On the revolutionary united front

[red_che]

This is from the document Requirement of the Revolutionary United Front by Comrade Armando Liwanag, Chairman, Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines

The class line of the revolutionary united front in the new-democratic revolution is to uphold the class leadership of the proletariat, to rely on the peasantry as the main ally of the proletariat, to win over the urban petty-bourgeoisie as a progressive force, further to win over the middle bourgeoisie as a positive force and to take advantage of the splits among the reactionaries who are big comprador-bourgeois and landlords in order to isolate and destroy the power of the enemy.

At every given time in the civil war, the enemy is the worst among the reactionaries and the most servile to the imperialists. In a national war of liberation against foreign aggression, the foreign aggressor is the enemy. At the moment, the ruling reactionary clique is the enemy being propped up by the imperialists.

The revolutionary united front is aimed at arousing and mobilizing the broad masses of the people in their millions and the broadest range of organized forces against the narrowest target, the enemy at every given time. By adopting and employing the united front policy and tactics, the revolutionary party of the proletariat amplifies the strength of the revolutionary movement as it fights one enemy after another.

The revolutionary united front is both an offensive and defensive weapon and takes both illegal and legal forms. In connection with the revolutionary armed struggle, it seeks to isolate the enemy in order to make more effective the blows of the people’s army, which is the principal weapon for overthrowing the enemy and seizing political power. In this regard, it can be said that the NDFP is a united front for armed struggle, for seizing political power.


The complete text is in this link: Philippine Revolution Web Central (http://www.philippinerevolution.org/cgi-bin/cpp/pdocs.pl?id=rrufe;page=01)

[Chrysalis]

The revolutionary united front is both an offensive and defensive weapon and takes both illegal and legal forms.
They should no longer think in terms of "legal" and "illegal" as these are terms conceived of by their enemy. They decide their own actions, without judgment of whether it's legal or illegal to the existing rule.

[red_che]

The terms "legal" and "illegal" maybe some kind of misnomer, but I think what they imply here is that there are open/legal organizations within the revolutionary united front such as the trade unions, student mass organizations, women's organizations, peasant organizations, etc. But at the core of these open/legal organizations are the "illegal" revolutionary organizations such as the CPP and other revolutionary mass organizations which direct and lead such organizations.

Also, there are the petty-bourgeois organizations and some factions of the ruling class which are not part of the revolutionary movement per se but are otherwise part of the broad united front and their (the petty-bourgeois and some section of the reactionary) actions are mostly confined within the "legal" aspect and this must be taken into consideration by the revolutionary movement while achieving an immediate objective of isolating the most reactionary forces, that is, the ruling class and the imperialists.

[bayano]

i support them, and have found that they are one of the least criticized armed movements, as opposed the those in nepal and colombia for example. but i always wonder about their viability? how likely are they to reach any success. the pla in nepal is stronger than them or the colombian guerrillas and has been fighting for a fraction of the time. doesnt mean that we should stop supporting them, but it is a question to be discussed. :castro:

[red_che]

We must consider the specific differences in their conditions. The Philippines, as characterized in their document Specific Characteristics of Our Pepople's War, their country is an archipelago and that's what makes it a difficulty. Another is their long history of being colonized by the Spaniards and American Imperialist colonization which, until now, is still their neocolony.

And many other conditions which makes their revolution unique in some ways. Their reviolution is very interesting to study and worthy of giving support.