Updates on Nepal Revolution

Collated articles from mainstream news outfits in Nepal, revealing the line struggle within the UCPN (M) to which path the Nepalese revolution is to take, with the advent of the deadline for Nepali Constitution in May 2011



Baidya document lambasts Dahal

KIRAN PUN

KATHMANDU, April 23: Expressing dissent over Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal´s political document, Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya presented a separate document at the party central committee (CC) meeting on Friday, demanding preparations for an immediate revolt to capture state power and write a ´people´s constitution.´

“The chairman has deviated from the party´s revolutionary goals. If the party is to agree to a constitution without ensuring socio-political changes, why did we ask so many to sacrifice their lives,” a leader quoted Baidya as saying at the CC.



Baidya was of the opinion that the country already had the 1990 constitution and the sacrifice of so many people cannot be justified if the party is to accept the spirit of that constitution.

In tones of someone badly cheated, Baidya accused Dahal of “revisionism, eclecticism, reformism and dishonesty”, and said the chairman had betrayed the proletariat and deviated from the party´s goals.

Baidya, who leads the party´s hardline camp, is not for concluding the peace process and constitution drafting through compromises with other parties.

“We should not opt for an integration process that humiliates PLA personnel,” a leader quoted Baidya as saying.

The chairman has deviated from the party´s revolutionary goals. If the party is to agree on a constitution without ensuring socio-political changes, why did we ask so many to sacrifice their lives?
--Baidya The Maoist senior vice-chairman argued that the Maoist leadership doesn´t want to become mentally prepared to launch a revolt, though the objective situation is conducive for this.

“The reactionary parties are undergoing political crisis while the people are enraged by the government´s inability to solve the problems the country is facing. So the ground is becoming ready for revolt, but the party lacks preparations for that,” he said.

The Baidya faction has argued that the central committee cannot overturn a decision taken by the party plenum. The party CC held immediately after the Palungtar plenum last November endorsed the line of revolt.

"We would not accept an anti-people constitution and the silence of the grave. Otherwise we had better follow the line of Mohan Bikram Singh and Madan Bhandari,” said a leader close to Baidya.

Party hardliners say they would see how the chairman reacts to Baidya´s document and then chart out their strategy.

“The floor is now open. It is yet to be seen how the chairman embraces the message of the Paluntar plenum, and we´ll forge our strategy accordingly,” said Kul Prasad KC of the Baidya faction.

At the CC meeting, Dahal presented his political document proposing that the party defer the line of immediate revolt and focus on completion of peace and the constitution.

Acknowledging deepening differences among the leaders, Maoist Chairman Dahal said that the party can hold a general convention by next February to settle to all outstanding feuds.

General convention will be the right solution to fix ideology differences that has weakened the party and created several cracks, a leader quoted Dahal as saying.

The faction led by Dr Baburam Bhattarai has long been demanding a general convention, which is 20 years overdue. The party establishment has been postponing the general convention citing an unfavorable political situation.

Dahal swings back to peace, constitution


KATHMANDU, April 20: Ditching the official party line of revolt, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has swung back to the line of peace and constitution floated by Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai.

In his three-page political document presented at the party politburo meeting on Wednesday, Dahal emphasized the need to conclude the peace process and constitution-drafting to safeguard the political achievements made so far.

“There is a real risk of counter-revolution if we don´t put in best efforts to conclude the peace process and constitution drafting,” a politburo member quoted Dahal´s document. With constitution-drafting deadline just a month away, Dahal was hard-pressed to choose between peace and a revolt.

The Maoist chairman, who keeps on vacillating between the lines of Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and Bhattarai, put forward three ´compelling´ reasons for changing his ideological posture.

First, the objective reality for revolution has undergone massive changes since the Palungtar plenum held last November. Second, the ´counter-revolutionaries´ are raising their heads and hatching conspiracies. And third, the party has not done enough homework for a revolt.

The Maoist party had adopted the line of revolt through a majority vote at a central committee meeting held a few days after the Palungtar plenum.

“The chairman´s document has deviated from the line and spirit of the Palungtar plenum,” said leader Kul Prasad KC who is close to Baidya.

Earlier, breaking his ideological alliance with Bhattarai, the Maoist chairman had swerved to the hard-line camp when he fell out with Bhattarai after the infamous Khanna garment episode.

In the politburo meeting on Wednesday, Bhattarai threw weight behind Dahal´s proposal, while Baidya launched lacerating criticism against Dahal and accused him of ´deception´. What irritated Baidya all the more was Dahal´s statement that he never proposed changing the party´s line to revolt in a true sense.

“A serious ideological deviation has bedeviled the chairman. The journey of rightist deviation starts from this point. It is a grave betrayal against the proletariat and their dream of revolution,” a leader quoted Baidya as saying.

Baidya also accused Dahal of being a man without any ideological line. “Your claim that you have your own ideological posture between the extreme right and extreme left has been proven wrong. Now there are two lines only [his and Bhattarai´s],” a leader quoted Baidya who also argued that the politburo doesn´t have any right to change the party line adopted by the CC after the Palungtar plenum. The party has called a meeting of the CC for Friday to discuss the issue further.

What next

The Dahal and Bhattarai together command a comfortable majority in the CC and the new document is likely to be endorsed by a majority vote.

“Now it is Baidya´s turn to register a note of dissent,” said a leader close to Dahal.

The hard-line faction is not likely to accept the document easily, and Baidya is likely to present a separate political document in the CC.

“We will not remain as spectators if the document is passed through a majority vote as was the case while sidelining Bhattarai last time. We will demand a plenum,” said a leader close to Baidya.

But there is virtually no possibility of holding a plenum as the constitution-drafting deadline approaches. “The disputes would be over for now after Baidya registers a note of dissent,” said a leader close to Dahal.

Party hardliners say they never fully trusted Dahal, who has always been dillydallying to bring out programs for a revolt.

The party endorsed the line of revolt in the famous Kharipati meeting, but the party establishment never charted political programs to implement the line. “He is against launching a revolt. We did not fully believe that he would embrace revolt as official line of the party. And he showed his true colors today,” said a leader from Baidya faction, which believes that Dahal had joined hands with Baidya for the latter´s organizational strength.

2011-04-20

Crossroads to war and peace

I had little time to digest what I saw in Nepal last December. Maybe because when I arrived in Manila, at once I was fuming with impatience after finding out that my luggage was lost by the airlines.

From the airport, I was even packed with worry because I have yet to find out where is the venue of the year-end meeting I need to go to, with other comrades being already there and their phones I couldn’t reach. Plus after the meeting, I hurried back to my home province only to be trapped there by ravaging rains, landslides, bringing devastation and displacement to the lives and livelihoods of many of our kababayans.

Without opportunity for evasion, I must report-back and this is also what I promised the Nepali young revolutionaries that I’ve met. I told Suman, one of closest friends I’ve made with while there, that we have to tell the stories of hope and struggle that the promise of revolution and socialism await the Nepali people, in the short time that I witnessed it or at least in contrast with the mainstream media blurring or sometimes distortion of it.

Not a holiday

I was not like some ostentatious tourists eager to tell their adventures in the Himalayas or some of the A-grade tourist spots like Pokhari or the city of temples in Kathmandu. The last time Nepal hit the Philippine news, it was when Garduce and Philippine mountaineers’ team reached the summit of Mt. Everest in March 2006.

There was live coverage by major outfits glorifying the climb but utterly oblivious of the raging struggle against the autocratic absolute monarchy in Nepal that time. The Nepali peoples uprising failed to even land in the sideline news.

Before leaving Manila I have acquainted myself of the would-be scenarios; the life-and death situation (of course topic of peoples’ war entails blood) that I could possibly encounter, though I’ve learned that the revolutionary communist movement in Nepal entered into a Peace Pact with mainstream bourgeois parties after the monarchy was toppled in 2006.

“Lal Salaam”

At the Kathmandu airport, I was recovering from the sensation of being up in the air for too long. The captain suspended the plane for a ten-minute treat for some tourists to have a glimpse of Himalayas from a higher altitude. From the top, the imminent Nepali storm is obscured.

I was met by Bijay at the immigration queue and whisked away directly to the opening of the 18th Convention of the All Nepal National Independent Student Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) at the Tribhuvan University. ANNISU-R is identified with the politics of the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) which is in peace process and members of current Constituent Assembly (CA) to establish a republic and pro-people Constitution since the fall of the monarchy.

On the way there, I was told by Bijay to prepare a short greeting to be addressed at the convention opening. I asked him what the translation of “revolutionary greetings” is in the Nepali language. And he said I could simply say “Lal Salaam!” which means “Red salute”.

I wasn’t able to deliver my short piece when I arrived at Tribhuvan University so I simply waved and raised my fist when my arrival was announced in front of around 10, 000 members of the ANNISU-R. Other international delegates had already spoken and at that time some district student leaders of ANNISU-R were already speaking in Nepali language.

The winter air brought a distinct feeling of warmth. Speeches were not simultaneously translated to us, but every speech is punctuated with applause and raised fists from the crowd.

The next day, mainstream broadsheets front-page's like The Himalayan Times carry the photo of the Maoist leaders present in the ANNISU-R convention opening, including Pushpa Kamal “Prachanda”, Mohan “Kiran” Baidya and Baburam Batarrai with a caption “The Big Guns”.

I asked one of our student guides, Suman, about the caption. “It might be because of Prachanda’s speech,” he said. “He told the ANNISU-R and the revolutionary youth to get ready now more than ever because the political situation is becoming serious.”

Lately, there has been increased uncertainty in Nepal. There has been no formal government for around six months now in this poor land-locked country of around 23 million people.UCPN-Maoist contender parties in the CA namely the Nepali Congress (NC) and Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist-Leninist (UML) accuse the Maoists of adhering still to violence after the 2006 Peace Accord was hammered out.

“Prachanda said we must ensure to finish the peace process but also be ready to take power if the reactionaries maneuver, for this not to happen.”

Suman added that’s why Prachanda’s speech was received with the most thunderous applause, aside from his being the chairperson of the UCPN-Maoist.

When I asked Suman what he thought of Prachanda’s exhortation, he said that violent confrontation is inevitable in Nepal if real change is to be achieved. “If we want a People’s Republic and socialism, I quote Mao,‘Political power comes out from the barrel of a gun.’”

I apologized for the many questions I asked Suman and he said with smiles not escaping his face, “Revolutionaries are patient for our struggle is protracted.”

Suman, a freshman law student, and unarguably juggles his role as our translator and program manager, explains that we have to open our ears wide open because we will soon encounter “contrasting ideas” during our program for the day.

Our conversation was interrupted, when the bus came to pick us up from the hostel where we were staying, to the Tribhuvan University. We met at the lobby the other delegates from Greece, India,Turkey, Norway, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Australia greeting each other with our new-learned greetings: “Lal Salaam!”

ILPS Statement on the International Students Day November 17, 2010

Solidarity with Students and Youth in the Struggle against Commercialization and the Imperialist Onslaught on Education and Future of the Youth

(Statement on the Occasion of International Students' Day, November 17, 2010)

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples' Struggle

We, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, extend our fervent solidarity with the students and youth of the world as they raise the banner of struggle against the rapacious commercialization of education and against the vicious onslaught of imperialism and the depredations of the global capitalist crisis on the education rights, the living and study conditions and future of the youth.

On this day November 17 declared as the International Students Day, we commemorate the valiant role of students and youth who fought alongside the people and made sacrifices against the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939 and against the scourge of fascism in various countries. The significance and relevance of this historic day inspire the students and youth to fight the parasitism, exploitativeness and violence of the imperialist powers and their reactionary agents, especially their attack on the education and future of the youth.

We suffer today the worsening social conditions as a consequence of the global capitalist crisis and the misuse of public funds to bail out the big banks and corporations. The funneling of public money to the vultures, who in the first place were responsible for the crisis, has only served to aggravate and deepen this worst ever world capitalist crisis since the Great Depression. It has not revived production and employment but has only made worse the living and working conditions of the people. Social unrest has therefore spread and intensified in both capitalist and underdeveloped countries.

The workers and people have risen up in millions to protest unemployment and the austerity measures undertaken against them by governments that have enlarged public deficits and the public debt by giving bail-out money and tax exemptions to the corporations and the wealthy. The austerity measures involve huge cut-backs on social spending for education, health and pension.

Education budget cuts in industrial capitalist countries have been met with resounding protests, unifying the students and youth with the teachers, researchers and the working class and migrant communities. Recently, the United Kingdom has been rocked by big protests due to the government’s scheme to double and triple the tuition fees for tertiary education, from the existing level of £3290 or $5264. In Italy, state budget cuts to education and the so-called education reform reducing teaching and research time and local subsidies have resulted in protest rallies and marches.

In the United States, nationwide demonstrations have been held, such as those of March 4 and October 7 National Day of Action to Defend Education, to demand the redirection of public money from bailouts, wars and the military to education and other social services and against the sharp increases in tuition. In countries like France, Greece, Portugal, students and youth have poured out to the streets and joined the working class and people in the clamor against the obscenity of so-called “crisis mitigation measures” like bail-outs for the banks and corporations and impoverishment for the workers and people on the other hand.

General strikes have been called as a collective statement of the workers, youth and people to defeat the anti-worker and anti-people policies prescribed by IMF, WB and European Union through the governments’ imposition of cut-backs in wages and pension, social services, unjust taxes, increase in retirement age and other infringements on social rights and benefits.

The policy of neoliberal globalization and current global economic crisis are further devastating the economic and social conditions in the underdeveloped countries in Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America. Liberalization of investments and trade, privatization of state assets and social services and deregulation of all previous restrictions on foreign monopoly capital have resulted in greater poverty, unemployment, abandonment of social services by governments and attacks on the hard-won rights of the people. Education like other social services is treated as a commodity, not as a basic need and a basic right.

In Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries, the students and youth are struggling against foreign incursions in the school curriculla and in plans of commercializing and raising private profits from educational institutions. Particularly in Sri Lanka, protests have broken out in 20 state universities against a legislation to set up private universities in the country and to allow foreign educator-capitalists. The government has reacted violently with the curtailment of the democratic rights to assembly. But the student masses have intensified their protests, undeterred by arrests and detention and suspension of student leaders.

In Bangladesh, the introduction of tuition hikes in University of Dhaka, Chittagong University and other state universities has resulted in student protests. Police have been deployed inside the Chittagong University to quell the growing protests of students demanding the abolition of the tuition hikes imposed since July 2010. Police have violently dispersed rallies, and subsequently raided student dormitories. The government detained student leaders and closed down the Chittagong University for almost two months until September 16.

In Southeast Asia, the student and youth movements have galvanized the people to act against the misallocation of government’s budget to the military and foreign debt servicing at the expense of budget allocations to social services, especially the cuts on state universities and colleges. In the Philippines, students and youth and their teachers are developing a nationwide strike due to the P1.1 billion slash to the operations budget of state universities and colleges. In Indonesia, students and youth groups are preparing for massive protests in 22 cities to protest increasing commercialization of education and the government allocation of only around 15% of the total budget requirement of state universities and colleges.

Since the plunge of the crisis to a deeper level in 2008, widespread protest actions against state budget cuts and privatization have also occurred in Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Chile, Benin, Nigeria, South Africa, Pakistan, India, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, Spain and more. A great number of the youth are systematically prevented from getting education in order to maintain a huge reserve of cheap labor which the monopoly capitalists and governments use as a buffer to contain the clamor for higher wages, social services and benefits.

The United Nations has declared this year as the World Year of the Youth, supposedly in line with the projected push for the realization of the so-called Millennium Development Goals. But such declaration amounts to mere gimmickry because it does not offer anything to realize a brighter future for the youth who continue to be victimized by the imperialist impositions of liberalization, privatization and deregulation. The imperialists continue to generate and shift the burden of crisis to the working people and the underdeveloped countries that they dominate.

The current crisis is driving more and more youth, workers and the people to unite and fight the oppressive measures that the imperialists and their reactionary allies impose on them. Resistance has taken various forms, including mass protests, walk-outs, and strikes. The students and youth involve themselves in campaigns to defend their education right and future. They realize and increase their strength through unity of will and militant collective actions. And they link arms with the rest of the people, especially the working people whose rights are violated by the imperialists and their reactionary puppets. ###

Strike

Signatories
National Youth Formations
National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP)
College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP)
League of Filipino Students (LFS)
Anakbayan
Kabataang Artista para sa Tunay na Kalayaan (KARATULA)
Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP)
KABATAAN Partylist

Regents of State Colleges and Universities
Cori Alessa Co, University of the Philippines System Student Regent
Sheryl Alapad, Polytechnic University of the Philippines Student Regent
Mikko James Rodriguez, Philippine Normal University Student Regent
Dr. Judy Taguiwalo, University of the Philippines Faculty Regent
Clodualdo Cabrera, University of the Philippines Staff Regent

Administration Officials, Deans and Faculty
Dr. Dante Guevara, PUP President
Dean Raul Pangalangan, former Dean, UP College of Law
Alfredo Pascual, fomer UP Alumni Regent
Dean Roland Tolentino, Dean, UP College of Mass Communication
Dean Edna Co, UP National College of Public Administration and Governance
Sarah Raymundo, CONTEND-UP
Dr. Fidel Nemenzo
Prof. Noni Queano
Prof. Vlad Gonzales
Prof. Gerry Lanuza
Prof. Danny Arao
Prof. Jonna Asis
Prof. Chester Arcilla, Chair, Development Studies Program, UP Manila College of Arts and Sciences...
Prof. Katrina Macapagal
Prof. Sharon Briones
Prof. Det Neri
Prof. Choy Pangilinan
Prof. Louie Vallejo
Prof. Marian Roque
Prof. Roselle Pineda
Prof. Siao Campoamor
Prof. Carl Ramota, Chair, Department of Social Sciences, UP Manila College of Arts and Sciences
Prof. Doroteo Abaya
Prof. Edberto Villegas
Prof. Rose Roque
Prof. Risa Jopson
Prof. Roland Simbulan
Prof. JPaul Manzanilla

Student Councils/ Governments:

University of the Philippines-Manila League of College Student Councils
Polytechnic University of the Philippines - Sentral na Konseho ng Mag-aaral
Samahan ng Mag-aaral para sa Sambayanan (SAMASA-PUP)
Eulogio Amang Rodriquez Institute of Science and Technology Institute Student Government
Polytechnic University of the Philippines Sentral na Konseho ng Mag-aaral
Alternative Students’ Alliance for Progress-Katipunan ng mga Progresibong Mag-aaral ng Bayan (ASAP-KATIPUNAN)
Araullo University -College of Law- Student Council
Central Luzon State University – University Supreme Student Council
La Fortuna College – Supreme Student Gouncil
Asian Institute of E-Commerce – Alliance of Peer Leaders
Provincial Manpower Training Center – Supreme Student Council
Eduardo L. Joson Memorial College – Supreme Student Council
College of Immaculate Conception – College Student Supreme Council
Good Samaritan Colleges – Supreme Student Council
ABE College of Business and Accountancy – Supreme Student Council
Midway Maritime Foundation Inc. – Supreme Student Council
AMA Computer College (Cabanatuan) – Student Society on Information Technology Education
Nueva Ecija University of Sciece and Technology – University Student Government
Wesleyan University – Philippines – Central Student Council
Araullo University Supreme Student Government
San Jose Christian Colleges – student Body Organization
STI Education Center – Supreme Student Council
Palayan City Institute of Technology – Supreme Student Council
First Asian International Systems College – Student Body Organization
Core Gateway College – Education Student Council
Laguna State Polytechnic University- Mechanical Engineering Society
Cavite State University- Indang College of Arts and Sciences- Students Committee
University of the Philippines-Diliman University Student Council
University of the Philippines-Diliman League of College Councils
University of the Philippines-Manila University Student Council
University of the Philippines- Baguio University Student Council
University of the Philippines- Extension Program in Pamapanga University Student Council
University of the Philippines- Baler Campus University Student Council
University of the Philippines- Visayas University Student Council
University of the Philippines- Cebu College Student Council
University of the Philippines- Miag-ao Campus Student Council
University of the Philippines- Visayas Tacloban Student Council
University of the Philippines- Mindanao Campus Student Council
Philippine Normal University- Manila University Student Government
Philippine Normal University- Agusan Student Council
Philippine Normal University -Cadiz Student Council
Philippine Normal University- Isabela Student Council
Philippine Normal University- Quezon Student Council
Benguet State University Student Government
Bicol University Student Government
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntipula USC
Romblon State College Student Council
University of Rizal System Student Council

Don Honorio Ventura College of Arts and Trade Supreme Student Council
Palawan State University Student Council
Romblon State University Supreme Student Council
Surigao del sur State Polytechnic College Student Council
PUP Ragay Supreme Student Council
University of Southern Mindanao Supreme Student Council
Cotabato City Polytechnic College Supreme Student Council
Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University Supreme Student Council
Western Mindanao State University University Student Council
Romblon State College Student Council

Alliances:
Alliance of Concerned Students-Partido ng Demokratikong Mag-aaral (ACS-PDM), University of Northern Philippines in Vigan, Ilocos Sur
Nueva Ecija Colleges and Universities Student Councils Association
Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights- UP (STAND-UP)
Alliance of Students for Alternative Progress-Katipunan ng Demokratikong Mag-aaral (ASAP-KATIPUNAN)
Katipunan ng mga Sangguniang Mag-aaral sa UP (KASAMA sa UP )
ANAK-PUP
National federation of Student Leaders in PNU

Organizations
STAND UP UP Agham Youth Alay Sining
Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity-UP Diliman UP Anakbayan
Artists’ Circle Fraternity Artists’ Circle Sorority
Astrum Scientis Sorority Beta Lambda Kappa Sorority
Center for Nationalist Studies EMC2 Fraternity
UP Gabriela Gamma Sigma Pi Fraternity
UP Ibalon Lambda Sigma Pi Sorority UP League of Filipino Students
UP Moriones UP NNARA Youth Pi Omicron Fraternity-UPDiliman
Pi Sigma Delta Sorority-UP Diliman UP Praxis
PROGAY-LESBOND UP Psychological Association UP Roma
Saligan sa CSSP Sigma Delta Pi Sorority-UP Diliman
Sigma Kappa Pi Fraternity-UP Diliman Sinagbayan
UP Student Christian Movement UP Union of Journalists in the Philippines
Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity-UP Manila Alpha Phio Omega Sorority-UP Manila
UPM Anakbayan UPM Gabriela Health Organization for the People
UPM Karatula UPM League of Filipino Students UPM NNARA Youth
UPM Pre-Law Society Sigma Delta Pi Sorority-UP ManiAlliance of Concerned Students- PUP Juxtapoz KABARO BayanMuna
National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates- Youth
Sigma Kappa Pi Fraternity –UP Manila UPM Student Christian Movement
Anakbayan-Cordillera Anakbayan-Gitnang Luzon
Anakbayan-Metro Manila Anakbayan-Timog Katagalugan
Anakbayan-Bikol Anakbayan-Cebu
Anakbayan-Panay Anakbayan-Negros
Anakbayan-Davao Anakbayan-New York/New Jersey
Anakbayan-Seattle Anakbayan-East Bay Anakbayan-Los Angeles League of Filipino Students (LFS) -NCR
LFS-Cagayan Valley LFS-Baguio
LFS-Palawan LFS-UPLB
LFS-Tarlac State University LFS-UP Pampanga
LFS-Sorsogon LFS-Cebu LFS-Negros LFS-Iloilo LFS-Mindanao State University-IIT
LFS-Marawi
LFS Lanao LFS Cagayan De Oro
LFS Malaybalay LFS-Southern Mindanao
LFS-Far South Mindanao LFS-San Fransisco
KARATULA-Ilocos KARATULA – La Union
KARATULA – Baguio (Tabak) KARATULA - Pangasinan
KARATULA-NCR KARATULA- Sorsogon
KARATULA-Cebu KARATULA – Tacloban (Alay Sining UP Tacloban)
KARATULA – Negros
KARATULA – SMR Student Christian Movement (SCM)- NCR
SCM-Southern Tagalog SCM-Eastern Visayas
SCM-Central Visayas SCM-Iloilo
SCM-Caraga SCM- Zamboanga
SCM-Davao SCM-Tandag
SCM-General Santos

Student Publications
Philippine Collegian
Manila Collegian
PUP Catalyst
Earist Technozette
The Scholastican
STI aSTIg
PNU The Torch
TSU The Work
TSU The Blaze
UP Vista
Ateneo de Davao Atenews
UPB Outcrop
UPLB Perspective
Ateneo de Naga The Pillars
TUA Trinity Observer
PLMun The Warden
UP SOLIDARIDAD
PUP Alyansa ng Kabataang Mamamahayag
PNU Pluma
University of Negros Occidental – Recoletos Tolentine Star

Statement of Youth and Student Groups from Manila, Phillipines on India's Operation Green Hunt

We, in the various youth and student groups in the Philippines express our condemnation at the intensifying attacks of the Indian government, starting from the Central government down to the state governments in pursuing the so-called Operation Green Hunt, its counter-insurgency operations purportedly directed primarily against the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

From the start of the Operation it has become clear that the real targets are not the Maoists alone but the resistance of the people of India against the wanton and profit-driven operations of big multinational companies backed by government and its military and police.

It has been reported that intensified militarization in the regions of Orissa, Jharkand, Andra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and in the heroic Lalgarh had further resulted to wider human rights violations. Illegal and unjust arrests, forceful evacuation, torture, rape, and extra-judicial killings are being committed by military, police and paramilitary without hesitation, in full public view and with so much impunity.

The Operation Green Hunt is against the adivasis, farmers, ordinary people especially in the remotest and poorest villages of India. The only crime they have committed is to stand and prevent the profit-driven mining and corporations in its operations which will destroy their livelihood and plunder the environ and India's natural resources.

We condemn the use of the Operation to flush out the adivasis and farmers from their land and government's building of concentration camps of the displaced in order to pursue its Memorandum of Agreements (MOA) with various mining corporations. We demand that these camps be immediately closed.

We demand that the Indian government withdraw heightened military deployment in the countryside and halt its Operation Green Hunt, and balked at pursuing anti-people projects which will only trample upon the basic rights of Indian people.

We support the Indian youth and people in their legitimate resistance against the systematic loot of India's resources which deprive its own people their life and livelihood, and their future.

Long live International Solidarity!


ANAKBAYAN (Sons and Daughters of the People)

Student Christian Movement of the Philippines

League of Filipino Students (LFS)

On the January 30-31 Demonstration

An assessment of the events subsequently January 26, 1st day of brutal dispersal in the period of FQS. This is lifted from the FQS Library.

By Ang Bayan, official publication of the Communist Party of the Philippines
Published in the book, First Quarter Storm of 1970 (Silangan Publishers, 1970), p. 36-45)

The Brutality of the Reactionary State

Not satisfied with the brutal breaking-up of the January 26 demonstration in front of Congress, the reactionary regime of Marcos Perpetrated on January 30-31 far bloodier and more brutal crimes against more than 50,000 students, progressive intellectuals, workers and peasants who demonstrated in front of Malacañang.

Four student heroes enrolled in various large schools in the Greater Manila area were wantonly murdered with rifle fire by military troops and the police. Hundreds of other young men and women were seriously injured and maimed for life. They filled six large hospitals in the Greater Manila area. The savagery of the shooting and truncheon beating conducted by the reactionary troops and police was such that until now scores of demonstrators continue to be on the verge of death. Hundreds of militant demonstrators were arrested and wounded demonstrators were thrown into PC and Army trucks like hogs for the butcherhouse. Many of those arrested were subjected to torture and long hours of interrogation by PC investigators. Some of those apprehended are still being missed by their schoolmates and friends.

Even after the demonstration, the fascist brutes continued to kidnap and arrest students and other demonstration leaders in the futile attempt of the Marcos puppet reactionary regime to blackmail and intimidate them and forestall more and bigger mass protests against its bloody crimes against the people. Immediately after the demonstration, the reactionary government filed sedition charges against demonstration leaders and other militants, closed the schools in the Greater Manila area and turned its spies against patriotic students and leaders of mass organizations suspected of organizing more protest actions. A ban on protest demonstrations was brazenly imposed.

During and after the demonstrations, the fascist puppet chieftain Marcos called all his top henchmen in the major services of the reactionary armed forces and briefed them for more intensified suppression and intimidation of patriotic students and organizations. The U.S. A.I.D,-trained brutes of the Manila police as well as those of the suburban areas were organized to be let loose on the demonstrators.
Never has there been a more open and bloodier suppression of democratic rights in the city than the suppression of the demonstration of January 30-31.

The Revolutionary Courage of the Students and Other Demonstrators

The militant participants of the January 26 demonstration in front of Congress were never cowed by the brutality of the reactionary state. They came back with more intense patriotism and courage to join the January 30-31 demonstration against the reactionary state and the fascist puppets of U.S. imperialism.

The militant students, constituting the majority of the participants in the demonstrations, came in big numbers from 36 universities, colleges and high schools in Manila. Also participating were representatives from more than 40 universities and colleges in the provinces. Together with contingents of workers and peasants, they gave full play to the revolutionary spirit of “It is right to rebel” against U.S. imperialism and local reaction. They fought tit for tat against the reactionary troops and police with explosives made on the spot, iron bars taken from street railings and stones. They commandeered a fire truck to break the main gate of Malacañang and a bus to break the lines of the advancing hordes of Metrocom men and set fire to several army and police vehicles, including trucks, jeeps and a cop motorcycle.

The patriotic demonstrators shouted revolutionary slogans condemning the fascist brutality of the reactionary state and calling on the workers, peasants, students and progressive intellectuals to unite against U.S. imperialism, feudalism and the Marcos puppet reactionary regime.

The residents in the demonstration area were inspired by the dauntless revolutionary spirit of the demonstrators as they held their ground against the attacks of the armed brutes of the reactionary state. They took in many wounded demonstrators and even treated them.

Frightened out of his wits, the fascist puppet Marcos gave the order to shoot the patriotic demonstrators and had a helicopter ready for his immediate escape from the ire of the militant demonstrators. Apart from the 2,000 reactionary troops which unleashed the sanguinary suppression against the demonstrating masses, AFP chieftain Manuel Yan ordered the 12,000-man strong PC on “red-alert”, and the air force, navy and army on “blue alert”. He even summoned Task Force Lawin, the Marines and five companies of the Special Forces from Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija to reinforce the troops in and around Manila. This has clearly shown the utter panic of the Marcos reactionary regime in confronting the militant masses of demonstrators. In mortal fear of further mass protest actions against its corrupt and brutal regime, it has kept a large number of reactionary troops in the Greater Manila area up to now.

After the demonstration of January 30-31, the patriotic students and other demonstrators have continuously fought in various forms the reactionary puppet regime and vowed to develop their struggle in scale and depth. Their dauntless revolutionary spirit has inspired and won the sympathy of the broad masses of the people throughout the country. Mass actions are sweeping the country in support of the January 30-31 demonstration and in protest against the fascist terror perpetrated by the Marcos puppet reactionary regime.

The revolutionary courage and heroism of the students have lifted the hearts of the oppressed and exploited people all over the country. They have in a big way fanned the flames of revolutionary struggle. The entire Filipino people are increasingly awakening to the need for armed revolutionary struggle in the face of armed counter-revolution.

Subsequent Tactics of the Enemy

Within 24 hours after the sanguinary suppression of the patriotic demonstrators, the fascist chieftain Marcos babbled in his “nationwide call” through the mass media that the militant mass demonstration was either “communist-inspired” and “not communist-inspired” in a desperate effort to tone down the immediate nationwide condemnation of his bloody crimes. Marcos has tried in vain to cover up the fact that the broad masses of the student demonstrators together with workers and peasants, are united in their common feeling of indignation against and in their resistance to his puppet reactionary regime and his U.S. imperialist masters. He cannot hope to split the ranks of patriotic students, workers and peasants who will always rise up inasmuch as they have reached a new and higher level of consciousness against the enemies of national democracy.

Marcos has tried to wash his hands of the blood of the patriotic demonstrators brutally murdered and maimed by his henchmen – the reactionary military troops and police. He even has the impudence to demand gratitude from the people because he has exercised “tolerance” and restrained himself from murdering more students or formally suspending the privilege of habeas corpus. But his hypocritical speech cannot erase the fact of the unprecedented murder of four student youth and maiming and mass arrests of hundreds of patriotic demonstrators under his regime nor can it hide the truth that all this is but a preparation for further bloody suppressions of patriotic militants and organizations and the national democratic movement in general.

Marcos’ January 31st red-baiting statement has set the line for the subsequent bicameral hearings being conducted by Congress. It is evident from the pattern of interrogation in the hearings that militant and patriotic organizations are the object of this witch-hunt. This again is a dirty scheme to divert the attention of the people from the bloody crimes of the Marcos reactionary regime and to stifle the growing mass movement of the Filipino people against U.S. imperialism and its local reactionary allies. It is not surprising fur such a politically bankrupt regime to concentrate its attack on those who truly speak and act for the national democratic interests of the people. Not a single one of its henchmen who brutally attacked the patriotic demonstrators has been apprehended and tried.

Far from putting the blame on the reactionary troops and police, Marcos even lauded their “exemplary” conduct in the murder, maiming and mass arrests of the patriotic militant demonstrators. Together with his gang of fascist brutes, Marcos led a field mass at Malacañang Park where he took the opportunity to exhort the troops of the reactionary armed forces to prepare for more sanguinary suppression of the people’s struggle for national liberation and democratic rights.

Marcos callously manipulates the Catholic Church through Cardinal Santos, the bishops and the priests to chasten the demonstrators for having militantly acted in defense of their democratic rights. True to his role as an apologist of the counter-revolutionary state which exploits and oppresses the Filipino people, Cardinal Santos is first of all “concerned” about the “destruction” of “private property” than about the wanton killing of four student demonstrators and the serious injury of hundreds of demonstrators by the Marcos fascist gang. He clamours for a “dialogue” only after a monologue of bullets burst out from the guns of the reactionary troops and police to repress the indignant voices of the patriotic demonstrators who gathered on that historic day of January 30 and fought back for more than six hours till the early hours of January 31. in more cleverly couched terms so as not to appear “political”, he has also warned against “ideologies” which “sow disunity” among the people. This is a vicious attempt to hide the truth that never in the history of our country have the Filipino people forged such a militant unity against such a hopelessly corrupt regime which has extremely isolated itself from the overwhelming majority of the people because of its virulent opposition to their national democratic aspirations.

After the murder, maiming and mass arrests of patriotic demonstrators, the Marcos puppet regime would now dangle before the students monetary and other material bribes such as the promise of a $0.6 million trust fund for so-called “student welfare programs and projects” and the creation of a “national student commission”. But the students know better. They are very much aware that this is but one ace of the counter-revolutionary dual tactic of the fascist puppet regime to soften up their struggle against the reactionary state. They are more vigilant than ever about the dirty trick of buying off scabs in the student and youth movement.

In order to attack the surging patriotic student and youth movement, the Marcos reactionary regime is resorting to the use of fascist gangs and even the “Monkees”. It has also sent infiltrators and agents into youth meetings and conferences in the foolish hope of splitting the ranks of patriotic and militant organizations of youth and students.

The Marcos reactionary regime continues to mobilize thousands of military troops for guarding the Greater Manila area. It has ordered the PC authorities of various zones to organize their own “anti-riot” squads to suppress the rapidly spreading wave if indignation rallies and demonstrations against the brutal suppression of the patriotic demonstrators in Manila.

The puppet regime of Marcos in its role as the chief hatchetman of U.S. imperialism and feudalism has been so discredited before the eyes of the broad masses of the Filipino people that only the most rabid counter-revolutionaries will ever try to save it from its inevitable doom as the local revisionist renegades are vainly attempting to do by crying in dismay about the “purely anti-Marcos” line of the recent militant mass demonstrations. Evidently, this is for the sole purpose of begging political capital from the Marcos reactionary regime in the form of allowing them to participate in bourgeois parliamentary politics.

Evaluation of the January 26 and January 30-31 Demonstrations
The demonstrations of January 26 and January 30-31 came close on the heels of the student and worker demonstrations against the visit of U.S. Vice-President Agnew last December 29. They signify the new awakening of the Filipino people against U.S. imperialism and the local reactionary puppets. They are a bugle call for more militant mass actions in the city for this year as well as the current decade.
These demonstrations have served to raise the consciousness of the masses of the Filipino people against the reactionary state which serves U.S. imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. The broad masses of the people have increasingly understood the need for revolutionary armed struggle against the armed counter-revolution and for overthrowing the present reactionary state.

The demonstrations have served as a rich source of activists for the national democratic revolution and, therefore, of prospective members and fighters of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army.

The revolutionary mass actions in the city are bound to develop in coordination with the surging agrarian revolution in the countryside. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines, ideological, political and organizational preparations are continuously being made for intensified revolutionary armed struggle in the countryside and bigger mass actions in the city against U.S. imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. The entire reactionary system in the Philippines is rotting daily and the objective conditions for waging armed struggle are getting better daily.

Internationally, U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism are plunging speedily into insoluble political and economic crises while the invincible forces of socialism and national liberation are surging in ever-victorious waves.
The revolutionary situation has never been so excellent!

The students and progressive intellectuals who participated in the demonstrations of January 26 and January 30-31 have proven their revolutionary courage and militance. By constantly studying and implementing Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought in a living way and by integrating themselves firmly with the masses of workers and peasants, learning from as well as teaching them, they will certainly not fall back but march forward along the road of the struggle for national democracy.

The ferment that was FQS

It was a Black Friday. That infamous day that shocked the entire nation when high-powered guards of Malacanang fired upon fleeing youth rallyists on January 30, 1970 happened just four days after demonstration of around 20, 000 youth which was also violently dispersed by the Metropolitan Command of the Philippine Constabulary. Many of the students were indiscriminately fired upon with Armalites and Thompson from the back as they retreated as far as Claro M. Recto Avenue. Four hapless rallyist died in the January 30 assualt: Felicisimo Singh Roldan, 21, of the Far Eastern University; Ricardo Alcantara, 19, of the University of the Philippines; Fernando Catabay, 18, of Manuel L. Quezon University and; Bernardo Tausa, 16, of the Mapa High School.

What happened in that Black Friday convinced many about the character of the Marcos regime and its fascistic propensity. Demonstrations would be organized day after it happened, and sustained week after week.

But Marcos, whose fascistic nature increasingly exhibited, would employ “red-baiting” as justification to the murder and repressions of dissenters. For example, on the Black Friday incident, instead of castigating the MetroCom commanding officer, Marcos fired the canon ball at the demontrators themselves and promoted Col. Ordoñez to general!

Marcos spoke of a conspiracy: “I have been receiving continuous information of the conspiracy that is being perfected or was perfected for the takeover of Malacañang Palace…..” and madly self-convincingly said “To the insurrectionary elements, I have a message. My message is: any attempt at the forcible overthrow of the government will be put down immediately. I will not tolerate nor allow Communist to take over…The Republic will defend itself with all the force at its command until your armed elements are annihilated. And I shall lead them.”

Marcos, in his vicious attempt at concealing his regime' accountability in the murder and the many mifortunes the country is experiencing, concocted a shadow state enemy in the name of the “subversives”, the destabilizers of the fortunate order of things and perfect democracy under his administration.

The country would be increasingly symphatetic to the cause of the demonstrators, and their clamor even echoed by politicians in the unlikely halls like the Congress and Senate. While Marcos and his henchmen are getting utterly isolated.

That historical juncture would later be called the First Quarter Storm (FQS). This period from January 25 to March of 1970 ignated not just on the days when the state police began dispersing youth rallies with excessive brutality. A year later, Diliman Commune which started out as a student strike on the first day of February against the 3 centavo oil price increase per liter, would eventually become the University of the Philippines academic community's defiance against military and police incursion of the barricade.

The powder, the source of the powerful agitation for youth outrage would later become clearer to the older generation. It was not the youth's penchant for adventures and riots nor an empty mimic of the mamoth rallies and youth and students occupations in Europe and America in the turn of the decade. The youth scorned the corruption of the nation's leaders, the classical feudal oppression in vast countryside, the domination of US of almost all of our country's state of affairs.

Most of the students and youth who joined the demonstrations harbor resentment at the lavishness of the Marcos' family and cronies amidst the greater poverty of great majority of the Filipinos. Frustrations run high over the daily crunch of the poor caused by the sky-rocketing inflation, and Marcos' servility to the United States, marching in kowtow in its wars around the globe from America's proxy wars and backed dictators in Latin America, to the US-backed Suharto genocide of communists in neighboring Indonesia to the Vietnam War.

Although not yet fully dominated by the leftist activists, having at the start at the helm moderate leaders such as Edgar Jopson of the National Union of Students in the Philippines (NUSP), the radicals like the Kabataang Makabayan and Samahan ng Kabaataang Demokratiko (SDK) would usually bring its members and mobilize in thousands. Around 37 universities were represented for example in the January 30 demonstration and in this mamoth rally, streets leading to Malacanang from Recto Ave. were literally clogged by the demonstration, with its tail reaching until Congress (now National Museum building).

Their slogans “Imperialismo, Burukrata-kapitalismo, Pyudalismo IBAGSAK!” and “Makibaka, Huwag Matakot!” would reverbirate throughout. The “National Democratic” leaders would give the sharpest analysis of the character of the Philippine society, and bluntly call Marcos the puppet of the US. Isssues in the national and local context, and even in the international scene would not be left unscrutinized.

It could be true that not all participants in the FQS had the foresight on how the series of events would eventually end. Some might have disparaged opinions about the meaning of the FQS. Some might call it an event or series of remarkable events. But many regard it as an awakening period in our history that actually mold a fighting generation. The FQS pose the very issue of societal ills and oppression, how to confront a status quo which wield the coersive apparatus and brandish its might to any dissenters.

Most of all, it led many of the brightests of that generation to the road less travelled, taking the option of the just and revolutionary way of ending the oppression as the only way, going to the countryside and merging with the peasants in the armed struggle. Marcos in responding with ironhand, in a way, has been one of the best recruiters of activists and guerrilla fighters for the New Peoples Army.

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Today's ND activists always look back to FQS as a defining period in our history. The political astuteness and courage of FQS activists, would anyway continue to inspire the youth movement in the early 80s up to the depose of the Marcos dictatorship, to the generation of youth activists that ousted Estrada in 2001.

FQS is thus never too far. The oppression and societal ills that former activists never balked at in confronting have grown to be immedicable. And a revolutionary goad for another transforming storm will continuously be in the making.

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In its 4oth commemorative anniversary, veterans of the FQS launched an online archive of that period. It contains rare pictures of the actions and events, with eye-witness account published in some of the country's leading journals right after the events.

Check this out!