The Communist Party of the Philippines upholds the historic achievements of Marxist-Leninist revolutions and condemns anti-communist resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
International Department
Central Committee
Communist Party of the Philippines
The CPP therefore vigorously condemns the Draft Resolution approved by the Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). This draft resolution flagrantly distorts history and denies the revolutionary achievements of the people in the struggle for national liberation, democracy and socialism under the guidance of the principles of Marxism-Leninism. It seeks to cover up the oppressive and exploitative character of monopoly capitalism, the recurrent and ever worsening crisis of capitalism, the scourge of fascism, chauvinism and racism and the wars of aggression and crimes against humanity spawned by imperialism.
The Communist Party of the Philippines upholds the historic achievements of Marxist-Leninist revolutions and condemns anti-communist resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
International Department
Central Committee
Communist Party of the Philippines
Contribution to the meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties
against the anti-communist draft resolution
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
Brussels, 21 January 2006
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) which is leading the national liberation struggle of the Filipino people against US imperialism and local reactionaries, firmly upholds and defends the great historic achievements of the Soviet people under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union led by Comrades Lenin and Stalin and of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China led by Comrade Mao Zedong.
The CPP therefore vigorously condemns the Draft Resolution approved by the Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). This draft resolution flagrantly distorts history and denies the revolutionary achievements of the people in the struggle for national liberation, democracy and socialism under the guidance of the principles of Marxism-Leninism. It seeks to cover up the oppressive and exploitative character of monopoly capitalism, the recurrent and ever worsening crisis of capitalism, the scourge of fascism, chauvinism and racism and the wars of aggression and crimes against humanity spawned by imperialism.
Through this draft resolution, PACE seeks to launch an anti-communist drive throughout Europe. This draft resolution on “the need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communist regimes” equates communism with fascism. It blatantly disregards the sacrifice of twenty million of the Soviet people who contributed decisively to the defeat of the fascism of Nazi Germany. PACE is completely silent about the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq or the US concentration camp at Guantanamo, yet it would like to pose as an international tribunal for human rights. The resolution paves the road for imperialist forces to attack the organized working class and communist and workers’ parties throughout Europe.
Since the end of World War II, the US has been the No. 1 imperialist power as well as the No. 1 terrorist power. It has stepped into the shoes of Nazi Germany as the worst of the imperialist powers. It has engaged in the most rapacious forms of plunder, now styled as “free market” globalization. It has engaged in the most brutal wars of aggression and has instigated puppet regimes of open terror throughout the world. The communist and workers’ parties persevere and stand out in the anti-imperialist struggle for national and social liberation. The attack on the working class and communist and worker parties in Europe proves that they are growing in strength as the world capitalist system is wracked by crisis. The ruling class continues to fear them.
The CPP joins the Communist and Workers’ parties in Europe and other anti-imperialist and progressive forces in Europe and elsewhere in the world in resolutely and militantly opposing the aforementioned draft resolution. The anti-communist forces in Europe must be stopped from carrying out this McCarthyist witchhunt.
CPP Experience in Combating “Terrorist Listing”
The attack against communists is not limited to Europe. Communist parties and liberation movements the world over are the targets of attack by imperialist and anti-communist forces. One form of attack is the “terrorist listing”. The CPP shares its experience in combating the “terrorist listing” by the US, the EU and other foreign governments.
The CPP, the New People’s Army and the Chief Political Consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, Professor Jose Maria Sison, have been made a target of the anti-communist and pro-imperialist forces in Europe. On 17 October 2005, the CPP was added to the so-called terrorist list of the Council of the European Union. Earlier, on 28 October 2002, the Council of the EU had put the New People’s Army and Prof. Sison on its “terrorist list”. This listing followed the US listing of the CPP and the NPA as “a foreign terrorist organization” on 9 August 2002, and of Prof. Sison as a “terrorist” on 12 August 2002.
The CPP condemns this unjust and malicious listing by the Council of the EU as a violation of the fundamental democratic principles as well as pertinent international conventions including the 1977 Protocol I Additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It blatantly violates the 1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 2000 Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
International covenants, resolutions and scholarly commentaries have established that national liberation movements and their use of armed force have acquired legitimacy in international law and are thus recognized as engaged in a legitimate struggle. Consequently, liberation struggles and their movements that adhere to and respect international humanitarian law cannot be regarded as “terrorists”.
The CPP and the NPA, which are components of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, are key forces in the Philippine national liberation movement waging a just war. Their status under international law cannot be prejudiced by the arbitrary action of foreign governments. It is plain that the EU has used the fight against terrorism as a pretext for misrepresenting as common criminals entire movements and individuals engaged in the struggle for national and social liberation.
Highly respected international human rights organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists and Statewatch, which monitor the civil liberties in the EU, declare that “terrorist” listings are “arbitrary, secretive, and unjust” and “raise serious human rights concerns” because they are “frequently drawn up on a basis of secret intelligence, and that the normal judicial process governing such serious accusations, and their prosecution, is discarded”.
By the “terrorist listing”, the EU governments have actively and shamelessly pandered to the wishes of the US government and its neocolonial underling, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP). Such listing violates basic peace agreements signed by the negotiating panels of the GRP and the NDFP, approved by their respective Principals, and therefore binding and effective.
Such listing violates the Hague Joint Declaration (THJD) of 1992, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) of 1995, the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) of 1998, and the Oslo Joint Statements I and II of 2004. As a consequence, the formal talks in the peace negotiations between the GRP and the NDFP have been paralyzed.
The “terrorist” listing violates the principle of national sovereignty in THJD by interfering in Philippine affairs and usurping jurisdiction over the alleged acts of the CPP and NPA in the Philippines. It should also be noted for emphasis that the CPP and NPA have never engaged in any act that may be considered terrorist, whether in the Philippines or outside. The “terrorist” listing likewise is violative of the THCD and its principle of noncapitulation because the GRP uses it to pressure the NDFP to capitulate.
The aforesaid listing violates the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, because it takes away these guarantees from the NDFP Chief Political Consultant, Prof. Jose Maria Sison, even as there is no basis to charge him with any kind of criminal offense in the Philippines or anywhere in the world. The disrespect for these guarantees puts at risk all the panelists, consultants, staffers and other duly authorized persons in the negotiating work of the NDFP. The assassination attempts on United Nations Judge ad litem Romeo T. Capulong, the Senior Legal Adviser of the NDFP Negotiating Panel and the assassination threats issued by GRP National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales against Prof. Sison are chilling examples of a consequence of the “terrorist listing”.
Particularly in the case of Prof. Sison, the EU listing is contrary to the basic tenets of due process including the presumption of innocence, the rights to defense, to a fair and public hearing, to be informed promptly of the nature and cause of the accusation, and to examine witnesses and documents against him. The EU arbitrarily accuses him of the heinous crime of terrorism, applies punitive sanctions on him, including the termination of social benefits for his essential means to human existence (living allowance, health insurance, housing and the like), subjects him to mental torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, and yet falsely claims all these punitive actions to be mere administrative restrictive measures.
Prestigious lawyers’ organizations like the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), the International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL), the Conference of Lawyers in Asia and the Pacific (COLAP) and the US-based National Lawyers Guild (NLG) have come out with strong statements and resolutions supporting Prof. Sison and opposing his arbitrary, illegal and unjust inclusion in these “terrorist” lists.
The EU’s “terrorist” listing of the CPP, NPA and Prof. Sison is totally devoid of factual and legal basis, a malicious act done at the instigation of the GRP and the US in a futile scheme to pressure the NDFP to capitulate to the GRP through peace negotiations. Such listing disregards the fact of the NDFP’s firm commitment to adhere to international humanitarian law and human rights, as evidenced by the 1991 NDFP Declaration of Adherence to International Humanitarian Law, the 1996 NDFP Declaration of Undertaking to Apply the Geneva Conventions and Protocol I and the 1998 CARHRIHL that it has signed with the GRP.
The EU listing also runs counter to the 1997 and 1999 resolutions of the European Parliament endorsing the holding of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations in Europe.
By the “terrorist” listing, the EU gives further license to the military, police and irregular armed forces of the GRP to continue the human rights violations not only against the CPP, NPA, NDFP and its Chief Political Consultant but also against activists, progressives and other civilians who are merely labeled or suspected as members of, or as sympathetic to, the revolutionary movement. More than 500 political killings have been perpetrated during the Arroyo administration. In the last 12 months, the rate of killings has been three every week!
Prof. Sison has filed cases in the European Court of Justice, First Instance, to demand that he be taken off the EU “terrorist” list, and that the Council Regulation (EC) No. 2580/2001 of 27 December 2001, used as the basis to put him, liberation movements and other progressive individuals on the aforesaid list, be declared illegal. His lawyers are preparing to file a case at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The political campaign for his defense and the defense of the CPP and the NPA are ongoing and receiving support in the Philippines, and in various countries in Asia-Pacific, North America, Europe and the Middle East.
The CPP expresses its heartfelt thanks for the support that has been given in these efforts and calls for ever greater and more effective cooperation among the communist, anti-imperialist and progressive forces to defeat the schemes of the imperialist and anti-communist forces.
