Category Archives: reds

It’s the 21st century and you are still afraid of the Left?

By admin | November 5, 2014

Written for Bulatlat According to some intellectuals and their disciples, it is foolish to join the Left or become a Leftist in the 21st century. They sarcastically remind activists that the Berlin Wall already fell in 1989 and it was followed by the disintegration of Soviet Russia in 1991. In response, we should assert that […]

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Are you dating an activist? Take the quiz

By admin | October 26, 2014

Written for Bulatlat He had you at “power to the people!” and then he said he wanted to “occupy” your heart, and that you are his 99 percent. Yet you find his world quite exotic, his vocabulary sometimes confusing, although he seems sincere given his passionate determination to fight for his beliefs. Indeed, it is […]

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10 Things to Know About the World’s Longest Communist Revolution

By admin | September 9, 2014

1. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) was reestablished on December 26, 1968 in Alaminos, Pangasinan. Its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), was formed on March 29, 1969 in Capas, Tarlac. The revolutionary alliance, National Democratic Front (NDF), was founded on April 24, 1973. The CPP-NPA-NDF view armed revolution as the effective […]

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What activists want: A world without rallies

By admin | August 9, 2014

Written for Bulatlat Have you ever wondered why there are rallies calling for land reform but none that advocate for women’s right to suffrage? The answer is obvious: The first is a demand by landless farmers which is being virulently opposed by the powerful landed class while the latter is already a political victory achieved […]

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9 common misconceptions about activists and rallies. Number 9 will surprise you

By admin | July 23, 2014

Published by Bulatlat 1. Rallies are violent, street rallies are illegal, and they cause destabilization. A rally is neither a picnic nor a carnival but it is also not a riot and a mortal combat activity. A rally will end and disperse peacefully if the police is not ordered to attack the protesters. Many people […]

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The 3-in-1 revolution

By admin | June 3, 2014

Written for Bulatlat At the risk of oversimplifying the definition of revolution, I dare say it involves three dynamics: critique and destruction of the existing social order, building a new world, and the continuous reinvention of the self. Of the three, the most familiar is the first – activists denouncing the bankrupt society and revolutionaries […]

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The intriguing newness of the New People’s Army

By admin | May 23, 2014

Written for Bulatlat The ‘new’ in the communist New People’s Army signifies many things and each deciphering is helpful to understand why this rebel force has never been defeated by successive governments. The original communist-led people’s army was the Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon and Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan. The Huks were a guerrilla force […]

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Who will rejoice if the NPA is defeated?

By admin | May 2, 2014

Written for Bulatlat Is the military already acceding that the communist New People’s Army is the modern-day Katipunan? Because why would an army general tag Benito Tiamzon as NPA supremo when the government is adamantly insisting that the rebel group is neither revolutionary nor belligerent. In Philippine history, the only other notable supremo was Andres […]

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Didn’t we tell you that it is not a Sison revolution?

By admin | April 15, 2014

Written for Bulatlat For the longest time the military has bombarded the public with the propaganda that it is Joma Sison who is leading and controlling the Philippine revolution from his base in Western Europe. This reasoning was accepted without question by many anti-Left intellectuals and they used it to malign natdem activists for allegedly […]

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How the Left didn’t lose

By admin | March 3, 2014

Written for Rappler Not again. Not another formulaic diatribe ridiculing and prophesying the decline, obsolescence, and inevitable doom of the Philippine Left. The Left was supposed to have disintegrated many, many years ago after the fall of Berlin, the internal split in the 1990s, and the rise of neoliberal globalization as the supreme doctrine of […]

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