Guerrilla History: Joma Maria Sison & Communism in the Philippines
Rev Left Radio
Breht O'Shea
4.8 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 September 2021
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Listen to the full episode of Guerrilla History here: https://guerrillahistory.libsyn.com/joma
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In this episode of Guerrilla History, we bring on Professor Jose Maria Sison, better known as Comrade Joma, to talk about his life, how it impacted his ideology, the history of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and more! Comrade Joma is an absolute legendary figure, and it was a pleasure and an honor to be able to talk with him. A must listen conversation for anyone interested in proletarian struggles and People's War in the Global South, especially the Philippines!
Jose Maria Sison is the Founding Chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Chair Emeritus of the International League of People's Struggle, and the Chief Political Consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. He's written extensively, a great place to find some of his works is via our friends at Foreign Languages Press. They have several of his works available for free as pdfs or for affordable print copies on their website https://foreignlanguages.press/.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We previously noted that you founded the Communist Party of the Philippines in 1968, |
| 0:08.3 | and we wondered if you could talk about what it was like building the new party, |
| 0:13.2 | and what were the biggest triumphs or victories of it, and the mistakes that you can tell us about |
| 0:21.2 | from your perspective in its early organizational days. |
| 0:25.8 | Well, after joining the party, the old Communist Party in 1962, I was almost immediately put in |
| 0:40.4 | the executive committee, and I would find out that the old party had no more mass following. |
| 0:49.7 | Jesus loved the general secretary, he was just hiding himself in Manila. |
| 0:53.5 | He was already isolated from even from the remnant robin bands of the hooks in central |
| 1:04.5 | Luzon. |
| 1:05.5 | And with me joining the executive committee was the labor leader Ignatio Laxina. |
| 1:14.5 | Only the two of us in the committee had connections, had connections with the mass movement, |
| 1:22.5 | with labor as well as youth. |
| 1:25.5 | Now, two other members of the committee were nephews of Jesus Lava. |
| 1:32.5 | So, it's a nepotistic kind of setup, no? |
| 1:37.5 | With one nephew being a high executive with the Colgate Palmole, an American company, |
| 1:46.5 | and the other one was the clerk of court of the court of appeals. |
| 1:54.5 | And the fifth member was the circulation manager of the biggest newspaper, Burfua newspaper, |
| 2:05.5 | and he happened to be a close friend of one of the two, two lovers. |
| 2:12.5 | So, it was a labor-dominated committee. |
| 2:15.5 | And they were presuming, they were actually appointed by their uncle, Jesus Lava. |
| 2:22.5 | But, you know, I still had a high respect for the family then, no? |
| 2:29.5 | And I don't regret joining the whole party, you know? |
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