Today is Wednesday Janurary 14th, 2009 and it is now 12:43 AM here in the Philipines.
Music wise, I am just listening to a Microsfot Media stremlined Vocal Trance station (DJIM, Vocal Trance, 56K) and I listen to it alot with Vocal Trance probably being my favourite genre (most of the time).
Book wise, still into the book on India as well as "Accidental Empire" by Gershom Gorenberg. in English, it is about the so called "Israeli Settler Movement" that began in 1967 and is now on its last legs, thank G-D.
As for the title, well since I gave a very long and boring history of the Islamic Insurrection(s) here in the Philippines I thought that just in case people ever actually cared about the dynamic here, or even Communism in general, that I ought to give equal time in explaining the Communist Insurrection as well.
Getting right into it...
In the mid 1930s, in central and northern Luzon, the island that holds Manila, a movement arose, and christened itself "Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas," ( Communist Party of the Philippines or "CPP" for short).
In WWII Japan invaded Luzon and the rest of the country and guerilla movements were formed to figh them. On Luzon the upper classes tended to side with the Japanese, seeing it as a way to gain freedom from American domination which frustrated their economic ambitions as well. The fact that landholders sided with the Japanese spurred the CPP to form an armed wing in 1942, "Hukong Bayan Laban sa Mga Hapon" (Peoples' Army Against the Japanese) although they were more commonly known by a contraction of their name, "Hukbalahap," and later as simply the "Huk."It was led by a 4 person central committee but had a single figurehead for the public, Luis Tarac.
When the war ended the Huk, like most guerilla groups had high hopes for a bright future and they ceased most military activity to enter the political arena. However, when it managed to gain some seats in the Senate the new govt. invalidated their party and so they were once again the epitome of the disenfranchised.
This inspred the group to reform as a Leninist Communist guerilla force and after a meteroic rise capitliising on their partisan history , they made some huge tactical errors which culminated in the cold blooded killing of a popular senator's family as they were travelling in a motorcade. Their mass base of support, so critical to any guerilla war quickly evaporated almost as quickly as it had formed leaving the group incredibly marginalised by 1950.
Trying to waft away the stench of their misdeeds they reformed in 1950 as "Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (Peoples' Liberation Army," or PLA).
In that same year, 1950 the American Truman Admnistration began coordinating a mass PSYOPs program (Psychological Warfare) spearheaded by the CIA's famed Ed Landsdale but this US intervention has the opposite of its intended effect in once again mobilising a huge mass base of support for the communist guerillas.
By 1954 the Huk had again shrank in support and also in manpower to a force of less than 1000 marginalised fighters with very little armed effectiveness.
At this point the Philippines could have broken the group but failed to seize the iniative and lost that precious chance.After founder Luis Tarlac surrendered in 54 the group gradually sank into oblivion but its ideological base amongst intellectuals remained powerful, since the govt. failed to remain vigliant and continue hounding the ideologues since the military threat was dissipating.
In the early 60s these ideologues reformed the Party as "Bagong Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan" but forwent any armed struggle and di not even bother to form an armed wing.
Then, in the wake of the turbulent late 60s under Marcos, a new generation of ideologues emerged, who had a much different outlook. these new activists were keen on Maoism while rejecting Leninism.
Leninism, or the Soviet form of Communism, favoured a rebellion by the working masses of urbanised areas while Maoists were in the Chinese orbit and favoured a protracted struggle in the rural sector.
In Central Luzon on the Xmas Holiday of 1968 Jose Maria Sison spearheded the founding of the reformed "CPP" and codified the new struggle. A couple of months later in March of 69 they formed the NPA, "New Peoples' Army," their armed wing which today is the face of Communist REvolution here.
Sison had been trying to figure a way in which to iniate his vision for rural armed struggle. When he met Bernabe Buscayno, AKA "Kummander Dante," an older veteran of the Luzon Huk during WWII and the following yuears he realised Buscayno could lead the armed revolt he was aiming to start, and so he did.
By the mid-80s the NPA was in serious danger of taking over the nation, but through huge ideological and tactical errors lost that chance (lots of lost chances but that s history after all). First, the party began splitering.
The 80s were famous worldwide for "Revolutionary Theology," a radical movement within the Catholic Church with priests and monks around the world leading leftist struggles. The Philippines with its overwhelming Catholic heritage was extremely vulnerable to the movement and in the Codillera Region of Luzon, the mountains, Lumad (tribasl) flocked to a priest named Father Conrado Balweg.
Balweg became the most powerful of the Communist military leaders for a short period of time and capitalising on his power base led his faction out of the NPA and formed a group called first, "Cordillera Peoples' Liberation Front" and shortly there after, in 1985, "Corillera Peoples' Liberation Army."
He wanted emphasis placed on the Cordillera tribals whom he thought were getting shortchanged by NPA ideals and leadership. His group battled the NPA more than the govt and soon settled with the Govt.
Meanwhile the movement entered a stage called "Great Rectification," or retroactively known as the "First Rectification" in 1988. Forces called "Rejectionists" were those disloyal to Sison and the CPP leadership and were primed for extermination which resulted in entire villages being wiped out.
It is claimed that the Govt also took advantage of the discord to also exterminate population centres and blame it on the NPA infighting.
The force which had reached its peak with 30,000 armed Regulars (full time soldiers) was decimated and marginalised everywhere but Mindanao (lucky us).
Then, in 1992 it entered the "2nd Rectification" meant to clean house on govt deep penetration agents but in reality was merely a vechile to consolidate the movement and until 1998 also resulted in large scale genocide.
In the same time period as the Cordillera Factionilisation, the urban element of the NPA also crystlallised into a separate faction in Manila because of the NPA's over-emphasis on rural struggle at the expense of urban guerilla tactics. This group never fomally broke from the NPA command structure but was just about independant, known as the "Alex Boncayo Brigade" and led by Felimon "Popoy" Lagman." ABB as it became known was the group who targetted all US personel, including the killing of the founder of the SERE (survival school of US military) in the late 80s.
Strong in Metro-Manila as well as the Visayan Islands in the central part of the nation.
In 1997 it teamed up with the "Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA) based in the Visayas, led Arturo Tabara and this forced a power struggle within the larger ABB which resulted in Lagman being forced to withdraw from the organisation and he ended up applying for Asylum , which was granted by the Govt. He then became a labour organiser on Luzon before being killed in 2001 by RPA faction members.
A side note on that, his killers , some, were finally arrested this year and were murdered in prison just a few days ago by loyal ABB members.
In 1999 ABB-RPA formed their own truly independant organisation, "Rebolusyonaryong Pratido ng Manggagawa-Pilipinas" (RPMP).
In 2000 the new group made peace with the Govt and has not been active militarily since.
In 1992 a faction on Mindanao , reacting to both an ideological shift as well as the 1st and 2nd Rectifications rejected the leader Sison's newly aoounced policy change that the struggle was seeking to change a society that he considered "semi-feudal" when this mindanao faction believed Philippine society to in fact be "dependant-capitalist." This difference in outlooks led to the formation of a separate organisation in parts of Mindanao, called "Revolutionary Workers' Party of Mindanao," or "RPM-M."
RPM-M wsa aligned with the ABB-RPA until the latter made peace in 2000 and at that point RPM-M iniated its own independant armed struggle in May of 2001.
Since 2007 though it has demoblised in increments and been assimilated back into society after concluding that the time for armed struggle was in the future (in reality meaning they had been bought off).
Today only the NPA remains but is almost as strong as it was at its mid-80s height. The Govt vows to destroy it by 2010 but there is now ay that this will happen, not even close. They are growing by leaps and bounds but outside of Mindanao are very weak. Their actions off of the island merely amount to acts of nuisance although they did just capture 3 cops on another island.
I will continue in a following post...
Music wise, I am just listening to a Microsfot Media stremlined Vocal Trance station (DJIM, Vocal Trance, 56K) and I listen to it alot with Vocal Trance probably being my favourite genre (most of the time).
Book wise, still into the book on India as well as "Accidental Empire" by Gershom Gorenberg. in English, it is about the so called "Israeli Settler Movement" that began in 1967 and is now on its last legs, thank G-D.
As for the title, well since I gave a very long and boring history of the Islamic Insurrection(s) here in the Philippines I thought that just in case people ever actually cared about the dynamic here, or even Communism in general, that I ought to give equal time in explaining the Communist Insurrection as well.
Getting right into it...
In the mid 1930s, in central and northern Luzon, the island that holds Manila, a movement arose, and christened itself "Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas," ( Communist Party of the Philippines or "CPP" for short).
In WWII Japan invaded Luzon and the rest of the country and guerilla movements were formed to figh them. On Luzon the upper classes tended to side with the Japanese, seeing it as a way to gain freedom from American domination which frustrated their economic ambitions as well. The fact that landholders sided with the Japanese spurred the CPP to form an armed wing in 1942, "Hukong Bayan Laban sa Mga Hapon" (Peoples' Army Against the Japanese) although they were more commonly known by a contraction of their name, "Hukbalahap," and later as simply the "Huk."It was led by a 4 person central committee but had a single figurehead for the public, Luis Tarac.
When the war ended the Huk, like most guerilla groups had high hopes for a bright future and they ceased most military activity to enter the political arena. However, when it managed to gain some seats in the Senate the new govt. invalidated their party and so they were once again the epitome of the disenfranchised.
This inspred the group to reform as a Leninist Communist guerilla force and after a meteroic rise capitliising on their partisan history , they made some huge tactical errors which culminated in the cold blooded killing of a popular senator's family as they were travelling in a motorcade. Their mass base of support, so critical to any guerilla war quickly evaporated almost as quickly as it had formed leaving the group incredibly marginalised by 1950.
Trying to waft away the stench of their misdeeds they reformed in 1950 as "Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (Peoples' Liberation Army," or PLA).
In that same year, 1950 the American Truman Admnistration began coordinating a mass PSYOPs program (Psychological Warfare) spearheaded by the CIA's famed Ed Landsdale but this US intervention has the opposite of its intended effect in once again mobilising a huge mass base of support for the communist guerillas.
By 1954 the Huk had again shrank in support and also in manpower to a force of less than 1000 marginalised fighters with very little armed effectiveness.
At this point the Philippines could have broken the group but failed to seize the iniative and lost that precious chance.After founder Luis Tarlac surrendered in 54 the group gradually sank into oblivion but its ideological base amongst intellectuals remained powerful, since the govt. failed to remain vigliant and continue hounding the ideologues since the military threat was dissipating.
In the early 60s these ideologues reformed the Party as "Bagong Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan" but forwent any armed struggle and di not even bother to form an armed wing.
Then, in the wake of the turbulent late 60s under Marcos, a new generation of ideologues emerged, who had a much different outlook. these new activists were keen on Maoism while rejecting Leninism.
Leninism, or the Soviet form of Communism, favoured a rebellion by the working masses of urbanised areas while Maoists were in the Chinese orbit and favoured a protracted struggle in the rural sector.
In Central Luzon on the Xmas Holiday of 1968 Jose Maria Sison spearheded the founding of the reformed "CPP" and codified the new struggle. A couple of months later in March of 69 they formed the NPA, "New Peoples' Army," their armed wing which today is the face of Communist REvolution here.
Sison had been trying to figure a way in which to iniate his vision for rural armed struggle. When he met Bernabe Buscayno, AKA "Kummander Dante," an older veteran of the Luzon Huk during WWII and the following yuears he realised Buscayno could lead the armed revolt he was aiming to start, and so he did.
By the mid-80s the NPA was in serious danger of taking over the nation, but through huge ideological and tactical errors lost that chance (lots of lost chances but that s history after all). First, the party began splitering.
The 80s were famous worldwide for "Revolutionary Theology," a radical movement within the Catholic Church with priests and monks around the world leading leftist struggles. The Philippines with its overwhelming Catholic heritage was extremely vulnerable to the movement and in the Codillera Region of Luzon, the mountains, Lumad (tribasl) flocked to a priest named Father Conrado Balweg.
Balweg became the most powerful of the Communist military leaders for a short period of time and capitalising on his power base led his faction out of the NPA and formed a group called first, "Cordillera Peoples' Liberation Front" and shortly there after, in 1985, "Corillera Peoples' Liberation Army."
He wanted emphasis placed on the Cordillera tribals whom he thought were getting shortchanged by NPA ideals and leadership. His group battled the NPA more than the govt and soon settled with the Govt.
Meanwhile the movement entered a stage called "Great Rectification," or retroactively known as the "First Rectification" in 1988. Forces called "Rejectionists" were those disloyal to Sison and the CPP leadership and were primed for extermination which resulted in entire villages being wiped out.
It is claimed that the Govt also took advantage of the discord to also exterminate population centres and blame it on the NPA infighting.
The force which had reached its peak with 30,000 armed Regulars (full time soldiers) was decimated and marginalised everywhere but Mindanao (lucky us).
Then, in 1992 it entered the "2nd Rectification" meant to clean house on govt deep penetration agents but in reality was merely a vechile to consolidate the movement and until 1998 also resulted in large scale genocide.
In the same time period as the Cordillera Factionilisation, the urban element of the NPA also crystlallised into a separate faction in Manila because of the NPA's over-emphasis on rural struggle at the expense of urban guerilla tactics. This group never fomally broke from the NPA command structure but was just about independant, known as the "Alex Boncayo Brigade" and led by Felimon "Popoy" Lagman." ABB as it became known was the group who targetted all US personel, including the killing of the founder of the SERE (survival school of US military) in the late 80s.
Strong in Metro-Manila as well as the Visayan Islands in the central part of the nation.
In 1997 it teamed up with the "Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA) based in the Visayas, led Arturo Tabara and this forced a power struggle within the larger ABB which resulted in Lagman being forced to withdraw from the organisation and he ended up applying for Asylum , which was granted by the Govt. He then became a labour organiser on Luzon before being killed in 2001 by RPA faction members.
A side note on that, his killers , some, were finally arrested this year and were murdered in prison just a few days ago by loyal ABB members.
In 1999 ABB-RPA formed their own truly independant organisation, "Rebolusyonaryong Pratido ng Manggagawa-Pilipinas" (RPMP).
In 2000 the new group made peace with the Govt and has not been active militarily since.
In 1992 a faction on Mindanao , reacting to both an ideological shift as well as the 1st and 2nd Rectifications rejected the leader Sison's newly aoounced policy change that the struggle was seeking to change a society that he considered "semi-feudal" when this mindanao faction believed Philippine society to in fact be "dependant-capitalist." This difference in outlooks led to the formation of a separate organisation in parts of Mindanao, called "Revolutionary Workers' Party of Mindanao," or "RPM-M."
RPM-M wsa aligned with the ABB-RPA until the latter made peace in 2000 and at that point RPM-M iniated its own independant armed struggle in May of 2001.
Since 2007 though it has demoblised in increments and been assimilated back into society after concluding that the time for armed struggle was in the future (in reality meaning they had been bought off).
Today only the NPA remains but is almost as strong as it was at its mid-80s height. The Govt vows to destroy it by 2010 but there is now ay that this will happen, not even close. They are growing by leaps and bounds but outside of Mindanao are very weak. Their actions off of the island merely amount to acts of nuisance although they did just capture 3 cops on another island.
I will continue in a following post...