December 26, 2021 marks 53 years since the founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines, perhaps today one of the most highly organized and combat-ready left-wing political formations in the world. Founding (Rebuilding) The Communist Party of the Philippines (CP) was reestablished on December 26, 1968, coinciding with the 75th birthday of Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. Amado Guerrero, then a member of the central committee of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas or PKP-1930, spearheaded the rebuilding of the party. Jose Maria Sison, the man behind the pseudonym Amado Guerrero, confirmed his birth in Barangay Dulacak within the three borders of Alaminos, Bani and Mabini in the province of Pangasinan. It was here that on December 26, 1968, in a hut next to the house of the Navaretts, parents of Arthur Garcia, one of the founders of the checkpoint, the checkpoint’s “Restoration Congress” took place. At the request of the Filipino comrades, we are publishing today’s anniversary message from the Central Committee of the CPP, under most of the theses of which we are ready to sign ourselves.

Together with the Filipino proletariat and people, the Communist Party of the Philippines today celebrates with joy and militancy the 53rd anniversary of the Party’s establishment. The CPP Central Committee extends its warmest revolutionary greetings to all Party members and cadres, to all Red fighters of the New People’s Army (NPA), to its allies and friends in the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), to the Filipino working class and people and all their patriotic, democratic and progressive forces. We extend our militant solidarity as well with communist and revolutionaries around the world who are carrying forward the struggle against imperialism and all forms of oppression and fascist repression.

We pay homage today to all the fallen heroes and martyrs of the Philippine revolution who sacrificed their lives for the cause of national and social liberation. The Central Committee pays special tribute to Ka Oris (Jorge Madlos), Ka Nars (Julius Giron), Ka Manlimbasog (Antonio Cabanatan), Ka Plebe (Eugenia Magpantay) and Ka Boy (Agaton Topacio), Ka Yuni (Rosalino Canubas), Ka Randall Echanis, Ka Fidel Agcaoili and all others who served the Party with utmost proletarian dedication. Their contributions to the Philippine revolution are immeasurable. Their memories will forever inspire proletarian revolutionaries to take up the cudgels of leadership.

The international capitalist system remains in deep crisis. The economies of majority of the countries continue to reel from the global recession last 2020 following supply disruptions due to Covid-19 pandemic-related economic lockdowns and production shutdowns. There is widespread unrest and outbursts of mass struggles as workers and toiling people suffer from widespread joblessness, rising mountains of debt, more burdensome taxes and rising prices.
Aggravated by corruption, national treachery, failed pandemic response and fascist repression of the US-Duterte regime, the socioeconomic and political crisis of the ruling semicolonial and semifeudal system in the Philippines continues to worsen. Out and out neoliberal policies have further deepened the backward, agrarian, semifeudal economy that is dependent on imported consumption and capitals goods and oriented towards the export of low-value added semiprocessed goods, raw materials and cheap labor. They lead to ever deeper crisis.

The broad masses of workers, peasants and other oppressed classes and sectors suffer from worsening forms of exploitation and heightening state terrorism. They have no other recourse but to defend their interests and wage legal mass struggles and revolutionary armed resistance.

The Party is ever determined to lead the Filipino people in their fight against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism and in waging people’s democratic revolution to achieve their aspiration for national and social liberation. The national democratic cause and its socialist perspective remain urgent, necessary and viable as the ruling semicolonial and semifeudal system and the international capitalist system continue to inflict more oppression and exploitation on the people as it stumbles from one crisis to another.

The diehard fascists are doing their utmost to crush the Party and all revolutionary forces. They have resorted to the most vicious means of defending and preserving their reign of corruption and plunder in collusion with the US imperialists.

The Central Committee calls on all its forces to maintain constant vigilance and the highest alert to resist and frustrate the declared plans of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to carry out a “last push” to end the armed revolution. Guided by the universal theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the Party is ever determined to lead the people’s democratic revolution, shoulder all the difficult tasks and make all the necessary sacrifices in order to surmount all obstacles to frustrate the enemy’s counterrevolutionary war and carry forward the people’s war to ever greater heights.

The global capitalist system remains deeply mired in crisis and in the clutches of a prolonged recession despite illusions of growth after bouncing at the bottom of a global economic collapse last year. The world economy shrank by 3.1% in 2020 as measured in gross domestic product (GDP) as a result of border closures, supply disruptions, production shutdowns and other lockdown measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic starting the early part of 2020. Economic recovery remains volatile and marked by rising gaps between the advanced capitalist countries and the backward economies.

Advanced capitalist countries registered rapid economic rebound from the start of second half of 2020, tapering off in the first half of 2021, but which ultimately slowed down by the third quarter of the year. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to loom large and threaten manufacturing and commercial activity. The emergence of new variants have resulted in new surges of cases. The easing of restrictions and public health protocols in the US and Europe around the first half of the year have proven premature as they face threats of new surges of infections.

By the end of the year, half of economies are projected to remain below 2019 or prepandemic levels. Recoveries are concentrated in advanced capitalist countries with 90% having recovered and projected to reach prepandemic levels of economic output by 2023 and 2024. More than 75% of direct investments in the first half of 2021 went to “developed economies.” In contrast, only 30% of undeveloped countries will register growth, and economic output of majority are expected to remain 5.5% below prepandemic levels by 2024. Not until 2025 is global economic output expected to reach prepandemic levels.

On the surface, the grossly uneven economic rebound from the 2020 collapse is due to the highly unequal distribution and shortages in the supply of vaccines, allowing for the emergence of new variants. While up to to 70% of people in the US and 62% in Europe have been inoculated, only 4% of people in low-income countries have received vaccinations. In addition to the unequal distribution, vaccine supplies are also insufficient because of the refusal of pharmaceutical companies to open source manufacturing technology in order to monopolize production. From an original target of 2 billion, the World Health Organizations’ Covax Facility was able to provide only 1.4 billion dosages to less developed countries.

The grossly uneven economic rebound, however, is more fundamentally a result of, and has further aggravated, the wide gap between the advanced capitalist countries and the backward, agrarian and non-industrial economies. While centers of capitalism mobilized large amounts of finance capital and monopolized access to vaccines, the already debt-burdened semicolonial and underdeveloped countries were forced to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars and were edged out of the vaccine market. The destruction of forces of production brought about by economic lockdowns is disproportionately worse in the backward countries.

The pandemic provided the excuse for the imperialist governments, banks and financial institutions to pour unprecedented amounts of fiscal and monetary stimulus money on the pretext of reviving economies. Marking a strong shift of imperialist countries led by the US towards relief and recovery spending, at least $14 trillion in stimulus funds were infused in 2020 and 2021 for subsidies, emergency loans, state-led investments, tax cuts and other fiscal measures. More than 90% of stimulus funds were concentrated in six countries: the US ($5.9 trillion), Japan ($2.9 trillion), Germany ($1.5 trillion), UK ($956 billion), France ($722 billion), and China ($710 billion). Substantial amounts of stimulus funds, although much less compared to the main imperialist countries, were also infused in South Korea ($263 billion), India ($215 billion), Brazil ($206 billion), Russia ($85 billion) and Indonesia ($38 billion).

The biggest beneficiaries of these stimulus funds are the monopoly bourgeoisie in finance, technology and pharmaceuticals under the smokescreen of funding vaccination efforts, providing emergency relief for workers, as well as spending for climate change mitigation. Large infusions of state funds are driving debt levels to unprecedented heights. This has amplified the historically largest and fastest increase in debt levels around the world over the past decade. By middle of this year, global debt had risen to $296 trillion, 13.9% higher since the start of the pandemic. It is anticipated to surpass the $300 trillion level by the end of the year. The amount of global debt represents 353% of global GDP, more than 26% more massive compared to 280% ratio in 2008. Government borrowing and quantitative easing measures are driving public debt to higher levels, reaching 123% of GDP in advanced capitalist countries in 2021, and 63% of less developed economies.

The Covid-19 pandemic further deepened the global crisis of the capitalist system and heightened its contradictions. Amid heightened capitalist competition and anarchy in production, the giant monopoly bourgeoisie continue to accumulate greater amounts of capital through the intensification of the exploitation of workers with the application of artificial intelligence, robotics, computers and other technologies. The pandemic-induced recession, supply shortage and disruptions in shipping and deliveries have resulted in widespread destruction or idling of productive forces especially in the underdeveloped economies.

The economic crises and widespread destruction of productive forces lead to further concentration of capital, especially in banks, financial institutions and stock markets. This also takes the form of bankruptcies, as well as mergers and acquisitions, where bigger capitalists gobble up the weak and small. The number of bankruptcies since the pandemic were kept low by massive infusion of state funds but is anticipated to surge in the near future. Up to 16% of small and medium-sized enterprises in advanced European and Asia-Pacific countries are anticipated to go bankrupt in the next few years, shedding 20 million jobs. Globally, the number of bankruptcies is anticipated to rise by 15% as state stimulus funds begin to dry up even as economies continue to stagnate or wallow in recession. The first nine months of 2021 saw a record high 44,000 mergers and acquisitions worth $4.4 trillion, surpassing the previous annual record of $4.3 trillion in 2015, and anticipated to rise further to $6 trillion by the end of the year.

By the end of the year, it is estimated that there will be an equivalent of 125 million full-time jobs less than prepandemic levels. Global unemployment rates remain high as more than 220 million workers (or 6.3%) are set to be unemployed by the end of 2021, slightly higher compared to end of 2020. It is anticipated to fall to 5.7% in 2022 which is still above the 5.4% unemployment rate in 2019. Between 119 million to 124 million people across the world are estimated to have sunk deep into extreme poverty since 2020, driving the total to 711 million people. An additional 161 million experienced hunger, raising the number to 811 million people.

On the other hand, the richest billionaires in the world continue to accumulate wealth. The handful of ultra-billionaires have an average wealth of $147 billion. This year, the wealth of the richest 500 people rose to $7.6 trillion, up by 31% from the previous year. In the US, the wealth of billionaires surged by more than 70% or $3 trillion, the highest growth ever. While people suffer from hunger and social deprivation, these super-rich people throw away money in conspicuous, and often, whimsical spending, including travelling by private jets and yachts, and rocketing to space for multibillion dollar joyrides.

The centers of global capitalism remain in recession or continue to stagnate. The US government under Biden is set to embark on a multi-trillion dollar neo-Keynesian spending program in a bid to improve the decrepit infrastructure and revive the American capitalist economy which has been caught in an increasingly frequent cycle of economic crises, recessions and slow growth under the neoliberal policy regime. All in all, the US government plan to spend around $5.5 trillion to fund its American Rescue Plan, American Jobs Program and American Families Plan, which basically is an expansion of the “America First” policy of the Trump government. The large amounts of state capital infusion can artificially stimulate the US economy, especially in the short term, but also increases the risk of rising public debt and high inflation rates. This year, US federal debt is now nearly 130% of its GDP, higher than its World War II peak of 120%.

These programs are invariably described as “green” and “progressive,” but fundamentally aim to provide the US big bourgeoisie with the economic and social infrastructure to draw in investments and boost capitalist production at the expense of American workers. It aims to put the US economy in a position to reassert global economic dominance in the face of the continued growth of China.
There is markedly slowing growth in China over the past five years as rapid expansion of its capacity as producer of electronic components, steel and other construction material saturated global markets. Efforts of the Chinese government to unload surplus capital and commodities are faltering. Construction and steel output declined in 2021. There is a broad slowdown on government spending as regional and provincial governments opt out of funds allocated by the central government for infrastructure over fears of insufficient returns and accumulating debt. Production slowed down amid state-imposed energy shortages forcing some factories to shutdown in September, as well as repeated lockdowns in a vain attempt to keep Covid-19 cases down to zero. In an attempt to bolster investments, the Chinese government recently ordered the release of $188 billion from banks.

China is on the throes of a financial crisis in the aftermath of US cutdown of imports and the collapse of China’s real estate market exacerbated by liquidity problems of the giant property company Evergrande Group which recently defaulted repeatedly on its massive $300 billion debt. In the guise of defending socialist principles, the ruling Chinese government mounted a crackdown against monopoly tech companies, targeting primarily those companies identified with state monopoly capitalists opposing the Xi Jinping ruling clique.

After suffering a 6.1% contraction in 2020, the European Union boasts of having quickly rebounded with economic output returning to prepandemic levels. Growth in EU is expected to reach 5% in 2021, but slow down to 4.3% and 2.5% in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Despite growth rebound, unemployment still high and above prepandemic levels. Consumer spending is repressed by highest inflation rates in 13 years. The EU is particularly affected by even greater over-reliance on overseas manufacturing supply chains than US and China, and on foreign energy sources.

Japan, the third largest capitalist country, continues to muddle through decades-long economic stagnation. The Japanese economy contracted by 28.2% in April-June 2020 which marked 19 months of downturn. Although it rebounded after June 2020, the Japanese economy again contracted in January-March and July-September this year. The economic crisis in Japan is aggravated by the global slump in the demand for Japanese exports of electronic equipment, vehicles and car parts.

The economically backward countries, including the Philippines, are facing ever worsening socioeconomic conditions in the face of the sharp rise in debt levels to finance the purchase of vaccines, tax cuts for big corporations, social subsidies and blatant corruption. Since last year, the backward economies have suffered from massive number of bankruptcies of small and informal enterprises, and historic rates of unemployment, poverty and hunger. The imperialist debt grip has tightened on semicolonial and underdeveloped economies. Further neoliberal austerity measures, additional taxes, and trade and investment liberalization policies are set to be imposed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in the coming years which are set to cause even greater burden on the people.

Inter-imperialist conflicts continue to intensify amid persistent crisis of the global capitalist system. There is a heating up of economic and trade conflicts, as well as arms race, military preparations, proxy wars and saber-rattling in different parts of the globe.

The US continues to heighten its anti-China policy and actions. It has imposed further sanctions on Chinese companies purportedly engaged in spying and using prison labor, with the aim of boosting domestic production and the demand for American products. The trillions of dollars that the Biden government plans to spend in the coming years seek to develop the infrastructure and workforce to induce domestic investments and cut down on its dependence on imported electronic components. The US, however, must contend with the higher costs of labor in the US either by pressing down on wages or intensifying the exploitation of American workers, especially migrant workers and workers in rural areas. It remains to be seen whether Biden’s neo-Keynesian measures will succeed in decoupling the US from China and its vast oceans of cheap labor and suppliers of components without being shut off from its vast market of consumers of US-branded electronic gadgets and other commodities.

China is also investing billions of dollars to accelerate its research to develop technology for the production of new generation of semiconductors. The US is threatening China’s access to semiconductor technology by further strengthening its military ties with and military presence in Taiwan, which is the world’s largest producer of electronic components.

Oil production and trade remain a flashpoint among the capitalist powers. Monopoly oil producers Saudi Arabia, Russia and the OPEC took advantage of rising demand for fuel when it coordinated to limit crude oil production to push prices to $85 per barrel in October, the highest levels over the past seven years. Burdened by shortages and rising fuel costs, the US, China, Japan, South Korea and others released their reserves of diesel and gasoline in an attempt to push down prices. Coupled with renewed fears of another global surge of Covid-19 infections, oil prices were pulled to below $70 per barrel at the start of December.
Leading imperialist countries continue to engage in an increasingly furious arms race. Global military spending rose by 2.6% to $1,981 billion led by the US, China, India, Russia and the United Kingdom. With a $753 billion military budget for 2022, the US accounts for around 39% of the global military budget. There is a race among the imperialist powers to develop hypersonic missiles, anti-satellite weapons, lasers, nuclear weapons, attack drones, robot soldiers, stealth jet fighters, submarines and other military technologies.

In September, the US completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan after the defeat of its 20-year occupation of the country. There are no plans, however, to reduce the strength of its overseas military bases and forces. If any, the US military seeks to further increase its strength as it seeks to build up its presence in both Asia and Europe, while maintaining presence in Africa, West Asia and other global regions. In line with its declaration of China being its “greatest strategic threat,” the US continues to increase its military presence in East Asia by deploying its biggest naval carrier groups to the East China Sea, South China Sea and Taiwan straits in the guise of “freedom of navigation operation,” while stepping up base and military facilities construction in the Philippines, Australia, Guam, and elsewhere. It continues to push new military alliances such as the Quad (with the UK, India and Japan) and the AUKUS (with the UK and Australia). It recently held the farcical Summit of Democracies in its push to draw in support to encircle and isolate China and Russia.

The imperialist powers continue to carry out proxy wars in the Middle East, Africa and other parts of the globe. With tacit US support, Israel has repeatedly attacked Palestine with missiles and aerial bombs. It has staged a series of assassinations and is threatening to carry out an outright military attack against Iran. Saudi Arabia continues to pound Yemen with bombs supplied by the US. The Syrian people continue to suffer from aerial bombardments by US forces.

Millions of people have been displaced by US-instigated wars and conflicts in Syria, Kurdistan, Libya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Afgha­nis­tan and other countries. In the first half of this year, close to 90,000 people were forced to cross seas to seek refuge in Europe and other countries but are being prevented entry. In violation of international laws protecting refugees, countries are spending large amounts to build border walls and push back refugees resulting in people dying in precarious sea travel.

The global capitalist crisis has unleashed worsening conditions of oppression and exploitation inciting the broad masses of people across the world to wage mass struggles and various forms of resistance. There was a marked rise of workers strikes this year, especially during October in the US, where workers are demanding wage increases and better working conditions. There were also nationwide workers de­mon­strations and strikes in France denouncing excessively low wages, as well as a major strike by railway workers in Germany, and university staff across the UK.

There is widespread legitimate concern over and opposition to repressive pandemic-related lockdown measures, mandatory vaccination and other discriminatory policies. Progressive and revolutionary forces, however, have been unable to take initiative and leadership to denounce big pharmaceutical companies for monopolizing production, supplies and overpricing, and for refusing to open-source their vaccine formula to allow independent scientists to review the efficacy and safety of vaccines, serve as basis for the promotion of mass vaccination, and to provide people with information to enable them to make an informed judgement. This has allowed right-wing groups to promote anti-scientific and backward ideas and incite protest actions and riots in a number of countries in Europe and other parts of the world.

In India, mammoth demonstrations by several million peasants and farmers demanding an end to neoliberal agricultural measures broke out in November 2020, paving the way for year-long camp-out protests of hundreds of thousands outside the capital, which successfully forced the Narenda Modi regime to repeal the anti-peasant agricultural laws. Major mass protest actions by workers and toiling people have also been mounted in Myanmar, Thailand, Brazil, Palestine, Sudan, El Salvador, Colombia, Uruguay, Russia, Serbia and other countries manifesting people’s grievances against fascist tyranny, neoliberal measures and policies and imperialist intervention, and demanding democratic reforms. Across China, several hundred strikes by workers demanding payment of wages and transport workers protesting unfair labor practices have spontaneously erupted.

A “pink tide” has risen again in Latin America with the election of anti-imperialist governments in Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Dominican Republic Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and Chile, and which are expected to further rise with the strong possibility of anti-US candidates winning in Brazil, and other countries in the region. The anti-imperialist governments of Cuba and Venezuela defeated recent US attempts at subversion and “regime change.” With its advanced public health system, the avowed socialist government of Cuba successfully developed and produced its own Covid-19 vaccine, inoculated almost 100% of its population, and shared its knowledge with other Venezuela, Iran and other countries. Despite punishing US sanctions, Iran and North Korea remain militant in defending their country’s sovereignty.

Revolutionary armed resistance continues to be waged in India, Manipur, West Papua, Turkey, Syria, Kurdistan, Myanmar, Colombia, Peru and other countries to fight fascist oppression and foreign aggression. In India, an epic people’s war being waged by the People’s Liberation Army continues to advance under the leadership of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

Amid severe crisis, hundreds of millions of oppressed and exploited people are seeking communist leadership to help provide direction and inspiration in their fight against imperialism and all forms of reaction in the countries. Standing and new communist groups and parties built on the foundations of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism find themselves in very favorable conditions across the world to carry out the work of arousing, organizing and mobilizing the people and waging mass struggles and armed resistance.

The Party is leading and waging the people’s democratic revolution in the Philippines to achieve national and social liberation. The basic objective is to liberate the Filipino people from the clutches of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism, overthrow the neocolonial state and the class rule of the big bourgeois compradors and big landlords and put an end to the semicolonial and semifeudal system. It will establish a people’s democratic government that will carry out land reform and national industrialization, promote people’s democracy in order to prepare the conditions for socialist revolution and construction.

The Party has succeeded in upholding, and assiduously and creatively applying Marxism-­Leninism­­-Maoism on the concrete conditions of the Philippines. It has transformed the universal theory of the proletariat into an invincible material force. The Party has built itself as the advance detachment of the Filipino proletariat and has guided the growth and advance of the revolutionary movement over the past five decades.

The Party has built a highly consolidated organization by adhering to the principles of democratic centralism, or democracy guided and unified by centralized leadership, and centralism based on democracy. Collective leadership is exercised through the committee system. Elected by the Party’s Second Congress in 2016, the Party’s Central Committee, Political Bureau and Executive Committee unites and leads the entire Party in its revolutionary undertaking.

The Party has a membership of more than 150,000, and a mass base running to millions of people, both in the cities and countryside. The Party is deeply rooted among the workers and peasants, as well as among the semiproletariat and the urban petty bourgeois intellectuals. All Party members undergo a process of revolutionary remoulding through study and practice of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and criticism and self-criticism. The Party has produced a great number of outstanding communists and revolutionary fighters, a number of whom have paid the ultimate sacrifice for the cause of the proletariat and oppressed classes. Their memories will live forever. The Party will continue to nurture the fruit of their hard work and sacrifices.

The Party established the New People’s Army from a platoon of Red fighters in 1969 as the germinal force for waging protracted people’s war along the strategic line of encircling the cities from the countryside. The NPA has built a mass base running to millions of poor peasants and farmworkers by firmly waging agrarian revolution in accordance with the Party’s revolutionary guide to land reform. The NPA has self-reliantly grown into a nationwide guerrilla force, operating in more than 110 guerrilla fronts in 90% of Philippine provinces. The NPA grew by leaps and bounds in 14 years of armed resistance to Marcos’ martial law rule and surmounted the military offensives of six presidents since 1986. The Party and the NPA is set on frustrating Duterte’s futile declarations of crushing the armed resistance before the end of his term next year.

The Central Committee set the aim of completing the requirements of the advanced substage of the strategic defensive and advance to the next stage of the people’s war by waging extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare on an ever widening and deepening mass base. The Party must assess the current Five-Year Program. Leading central and regional committees of the Party must sum-up the achievements and point out weaknesses in its implementation. We must draw lessons from advanced experiences, as well as from setbacks.

In the same way that the Party withstood the all-out strategic offensives of the Marcos dictatorship, it has also withstood the most brutal attacks over more than five years under the US-Duterte fascist tyranny. The leading committees of the Party have succeeded in preserving, strengthening and expanding the revolutionary forces under their leadership. We must pay attention to developing the internal factors which allowed the Party, the NPA and the united front to grow in strength in most parts, and overcoming those factors which caused the stagnation or weakening in other parts.

The Party must be prepared to face the arduous political and military battles in the coming months as the enemy carries out full-throttle military offensives and total war against the people in the vain hope of crushing the people’s democratic revolution.

On the one hand, the Party and the revolutionary forces are not intimidated by the enemy’s show of force, knowing fully well that behind this armored shell is the rotten core of the widely despised and repudiated ruling system of oppression and exploitation, corruption, treachery and state terrorism. On the other hand, we must intently study the enemy’s strength and determine the methods of frustrating its objectives. Party cadres and revolutionaries are ready to overcome tendencies to seek comfort and convenience and make big and small sacrifices necessary to advance the people’s revolutionary resistance.

We must resist the increasing brutality of the US-Duterte regime as it employs state terrorism to force the people to bow to its power. The problem of underreporting of military abuses and violations of human rights must decisively be resolved. We must heighten our campaigns to fully expose and denounce every case of intimidation, illegal searches, violations of domicile, unlawful arrests, abductions, forced “surrender,” and extrajudicial killings, especially in villages being hamletted in the guise of the AFP’s “community support programs” or “barangay development program.” There must be a campaign to raise the demand for an end to the AFP’s indiscriminate aerial bombing, strafing and artillery shelling that aim to terrorize the people in brazen violation of international humanitarian law.

The Party must take advantage of the sharpening political crisis of the ruling system and isolation of the US-Duterte regime. This crisis is set to burst open in the coming months with the scheduled presidential elections. The attempts to rig the automated vote counting in favor of the ruling Duterte clique must be fully exposed. The widest possible range of forces against the Duterte regime must be brought together in a broad united front. Duterte’s schemes to perpetuate himself in power, either through rigging the elections or declaring an open fascist dictatorship, must be frustrated through massive street demonstrations.

We must tirelessly arouse, organize and mobilize the people in great numbers in all forms of armed and non-armed resistance. We must firmly take hold of the initiative, prepare the people and advance their struggles in the face of all possible situational shifts brought by convulsions of the ruling system.

In the coming years, the Party must continue to carry out efforts to strengthen itself ideologically, politically and organizationally. The Party must lead in the Filipino people’s struggle to overthrow the US-Duterte fascist regime and carry forward the people’s democratic revolution.

The Party must continue to steel itself ideologically by studying Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to strengthen the working class standpoint and viewpoint of all its cadres and members, their grasp of the historical mission of the proletariat and its tasks of leading the new democratic revolution in the Philippines.

The three level Party course must be implemented vigorously and energetically, even as we shoulder urgent political tasks of propaganda and mobilization. Every Party branch and committee must ensure that an officer or committee is assigned to education work. We must make sure that books and articles are made available, in electronic or paper form, for reading and discussion at all levels.

Party cadres and committees must continue to deepen their knowledge and grasp of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism by applying it in conducting social investigation to determine the specific conditions and problems of the masses, in taking stock of their strength and weaknesses, in knowing the enemy and drawing up plans to raise the level of the work within the scope of their leadership. All Party committees must consciously and systematically apply the dialectical materialist methods of analysis of drawing observations and conclusions from facts, and raising the level of revolutionary practice from one level to another.

All Party committees must ensure that regular meetings are held to build the collective will of its cadres and activists. They must conduct assessments and summing-up conferences, and criticism and self-criticism meetings. Work conferences must be held periodically for cadres to share experiences with the aim of raising the level of their work. Leading committees must receive periodical and special reports from the committees under it, and promptly issue guidelines or instructions. All pertinent information must be transmitted to the Party’s Central Committee.

We must continue efforts to strengthen Party branches as key to raising the capacity of the Party to lead the masses in their mass struggles. Recruitment of new cadres from the ranks of the advanced mass activists must be carried out systematically and unremittingly. Every Party branch and leading territorial committees must aim to build several Party branches for every given time period to ensure the constant expansion of the Party.

The Party must continue to establish and strengthen revolutionary mass organizations to build the unity of the people along their class and sectoral interests, as well as along issues of a broad or specific nature. Different forms of associations can be built as a way of adapting to the specific situation in a locality. We must aim to build Party branches in all the biggest labor enclaves and strategic industrial and commercial enterprises, mines and plantations, colleges and university campuses, offices, sectors, institutions, communities and so on. The Party must take advantage of the conditions to generate a major increase in the strength of the workers movement in the national capital and regional urban centers.

The Party must continue to heighten propaganda work to counter the anticommunist lies and disinformation which the fascist reactionary zealots whip-up in media and social media. We must vigorously promote the program for a people’s democratic revolution and the Party’s analysis of outstanding national and local issues. We must continue to propagate Ang Bayan and all revolutionary publications, and produce other forms of propaganda in order to reach the broad masses in their millions to raise their consciousness and militance. All Party cadres and activists must untiringly serve as soldiers of the propaganda army for national democracy.

The Party must build the broadest possible anti-fascist united front as the key to mobilizing the people in their millions to frustrate the US-Duterte regime’s scheme to perpetuate its tyranny, corruption and treachery through state terrorism and deception. The Party and the broad democratic forces must frustrate the plot to rig the 2022 elections to install the Marcos-Duterte tandem or any other reactionary candidate that will do Duterte’s bidding. A movement to block the full restoration of the Marcoses must be developed, especially among the Filipino youth. This must be combined with mass protests to advance their urgent demands for wage increases, jobs, economic subsidies and other social alleviation measures amid the economic crisis.

The Party must continue to develop the people’s anti-imperialist and antifascist struggles in the cities and link these to the antifeudal and antifascist struggles in the countryside. The peasant movement must aim to mobilize the masses in large numbers by putting forward the urgent demands to end import liberalization, land-use conversion, and land grabbing, for fair farmgate prices, production subsidies, cancellation of loans in disaster-stricken areas, and so on.

The Party must continue to lead the New People’s Army in waging extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare on an ever widening and deepening mass base. The mass base of the NPA must be expanded and consolidated by carrying forward agrarian revolution on a wide scale to address the long-term and urgent needs of the peasant masses.

We must aim to expand the guerrilla fronts and build new guerrilla fronts and subregional areas to widen the NPA’s areas of operation in order to frustrate the enemy’s blockhouse tactics and campaign of encirclement to isolate NPA units and engage them in decisive battles. Leading committees of the Party and NPA commands must master the ability to balance the deployment of troops for expansion and consolidation, and for mass work and military work. Horizontal expansion of the mass base must be made in proportion to consolidation and strengthening of Party branches and NPA units. We must conduct political and military training of Party cadres and NPA Red fighters and commanders to shoulder the increasingly arduous tasks to boldly advance the revolution.

We must aim to resolve all the internal problems and surmount all the obstacles in advancing the people’s democratic revolution. We must raise the revolutionary spirit and determination of all Party cadres, Red fighters and mass activists in confronting the increasingly brutal and vicious enemy.

The Party must take advantage of favorable conditions to strengthen and expand its ties with the international proletariat and other oppressed peoples, encourage the study of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and its application on the concrete conditions of different countries and further promote anti-imperialist solidarity with the broad democratic, patriotic and progressive forces and governments fighting for national and social liberation. The Party must actively share its experience in waging the Philippine revolution, and learn from the advanced experiences of revolutionary, and other national and social liberation movements around the world.

As the Party commemorates the 53rd anniversary of its establishment, we celebrate our achievements, even as we look forward to surmounting all obstacles in carrying forward the people’s democratic revolution to unprecedented heights.

Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines
December 26, 2021
Resistentiam.com

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