Kabataang Makabayan (Patriotic Youth), the revolutionary youth organization and an allied organization of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), has strengthened its chapters in several key private and public universities in Metro Manila.
On November 30, KM chapters launched various activities to celebrate the 59th anniversary of their organization. The KM-Armando Mendoza announced on November 20 the reestablishment of their chapter. They held a discussion on the orientation and constitution of the KM, paid honor and tribute to the martyrs, planned activities and elected a new executive committee. The chapter was named after Armando Mendoza, a University of Santo Tomas student martyred in the 1970s.
At the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) in Sta. Mesa, Manila, KM-Chapter Kira Mindoro members held a lightning rally on November 29. Before the rally, chapter members carried out operation graffiti and postering inside the campus and painted the calls “Advance the people’s war!” “KM@59” and others.
Chapters of KM in the University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman and UP-Los Baños also conducted graffiti campaigns in their respective campuses. The KM Eduardo Aquino chapter posted announcements around the campus of UP-Manila about its establishment last November.
On December 8 members of KM staged a lightning rally at Rizal Street, Manila, days after its founding anniversary.
KM revitalization in another private university and a state university in Metro Manila for the last half of the year was also reported. Issues of the youth KM’s role within the universities and colleges is key to encourage the youth to take the path of the people’s democratic revolution and advance mass struggles.
In Ang Bayan’s interview with Rose, a KM member at a university in Cavite, she said oppressive conditions in their school persist. These problems and issues encouraged Ka Andrea to leave the university and join the New People’s Army (NPA). She said she witnessed the inaction to such issues under the current rotten system and government and the limitations of struggling within the prevailing system. She knows armed resistance will achieve a society that will truly respond to the needs of the youth. Before she took up arms, Ka Andrea participated in organizing KM among young farmers.
Historically, KM assumed the role of serving as the training school for young revolutionaries and of assisting the working class in fulfilling its revolutionary tasks.
The KM was the key factor in bringing about the upsurge of the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal mass movement in the 1960s. It provided active support to the trade union movement and peasant movement in political education, strikes and mass protests.
