Re: [Marxism] People Power in the Philippines

[Reihana Mohideen <reihana_m@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Please see attached statements put out by the broader Philippine left 
represented by Laban ng Masa (Peoples Fight) a new coaltion of the left that 
includes Sanlakas, Akbayan, Alab Katipunan, KPD, Liga Manggagawa and the Moro 
National Liberation Front and other Moro groups. It also has the support of the 
junior military officers who were invloved in the Oakwood mutiny. It was 
launched a few weeks ago at a gathering of 1000 mass leaders representing over 
100 organisations to put forward a united left response to the political crisis 
of the ruling elite.
It's demands are: Oust Gloria; No to a Noli Succession; End Elite Rule, For a 
Transitional Revolutionary Government (TRG). A TRG will be a government that is 
unencumbered by the current constitution and that will implement an immediate 
program of the basic demands of the masses. This includes a complete overhaul 
of the electoral system.

Reihana
Philippines

PS: I suggest that the Suresh be cautious when using terms such as "splinter 
sects". It's how the CPP has described those on the left outside it's influence 
and that it has differences with. Not a very useful description when we 
desperately need to unite the left forces to move forward today

Suresh <borhyaenid@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In the Philippines, a familiar drama is seemingly
being re-enacted: with the embattled President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo standing on the precipice, facing
political extinction, in the manner of Joseph Estrada
and the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. If this is
indeed another iteration of People Power, it must be
noted, however, how much less popular this incipient
popular revolt is compared to its immediate
predecessor, which was itself a much more elite and
middle-class inspired affair than the democratic
awakening of roughly twenty years ago.

If the vote rigging and corruption charges have caused
Arroyo?s already dimmed star to plummet, it still
remains to be seen whether the ever-restive military
and Catholic hierarchy, not to mention the U.S.
embassy, are prepared to push her over the edge.
Meanwhile, the president retains enough support in the
two houses of Congress to survive impeachment
hearings.

The parties of the left-wing are at the forefront
demanding Arroyo?s head, and are at the same time,
largely opposed to either seeing her replaced
constitutionally by the Vice President Noli de Castro
or simply having snap elections following her ouster.
It?s not difficult to understand their reservations:
the previous velvet revolutions left the corrupt
political and economic structure, dominated by a
relative handful of affluent families in an
old-fashioned oligarchic alliance of big business and
landed aristocracy, entirely intact. And the election
of 2004, a politically bankrupt campaign between the
incumbent president and the actor Fernando Poe Jr.
(since deceased), only allowed an apathetic public to
rubber-stamp further austerity measures.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP),
splinter sects, and most of the rest of the left, are
calling for the formation of a broad, constitutive
coalition government, which is indeed, not dissimilar
to their position the last time a president was under
gun. In fact, cautious optimism was expressed about
Arroyo when she first took office, perhaps because of
intimations of peace talks with the nation?s guerilla
forces, the CPP?s New People?s Army, and the Islamist
Moro movement in Mindanao. Yet it was under Arroyo,
during the opening of the War on Terror, when the U.S.
re-strengthened links with the Philippine military,
and sent troops to the south, ostensibly to combat the
Islamic extremist Abu Sayyaf grouplet, that the
communist insurgents entered Washington?s official
terrorist list. Nevertheless, the CPP?s leader, Jose
Maria Sison, from his place in exile in the
Netherlands, has again struck a conciliatory note, and
is reaching out to ?patriotic? elements in the
military and across party lines.

Links:

The Economist, eminent voice of international finance,
expresses reluctant support for Arroyo, as the least
worst option at present:


Interview with CPP?s Jose Maria Sison, in which he
outlines the party?s traditional ?anti-feudal? stance:


Excellent expose series on the Philippines, by Pepe
Escobar, for the Asia Times:


Flashback: an exchange on the WSWS between member of
CPP splinter party AKBAYAN and a member of David
North?s group on Estrada?s removal from office ?
classic confrontation between far left and far-far
left:


For good measure, AKBAYAN?s website ? party stands for
a ?democratic? left (that is, for an electoral
orientation) as opposed to Stalinist/Maoist CPP:








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