Contibution of Philippines CP [PKP-1930] [En]

Dear comrades :

The Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP-1930, the Philippine Communist Party) thanks and congratulates the Communist Party of Vietnam for hosting this 18th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties. We also send our warmest fraternal greetings to all the participants of this very important and historic event.

This international meeting is being held as the world capitalist system is mired in deeper and more acute contradictions, such as the following :

--- the sharper contradiction between the exponential growth of the social nature of globalized production, and the more limited private appropriation of the tremendous wealth produced ;

--- the crying contradiction between the great advances in science and technology resulting to over-production and the over-accumulation of capital, even while millions of people are consigned to conditions of unemployment and destitution ; and

--- the sharper contradictions and more tense competition among imperialist countries and centers, now primarily between the trilateral alliance of the USA, EU and Japan on the one hand, and the China-Russia alliance on the other hand.

These contradictions, which are basically internal to the world capitalist system, point to the fact that the world capitalist system has reached its historical limit, and cannot continue with the usual business of exploitation without bringing humanity to barbaric poverty levels, and even to the brink of global war and extinction. This historic limit points to the need to overthrow this system on a global scale, and the concomitant need to build socialism in all countries.

An important aspect of the general crisis of capitalism is the continued struggle of the world revolutionary forces against imperialism and reaction --- the continued struggle of the socialist and socialist-oriented countries against imperialist interference and subversion ; the continued working class struggles against the bourgeoisie in imperialist and other developed capitalist countries ; the national democratic struggles in developing countries against the neo-colonial impositions ofimperialism ; and even the remaining struggles for national liberation in racist-controlled colonies such as Palestine and Puerto Rico.

The present cycle of the world capitalist crisis is the inevitable end result of the last two and a half decades of the globalization of production and marketing –- the globalization of finance capital since the socialist community was treacherously subverted from within by special agents of imperialism who wormed their way to the top leadership of ruling communist and workers’ parties. The squeezing of more profits from labor and from the destruction of the environment, which initially was made possible with the opening up of the former socialist community, and their allies in the developing world, to neo-liberal policies designed for the global penetration by finance capital, has proven to be truly unsustainable.

The global penetration by finance capital only led to global over-production, to the inevitable saturation of international markets, to more cut-throat inter-imperialist competition, and to the greater diversion of wealth towards investment ventures of the fictitious type (the non-productive “hedging” or speculation on commodity trade, on “derivatives”, and even on stock market or currency movements). Such rise in casino-type investments only resulted to the graver magnitude and impact of the financial and economic crisis of capitalism, the burdens of which are being passed on as yokes upon the working masses.

Deprivation and suffering in the midst of plenty is the real face of capitalism, not only in our country but in imperialist countries as well, where millions of workers have lost their jobs and homes. Millions more of peoples around the globe are dying with growing famines, homelessness, poverty and incapacity to secure basic nourishment and health care. In reaction to the deepening crisis of capitalism, and in greedy pursuit for greater profits, imperialist forces are escalating their economic, social, political, and military offensives to the detriment of the working peoples in the whole world.

In the economic field, imperialist powers employ the debt trap to consolidate their hold on countries as their sources of super-profits. Imperialist-controlled multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank and other such regional banks, are responsible for perpetuating a system of international debt slavery by imposing onerous terms in the granting and renegotiation of “development”, “budget stabilization”, “structural” and other loans. The newly-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is on the same track, funded by China's dollar hoard amassed since the start of China's business and political partnership with US imperialism during the maoist period.

Imperialism applies the debt trap not only against developing countries, but even against developed capitalist countries. European and other developed capitalist governments which are unable to pay their foreign debts and to bail out their own banks and investment firms, are forced to accept EU/IMF control of their economies. Additional debts are incurred with more conditionalities, primarily the cutting of public employment levels and benefits, and the slashing of outlays for education, health, housing, social security, retirement and other social services which are badly needed by the working peoples.

It is also through government indebtedness to supra-national financial institutions that the development and social progress of “Third World” countries (like the Philippines) is impeded, and past gains of national sovereignty and even territorial integrity are subjected to a process of re-colonization. It is the greed for greater profits that fuels the imperialist drive for global domination, which is imposed on some resisting countries through covert and overt interference to organize coups, to cause “regime change” and install despotic puppet regimes, or to fuel ethnic and religious conflicts leading to their territorial balkanization.

The imperialist drive to retain and expand regional and even global domination is usually done through the forging of military alliances with countries under their influence or domination, through the installing of more military bases around the globe, and the open violation of international law and of the role of the United Nations through unilateral and direct military invasions and interference --- as witnessed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. Such invasions and interference are even justified under such aims of “fighting terrorism”, “dismantling weapons of mass destruction”, “saving failed states”, “humanitarian assistance”, etc. Whatever the justification, imperialist aggression denigrates national independence and sovereignty, territorial integrity, the people’s right to self-determination, and the democratic and other human rights of the working masses.

The escalation of imperialist aggressiveness can clearly be seen in the military offensives of the USA and other NATO countries against the Arab peoples--- the deposing of old puppets to give way to new ones in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen ; the savage war to re-colonize Libya and to re-privatize her oil resources ; the propping-up and rearming of the archaic monarchies in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar and Oman ; the intensification of divisions and battles within Sudan ; the support for the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip, and the backing up of the Israeli threat of aggression against the Lebanon ; and the whipping up of a war against Iran in an attempt to finally realize the US-Israeli plan for a “New Middle-East” that aims to perpetuate the humiliation of the Palestinian and other neighbouring Arab peoples.

The gravest tragedy today is the catastrophic war being waged by world imperialism against the socialist-oriented Syrian Arab Republic. Syria stands at the forefront of the present struggle against imperialism and international reaction, which seek to destroy stable societies, killing hundreds of thousands and leaving millions homeless in the process. Syria now faces imperialist aggression and proxy terrorism which are part of the vile plan to reconfigure the whole region into the US-Israeli blueprint for a “New Middle East” that would chop up countries into small warring sectarian and ethnic sub-states.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, US imperialist aggressiveness could clearly be seen in its continued destabilization plots against Cuba, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the other countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) ; in the building up of new US military bases in Colombia ; in the continued US control over Puerto Rico, the Panama Canal and Guantanamo Bay ; and in the continued support for British control over the Malvinas Islands.

In East Asia and the Pacific, an Asian version of NATO is also being developed, with Japan, South Korea and Australia serving as the regional acolytes for aggressive US plans to “contain” China. The military “encirclement” of China is the objective of the new “pivot”, or increased “rebalancing” and redeployment of US military forces, towards the Asia-Pacific region. For this purpose, new arrangements are being pursued for the constant visit (or increased stationing) of US forces in the Philippines, Singapore, Pakistan and India ; the build-up of US facilities in Diego Garcia ; and even the introduction of US forces into Mongolia. Fortunately for the Philippines, the new Duterte regime is bent on ending the Philippine-US military alliance.

Dear comrades :

Contending territorial claims over different parts of the South China Sea have figured in the USA’s present anti-China campaign. The Philippines, the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, Malaysia, Brunei and even Indonesia are the ASEAN countries which feel threatened by China's claim of so-called “indisputable sovereignty” over almost 90% of the whole of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer South China Sea. This absurd claim is based on a “9-dash-line” map which was presented by China to the United Nations in May 2009 –- or 27 years after the forging of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to which China is also a signatory.

Incidentally, China's “9-dash-line” map emanated from an “11-dash-line” map produced by the Guomindang (Kuomintang) regime in 1947, where the “dashes” have no exact coordinates but allegedly traces the extent of the fabled sea explorations by the long-extinct Song (Sung) Dynasty (960-1279 AD). In violation of the 1982 UNCLOS, China in 1995 seized Mischief Reef which is within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the area of the Spratlys.

In 2012, also in violation of UNCLOS and of the November 4, 2002, ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (which required the parties to refrain from inhabiting on then-uninhabited islands and other features) China started reclamation and military constructions on Mischief Reef, and also started to permanentlystation warships to prevent Filipino fishing vessels from approaching their traditional fishing area at Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal. The Philippines can only protest China's aggression, faced with China's show of military might in these 2 areas.

Pushed to the wall, the Philippine government on January 22, 2013, filed a motion for arbitration with the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, Netherlands, to challenge China's claim to most of the West Philippine Sea, to compel China to respect the Philippine right to its EEZ, and to stop Chinese incursions. The Philippines also asked for the nullification of China's “9-dash-line” claim which covers not only a large part of the West Philippine Sea but also a large part of the South China Sea, and demanded that China desist from unlawful activities which violate the sovereign rights and jurisdiction of the Philippines under UNCLOS.

On July 12, 2016, the Ad-Hoc Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague handed its decision which primarily ruled that China’s “9-dash-line,” under which it claims “historic rights” over almost all of the vast South China Sea, is contrary to the UNCLOS and is thus invalid. Consequently, the Philippines is legally and solelyentitled to exploit and develop the mineral deposits, marine life and other natural resources within its EEZ. Consequently also, the South China Sea is open to navigation and overflight by all countries, and cannot be subject to China's imposition of an “air defence identification zone (ADIZ)”. The repudiation of China's “9-dash-line” map by the Ad-Hoc Arbitral Tribunal is a victory not only for the Philippines, but for the said other ASEAN claimant countries as well.

Considering China’s intransigence, it needs the international community to call upon China to respect UNCLOS and the Arbitral decision, to cooperate in the forging of a comprehensive ASEAN-China Code of Conduct for the South China Sea, to respect freedom of navigation and of overflight over the area, and to agree to special international jurisdiction and control over China’s artificial island-fortresses in the South China Sea.

Of course we know that US imperialism would want to have a foothold on the resources of the South China Sea, with or without the territorial dispute between China and the concerned ASEAN member countries. We demand that the USA and its allies in the area (Japan and Australia) stop their military patrols and overflights over the South China Sea. Further, we call on all parties to the various territorial claims over parts of the South China Sea to refrain from any action that could lead to the escalation of tensions, and to foreign military intervention, in the South China Sea.

Dear comrades :

The all-round offensive of imperialism cannot solve the capitalist crisis, and can only worsen it. The deepening or worsening of the systemic crisis of capitalism means the maturing and ripening of the objective conditions for the revolutionary advance to socialism, in the context of the present epoch of transition from capitalism to socialism ushered in by the Great October Socialist Revolution.

The working class, as the “grave-digger” of capitalism, has the power to reverse today’s situation and undertake the revolutionary advance to socialism. But for the working class to become conscious of its mission, and to shape a revolutionary strategy for the implacable class struggle against the bourgeoisie, the strengthening of its revolutionary party is necessary. The revolutionary party must be able to perform its role as vanguard of the working class struggle. This is the role that we as communist and workers' parties are trying to undertake in each of our countries, in uneven conditions set by historical experiences and subjective capabilities in the face of the actual balance of forces.

Even with the unevenness of capitalist development in different countries, the PKP-1930 stands for the international projection of the need to overthrow (and not to “reform”) capitalism, as the unifying platform for all progressive and left forces. The PKP-1930 also stands for the projection of the class nature of the international struggle against imperialism and reaction. Working class interests remain the basis for unity in the anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist struggles in all parts of the world.

Dear comrades :

The Philippines is an example of capitalist unevenness and inequality, with the bourgeois state serving the interests of the monopolies. The national bourgeois class itself chooses the path of subordination to US, Japanese, Chinese and other monopoly interests, in order to have a part in the joint exploitation of our people and natural resources.

It is true that some oligarchs in our country have featured in large capital mergers of such diverse mega-businesses as banks, malls, power generation, telecommunications, call centers and infrastructures. Others have even grown to become members of international cartels and syndicates exporting capital to China, Spain, the ASEAN and some other countries. However, the imperialists and their local oligarchic partners have ensured the continuing low level and non-integrated nature of local industries, and even the absence of basic industries, such that there is not much to be socialized and immediately turned into independent or self-sustaining worker-controlled production enterprises --- aside from a few industries run by transnational corporations in the petroleum, cement, export-crop and a few other fields.

This reality prevents us from projecting socialism as our immediate aim. Also, given the unsolved land hunger of the peasants and of the more numerous agricultural workers, the growing number of squatters or “informal settlers” in urban areas, as well as the prevalence of micro-enterprises and informal trades, the immediate socialization of land and small businesses would only meet with resistance on the part of the poor masses that we aim to liberate.

Thus our immediate aim in the Philippines is national democracy --- for national freedom from imperialist control and exploitation, for a mixed economy with a socialist-oriented public sector setting the direction for development planning, and for a democratic system where the machinery of state could ensure that the working peoples’ rights are safeguarded and their basic needs progressively met. The PKP-1930 maintains that this can only be achieved through the organized strength of the Filipino working masses themselves, in unity with a national leadership that is aware of the historic need to re-nationalize utilities and infrastructures, and to build a strong public sector in order to attain economic independence and social progress.

In the particular situation of the capitalist crises engulfing our country today, our most pressing concerns in the economic field are the following : ending the privatization of public services ; re-nationalization of the privatized electric, water, petroleum and other strategic utilities and infrastructures ; establishment of a strong state sector of the economy ; ending the policy of import liberalization which has allowed the dumping into our country of commodities by transnational corporations ; ensuring transparency and accountability in government dealings with imperialist-controlled multilateral institutions and banking groups ; and the thorough audit of all the foreign loans secured by the past regimes (with the aim of repudiating all onerous loans which benefitted only the partnership of foreign banksters and local kleptocrats).

On the political front, our most pressing concerns are the following : removal of governmental measures preventing or limiting the participation of progressive parties in electoral exercises ; ending of warlordism and political dynasties ; empowerment ofprogressive mass organizations through their participation in advisory councils (of national agencies and local governments) concerned with the sectors represented by such mass organizations ; and the elimination of graft and corruption in all branches of government (executive, legislative, juridiciary and special constitutional bodies).

On the social front, of urgent concern are the following : opening of more jobs through the government’s direct undertaking of all its infrastructure projects ; setting of a nationwide minimum living wage ; safeguarding and advancement of workers’ benefits and social security ; defense of trade union rights ; extension of agrarian reform (primarily land acquisition by the government, and their redistribution to landless peasants or their cooperatives) in all crops and agricultural fields ; expansion of public schools, universities, hospitals, day-care centers and homes for the aged ; and the massive opening of housing projects to allow the relocation of present residents in typhoon- or flood-prone waterways, earthquake fault-lines and other calamity-prone areas.

On the cultural front, of particular concern are the ending of local mass media reliance on US and other imperialist news agencies and entertainment industries ; control of fundamentalism or bigotry engendered by religious institutions ; safeguarding of education from anti-science teachings and superstitious rituals ; and the development of a more tolerant or liberal atmosphere for the battle of ideas where the merits of socialism, and concepts of the national democratic path towards socialism, will surely win more adherents.

Our main thrust in our national anti-imperialist struggle is the ending of the “Visiting Forces Agreement”, the “Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement”, and the “Mutual Defense Treaty”, under which the USA practically controls the national security and other military policies of our country.

Our party’s main national task is to unite the broad patriotic sectors of our people to struggle for national democracy, and to strengthen the struggle of the working class against capitalist exploitation, without losing sight of the aim of building socialism in the Philippines through the national-democratic path. While capitalism is rooted on the “freedom” of a few to amass private profit to the detriment of the many, a new socialist order --- with social ownership and centralized planning under working-class political power --- will always be centered on human welfare.

Our party’s tasks of educating, organizing and mobilizing the working masses into political action in defense of society’s collective interests will always be geared towards the attainment of national democracy and eventually socialism in the Philippines. This of course will be a struggle to wrest the power, wealth and privilege that the oligarchy and their imperialist masters will never surrender for the sake of the good of society’s greater majority.

The anti-imperialist struggle in the Philippines is intertwined with the anti-imperialist struggles in other countries. Our different national struggles give strength to each other, and thus the issue of anti-imperialist solidarity is more crucial than ever. Continuous adherence to the principles of Marxism-Leninism, particularly the principle of proletarian internationalism, is of great importance in our present jointstruggles against capitalist exploitation and imperialist aggressions everywhere --- towards the building of socialist societies in all countries.

The PKP-1930 remains convinced that the worldwide struggle of the working peoples for socialism will triumph over imperialism, and that the building of socialism remains the only hope for humanity’s survival and humane future. This is something that we have learned not only from the recent history of the former USSR and the former socialist community, but also from the continuing revolutionary example of socialist Cuba and the other socialist-oriented countries in Latin America and elsewhere. Vietnam's continued development of the socialist path, even while utilizing market mechanisms to supplement the state sector's capacity for national development, is further proof of this general law of mankind’s advancement towards socialism.

Dear comrades,

In closing, please allow me to say that our delegation is honoured to be here with the valiant people of Viet Nam which has a glorious history of victoriously struggling against French colonialism, Japanese militarism, French colonialism again, US imperialism and then Chinese hegemonism. It is an honor to be here in the herocity of Ha Noi which the US imperialists tried to bomb back to the stone age, but which fought off the diabolical forces of imperialism with the all-round internationalist support of the then socialist community led by the land of the Great October Socialist Revolution.

Viet Nam has shown the world that a united people can defeat the most powerful foreign aggressors. Viet Nam will always be thanked and admired for itself extending internationalist solidarity which saved the Cambodian people from maoist barbarism. And despite the continuing toll wrought by “Agent Orange” and other wicked legacies of the US war of aggression, we are happy to see that the benefits of freedom and independence, and of the socialist system, ensure the continued building of a country which periodically becomes many times more beautiful. We salute and wish every success to the Communist Party of Viet Nam, the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, and the revolutionary people of Viet Nam who are the proud inheritors of a valiant and victorious history of anti-imperialist struggle, internationalist solidarity, socialist construction and world peace promotion.

Thank you for your kind attention.

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