Under the shadow of the government’s war against the revolutionary movement
and under the nose of intensified surveillance of communist groups, more
than a hundred revolutionaries held a unity congress and established a
unified party. Conducted somewhere in the outskirts of Metro Manila a
couple of weeks ago, the unity congress spanned several days of debates and
deliberations.
The Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino (PMP), the Sosyalistang Partido ng
Paggawa (SPP), the Partido Proletaryo Demokratiko (PPD) and a group of
Bangsamoro revolutionaries have formed a new party which is now simply
called the Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino (PMP) as a tribute to the
revolutionary martyr Ka Popoy Lagman. A Central Committee was elected,
unifying the party forces under a single leadership and a common Program
and Constitution. As stipulated in the Constitution, the majority of the
Central Committee members hail from the working class. Also the whole
Central Committee is based in the country not encamped abroad.
According to Patricio Ramirez, spokesperson of the PMP, "The merger, which
comes after almost ten years of disunity and splits, is a trail blazer for
the revolutionary movement and is a historic step forward for the Left in
the Philippines. The combined forces of the underground merger party gives
it a nationwide spread and they indisputably constitute the largest cadre
force and mass base in the urban areas of the country."
The PMP has set itself the task, in the next two years, of leading the mass
struggles that are bound to erupt in the context of the global capitalist
crisis and intense elite rivalry. "Our aim is to build a vibrant popular
movement under the leadership of the working class against imperialist
globalization, US intervention and the Arroyo regime," explained Ramirez.
The PMP belittled the witch hunting of open militant organizations by the
state and government-sponsored anticommunist groups. "The anticommunist
hysteria being fanned by the Arroyo regime is a sign of the desperation of
the ruling class and a measure of the advance of the revolutionary
movement. Sooner than later the social volcano that is Philippine society
will explode and the merger party was formed precisely to give direction to
the spontaneous struggles that will erupt," predicted Ramirez.
The PMP, PPD and the group of Bangsamoro revolutionaries trace their
origins to units of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) that split
off in the early 1990’s. Meanwhile the SPP members come not just from the
CPP but also from the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930. The merger is a
product of some ten years of clarification of revolutionary theory and
practice since the split from the CPP.
The merger into a single party was founded on solid unity around three
fundamental points. First, on the concrete application of Marxism-Leninism
on the concrete conditions of Philippine society and the path of the
workers revolution that will pass from the democratic to the socialist
stage. Second, on building a strong centralized party rooted in the working
class and animated by inner-party democracy. And third, on organizing the
independent mass movement led by the working class that will contest for
power against the warring factions of the ruling class. ###