The youth, especially young intellectuals, can contribute greatly to advancing the people’s war, according to Ka Amihan Guerrero, New People’s Army (NPA)-Agusan del Sur spokesperson. Ka Amihan was among the Red fighters who wrote to members of the Kabataang Makabayan (KM) on the occasion of the NPA’s 53rd anniversary last March 29.

“I know that you have sufficient knowledge why the NPA and armed struggle are needed. I know that you are also aware of KM’s important role in strengthening and advancing the armed struggle to a higher level,” Ka Amihan wrote in her letter.

She described the urgent need of their platoon to reinforce the two members who came from the petty bourgeois class who handle up to three key tasks. Because they are overburdened, some duties are forgotten or left behind. Hence, there are many “vacant” positions for “youth applicants.”

There are tasks for organizational consolidation such as political education, she says. “The comrades need to maintain and sharpen their thinking … so that they are alert and can immediately counter the enemy’s strategic and planned psywar.”

Medical officers are also needed so that health services, something that is in such a short supply in the countryside, will reach more people. Also needed are comrades who can teach Red fighters who have low or no capacity to read, write and count, and comrades who can undertake widespread education campaigns among the masses, especially about their rights.

One of those who heeded the call is Ka Elyan, who left his campus and street activist life for the countryside. In his letter, he related that his first years in the people’s army were not easy. “In the process of becoming a Red fighter, I went through many sacrifices and hardships … including learning the language, each fighter and the masses’ particular characteristics, the work that is needed and how to adapt to the culture.” He embraced the process as someone once told him, “there is nothing easy in waging revolution.”

Ka Lisa agrees that becoming a Red fighter is not easy. “Inherent to army life is intense self-remoulding,” she narrated in her letter. But as she has seen the deep roots of inequality and societal poverty, she is steadfast in waging the people’s war. “This is the only way … to change everything—not just to paint over the rotten society with happy colors, but to change its core.”

This is also the topic of Ka Kreto’s letter. “Leaving the life we were born into is complicated. But we need to persevere in remoulding ourselves and forge our revolutionary outlook, stand and methods.” He challenged the youth to dare uphold the interests of the majority in the midst of so many bourgeois reasons—doubts, fears and indecision. “Instead of being chained to the life we know, we should choose the life of relevance.”

In Ka Ani’s letter, she narrated that Red fighters are aware of the situation of the youth in the cities during the time of pandemic and school closures. The fighters experienced firsthand the youth’s hardships in blended learning and the problems it brought to parents and children. Worse, a calamity is looming in the horizon—the restoration of the Marcoses and perpetuation of a Duterte in state power.

“The future is bleak,” she said. “The people face the enormous challenge of decisively stopping this calamity. We, the youth, have a big role in winning this struggle.”

Ka Ani recalled how the youth started arousing, organizing and mobilizing thousands under the Marcos dictatorship. “It is in our hands as heirs of the revolution to advance the people’s war to victory,” she said. “If those who came before us succeeded in sacrificing and meeting the call to bear arms to fight for genuine justice and peace, we should be more able to do so now.”

Together with scores of the oppressed, Ka Ani and the comrade fighters has this to say: “See you! We and the people in the countryside are waiting for you!”