A New People’s Army (NPA) unit in Eastern Visayas launched and completed a batch of the Batayang Kurso ng Partido (BKP or Party Basic Course) in late March. This was held during the fascist 8th ID’s intense and all-out military operations timed to the NPA’s anniversary.

Larab, the revolutionary mass newspaper in Eastern Visayas, reported that the successful completion showed the Red Army’s burning determination to raise ideological capacity. It also demonstrated the NPA unit’s and mass base’s high secrecy and security maintenance for the study amid military operations.

As the BKP batch’s lead instructor, Ka Anding said the students averaged five years of revolutionary service. He recognized the delay in their formal education as a weakness, but BKP lessons highlighted their deep experience. Their practical experience in advancing people’s war enriched discussions, illuminated further by scientific theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

Simple but substantial

The NPA unit showed high mobility as a guerrilla unit. “We prepared chairs in the first venue. In the next venue, we only sat on banana trunks, which we used for only one day because we had to move. We had no chairs in the last venue. Each brought leaves, husks, and other mats, and the studies continued,” Ka Anding recounted.

Larab said the simplicity of studies like this latest batch’s BKP is the revolutionary forces’ way of adapting to the region’s military situation. Simple chalk and tent as blackboard suffice to raise theoretical knowledge and launch people’s war.

The conduct was simple but the study was substantial and meaningful. The topic on Political Economy became prominent. To explain surplus value and exploitation of workers, they held role-playing where the instructor acted as capitalist and students as workers. After they “worked” and “got paid,” they collectively calculated the capitalist’s profit from the surplus value workers created.

“Capitalists are infuriating!” the students exclaimed. “If you were not shown the accounting, you wouldn’t have realized that you were being exploited,” the instructor said.

Larab said the study affected comrades very positively. Ka Pablo wants to likewise complete the Party Intermediate and Advanced Courses. Ka Liway, a Red warrior mother, showed diligence and enthusiasm in studying; she overcame her longing for her children to strengthen her revolutionary stand.

Ka Anding said their unit plans to hold the IKP (Intermediate Party Course) within three months. This will further raise Red fighters’ fighting spirit to face growing challenges in advancing armed struggle in the region.

The Party Central Committee’s December 2023 statement emphasized full implementation of the Three Levels of Party Courses as one component of the rectification movement. Leadership identified the problem of “unsustained efforts in educational work.” It stressed the need to “ensure completion of unfinished ones.”