crisis and harsh repression led to an increase in the popular resistance mediately afterwards, armed resistance against the new colonisers con- tinued for nearly 11 years. The CPP began to develop a national (as op- troops in the Philippines (to орроно 'Russian influence"). posed to purely regional) policy for the first time. scldom venture is maid to have risen to g by the Philppines army during raids in C 771.094 (South, November 1988) The 2 tion of villages where government troops understood without an understanding of The CPP emerged in 1968 as a split Manila the Communist Party has or- political situation in the country cannot he ganisations in 823 towns and the popula force to the Marcos dictatorship. in the southem islands). Page 24
H KMU, Crispin Beltran, is the vice-president of the Partido ng Bayan (the People's Party) and the president of the progressive front BAYAN). The People's Party did not get many votes in the national elections, although it did win Z The New People's Army and the - some scats in local elections.
The NPA is not only operaling in the countryside but E The New People's Army will celehrate its 20th an- niversary on March 29 this year. From its original 60 fighters with 9 automatic rifles it has grown to 25,000 full- time and part-time guerillas, with 10,500 automatic rifles. quency and intensity of military actions launched doring the final year of Marcos rule. In the months of July and August 1987, more than 600 NPA-initiated tactical offen- sives were carried out all over the archipelago - an average of 10 offensives a day." (Balita ng Malayaang Filipinas, Free Philippines Newn Service, published by the NDF, Vol 'By the end of August 1987, the NPA had equalled the fre- National Democratic Front
public criticism of the socialist countries", and supports ' peaceful co ex istence' even at the same time as it fights arms in hand against American President Aquine with the active support of the Armed Forces and the US has declared total war against communism'. The repression against the mass movements is as hard as in El Salvador and South Africa. Finn Jensen Page 25 Trade unions should develop direct links with the KMU in the SOGAT 82 and TGWU have signed letters to President Aquino about Links to the mass organisations can made through the Philippines which gives a lot of relevant information ahout the development in the vice can he contacied on: P.O. Box 19195, 3501 DD Utecht, The KMU (the trade union federation) can be contacted at: Internation- al Department, 3rd Floor, Jopson Bldg, 510, M. Eamshaw Street, Sam- tion in the Philippines and that should be recognised in the solidanty work. But solidarity should Include all the left organisations and mass organisations in the Philippines. There are also a lot of significant or- ganisations outside the NDF (such as the New Pcople's Alliance, which is the largest multi sectoral federation of progressive organisations in the Philippines, also large wited coalitions that are set up around specific demands; and the BISIG, which is a legal socialist organisa- Philippines, The KMU mineworkers" union has been exploring rela- tions with the British NUM. NUPE and NALGO sent delegations to the resentatives also visit Britain, COHSE, FTAT. NALGO, NUPE, the continuing human rightrahuser against trade unionists in the Philip- Support Group's national office, 11 Goodwin Street, London N4 3HQ. The National Democtatic Front and the Free Philippines News Ser- The CPP. the NPA and the NDF are the dominant force in the opposi Philippines in 1988, and the TGWU will send one this year. KMU rep tel. 01-272 5317, The PSG also produces a newsletter called "Kasama'. pines. All six unions are affiliated to the Philippine Support Group. Solidarity with the Philippine revolution Never too young to fight: a woman NPA guerrilla visited International solidarity is therefore an urgent task. imperialism and the 'US-Aquino government". Philippines and on solidarity work in Britain. by her baby daughter in a jungle training camp. paloc, Manila, The Philippines: Netherlands, Tel. 030-310431- tion. In 1981 the New People's Army hegan organising the CPDF, which signed a juint accord in which it was agreed to conduct joint activities The CPP has various degrees of contact with Communist Parties and Christians for National Liberation (CNL) and Patriotic Youth (KM). At been sct up in about 25% of the 45,000 villages and urban sub-districts; in around 800 of the 1540 municipalities; in all of our 60 cities; in 63 out of 73 provinces.' (Free Philippines News Service, vol 1, no 5). In the areas where it is possible, the land has been redistributed, coopcratives have been established and an altemative education and health system One of the 14 organisations in the NDF is the Cordillera People's Democratic Front (CPDF), which is an alliance of various ethnic groups in the Cordillera region of Northem Luzon. The Cordillera consists of ly known as Igorots). More than 50% of the people suffer from malnutri- now claims mass support in about half of the one thousand villages in the Cordilla The Cordilla People's Alliance was established in 1984 and now has over 120 members organisations and an individual membership of 25.000. In carly 1988 the CPDFestablished a de facto functioning revolu- The NDF also supports the legitimate pursuit by organisations of the Bangra Moro people of their independence, It cooperates with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the Minidanao region, in early 1958 the MNLF gave the Aquino government a deadline to grant full autonomy to the 13 Muslim-derinated provinces in Mindanao before resuming its war for a separate Moro state. MNLF snid it would ask the Organisation of the Istanic Conference (OIC) to suppor recognbon of independence The NDF also has relations with organisations in at loast 25 countrien. For example on April 12, 1988 the NDF and the EMLN of El Salvador to generate solidarity for the struggle that our people are carrying out. Likewise, we call on other liberation movements to unite and fight US interventionism'. In 1984 the NDF formally established an internatinnal other worker's parties in East and West, including Albania, North Korea, the French Communist Party, the Belgian Labour Party and the Australian Communist Party (South, November 1988). The CPP does not make any present the NDF consists of 14 underground revolutionary massorganisa- 'Now we stand at the threshold of establishing the Provisional Revolutionary Government. NDF structures or people's councils have five provinces with approximately one million tribal people (collective- right in the capital Manila. The Alex Boncayao Brigade e (also known as the sparrows) is permanently placed in the Munila-Rizal area, attacking both the army and American The National Democratic Front (NDF) was fommally This has developed expanded to the present 15 point programme which seeks to establish a sovereign, democratic, self-reliant and non-aligned Philippines. The NDF was formed hy 4 organisations: the CPP, the NDA, established on April 24, 1973 on a 10-point programme. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 12 February 1989 tionary goveriment al a regional level. office in the Netherlands, hy the United Nations. military personnel.
un C K
war penod saw an equally pomicious revival of ments in Italy and France, until capitalist rule popular frontism, with CP ministers conniving at the imperialist measures of coalition govert- controlled the apparatus from the top and had no desire to see the full force of independent working class unleashod, They knew that if the working class were allowed to feel their own strength they might just boot out their own The same politics of Moscow-sponsored class collaboration dominated the wartime Line of the communist parties in the allied powers, who became foremost champions of the capitalist war-effort, breaking strikes and sup porting anti union laws. The immediate post- govemments, SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 12 February 1989 helped defuse a pre-revolutionary situation in as the demise of the popular front government praisal of the diplomatic interests of the Soviet bureaucracy, secking alliances with the so- and riding roughshod over the interests of the It also fed off the self-seeking interests of a developing bureaucratic layer leading the refor- mist and Stalinist parties and trade unions; they gles of workers and peasants- and the CP itself helped carry out and organise the systematic in defence of bourgeois private property: it arm the workers movement and reinforce Franco's grip on his predominantly peasant In France, the politics of the Popular Front 1936, and also led to the defeat of the working class after two years of intenne struggle as well itself. The popular front policy began not from any mistaken assessment of the specific situa- tion in western Europe, but from a cynical ap- holy alliance against the key forces in resisting slaughter of Spanish revolutionaries. This un- served only to politically (and physically) dis- base, and paved the way for final defeat in 1939, Franco's fascist offensive was hased on 'unity (mis)leaders as well as the capitalists. called "democratic' plied in practice led the Spanish Stalinists to support not the workers but the hourgeois for Hitler) and switched to an equally disastrous policy of popular fronts, Faced with the rise of fascism, the Stalinist parties openly advocated, and actually joined in parliamentary coalitions not only with reformist (secial democratic) par- The results were devastating So wide Were ingattempts at political alliances, that they were frequently denounced from the left by reformist Icaders, including the British Lahour Party. republic in 1936-39 as it suppressed the strug the CPnets thrown, and so right wing the resull- Worse, the policy of the popular front when ap munist parties across Europe abandoned their (which had divided the powerful German workers" movement and thos opened the door ties but also with "democratic" bourgeois par- ultra-sectarian policies of the "Third Period" From 1935, under the direction of the Cim- munist International, dominated by Stalin, com- ASICS Dirty deals and capitalist coalitions - C T 0- ary, or even very new, after all The labour movement has seen this before, sometimes in ticular historical and political situations. What it boils down to is what the Communist Party Charter 88 in response to the challenge of Labour revival - or not: anyway. 'something very different could emerge... The left is in a state of depression, but these could yet tum out Typically inconclusive. But, of course, hund all the talk about talks, lies the mor toral pact, or govemmental coalition of the So all this talk tums out to be not so vision- different guises and in different forms in par- cither. This was Communist Party (CPGB) member and editor of Marxism Today, Martin "Democrats" vision puts left in touch with the real world', to promote the SLD "vision' andto recommend to readers an extension of the 'Cross Thatcherism. Jacques conclusion" is that the result of all this could he a re-run of the 1945 there's a lot more to this than meets the eye. He- developed political project frequently put for ward in the pages of Marxism Today: an elec- release. Not a sympathetic Guardian review, His article went on, under the heading Far more impressive in its intellectual reach ..'it has a purchase on the real ...'arcal leel for that new world, a sense. No, not an excerpt from an SLD press party" debate promoted by Samizdar and The Democrats' new strategy document, 'Aims and Values'), got at least one rave and sense of the future than anything that the old Alliance or the Labour Party managed to 'Our Different Vision' (a sort of SLD Jacques, writing in the Sunday Times. centre-left, anti- Thatcherite partics. used to call the popular front. to be exciting timer". of what it might he. review recently. produce, Page 26
----- pull-quotes on this page ----- Hitler (leff) rode to power over a workers movement divided by the sectarian line of the Communist Party; Franco (right) took advantage of the weakness of the popular front and Stalinist murder of revolutionaries. Not so popular front
mist and centrist) and the unorganised masses The Communists, as has been said, must not oppose such actions buf on the contrary must also assume the initiative for them, precisely for the reason that the greater is the mass drawn into the movement, the higher its self-confidence rises, all the more self-confident will that mass it be capable of marching forward, however modest may be the initial slogans of struggles. And this means that the growth of the mass aspects of the movement tends to radicalise it, and creales much more favourable conditions for the slogans, methods of struggle, and, in general, the leading role of the Communist Nothing could be further from the miserable defeatist drivel chumed out by today's 'Com- munist Party", Marxism Today, and its echo in the 'new realist" policy reviews and anti-left movement be, and all the more resolutely will witch-hunts of Kinnock's Labour leadership. athering to them. un - mass influcnce, the problem of united front work is not posed in the same way. Where the significant attention, or even make a difference, Where revolutionary currents are not really parties but relatively small currents without real marxists are a big cnough force to command B A C K down, roll over and hope the bosses tickle your them kicked out. The same bankrupt politics were central to the parliamentarist British Road to Socialism in 1951 and its various revised edi- tions ever since, and other CPs have followed the patter of gradually throwing overboard leninism, marxism and even the pretence of a The preferred path of many communist and for a short cut to power and respectability, to geoisie in the popular front. This means you lie stead. More often than not, they do. The most brutal reminders of this in the post-war period members in indonesia in 1964, and the murder munists after General Pinochet's coup in Chile bad been re-stabilised and the cold war saw their historic links to class struggle politics, reformist purties over the years has been to hope tum directly to deals with sections of the bour- tummy. They might of course, stamp on you in- brought the mass slaughter of communist party or torture of thousands of socialists and com- revolutionary programme.
will of important sections of the embattled The Struggle Agaiut Fascism in Germany Trotsky, Page 27 Trotsky's bold assertion of class struggle methods to win support might almost he a specific blast against the likes of Brian Gould potential of the mass movement; their beloved arena is the parliamentary tribune, the trade union bureaux, the arbitration boards, the min- *On the contrary, we are, apart from all other considerations, interested in dragging the refor- mists from their asylums [places of refuge, Ed.] and placing them alongside ourselves, before the eyes of the struggling masses. With a cor- Marxists, argues Trotsky, therefore belong not in a cringing front with Liberals and wet alongside the best sections of the working class: *Unity of front consequently presupposes tain issues, to correlate in practice our actions with those of reformist organisations, to the ex- tent to which the latter still express today the tism Today are consistent. If you abandon the class struggle, the popular front is as good a front as any to hide behind. Those who want to fight to defend and advance the working class- and also to fight as marxists for the leadership tions that provide for 'unity in action' and allow them to retain political and organisational inde- JANE WELLS The first five years of the Communist International. Leon Trotsky, Volume 2, Monad. (Ch. 8 - 'On the Theses, Resolutions and Manifestos of the First Four Congresses of the Third International, Inklinks, 1980. (p.395-397, "The United Front Tactic" and Pro00.409 appendin - Theses on the United "The reformists dread the revolutionary but in the thick of every struggle, our readiness, within certain limits and on cer- At least, if nothing else, the politics of Mar- of the mass organisations - will look to forma- rect tactic we stand only to gain from this... Pathfinder. (especially Ch. 7 and 14) pendence: the united front. isterial ante chambers. Further reading and today's TUC: United Front") Trotsky speaks to the Fourth Congress 'If the party embraces one third or one half of the proletarian vanguard, then the remaining mists or centrists. It is perfectly obvious, freedom for struggle. We must consequently so Party, which will on the morrow embrace the Only in this way will the party draw closer to those two thirds who do not as yet follow its munists move politically rightwards to merge bourgeoisie, but of tactics which mobilise the through their experiences of struggle towards What does this mean in practice? Getting down to the specifies, Trotsky continues in a *The circumstances make wholly possible joint action on a whole number of vital issues the united front tactic becomes absolutely cru- half or two thirds are organised by the refor- port the reformists and the centrists are vitally interested in maintaining the highest material standards of living and the greatest possible devise our tactic as to prevent the Communist entire three-thirds of the working class, from tuming into - and all the more so, from actual- ly being - an organisational obstacle in the way 'Still more, the party must assume the initia- tive in securing unity in these current struggles, leadership, who do not as yet trust the party he- Trotsky's conception is not one where com- "democratic reformist-led workers, and thus lead them passage which, though long, spells out the ap between the workers united in these three respective organisations (Communist, refor- however, that even those workers who still sup of the current struggle of the proletariat, of the Communist International. cause they do not understand it*. with icformists and the the marxist programme. cial, argues Trotsky. proach clearly: SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 12 February 1989 suffering the inevitable fate of all sectarians - as (in opposition to the reformists and centrists) and for joint struggles to draw in those workers All this is not to argue that revolutionaries ces with non-revolutionary forces, and posture, pure, from the sidelines, simply denouncing the be marxists undoubtedly make that mistake, workers" struggles and self confidence grow. they become increasingly irritating and it. small groups of revolutionary marxists should worker's movement (often led by reformists or stalinists), remains. In advancing workers" struggles and building alternative left currents, what should the relationship of marxists be to an often open rank and file but usually hostile There is an alternative course, outlined by the tional and in Loon Trotsky's writings - and fought for by more progressive sections of the The theory is laid out step by step simply and sessed the political situation of France in 1922. in the article On the United Front. He argues for "The task of the Communist Party is to lead the proletarian revolution. In order to summon the proletariat for the direct conquest of power and to achieve it the Communist Party must hase itself on the overwhelming majority of the working class. So long as it does not hold this can afford to ignore the fight for fighting allian- reformist or Stalinist leaderships. Many would- The problem ofhow minority (and often very relate to and influence the majority in the early Congresses of the Communist Intera effectively by Trotsky in his capacity as a central leader of the Comintern when he as the establishment of a clear, class-based party "The party can achieve this only by remain- ing an absolutely independent organisation leaderships in the fight to overthrow with a clear programme and strict intemal dis The answer: a revolutionary still organised by the reformist parties. majority, the party must fight to win it approach marxist left: the united front.
ш Dave and Phil a Stalinist party can be either reformist or revolutionary, if by revolutionary party you mean a group of capitalism by destroying the capitalist Dave and Phil try to explain that it is only under exceptional circumstances penple who are willing to overthrow stale and replace it with a proletarian one. that revolutionary Stalinist parties can be