Mao more than ever: Filipino communists mark a half century of armed struggle
- The Communist Party of the Philippines - infamous for its jungle raids and assassination squads - was set up in December 1968 in Mao Zedong’s honour
- Its founder now openly criticises today’s Communist Party of China and denounces its leaders as ‘monopoly bureaucrat capitalists’
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) – infamous for its jungle raids, assassination squads and fearsome leaders like Kumander Dante – was founded in 1968 in Mao’s honour, and has been engaged in a peoples’ revolution to overthrow the Philippine government ever since. It has been called the longest-running insurgency in the world.
But the armed struggle, which has led to the deaths of as many as 40,000 rebels, soldiers and civilians, has been playing out in the jungles and negotiating rooms as geopolitical realities have changed.
We now understand China as one more imperialist power trying to dominate and exploit the Filipino people
“The Communist Party of China has become an anti-Mao and bogus communist party,” said Sison, who has been living in exile in the Netherlands since his release from prison in 1987. As far as the 79-year-old is concerned, the CPP is now far more “Maoist” than any of the leaders or policies in Beijing.
