INTRODUCTION
Initiatives and methods to transform violence to less violent and to peace are as varied as the diversities of circumstances and contexts they find themselves in. The creativities of the peacebuilders with the stakeholders have added beauty to these initiatives and peacebuilding activities.
The poverty reduction, conflict resolution and transformation which the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa – Mindanao (RPM-M) have been evolving with its current peace talks with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) are just part of these initiatives. The RPMM shares this experience as its small contribution to the peace building efforts in Mindanao and in the country.
The RPM-M was founded on May 1, 2001. It has been a product of global context and the internal dynamics of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Both these external and internal factors have positively influenced and radically changed the RPMM concepts of war and peace, belief and ideology. In fact, the dynamics brought about by the rethinking and reinvisioning have greatly resulted and provided reason for RPMM’s being.
The significant changes in the geopolitics after the cold war have caused the disappearance of the bi-polar world order. It can be observed for instance that most of the wars have been fought not anymore between nation-states but rather internal and civil wars where most of the victims are civilians and non-combatants.
This trend can be attributed to the disappearance of the cold war conflicts which had been mainly based on class conflicts (micro and macro levels). There had also been a resurgence of wars caused by issues on nationalism and ethnicity especially during those times. Today, the situation has been changed and made complicated by the post 9/11 event and the eventual launching of war on terror when wars have been declared and waged on global scale and without borders.
The total collapse of the Soviet Socialist sphere and the significant change of the socialist outlook of China have caused not only confusion on socialist paradigm among revolutionary groups but also resulted in an unrestrained expansion of globalization of the neo-liberal led capitalism that has had a great impact on efforts and struggles for nationalist and democratic societies and economies.
The unlimited opening-up of poor countries (like the Philippines) of their economies to the dictates of the global market has fuelled and intensified tensions and conflicts between and among the peoples and their governments and those responsible for these oppressive policies but safely hiding behind the multi-lateral and international institutions.,
International financial and multi-lateral bodies like the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have had more influence and played decisive role in the poor countries’ economy, political and cultural lives of their people and perspectives. There have been obviously increased of globalized conflicts and tensions beyond the control of the governments of nation-states and yet the causes of such tensions remain faceless and hidden behind the international institutions and their policies.
Conflicts and tensions within the poor countries have intensified because of widespread practices of graft and corruption and absence of moral values and ascendancies by governments to continue to govern and to lead their peoples freely and democratically.
The failure to significantly address such changes in the global order and the shift in paradigm of Socialism by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has caused tensions and conflicts within the Party which eventually led to its splits in the early ‘90’s.
THE RPMM’S VISION OF PEACE
The significant changes brought about the globalized tensions and conflicts have influenced the outlook and frameworks of various institutions, groups, and revolutionary parties to review and rethink their strategies and methodologies in conflict transformation and peace building works.
The RPMM strongly believes that effective methods to transform conflict and build infrastructure for peace is to understand the nature and causes of conflicts in their historical and current contexts. It has fully understood that the conflicts, violence and war in the Philippines had been caused by the globalized greed and exploitation of the more than 50% of its population by the few whose claim is enshrined in the neo-liberal led capitalist policies and in direct connivance of the big and local capitalists and implemented by government machineries.
This kind of set-up has historically evolved and intensified in the current period. It has fortified the system of effectively blocking or even stifling the all-sided development of the people to freely determine their economic, political and cultural lives. This is the system that has directly caused the extreme poverty and violence in the country today. It has continuously created the development and intensification of the militarist and terrorist framework within the opposite pole of the divide.
This kind of conflict and violence as perpetuated by a system in the country that the RPMM anchors its conflict transformation and peace building works today.
RPMM has launched a revolutionary struggle to address and help resolve the exploitative and oppressive system and to help achieve a radical change in the country. It clearly understands that revolutionary struggle to achieve radical change is not only done through the armed revolution. In the current context such change can effectively be achieved mainly thru non-war options.
The operationalization of the radical and peaceful options has been translated into struggles for concrete reforms with its strategic contents of democracy and anti-capitalist globalization. The gains and victories of the struggles for reforms will eventually weakened the system that breeds conflicts and violence and nurture the growth of the seed of genuine and sustainable peace.
The concept of peace for the RPMM is the process of struggling and achieving the democratic and nationalist aspirations of the peoples of Mindanao together with the people of the country and in unity of all the peoples of the world.
The conflict transformation and peace building for the RPMM is the intertwining of the process and their goals. It is decisively important for the RPMM that the manner in which the stakeholders and interest groups participate in the conflict transformation and peace building process for it will determine the nature of what it wants to achieve.
The paradigm shift helps the RPMM to understand violence and conflicts in the light of its concept of peace and work to change the system and the infrastructure which have caused and perpetrated them.
Building peace is building opportunities and creating situation where the poverty of the people is concretely addressed mainly by the people themselves working for a better economic situation and at the same time strengthening and empowering them to work for the resolution of the conflicts and sustain efforts in the eradication of reasons for their poverty.
For the RPMM, working and building peace is achieving concrete development of the economic, political and cultural well being of the people by themselves and for themselves.
In the current situation this means democratic and economic reforms in government policies and programs which have been dictated by capitalist led globalization. Engaging in armed and violent confrontations to attain these reforms and gains are counter productive because aside from the lives and properties which will be lost and destroyed such option under the current context, would surely add and even prolong the agony and miseries of the already suffering people.
The situation can even be taken advantage by armed military opportunists to agitate the people to fight the government or promote their own interest by using war to prolong the system. But again under the current context, war option will aggravate the violent and confrontative situation where the people, usually the poor civilians, will always be the losers.
The RPMM strongly believes that its existence and survival do not always mean the elimination of its armed opponents in fact in the present context, it has realized that its life is interdependent to its identified enemies.
Launching a revolution to attain radical change and a sustainable one is not only thru violent war but more often today it is most appropriate to struggle for non-war option. The gauge which it uses to measure the effectiveness and rightness of such options is the active participation of the people because they identified with it and the positive result it has impacted on them.
The peoples’ claim of ownership of the peace and the non-war option has helped the RPMM stay the course of peace in the GRP and RPMM peace talks.
In the early stage of the peace process, the RPMM has experienced difficulties in convincing and rallying many of its armed combatants to adapt this new model because they were (strong ideology orientations of the old paradigm) committed and convinced that to achieve genuine peace, a violent war, no matter how difficult and long it will take, is needed. The determination of the peoples in the communities and the positive results of the process have slowly but deeply softened the old framework and the hard line position of the armed combatants.
At present a revolutionary synergy has evolved among the ranks and file of the RPMM and the peoples in the communities. They now fully understand that the struggle for concrete reforms for the betterment of peoples’ lives and their communities should be an integral part of the struggle for structural change. Efforts in transforming conflicts caused by oppressive system are always intertwined with the works for social transformation.
PEACE BUILDING – RPMM’S WORK IN PROGRESS
Conflict transformation in order to be effective need a proactive and holistic efforts not only to stop the violence and destruction but more so to build and strengthen infrastructure that is sensitive and responsible to the needs of the broadest possible section of the people. It is a continuous progression of curative, preventive and proactive activities of all the stakeholders involve in the transformation process. The whole process creates a some kind of social bonding which will lead to a social covenant among the stakeholders including the government representatives and the revolutionary groups. As the process develops a silent change in steadily evolving into a visible social transformation activities among and between the abovementioned stakeholders.
The process of changing the situation from bad to a better one has helped in making possible the internal changes in the frameworks and values of the armed combatants in the particular and the whole organization of the RPMM in general. The process of continuously engaging in conflict resolutions and transformation helps in ensuring the sustainability of peace building works.
Community-based and people centered peacebuilding initiatives seek to strengthen the quality and further develop the capacities and resources of the people to make their actions effective and sustainable. The process make the people not only the object of development but the subject of the development of their own lives. Its short term objectives of answering their basic and daily needs become the stepping stones for achieving their long term aspiration of living peacefully and achieving their aspiration as a people.
The RPMM’s role is to facilitate that the process should be peacefully possible and sustainably viable which can only be done thru its healthy relationship with the communities and becoming co-owner of the peace process with the people. The changes which had effected the peoples and their communities have been internalized and changed the ranks and file of the RPMM as well.
This kind of symbiotic relationship can only be completed if it creates impact and change within the government machineries from the level of local and policy makers. Positive change should be manifested in making priority the needs of the poor and deprived people rather that the globalized greed of the few. It can also be expressed by concrete programs of reducing poverty through sustainable and often times silent methods rather than spectacularly giving daily bread to the poor and the needy. And it should be seen by reducing if not totally eliminate the existing conflicts and violence through changing and eliminating the structure and system which breed them rather than making and reviving policies and laws which aim to stop violence and conflicts using more violence and creating more conflicts.
Positive changes have created situation and opportunities to attain positive peace.
The initiatives on community-based and people centered peace works have caused situations and opportunities for peace railroaders and war auctioneers to inflict damage and conflict to the rank file of the RPMM. The transparency and the accountability aspects which are integral in these initiatives can be taken advantage of those people who want to discredit and destroyed the RPMM. They identify and expose the personalities of the RPMM sow intrigues to destroy if not to eliminate the machineries and personalities of RPMM in the communities.
These peace railroaders and war auctioneers are coming from the militarist group within the government and from the proponents of protracted war option.
The RPMM understands the nature and objectives of these peace railroaders and war auctioneers as necessary reality and risks of those involved in peacebuilding works. But positive developments can even be observed because of the non-peace option of these people have effected the strengthening of the resolve and commitment of the RPMM’s rank and file to pursue more vigorously and thoroughly the non-war option. But most importantly the positive effects of actions of the war profiteers and protracted war proponents on the people and their communities. Their commitment and resoluteness to strengthen their ownership of this type of peace process naturally excluded the war profiteers and war auctioneers. The people concept of war and their actual experience of violence it had caused make them to love and protect the peace they are building. No amount of intrigues and personal assassinations can change and conquer the positive change and the positive peace they have built themselves.
But the most important change that is taking place is within the ranks and files of the RPMM. It is the realization of the change of their role from armed combatants to non-war option initiators and peace builders. The peace process between the GRP and the RPMM which has considered community consultations as integral part of the process in both confidence building stage and substantive level of the process has impacted in the nature and role of the RPMM’s armed combatants. They become development activists and peace collective organizers. Their weapons have been replaced by development books and peace documents as well as production tools. Their bullets and arm paraphernalia are becoming heavier by the day and have ceased to be considered as their spouses but they are for defensive actions and to protect their gains and victories with the communities. Peace has been internalized and expressed in positive transformative actions.
Much has still to be done with less time and resources for the RPMM peace warriors.