TO THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE
COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES

Dear Comrades,

We extend our warmest Communist greetings to your Party — the Communist Party of the Philippines — its Central Committee, directors, cadres, and members, to the commanders and fighters of the New People’s Army, and to all the activists and supporters of the National-Democratic Front of the Philippines.

We are profoundly saddened by the recent death of Comrade Amado Guerrero (Jose Maria Canlas Sison, also known as Ka Joma), Founding Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, on the 16th of December, 2022, at the age of 83. We are addressing this message to your Party on the occasion of the 16th of January, 2023, the International Memorial Day for Comrade Amado Guerrero called for by the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

It is well known that our Party has a number of disagreements with the Communist Party of the Philippines as well as with Comrade Amado Guerrero. However, in the final analysis, we all stand on the same side of the barricade, and should support each other in our common struggle. Those of us who have had the pleasure to meet and talk with Comrade Amado Guerrero will never forget his boundless dedication to the cause of communism, his sharp political analysis, his patience for learning from and educating his comrades, and his genuine internationalist warmth and appreciation for his comrades all over the world. We strive to learn from and embody this truly communist and down-to-earth spirit. It is in this sense that we issue the present message.

Comrade Amado Guerrero was one of the great pupils of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism who emerged in the world as a result of the Great Polemic and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Greatly inspired and motivated by the ideology of Maoism — the new, third, and higher stage of the ideology of the proletariat that was then coming into being — he took up the banner of communism that had been thrown in the mud by the revisionists, refounded the Communist Party of the Philippines on the 26th of December, 1968, founded the New People’s Army, and launched the people’s war in the Philippines.

Neither imprisonment nor exile could break his communist conviction, and even after he had to leave his homeland for exile in the Netherlands, Comrade Amado Guerrero continued to fight for the revolution with the tools still at his disposal. Not just a beloved warrior, but also a beloved poet, he inspired millions of revolutionary people throughout the world with the pen, just as he had previously done with the sword. While in exile, as Chairman of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, he continued to guide the Filipino people’s revolution from abroad until his final breath.

Comrade Amado Guerrero was not only a leader of the Philippine revolution, although that would have been honour and glory enough. No, he was also one of the most important leaders of the whole proletarian-socialist world revolution following the death of Comrade Mao Zedong and the restoration of capitalism throughout all countries of the world. Not just his revolutionary practice, but his theory as well, are immortal contributions to the further development of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and the Communist Party of the Philippines was right to decide at its 2nd National Congress in 2016 to urge the entire Party membership and revolutionary forces to read and study Comrade Amado Guerrero’s thought — that is, the guiding thought of the Philippine revolution. Jose Maria Sison may have died, but his thought lives on in others, and will continue to develop further through the theory and practice of his successors.

Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out:

«All human beings must die, but death can vary in its significance. The ancient Chinese writer Sima Qian said: ‹Though death befalls all human beings alike, it may be weightier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather.› To die for the people is weightier than Mount Tai, but to work for the fascists and die for the exploiters and oppressors is lighter than a feather. […] Wherever there is struggle there is sacrifice, and death is a common occurrence. But we have the interests of the people and the sufferings of the great majority at heart, and when we die for the people it is a worthy death.»

Comrade Amado Guerrero lived and died for the international proletariat, the oppressed nations, and the people of the world, and most of all for the Filipino people, who are suffering under the exploitation and oppression of imperialism, semi-feudalism, and sub-contractor capitalism. But the spark that he lit on the 26th of December, 1968 has never gone out. It has set the whole of the Philippines ablaze. As Comrade Amado Guerrero himself pointed out in his final message on the occasion of the 54th anniversary of the refounding of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which was published posthumously:

«It is the toiling masses and the rest of the people who fight for national liberation, democracy, and socialism against imperialism and all reaction who let us hope for a bright future of world peace and common prosperity. They are now waging anti-imperialist and democratic mass struggle against the current global crisis that has been brought about by revisionist betrayal of socialism, neoliberalism, and fascism. These are the prelude to the resurgence of the world proletarian-socialist revolution.»

Inspired by the revolutionary spirit of Comrade Amado Guerrero, and led by the Party that he refounded, the Filipino proletariat will carry the national-democratic revolution through to the end, carry out the socialist revolution, and through proletarian cultural revolution realize communist society throughout the world, shoulder by shoulder with the rest of humankind.

LEARN FROM COMRADE AMADO GUERRERO!
SUPPORT THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION!
DEATH TO OPPORTUNISM! UNITE UNDER MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM!

Communist Greetings,

CENTRAL COMMITTEE
COMMUNIST PARTY OF SWITZERLAND (RED FACTION)

Switzerland
16th of January, 2023