MIM review: Philippine Economy and Politics

Philippine Economy and Politics
by Jose Maria Sison and Julieta de Lima
Aklat ng Bayan Publishing House, 1998 162 pp.

"Revolutionary education, propaganda, and agitation against the 
continuing onslaught of imperialist and pro-imperialist petty-
bourgeois propaganda require the reading and study of the articles 
in this book." - From the Publisher's Note

This thin book, written in the 1980s, is a reaffirmation of the 
Communist Party of the Philippines' (CPP's) line that Philippine 
society is semi-feudal and semi-colonial. The former term refers 
to the fact that the Philippines remains basically agrarian and is 
dominated by the comprador big bourgeoisie and the landlord class 
in the service of foreign monopoly capitalists. The latter term 
refers to the puppet nature of the Manila government. Jose Maria 
Sison is the founding chairpersyn of the CPP; Julieta de Lima is a 
founding member.

In particular, "Philippine Economy and Politics" argues against 
the fashionable idea that globalized capital has modernized the 
Philippines and made capitalist production relations dominant,  
thus making protracted people's war for national liberation 
obsolete. Shady characters who tried to liquidate the CPP from 
within promoted these ideas. Sison describes how the CIA and the 
DIA infiltrated national democratic support groups in the united 
$tates and began to question the semi-feudal nature of the 
Philippines.(1)  "Philippines Economy and Politics" played a large 
role in defeating these incorrect ideas and contributed to the 
success of the CPP's Second Great Rectification Campaign.

These counter-revolutionary ideas keep cropping up, however, 
especially here in the First World, where people do not experience 
semi-feudal and semi-colonial conditions every day. In the March 
1999 issue of Z Magazine, James Petras attacked the National 
Democratic Front (NDF) and New People's Army (NPA) for their 
"Maoist view of the Philippines as 'semi feudal' and 'semi 
colonial...'" Petras claims these terms are no longer accurate, 
because (a) many large landholders also invest in capitalist 
business ventures, and (b) most of the land has been taken over by 
multi-nationals, speculators, tourists, and other development.

Sison and de Lima's book refutes these arguments in great detail. 
Yes, many big landlords invest their surplus in mercantile 
ventures, but their relationships with tenants are still feudal. 
Yes, foreign agribusiness has expanded in the Philippines, there 
are conflicts between tourist developments and peasants, but the 
rural economy is still dominated by feudal relations of 
production. Surveys estimate the rate of tenancy from 40 to 90 
percent of all farms.(2) Petras is clearly using the debate about 
semi-feudalism to trash the Maoist strategy of protracted people's 
war and other aspects of Maoism.(3)

The two essays "On the Mode of Production" and "Philippine Crisis 
and Revolution" make up the bulk of the book. "On the Mode of 
Production" was written by de Lima on the basis of weekly 
interviews with Sison while he was imprisoned by the dictator 
Marcos. "Philippine Crisis and Revolution" was a series of 
lectures given by Sison at the University of the Philippines in 
the short time between his release and his exile by the u.$.-
Aquino regime. Sison and de Lima, who are married, still live in 
exile in the Netherlands.

Notes:

1. In the late 70s, "Filipino assets of U.S. intelligence agencies 
(CIA and DIA) inserted themselves into and used the U.S.-based 
Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino (KDP)... Soon the KDP attacked 
the CPP." Page 8.

2. Page 27.

3. He ends his article with a call for "a revitalized road to 
socialism free from the baleful consequences of outdated dogmatic 
formulas." He also argues that there is no national bourgeoisie in 
the Philippines other than the comprador big bourgeoisie. Which is 
just not factually true, as Sison and de Lima document. A 
particularly nasty aspect of Petras' article is his attempt to 
split legal national democratic forces from explicitly Maoist-led 
forces like the CPP, NDF, and NPA. Petras praises the KMU and the 
KMP - militant mass organizations of workers and peasants, 
respectively - despite the fact that the KMU and KMP agree with 
the analysis that the Philippines is semi-feudal and semi-
colonial.