On page 11 of the attached December 7, 2004 copy of Ang Bayan, the mass newspaper of the Communist Party of the Philippines (published by its Central Committee), there is a diagram of so-called “counter-revolutionary groups” and their links with “Trotskyists” and Social Democrats.
The diagram, prepared by the Department of International Work of the CPP, reeks of the old sectarian shenanigans perpetrated even today by the thoroughly sectarian and Maoist CPP. The “counter-revolutionary” tags given to other groups restores the Stalinist hysteria of the old period. It ís surprising this is still happening at this time and age! (Of course when they attack Trotsky, they defend Stalinism.)
Look at how they defined the “Trotskyists”: “known saboteurs of the mass movement for raising slogans that go beyond the actual level of mass consciousness and that are not fitted to the existing social system”. Maybe they’re referring to slogans of socialism because in their own thinking, national democracy should be the sole slogan of the day.
Then their characterization of the “Trotskyists”: “they are known to suddenly shifting to the Right when mass political actions are on the ebb”. Have they heard of their own experience (of supporting GMA during the Edsa 2 uprising) and the Stalinist historical shifts to the Right and to the Left during crucial moments of the revolutionary movement in the late 1920s up until the entire Stalinist period (the 1920s brought about the rout of the Chinese Communist Party when Stalin insisted on the classic “bloc of four classes” formula, which the Philippines CPP still holds sacred).
I myself have been critical of some major tenets of Trotsky’s ideas (such as the concept of Permanent Revolution, as opposed to Leninís two-stage theory of continuing revolution), but I will not go down the blind path of attacking Trotsky as counter-revolutionary and distorting his role in the Russian revolution, etc., as this falls into the Stalinist claptrap of character assassination and the likes, which is aimed at hiding the bureaucratization of the CPSU under Stalin’s helm.
The CPP’s level of sectarianism is awesome, and also dangerous. Imagine isolating itself from different international political currents, especially the revolutionary currents represented by such group as the DSP-Australia, Socialist Alliance, and the Fourth International. Whatever differences we have with these groups, it will be totally sectarian to lump them all as “counter-revolutionaries”.
There is also a note of concern. When the CPP calls people as “counter-revolutionaries”, does it mean they’re fair game for assassination? Isn’t it the label they used to assassinate Rolly Kintanar and Arturo Tabara? Aside from comrades who are rumored to be in the CPP “hit list”, such as Ric Reyes and Nilo dela Cruz, the article also names the following political figures: Manjette Lopez; Liddy Nacpil; Tito dela Cruz; Caridad Pascual; Etta Rosales; Walden Bello, Boy Morales; Gani Serrano; Ike de los Reyes; Sonny Melencio.
Killings, violence and thuggery are the classic Stalinist methods of “resolving” differences in the workers movement introduced under Joseph Stalin. There are no such periods of “red terror” during the time of Marx, Engels and Lenin. All political differences, including with the reformists and social democrats, must be resolved through political means. This is the proletarian way that should be upheld by all revolutionaries.
Sonny Melencio