III. BRIEF HISTORICAL REVIEW
A. Founding of the Party and its Illegalization
The national democratic movement in the Philippines entered a new stage when on November 7, 1930, the Communist Party of the Philippines was founded in Manila. The founding of the Party served to signify that the Filipino working class had advanced ideologically, politically, and organizationally, and had started to seek class leadership in the Philippine revolution. Thus, the era of the new-democratic movement was ushered in with the emergence of a working class party committed to the integration of Marxist-Leninist theory and Philippine practice.
As a newly founded working class party, the Communist Party of the Philippines was immediately based in the city among the most advanced workers represented by Crisanto Evangelista. Without sufficient consideration of and safeguard against the oppressive and coercive character of the US imperialist regime and the domestic ruling classes, the Party was publicly launched on the 13th anniversary of the October Revolution. Within a short period, on May 1, 1931 and subsequently, the reactionary authorities took punitive actions against the Party. Cadres and members of the Party were arrested and imprisoned. Mass organizations under the leadership of the Party were banned. In 1932, the Supreme Court formally outlawed the Party and its mass organizations and meted out prison sentences to their leading members.
At the time that the first line of Party leaders was incapacitated, no reliable second line of Party leaders had yet been developed to carry on Party work. Nevertheless, by 1935, there were already some elements who established Marxist study groups among the petty bourgeoisie in Manila. Some of these elements had their political education under the Right opportunist Browderite leadership.
In the period that the Communist Party of the Philippines was outlawed, the Socialist Party headed by Pedro Abad Santos was building up strength on the basis of a loose mass organization of peasants and agricultural workers in Central Luzon.
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