C. The National United Front
The national united front is a component part of the political line of the Communist Party of the Philippines. The Philippine revolution is a revolution of the toiling masses against US imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. The national united front must serve this political line.
The highest task of the people's democratic revolution is the seizure of state power by armed force and the consolidation of people's democratic power as the transitional stage toward socialism. The national united front must serve this central task. The Communist Party of the Philippines stands firmly wielding and utilizing both weapons of armed struggle and the national united front against the enemy. Through the national united front, the Party extends widely its political influence and gains the widest support of the masses and other progressive classes and strata as it establishes the independent strength of the leading class, the proletariat, through a national war or an agrarian revolution supported mainly by the peasantry.
For failure to clarify and use correctly the national united front as a weapon of the people's democratic revolution, previous Party leaderships have been responsible for several revisionist misconceptions regarding it. There are those who regard the national united front as the opposite of armed struggle. Violating the Marxist-Leninist theory of state and revolution, they also consider the national united front as the main weapon and parliamentary struggle as the main form of struggle. The Lavas are mainly responsible for this revisionism, this treason to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought.
Before the outbreak of the anti-Japanese war, the Popular Front was considered by the Party leadership as merely the license for engaging mainly in parliamentary struggle; no preparations for anti-fascist armed struggle were seriously made. During the war, the Right opportunists ludicrously maintained the anti-fascist united front against Japan as a "united front" mainly with US imperialism and the commonwealth government so that the line of opposing the return of US imperialism and its puppet commonwealth government was obscured. After the anti-Japanese war, the Democratic Alliance, as a formal united front organization, assumed leadership over all progressive forces; and bourgeois personalities close to the Lava brothers assumed the leadership and initiative therein. The Party lost strength, initiative and independence when its leadership decided to lay down its arms and to engage mainly in parliamentary struggle through the Democratic Alliance.
Until now, there is the false notion fostered by Right opportunists and revisionists that a national united front must always have a definite organizational form like the Democratic Alliance or the Movement for the Advancement of Nationalism whose unity, for the purpose of parliamentary struggle, must be preserved by all means and above all. In the broad experience of successful revolutionary movements, the national united front does not necessarily have a formal organization. Neither is its function limited to parliamentary struggle. As a matter of fact, the best form of united front is wherein the Party has an independent and strong people's army to command. If the Party is involved in any formal united front organization in the course of either armed struggle or legal struggle, it must always be prepared by having its own independent strength and initiative to meet any betrayal or compromise with the enemy that the national bourgeoisie might make due to its dual class character.
The key question in the national united front is whether a proletarian revolutionary class leadership is at the helm of all other progressive forces fighting in common against the enemy in the armed and legal fronts. Whether there is a formal united front organization or not, the Communist Party of the Philippines must maintain its revolutionary vanguard role, its independence and initiative.
The Communist Party of the Philippines must engage in the national united front in order to tap all positive forces in the armed and legal fronts against the enemy. The national united front policy is pursued in order to expand the influence of the revolutionary armed forces, isolate the enemy and its die-hard elements and recruit the broad masses of the people to the side of the people's democratic revolution.
The special task of the national united front is to win over the middle forces and elements in order to isolate enemy die-hards. To be able to do this, the Party must make clear and repeated class analysis which can distinguish the middle forces and elements from the die-hard reactionaries, the principal enemies from the secondary enemies, the enemies of today from the enemies of tomorrow; and among friends, the reliable from the unreliable.
The Party's policy of the national united front is a proletarian policy concerning classes in Philippine society. In developing the national united front, we must distinguish our enemies from our friends and vice versa.
Chairman Mao has said: "Who are our enemies? Who are our friends? This is a question of first importance for the revolution .... A revolutionary party is the guide of the masses, and no revolution ever succeeds when the revolutionary party leads them astray. To ensure that we will definitely achieve success in our revolution and will not lead the masses astray, we must pay attention to uniting with our real friends in order to attack our real enemies. To distinguish real friends from real enemies, we must make a general analysis of the economic status of the various classes in Chinese society and of their respective attitude towards the revolution."
The national united front should be based on the alliance of the working class and the peasantry under the leadership of the working class and the Communist Party of the Philippines. The national united front should include other progressive classes and strata in Philippine society which unite with the masses on the basis of a common political programme. This political programme, accepted in common by the working class, the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie, should correspond to the general line and programme of the Communist Party of the Philippines. This political programme must serve to weld together the broadest unity of progressive forces and groups to isolate US imperialism and the die-hard reactionaries, composed of the comprador bourgeoisie, the landlord class and the bureaucrat capitalists.
The programme of the Party and the national united front should include mainly the liquidation of feudalism and the free distribution of land to poor peasants, lower middle peasants and farm workers, and the nationalization of industries and enterprises owned and controlled by the foreign monopoly capitalists and the compradors bourgeoisie. This programme can be achieved fully only with the seizure of state power through armed force by the people under the leadership of the proletariat. The state sector in the present economy and "land reform" under the reactionary state should not be confused with the real nationalization of the economy and agrarian revolution in the liberated areas or in the people's democratic state.
In adhering to the national united front, the Communist Party of the Philippines must maintain its independence, ideologically, politically and organizationally. It must unite with the progressive forces within the national united front but it should not surrender its fundamental class interests and those of the proletariat and the peasantry to the bourgeoisie. It must always conduct independent mass work, mainly among the peasants, so that it has its own political strength to rely on in any event. The national united front is essentially an instrument to win over the middle forces and elements and to isolate enemy die-hards.
It is the relationship of the Party with the national bourgeoisie within the national united front that requires special attention. This is primarily because the national bourgeoisie has a dual class character, one aspect of which is progressive and the other reactionary. In dealing with the national bourgeoisie, we must avoid two dangerous pitfalls; namely, "Left" opportunism and Right opportunism. To dismiss the national bourgeoisie as completely reactionary is "Left" opportunist and sectarian; and to regard the national bourgeoisie as completely revolutionary is to be Right opportunist and capitulationist. It is necessary at all times for the Party to adopt a revolutionary dual tactic towards the national bourgeoisie, combining unity and struggle. If the Party loses sight of the reactionary aspect of the national bourgeoisie, it would be unprepared for any betrayal of the revolution by this class. Revolutionary vigilance is required in our relations with the national bourgeoisie. If the Party loses sight of the progressive character of this class and does not recognize it as an ally within a certain period of time and to a certain limited extent, it would fail to take advantage of actual contradictions between this class on the one hand and foreign monopoly capitalism and feudalism on the other.
In order to develop the cooperation of the national bourgeoisie, the Party must have its own strength; otherwise, this class and its representatives would be reluctant to cooperate. The Party must respect the legitimate interests of all middle forces, with concessions actually granted to them without undermining the interests of the people and the leadership of the proletariat. At all times, resolute struggle must be waged against the enemies of the national united front so that trust in the Party would grow among the people and all middle forces.
In its relations with revolutionary forces throughout the world, the Party pursues the policy of the international united front. All revolutionary and progressive forces that can be united against the main enemy of the peoples of the world, US imperialism, should be united. Modern revisionism with its slogan of "united action" should be rejected as the ideology of the international scabs who are serving and seeking peace and d�tente with US imperialism.
In the international communist movement, the biggest danger today is modern revisionism. Likewise in the Philippines the main danger is modern revisionism in the form of the Lava revisionist renegade line and all other forms of Right opportunism. The collaboration between US imperialism, modern revisionism and all forms of reaction should be continuously exposed and attacked by the international united front and the national united front.
US imperialism and all other reactionaries are paper tigers. All the nuclear weapons and all the military technology of US imperialism cannot frighten us. Although our fraternal people, the Chinese people, have the atom bomb for the defense of the revolutionary peoples, what is more important for all fighting peoples is the human factor, the surging forces of the masses under the inspiration of Mao Tsetung Thought and under the leadership of the proletariat and the Communist Party. Mao Tsetung Thought is their spiritual atom bomb. They are bound by the spirit of proletarian internationalism in the world proletarian revolution and in the international united front against US imperialism, modern revisionism and all reaction.
Although our Party and people welcome political and material support from fraternal parties and peoples, under the spirit of proletarian internationalism and within the framework of the international united front, we must rely mainly on ourselves first of all and wage the people's democratic revolution as part of the world proletarian revolution.
Armed with invincible Mao Tsetung Thought, the Communist Party of the Philippines will surely triumph and the Filipino people under the leadership of the revolutionary proletariat will achieve people's democracy first and socialism next.
Ratified by the Congress of Re-Establishment
of the Communist Party of the Philippines
26 December 1968
I II III IV V
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