Ang Bayan Editorial: Broaden The People’s Resistance To The US-Marcos Regime

Ang Bayan

May 21, 2024

The Filipino people’s collective actions to fight for their livelihood, defend their rights, advance justice, and promote national freedom have been steadily intensifying in the past year. In the face of the unresolved crisis of the ruling semi-colonial and semi-feudal system, the US-Marcos fascist regime has carried out more and more anti-national and anti-democratic policies and measures. These are rousing the masses of the people to unite and fight against its rule.

The number of workers and rank-and-file employees fighting for their right to living wages and salaries are steadily expanding. Jeepney drivers and operators are taking a stronger stand in their defense of their livelihood against the jeepney phaseout. Supporting them are the youth who are also protesting against rising tuition and education costs. Throughout the country, people are defending their rights to land, mountains, rivers and oceans, and resources against the encroachment and destruction by foreign and local big capitalists and landlords. They are holding the US-Marcos regime to account for its gross failure to prepare and act in the face of the severe damage caused by the El Niño-induced drought, and for its environmentally destructive policies.

Broad ranks of the people rose in opposition to the charter change scheme of Marcos’ minions, which aim to reinforce neo-liberal policies in the 1987 constitution, and allow them to extend the term of office of politicians. Also growing is the people’s opposition to US military intervention in the Philippines, its war provocations and dragging the country to its imperialist conflict with China, even as people call for a peaceful resolution of the issues between the Philippines and China regarding maritime territories in the West Philippine Sea. Support for the Palestinian people against the genocide of the US-Israeli alliance continues to expand. They are bravely resisting Marcos’ intensifying fascism. They won a victory in the Supreme Court’s decision against Red-tagging and in favor of granting writ of amparo to its victims.

The left and right militant people’s resistance are indicators of the unresolved economic and political crisis of the ruling system. Under the oppressive and ruthless measures of the anti-people and puppet Marcos regime, the masses of the people have no alternative but to unite, act and fight. With Marcos acting oblivious, the people’s clamor for urgent and long-term changes must be amplified. To fight effectively, broader ranks of the masses of the people must be mobilized.

Mobilizing the broad masses and unleashing their initiative in struggle must begin at the level of their political consciousness and readiness. In line with the Party’s basic principle, the more active and advanced sections of the masses should be mobilized in order to rouse the middle and win over the least active. Accordingly, it is the duty of the leading national-democratic forces to rouse and encourage the masses to action by reaching out and uniting with their various organizations, or building various types of associations based on the masses’ united stand on key issues of the people.

Large numbers of the masses are ready to join national-democratic organizations and are determined to act for comprehensive social change. They must be organized in their numbers. But many more are willing to join and participate on the basis of various progressive, patriotic and humanitarian causes, or on the basis of widespread and common grievances concerning their work or livelihood. They are willing to enter into different forms of organization, and are open to different forms of actions. They must be reached, the appropriate forms of organizations established and guided along the path of militant resistance. Creativity should be encouraged in the methods and forms of organizing and mobilizing the masses.

To this end, it is the urgent duty of all national-democratic forces to thoroughly immerse themselves among the masses and undertake social investigation, propaganda and organization. They must go and devote full-time in the factories, poor rural and urban communities, as well as in schools, offices, and wherever the masses live or work. Through this, they can determine the appropriate or effective forms, whether old or new, of propaganda and mass organization.

They must be bold, courageous, filled with initiative and creative in conducting mass propaganda and organizing. They must overcome all forms of bureaucratism and liberalism, and guard against populism, tailism, commandism and being content with superficial propaganda. They should do away with old methods and styles of work which prevent the national-democratic forces from knowing the concrete situation of the masses, their various concerns, common aspirations, and the level of their consciousness and readiness to act and fight.

The Filipino people are ardently desirous to wage resistance in the face of the acute crisis and the incessant burden and oppression caused by the anti-people and fascist US-Marcos regime. They are determined to advance their struggle for their welfare, livelihood, and fundamental rights, and for the nation’s freedom and security.

The people’s fervent desire to fight must be matched by the determination of the national-democratic forces to arouse, organize and mobilize the workers, the peasants, the toiling masses, and all the democratic sectors. Party cadres and members should serve as role models in all-out mass work, rousing and mobilizing the people to deepen and widen the Party’s roots among the masses. They must lead the way in nurturing the spirit of relying and trusting the masses, and affirming the belief that only the masses create history.

Source : https://philippinerevolution.nu/2024/05/21/broaden-the-peoples-resistance-to-the-us-marcos-regime/