March 29, 2024 is the 55th anniversary of the New People’s Army. For the past 55 years our Red fighters have fought the people’s enemy with courage and honor. They are the beloved warriors of the masses. We salute their valor, render the highest honor and tribute to the revolutionary martyrs and heroes of the New People’s Army, and offer our deepest gratitude for the sacrifices they have given to triumph against the enemy.
The enemy always aims to destroy the revolutionary movement and halt the surge of people’s struggle. But no coercive instrument of the state, no matter how brutal and fascistic, can stop the people from fighting for a new social system. It is the brutal violence and intolerable burden of exploitation and oppression by the comprador big bourgeoisie, landlords and monopoly capitalists that drive the masses to persist in the struggle.
The greed of foreign and domestic capitalists dehumanizes the workers, peasants and all toiling masses. The violence of exploitation and oppression against the masses that persists day after day, and the criminal disregard for their abject poverty legitimize the justness of the people’s war and thus must be supported. The Filipino people commit themselves to armed revolution not because they glorify wars. They commit to it because they understand that it is only through armed struggle that their aspirations for a just, developed, and progressive society will be fulfilled.
For more than five decades, the revolutionaries and the masses have withstood the onslaughts of the enemy. The hardships and sacrifices of the Filipino people and their army have built a strong foundation for the advance of the national democratic revolution and the creation of the People’s Democratic Government.
Imperialism and the local reactionaries may seem like a formidable foe. But we have the people on the side of revolution and once aroused, organized, and mobilized in their millions, they become an invincible force. It is the responsibility of the revolutionary movement to continue arousing, organizing and mobilizing the people wherever they are.
Despite the huge number of the enemy force, weaponry and heavy support from US imperialism, the revolutionary movement has been able to counter and defeat every strategic counterrevolutionary plan implemented by the regimes from Marcos Sr to Duterte. The current Marcos regime’s “oplans” will suffer the same fate.
The participation and support of the masses for the revolution are unwavering. Additionally, the revolutionary forces abroad, including Filipino migrants, are greatly inspired by the sacrifices of the New People’s Army. Many have expressed their desire to fight alongside the people’s warriors.
Indubitably, the courage and daringness of the masses and revolutionary forces in the face of sharpening class contradictions shall be kept in the treasure chest of stories that inspire the revolutionary movement’s continued advance.
Rectification and Resurgence
Building on its achievements and founded on the strong support of the fighting masses, the Party has embarked on a rectification movement to address its weaknesses and errors and advance the people’s war to even greater heights. This rectification movement strengthens and unites the Party and the people along the correct revolutionary line and steels the fighting will and capabilities of the masses and the people’s army to face the enemy. History has shown that revolution advances when rectification is undertaken to correct errors and implement tasks to further advance the people’s war, and to prevent deviations from the principles of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism that guide the people’s democratic revolution.
Resurgence in all aspects of work for the revolution results from the rectification by the revolutionary movement. Analyzing and summing-up our work, correcting errors and putting stress on what must immediately be done will energize comrades to fulfill their responsibilities and tasks.
People’s war is a necessary undertaking in the building of the People’s Democratic Government that responds to the needs of the masses. The old social order must be destroyed in order to build upon its rubble and ashes a just, equitable, and pro-people system of governance. Ours is a just war and the people’s war of the Filipino people is bound for victory!
