III. The growing strength of the Party
The CPP continues to strengthen itself and perform its role of leading the Philippine revolution by resolutely and vigorously engaging in ideological, political and organizational work. In this connection, we are confident that we can successfully carry out our plan to advance from the strategic defensive to the strategic stalemate in the people’s war.
Strengthening our Party is the most important of the political prerequisites for realizing our plan. Ideological work ensures that all our cadres and members have a basic level of knowledge of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and the Philippine revolution and continue to raise their level of knowledge through revolutionary practice and higher study courses (intermediate and advanced).
To remain in superb fighting shape, the Party should keep constant watch and wage persistent struggle against bourgeois and other reactionary influences and tendencies within the Party such as bourgeois reformism, modern revisionism, empiricism, dogmatism, right and left opportunism, liberalism, bureaucratism, complacency and desire for ease and comfort. Through vigilant and conscious struggle against these pernicious influences, the Party strengthens its proletarian revolutionary line, raises its fighting capacity and develops the militant style of work that is well-appreciated by the masses.
Party units and committees at different levels have undertaken summings-up and assessments of revolutionary work, conducted regular criticism and self-criticism and in so doing, identified shortcomings and errors in order to rectify them. Through self-criticism and prompt and conscientious correction of errors and shortcomings, the Party continuously improves its work and style of work and truly becomes the proletarian vanguard of the revolution.
The number of Party cadres and members educated in the ideological line of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and the political line of people’s democratic revolution through protracted people’s war are increasing and are therefore in a position to perform the various tasks and functions in the revolution. They guarantee the revolutionary character and direction of the struggle of the proletariat and the people.
However, our efforts in training and developing cadres in number and quality are still way below the level required by the next and even the current stage of the people’s war. Our educational work and cadre training must be given greater attention by leading Party committees at all levels. Problems and difficulties arising from lack of training personnel and facilities and the ruthlessness and exceeding fluidity of our people’s war have to be overcome step-by-step by more persistent effort, better planning and taking full advantage of every available resource and opportunity.
We have identified the factors and reasons in previous years and decades for the slow growth of the Party, especially lack of planning and diligence and insensitivity to the desire of advanced mass activists to become Party candidate-members and of the latter to become full members according to the time frame and reasonable requirements stipulated in our Party Constitution.
To a large extent, we have learned to overcome the obstacles and are now providing the basic Party education promptly to the old stock and the new flow of Party candidate-members and are promptly swearing them in as full members after they complete the basic Party course.
To ensure that the majority of our members who come from the working class and the peasantry can effectively undergo the necessary training and education, we have simplified study materials and audio-visual aids in various Philippine languages and more important, we have trained instructors who can explain Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in terms comprehensible to our comrades who come from the ranks of the working people.
The Party is now ideologically stronger than before and is in a better position to engage in political work and lead the revolutionary movement. We have Party cadres and members who grasp the principles, policies and line of the revolution and who are at the head and at the core of the revolutionary mass movement. As a result, the mass movement, the revolutionary armed struggle and the united front are resolutely and militantly growing in strength.
Party groups and branches are at the core of the trade unions and other mass organizations as well as in units of the people’s army. Thus, the mass movement continues to grow and becomes firmer and vigorous in the urban and rural areas. The message of the people’s democratic movement resounds among the people in their millions throughout the archipelago. We also have Party groups in certain offices of the reactionary government as well as in educational, social service, religious and other kinds of institutions.
The Party ensures that the NPA integrates revolutionary armed struggle with land reform and mass base building. Party committees, branches and groups within the people’s army work hard to carry out the general policy of minimum land reform and, wherever possible, maximum land reform and to conduct mass work for building the mass organizations and the local organs of political power.
We are well on the path of increasing the number of guerrilla fronts, whose millions of people are the direct reliable mass base of the people’s war and the people’s army. The mass organizations of workers, peasants, youth, women, children and cultural activists are growing in strength. They are the broad mass base of the organs of political power.
These organs constitute the people’s democratic government of the workers and peasants opposing the city-based reactionary government of the big compradors and landlords. The revolutionary government comprehensively renders public services through the working committees in charge of mass education, mass organizing, land reform and production, health care, defense, arbitration and cultural activities.
As the guerrilla fronts gain in strength in political and military terms, the reactionary and puppet state has unleashed even larger, more prolonged and more intensive attacks against them. To frustrate the enemy offensives, it is imperative to force the enemy to spread itself thin by expanding and intensifying guerrilla warfare on a nation-wide scale, strengthening inter-front coordination and mutual support, accelerating the rate of expansion and consolidation of the guerrilla fronts, and developing in an all-rounded way the military and political forces and struggles of the masses.
But in some old guerrilla bases and zones, serious losses have been incurred in organizational, political and military strength not only and not so much due to the intensified enemy attacks but as a result of passivity in military work; long-running neglect of the mass organizations, the antifeudal class struggle and political education among the masses; and deterioration of the basic Party units which have come under strong influence by rich peasant elements, thinking and practices. These reflect errors and shortcomings not only at the basic level but also in Party and army work and leadership in the higher levels.
The participation and support of the people have enabled the NPA to launch tactical offensives and win victories. The people are the inexhaustible source of strength for the people’s army. The people’s militia, acting as the local police forces of the local organs of political power, and the self-defense units of the various mass organizations, reinforce and amplify the strength of the people’s army.
NPA tactical offensives have been intensified and have resulted in increased number of arms for creating new combat units. Casualties on enemy troops are increasing and causing demoralization among their ranks. The NPA units have destroyed or disabled enemy transport and supply lines, depots and vehicles. They have broken up large landed estates in the course of conducting land reform.
They have dismantled or paralyzed business enterprises and landed estates that violate the laws of the people’s democratic government. These violations involve ruining the environment and agricultural production, taking away land from the people, opposing and preventing land reform or exporting mineral ores at the expense of future industrialization.
The broad masses of the people welcome the tactical offensives of the people’s army against the armed personnel and military facilities of the reactionary state; the arrest and trial of despotic landlords, human rights violators, plunderers, drug lords and other criminal elements; and the dismantling of mining and logging enterprises and plantations that are grievously harmful to the people and the environment.
By intensifying the people’s war, the NPA has captured an increasing number of weapons from the enemy and has enlarged the people’s army and increased the guerrilla fronts. In turn, the greater number of people in more guerrilla fronts helps the people’s army to achieve greater feats in the people’s war. At various levels of the Party and the NPA commands, guidelines and plans for tactical offensives are developed and implemented according to the capabilities of NPA units concerned.
All NPA units are keenly conscious of their duty to carry out offensives that they can win. They wage operations to ambush or raid enemy units as well as operations to destroy enemy facilities. They carry out extensive and intensive guerrilla warfare on the basis of ever widening and deepening mass base. They therefore engage in mass work, production and cultural activities in order to complement and pave the ground for the tactical offensives.
The Party has achieved successes in employing the united front policy to strengthen the basic alliance of the workers and peasants, the progressive alliance of the toiling masses with the urban petty bourgeoisie, the patriotic alliance of the aforesaid progressive forces and the national bourgeoisie and the broad alliance with such temporary and unreliable allies among factions of the ruling system that fight the ruling clique as the common enemy.
The united front is aimed at uniting various forces to oppose the common enemy. The legal patriotic and progressive forces form multisectoral, sectoral and issue-based alliances in order to reach the broadest ranks of the people. At the same time, the united front is principally aimed at facilitating the advance of the people’s war.
The Aquino regime has amply shown its lack of sincerity and seriousness in peace negotiations with the NDFP. We should dispel any illusion that the regime is interested in addressing the roots of the armed conflict and forging agreements with the NDFP on social, economic and political reforms. Clearly, it is hellbent on destroying the Party and the revolutionary movement.
The formal meetings in the GPH-NDFP peace negotiations cannot be held unless the GPH addresses the prejudicial issues being raised by the NDFP and makes amends. However, we continue to express our desire for peace negotiations in order to prevent the enemy from claiming falsely that we are not interested in a just and lasting peace and also to keep open the possibility that the enemy regime would be compelled by the crisis and/or by our significant victories in people’s war to seriously seek negotiations. Indeed, the only way to compel the enemy to engage in serious negotiations is to inflict major defeats on it and make it realize the futility of its attempt to destroy the revolutionary movement, especially the people’s army.
Our Party is highly respected in the international communist movement and in the global anti-imperialist movement because of our revolutionary achievements in the Philippines and because of our well-known concern and support for overseas Filipinos. We have extensive relations with Marxist-Leninist and anti-imperialist parties and organizations abroad. Our international united front policy has enabled us to have well-developed relations with revolutionary and anti-imperialist mass organizations, social movements and other progressive formations.
By our revolutionary struggle in our country, we have contributed significantly to the development of the anti-imperialist and socialist movement on a global scale. Our Party delegations have participated in various international conferences, forums and seminars aimed at strengthening the ideological and political position of communist and workers’ parties against imperialism and all reaction and for national liberation, democracy and socialism.
We uphold and advance proletarian internationalism and the anti-imperialist solidarity of the world’s peoples. We look forward to a new and higher level of development in the international communist movement through the revolutionary victories of communist and workers’ parties in various countries and continents.