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Communist Party of the Philippines (in Filipino: Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas) is the leading communist party in the Philippines. The party was "revived" by José María Sison in December 26,1968, following a split from the remnants of the old Communist Party of the Philippines. The new party early on adopted Maoist thought.

The older party was founded in 1930 and is often called PKP-1930 to separate it from its far more known splinter-group, the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines.

History of the old Communist Party

The party was established on November 7, 1930 (the anniversary of the October Revolution). The founders of PKP came out of the Progressive Workers Party, which had been established in the 1920s. The PKP was initially headed by Crisanto Evangelista. On October 26, 1932 the PKP was banned by the Philippine Supreme Court, in which five of the nine judges were American. This caused the PKP to go underground. In late 1932, a legal Marxist party, the Socialist Party, was created. In 1935 PKP was accepted into the Comintern. In 1937 the PKP was legalized again, and in 1938 the Socialist Party was merged into the PKP. The PKP participated in a Popular Front for municipal elections in 1940, which did well on the island of Luzon, where six communist mayors were elected.

Resistance against Japan and the United States

During World War II the PKP helped organize the fight against the Japanese invasion. Under PKP leadership, the Hukbalahap (People's Army against Japan) was created in 1942. The Hukbalahap carried on a struggle against the Japanese occupation for the next three years. After the end of Japanese occupation, the PKP found itself in a considerably strengthened position in the working class and peasant movements. The Congress of Labor Organizations was created in July 1945 under PKP management. In 1946 PKP participated in the presidential elections within the Democratic Alliance. The increasing influence of the PKP in the struggle for national independence was met with a reaction by the US and its mostly wealthy allies in the Philippines. The PKP was repressed, as were other mass worker and peasant organizations.

In 1948, the PKP began an armed struggle against the government. The party was banned that year. In early 1950, the PKP created the People's Liberation Army (Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan) which was made up of about 10,000 soldiers. In October of 1950, the entire secretariat of the Central Committee of the PKP was arrested, including General Secretary Jose Lava (and would remain in prison for the next two decades).

In the course of the armed struggle, PKP and the People's Liberation Army sustained large losses. By the end of 1954 the armed struggle was effectively over, although it took a few more years to die out, after which the PKP pursued a course of peaceful (legal and illegal) action.

Split

What was left of PKP worked from the underground to rebuild itself and affiliated organizations.

In 1964, José María Sison founded the Kabataang Makabayan or Patriotic Youth. This organization rallied Filipino youth against the Vietnam war, against the Marcos presidency and corrupt politicians. On December 26, 1968, he formed and chaired the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), an organization within the Communist Party founded on Marxist-Leninist-Mao Zedong Thought, stemming from his experience as a youth leader and labor and land reform activist. This is known as the First Great Rectification movement where Sison and other radical youth criticized the existing Party leadership and failure. The reformed CPP included Maoism with the political line as well as the struggle for a National Democratic two-stage revolution, constituting a National Democratic Revolution through a Protracted Peoples War as its first part, and to be followed by a Socialist Revolution.

Soon after this, the leadership of the Communist party sought to eliminate and marginalize Sison. However, the reorganized CPP had a larger base and renewed political line that attracted thousands to join its ranks. The old leadership and its followers was pro-Soviet, while the other, mostly younger faction was oriented towards Maoism. On December 26, 1968, the Maoist faction announced it was re-establishing the Communist Party of the Philippines. Over time the Maoist party has come to eclipse the pro-Soviet remnants of the party, which is now commonly referred to as PKP-1930.

On March 29, 1969, the new CPP organized the New People's Army (NPA), the guerrilla-military wing of the Party, whose insurgencies around the Philippines, particularly in the northern part of the country, persist to this day. The NPA seeks to wage a peasant-worker revolutionary war in the countryside against landlords and foreign companies.

The PKP-1930 survived the martial law as pro-Marcos supporters, offering support for the government, while the Maoist faction continued to fight until today. PKP-1930 is a minor party today. Today the party is led by Pedro P. Baguisa. PKP-1930 publishes Ang Komunista.

the "new" Communist Party of the Philippines

The "new" Communist Party of the Philippines (better known by its acronym CPP) is ideologically Maoist and has been fighting a "protracted people's war" through its armed wing, the New People's Army since 1969. It participates in the Maoist International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations. It heads the broad revolutionary front organization, the National Democratic Front.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought) is a revolutionary proletarian party that looks upon the legacies of past Philippine rebellions and revolutions and of the theories of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Tse Tung. It assists the progress of theory and practice in the world proletarian revolution that is guided by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought (Preamble, Constitution of the Communist Party of the Philippines, 1968) [1].

“ So long as it resolutely, militantly and thoroughly carries out its ideological, political and organizational building, the Communist Party of the Philippines is certain to lead the broad masses of the Filipino people of various nationalities and ethno-linguistic communities to total victory in the national democratic revolution against US imperialism and the local reactionaries; and bring about the start of the socialist revolution. ” — Armando Liwanag, Chairman, Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines,

See also

• New People's Army

External link

• http://www.philippinerevolution.net/index.shtml

References

• The Philippines: Colonialism, Collaboration, and Resistance! by William J. Pomeroy (ISBN 0-7178-0692-8)