Mike Espinoza
Norwegian imperialism with the help of the European Union boasts of an end to the armed struggle in the Philippines by facilitating the resumption of potential “peace talks” between the Communist Party of the Philippines-led National Democratic Front and the sell-out old bureaucratic state which serves mainly US imperialism. Demo-liberal bourgeois news companies NPR and Democracy Now have promoted the talks to not only include the possibility of the end of the armed struggle, but to a power sharing government between the poor and oppressed massed led by the CPP and their exploiters—an impossibility because the exploited and the exploiter cannot operate in their mutually exclusive interests under one state.
The CPP demands that the old-state “address the root causes of the civil war.” According to the Communists, it was the government of the Philippines who reached out to them to resume the “peace talks,” not the other way around. They insist that surrender is not on the table.
The Presidential Peace Advisor to the Filipino government Carlito Galvez has expressed, in so many words, exactly how insincere the government is in approaching the talks. He has opposed the removal of the CPP and NDF from the “terror list” and has opposed the release of NDF consultants held in prison, already undermining any talks. Galvez insists that there should be no preconditions to the talks. “These are practical issues,” writes the CPP press secretary, “which if unresolved, makes it very difficult to even imagine how peace talks can proceed, both from the perspective of the GRP (the ‘we do not negotiate with terrorists’ quandary), and the NDFP (‘we cannot negotiate from behind bars’).”
Both the government of the Philippines and US imperialism have long sought the surrender, capitulation, or disarming of the Filipino revolution with an end to the decades long People’s War. Unable to secure a military defeat over the New Peoples Army, led by the CPP, which has been fighting since 1968, the most militarist and most servile to US imperialism among the Filipino ruling class seek a political defeat.
The Worker stands with the Filipino people against US imperialism and issues its unfading support for the People’s War in the Philippines and the conquest of political power by the workers, peasants, and small bourgeoisie in achieving new democracy, without ceasing in the development of the socialist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is the essence of Marxism.
photo: NPA combatants celebrate the 55 year anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines this past December 26th in Southern Tagalog
