burden has increased abruptly so many times. This increased from P6.6 billion in 1972 to P14.3 billion in 1974 and has continued to rise. And yet revenues of the reactionary government fall far short of expenditures. The budgetary deficit for fiscal year 1974-75 is P5.0 billion, almost equivalent to the total budget of only a few years ago. Aside from foreign borrowing, the fascist dictatorship has had to resort to heavy local borrowing. At P20.7 billion in fiscal year 1974-75, the local public debt is now rapidly approaching P30 billion, skyrocketing from the 1972 figure of P9.7 billion.

The new development in the budgeting of the reactionary government under fascism is the rapid increase of appropriations for the military and the number one position of military expenditures. Before fascist martial rule, expenditures for public education and public works always vied for the top position, with those for the military running a poor third. Out of the total 1974-75 expenditures of P18.5 billion, the share of the military is more than P4.0 billion, including some P1.0 billion for intelligence.

On the whole, the expenditures of the reactionary government has been mainly for beefing up the personnel and equipment of the reactionary armed forces, increasing salaries and privileges of military officers, purchasing office materials and vehicles, acquiring public works equipment, paying private contractors, maintaining the general payroll, servicing public debts and the like. In every money transaction involving the fascist dictatorship, there is the inevitable cost that goes for graft and corruption.

There is no economic development whatsoever. Deterioration is the precise word for it. The gross national product is no gauge for economic growth. The transactions of the reactionary government, the foreign monopoly capitalists and the local exploiting classes compose the bulk of this gross national product. Also, this can be no basis for per capita income. More than 90 percent of the people live the lives of the exploited workers and peasants.