“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

The Christians for National Liberation (CNL), the underground revolutionary political organization of Christians, salutes the world’s working peoples as they struggle against multiple crises including neoliberal attacks on livelihood, nature, and sovereignty, state fascism, wars of aggression, and environmental destruction. We commend the efforts of the proletariat in their fight against imperialism and all forms of reaction. In the Philippines, we celebrate their courage and determination in waging the national democratic revolution with a socialist perspective through protracted people’s war. Workers and other toiling people battle against US imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and feudalism.

The worsening crisis of world monopoly capitalism has brought never before suffering on the proletariat and other oppressed peoples. The inherent contradictions within capitalist and monopoly capitalist systems lead to the destruction of productive forces and the need to conquer and exploit new markets. Especially in the global South, this has meant a race to the bottom for wages, the destruction of trade unions, and greater immiseration for the working class.

The looming threat of the US-China conflict casts a shadow over the Filipino people, who already face worsening economic conditions due to the chronic crisis of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial system. Farmers struggle against land monopolies and encounter armed security forces and goons hired by the landed class. Amid the drought induced by El Niño, the government’s utter neglect of farmers’ needs leads to widespread water shortages and hunger.

Workers endure exploitation through illegal dismissals and flexible working arrangements to extract super profits from their labor; and repression, including extrajudicial killings. Wages remain low while the prices of basic goods and services soar. Jeepney drivers face challenges from Public Utility Vehicle (PUV) modernization, which threatens their livelihoods.

But these persistent crises, this same monstrous imperialist system—fueling exploitation and oppression—engenders revolutionary resistance led by the proletariat. The inherent contradictions within capitalist and monopoly capitalist systems (social character of production against the private ownership of the means of production) create conditions and opportunities for workers and other marginalized groups to rise against the status quo. The worsening conditions of exploitation and oppression not only make the armed revolution just and necessary but urgent. Painstaking efforts must be made to recover hard-fought democratic rights and trade unions destroyed by state fascism, neoliberalism, and local reaction.

CNL as an allied member organization of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, conducts and supports all efforts to bring church people and other middle forces to embrace the cause of the proletariat and their historic mission of defeating capitalism and building socialism.

CNL contributes to strengthening the worker-peasant alliance by influencing the petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie to form a strategic alliance in the revolutionary united front. Members champion workers’ rights and promote political work within reactionary institutions. Members stand against US imperialist warmongering and militarization advocate for the lives of the Filipino people, and organize in support of the liberation struggle. Members stand against China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea.

In the words of the great proletarian revolutionary leader Prof. Jose Maria Sison, “In the continuing era of modern imperialism and proletarian revolution, the role of the proletariat is to turn imperialist wars to revolutionary civil wars and build socialism cannot be underestimated and should be upheld and carried out by the broad masses of the exploited and oppressed peoples. The upsurge of anti-imperialist and democratic mass struggles and the perseverance in people’s wars for national and social liberation are the prelude to the resurgence of the world proletarian-socialist revolution. In this decade and the next decade, the proletariat and its revolutionary forces must work and fight for this resurgence.”

As we reflect on International Labor Day, the revolutionary determination of the Filipino working class remains strong. Fight until total victory!

Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army!
Long live the National Democratic Front of the Philippines!
Long live the Christians for National Liberation!
Long live the National Democratic Revolution with Socialist Perspective!
Long live the proletariat and the workers movement!