Since its founding on April 24, 2021, the 48th anniversary of the founding of the NDFP (National Democratic Front of the Philippines), the Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle (FFPS) has significantly forged ahead in their solidarity for the Filipino people.
Waging the banner of revolutionary solidarity, the FFPS has since conducted countless global-wide solidarity actions, activities and information meetings to highlight support for the Filipino people’s struggle for liberation and the building of a true people’s democratic government and promote and uphold the social welfare of the oppressed and exploited classes.
It has organized and mobilized grassroots solidarity groups and formations across the globe and coordinated campaigns on crucial issues in the Philippine such as US domination of the politics and economy, feudal oppression, fascism by state forces especially among Filipino peasants and bureaucratic corruption. FFPS has strongly linked and coordinated with other anti-imperialist, anti-war, climate activists and Palestinian solidarity groups.
Apart from its determined campaign on human rights in the Philippines and strong support for the peace negotiations, its other important campaign includes the delisting of the CPP, NPA, NDFP and NDFP chief international representative Luis Jalandoni from the so-called terrorist list of the US, Europe and Australia.
FFPS fights terrorist labelling
The reactionary Philippine state, backed by US imperialism, has sought to delegitimize this struggle through its terrorist labeling of the CPP, NPA and the NDFP. This designation, pushed aggressively by the US and its allies, is a political weapon meant to isolate and suppress the revolutionary movement It paints a distorted picture of the revolutionary movement as criminals rather than as the organized resistance of a people fighting for liberation.
The implications of terrorist labeling are severe. It provides justification for heightened state repression, including red tagging of legal democratic organizations supportive of national democracy, extrajudicial killings, illegal arrests, and harassment. It intensifies military attacks in rural areas, leading to displacement, destruction of livelihoods, and human rights violations against communities.
The assassination of consultants such as Randall Echanis, Randy Malayao, Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, are stark reminders of how terrorist labeling is weaponized to eliminate voices advocating for just and lasting peace. These attacks not only violate human rights but also undermine the prospects of meaningful dialogue to address the root causes of the armed conflict.
The Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle (FFPS) stands with the Filipino masses in rejecting the unjust terrorist listing of the CPP and the NPA by the US, the EU and others, as well as the terrorist labelling of the NDFP by the Philippine reactionary government. To label them as “terrorists” essentially is to deny the Filipino people of their right to self-determination, a right that is enshrined in International Law and has been won through centuries of struggle.
The revolutionary movement is not the enemy; it is a necessary force for change in a society where the ruling system has failed to serve the majority. The justness of the people’s war lies in its ultimate goal: to end oppression and build a society where every Filipino can live with dignity and equality.
Education work among the grassroots organizations has deeply explained the justness of the revolution and resistance to an oppressive system as a fundamental right to self-determination.
In May 2024, the FFPS co-convened in Brussels, Belgium the International People’s Tribunal, whose judges handed a unanimous guilty verdict against GRP President Marcos Jr., former GRP President Rodrigo Duterte, the government of the Republic of the Philippines, US President Biden, and the government of the United States guilty of war crimes and violations of International Humanitarian Law.
Member organizations have been established in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and several countries in Europe such as in the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, France, Germany, and the UK.
On December 10, International Human Rights Day, the FFPS called for the broadening and deepening of international solidarity with the NDFP against fascist attacks on their peace consultants and the Filipino people by the US-Marcos Jr. regime.
For over 50 years the NDFP has united the Filipino people in their revolutionary struggle for a just and lasting peace by resolving the basic problems of the Philippine society – US imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. In a desperate attempt to instill fear and crush all forms of dissent, the Marcos Jr. regime has unleashed a brutal war against the Filipino people and continuously undermines the peace negotiations by illegally arresting, abducting, torturing and killing NDFP peace consultants.
FFPS said: The Filipino people’s demands are clear: genuine agrarian reform, social change, the abolition of unjust treaties with foreign powers, the expulsion of US military bases, and a program for national industrialization and genuine development. It is precisely the refusal of the US-backed Marcos Jr. regime – and those before it – to sincerely address these demands that has driven the Filipino people to revolution.
In November, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Filipino proletarian revolutionary Andres Bonifacio and the 60th founding anniversary of the Kabataang Makabayan (Patriotic Youth, KM), the FFPS launched globally coordinated activities in support of the NDFP.
Protest demonstrations, rallies, cultural programs, and study sessions were conducted to condemn the US-Marcos regime, and US imperialist domination of and repression in the Philippines highlighted these actions to put further spotlight on the ongoing just revolutionary struggle of the Filipino people for genuine freedom, democracy, social justice and peace, and called for a more vigorous campaign against fascist attacks on the Filipino people.
The solidarity activities took place in the United States, Canada, Netherlands, and Hong Kong.
Robert Reid, chairperson of the FFPS stressed that the continuous attacks perpetrated by the GRP on the NDFP and the people are futile against a people driven by the profound injustices perpetrated by US foreign domination, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism, and a longing for justice and liberation.
“The revolutionary resolve of the Filipino people remains firm and our solidarity for their struggle also remains firm,” emphasized Reid.
“Despite the violent crimes of the US-Marcos regime, the Filipino people are fighting back! The NDFP continues to unite the Filipino people to fight for genuine national liberation and democracy, and has demonstrated to the international community not only the necessity and justness of the national democratic revolution in the Philippines, but that armed struggle is a legitimate exertion of the Filipino people’s inherent right to self-determination, as recognized through International Law,” said Dana from People Organizing for Philippines Solidarity (POPS) in the United States.
The militant and determined solidarity actions of the FFPS follow the long history of warm support and solidarity that the NDFP has been winning through its revolutionary struggle in the Philippines and solidarity work overseas.#
