Philippine revolutionary speaks to the world
By Deirdre Griswold
"Jose Maria Sison: At Home in the World, Portrait of a
Revolutionary," Conversations with Ninotchka Rosca. Open Hand
Publishing, Greensboro, NC, 2004. 272 pp. Cloth $32, paperback
$16.
This book appears at a time when the class struggle in the
Philippines and resistance to relentless U.S. efforts to
reimpose colonial rule are escalating.
On Nov. 16, at least seven striking sugar workers were
killed by the Philippine army and police. The government is
under pressure from Washington to send troops to Iraq and
participate in Bush's "war on terror" by repressing guerrilla
struggles of both Muslim separatists and the Com munist New
People's Army. The Pentagon also wants to reestablish the huge
bases it once had in the islands.
Bringing pressure from the other side are the Philippine
masses, whose long history of revolutionary activity began more
than a century ago when their rebellion against Spanish
colonial rule quickly turned into a war of resistance against
the new colonizers from North America.
Jose Maria Sison is credited with reviving the Communist
Party of the Philip pines after its decline in the 1950s. He
has been a student organizer, a guerrilla fighter in a people's
war, a political prisoner, a theoretician and leader of the
CPP. In this book, he tells of his history, his political
views, and his struggle to maintain his freedom while living in
exile in The Netherlands.
Since 9/11, Washington has attempted to equate any
revolutionary activity anywhere with terrorism. Under their new
rules, those who opposed British rule in the 13 colonies would
be categorized as terrorists, as would Sison and all who have
sought to throw off the yoke of foreign imperialist
oppression.
Sison says that "It is not the CPP and NPA but the U.S.
imperialists and their puppets that are responsible for
terrorism," and reminds the reader that 1.5 million Filipinos
were killed by the U.S. in the first 14 years after it invaded
in 1899.
This charge of terrorism is rejected by most of the Filipino
people. Many millions have participated in mass organizations
of the left that fight every day against the deep poverty and
miserable conditions suffered by the majority of the
people--the heritage of having been looted and exploited for
many generations.
Sison's message to the people of the world at the end of the
book is valid for Marxists anywhere: "Persevere in the broad
anti-imperialist movement. This is the democratic base of the
world proletarian revolution. Monopoly capitalism has become
more rapacious and violent. We must combat imperialism until
its global defeat, build socialism and aim at the attainment of
communism."
Reprinted from the Dec. 23, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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