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These are important writings of Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and New People’s Army (NPA) and current political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and Chairman of the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS)

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Jose Maria Sison on the Khmer Rouge

From Notes on People’s War in Southeast Asia - Introduction

In the last five years of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1971-1976, the Rightist and Centrists in the Communist Party of China had gained so much ground in weakening the Left, in devaluing the need for people’s war in Southeast Asia, in giving priority to developing rapprochement with the US under the guise of opposing the Soviet Union.

Ultimately, after the demise of Comrade Mao Zedong, the alliance of Centrists and Rightists paved the way for a counterrevolutionary coup and the restoration of capitalism, under the slogans of “reforms” (capitalist-oriented reforms), “opening up to the world” (integration into the world capitalist system) and “promoting peace, stability and economic development in the region” (including the withdrawal of support from the Southeast Asian communist parties, the dissolution of Central Committee delegations of fraternal parties in China and wherever possible the liquidation of people’s war).

What obfuscated China’s policy of liquidating people’s war in Southeast Asia was its conspicuous support for Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 onwards and in the entire duration of the Third Indochina War from 1979 onwards, its opposition to the invasion of Kampuchea by Vietnam and its counter-invasion of Vietnam also in 1979 and its support for the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CDGK) based on the three-way alliance of the Party for Democratic Kampuchea (the erstwhile Communist Party of Kampuchea), the Sihanouk forces and the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front led by Son Sann in 1982, extending up to 1991.

But the Party of Democratic Kampuchea was put in the position of being cornered by its two major allies in the coalition government. It was supported by China but it was also required to collaborate with the US and Thai governments to allow all allies in the coalition government to have bases along the Thai border and free passage of personnel and materiel to and from Kampuchea across Thailand. Democratic Kampuchea retained the UN seat of Kampuchea until 1982. Then this was passed on to the CGDK until 1993.

The Party of Democratic Kampuchea became bound to agreements in 1991 under the auspices of the UN to liquidate the people’s war and attain national reconciliation among all political forces through elections in the 1993 under the supervision of the UN peacekeeping mission. The Party of Democratic Kampuchea was outmaneuvered by the other political forces, including its allies in the CGDK, and by the US, Chinese and Thai governments. It backed out of the agreements and resumed the people’s war after realizing that it had been outmaneuvered. But by then, it had become isolated and deprived of the support of its former foreign supporters. The Party of Democratic Kampuchea went into a process of rapid disintegration from 1996 to 1998.

The war between Vietnam and Kampuchea disrupted the previous important relations and arrangements of the Communist Party of Thailand with the Communist Party of Kampuchea and the People’s Revolutionary Party of Laos. China also used its support for the Party of Democratic Kampuchea and its allies in the coalition government to advise the Communist Party of Thailand to refrain from revolutionary radio broadcasts against the Thai government and finally to close down its Yunnan-based radio broadcasting station.

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Jose Maria Sison on Stalin

From Lenin and Stalin on the Relationship of Democratic and Socialist Revolutions in Colonial and Semi-colonial Countries

After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin assumed leadership of the Party, the state and the revolution. He comprehensively summed up and defended Leninism in his Foundations of Leninism, which was issued in the same year, against the anti-Leninist elements who had wished to take advantage of the illness and death of Lenin. This work defined Marxism-Leninism in the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution.

He continued to implement the NEP. He fought and defeated Trotsky and his ilk who wished to terminate it prematurely. The objective of these "Left" opportunist scoundrels was to break up the worker-peasant alliance, subject the peasantry to intolerable exploitation and fulfill their prophecy that socialism in the Soviet Union was impossible.

From 1926 onward, Stalin vigorously pushed the line of socialist industrialization and from 1930 onward, the collectivization of agriculture in conjunction with socialist industry. He fought and defeated Bukharin and his Right opportunist ilk who wished to indefinitely prolong the temporary concessions given to the rural and urban bourgeoisie under the NEP. The Bolsheviks aroused, organized and mobilized the masses of small peasants against the rich peasants who carried out sabotage and other forms of violent resistance.

Under the leadership of Stalin, the worker-peasant alliance among the various nationalities in the Soviet Union was maintained through varied phases and in varied conditions. The workers in socialist industry needed the food and raw materials and the peasants in the collectives received in return the agricultural machinery, agrochemical and consumer manufactures from the workers. There was a dialectical and spiraling interaction of the two toiling classes in a series of five year plans which created a powerful socialist economic base and superstructure.

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Proceedings and Death Verdict Against Saddam Hussein by a Puppet Court are Illegal, Unfair and Invalid

By Jose Maria Sison

Chairperson, International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS)

The proceedings and death verdict against Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq, by a court of the puppet government under the US Occupation in Iraq are illegal, unfair and invalid.

The court is a product and instrument of US aggression. As the 1945 Nuremberg Charter states, "To initiate a war of aggression is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."

The US invasion of Iraq was made on the basis of lies and in violation of the UN Charter. Contrary to the claims of Bush, the Hussein government of Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction, did not have any connection with al Qaida and did not pose any threat to the US.

Under the Nuremberg and UN Charters, everything that has followed the US aggression is illegal, from Mr. Bremer's laws under the so-called coalition authority to the so-called new constitution of the puppet government.

Saddam Hussein is supposed to be a prisoner of war of the US under the Geneva Conventions and is in fact under the custody of the US military. In this connection, he cannot be tried under the US Occupation for any alleged crime committed before the war of aggression unleashed in 2003.

The unfairness of the trial of Saddam Hussein has been underscored among others by the series of murders of his lawyers (as well as the lawyers of his co-defendants) and by the politically motivated substitution of judges. Even the timing of the death sentence on Hussein on Sunday, November 5 is meant to influence the impending November 7 midterm elections in favor of the Republican party of Bush.

The charge against Hussein and his co-defendants for having allegedly murdered 143 people in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt on his life in 1982 pales in comparison to the far more colossal crime of aggression perpetrated by the US against the Iraqi people.

The US has already killed more than 650,000 Iraqi people since 2003, not to mention the death of more than 1.5 million Iraqis, including more than 500,000 children, during the 12-year period of bombings and economic sanctions from 1991 onwards. The killing rampage of the US is unabated. The US has also incurred nearly 3000 US death casualties and nearly 40,000 wounded casualties.

US imperialism is the plundering and murdering monster in the eyes of the Iraqi people and the people of the world. As the imperialist chieftain, Bush should be brought to court for having committed the worst possible crime, which is aggression. His crimes against humanity are incomparable to the charges being leveled against Saddam Hussein who has emerged as a patriot and martyr in the eyes of so many Iraqis and Arabs.

The brutal occupation of Iraq by the US and its accomplices is inciting the people of Iraq to wage armed resistance to attain national liberation and democracy.

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On the 100th Birth Anniversary of President Kim Il Sung

by Jose Maria Sison

To Comrade Kim Jong Un
General Secretary
Korean Workers’ Party
Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Esteemed Comrade Kim Jong Un,

We, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, convey our warmest greetings of solidarity to you, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Korean people as we join the celebration of the 100th birth anniversary of the great revolutionary leader President Kim Il Sung on April 15, 2012. This is a highly significant day in Korea’s resplendent 5000-year history and is a strong inspiration to the peoples of the world.

All of us benefit from the ever lasting legacy of President Kim Il Sung of resolute and militant struggle for national independence, democracy, socialism and peace against Imperialism and all reaction. His revolutionary record of 70 years is as magnificent as Mt. Paektu, the ancestral home and bulwark of the Korean people. We firmly and fully support the continuance of his historic efforts to reunify Korea on the basis of independence, peace and unity.

Comrade Kim Il Sung excelled in fighting for the national liberation of the Korean people. He led victoriously revolutionary wars against Japanese imperialism and then against U.S. imperialism which unleashed a massive war of aggression. To achieve every victory, he mobilized the Korean people. He upheld working class leadership through the Korean Workers’ Party in completing the people’s democratic revolution and in carrying out socialist revolution and socialist construction in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in accordance with the principle of self-reliance.

Guided by his wise leadership and indomitable spirit, the Korean people scored great feats of achievements in the social, economic, political, cultural, scientific and educational fields under the banner of socialism. At the same time, they heroically withstood and overcame armed provocations, economic blockade and all kinds of pressures, interferences and maneuvers by the imperialists and their agents. In this regard, we support the Korean people in upholding, defending and further developing all the victories that they have won under the leadership of Kim Il Sung and his successors.

Comrade Kim Il Sung is a great revolutionary leader who is inspiring not only to the Korean people but to all the people of the world. His revolutionary ideas and deeds shed a powerful light on the road of revolution and mass struggles against imperialism and reaction. They are relevant and useful to the people of the world as they face the devastation being wrought by the grave crisis of the world capitalist system, involving the escalation of exploitation and oppression and the spread of state terrorism, fascism and wars of aggression.

We, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, pay homage to the undying memory of President Kim Il Sung as a great leader and revolutionary fighter for national and social liberation. We are therefore resolved more than ever before to arouse, organize and mobilize the people of the world to fight for national independence, democracy, social justice, development, international solidarity and peace.

Long live the memory of the great leader Kim Il Sung!
Long live his legacy of revolutionary struggle and victories!
Long live the solidarity of the Korean people and world’s people!

In solidarity,
Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS)
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ILPS Condemns US, NATO and puppet forces for their barbaric attacks on the people of Libya

By Jose Maria Sison

We, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), condemn in the strongest terms the US, NATO and their puppet forces for their barbaric military campaign against the people in the whole of Libya since several months ago and in Tripoli currently. The combination of escalated NATO air bombardments and ground movement of Libyan puppet forces and NATO special forces against Tripoli since 20 August aims to deliver the final blow on the Gaddafi regime.

The invasion of Tripoli is the culmination of the bloody bombing campaign against the people of Libya by the air and naval forces of the US, UK, France, Italy and other NATO powers since March in collusion with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and the most reactionary and treasonous elements of Libyan society, including high bureaucrats recruited by the CIA from the Gaddafi regime, monarchists, warlords and Islamic fundamentalists associated with the CIA and al Qaeda.

The brutal campaign against Libya and the Gaddafi regime has been unleashed by the US and NATO under the pretext of saving civilian lives under Resolution 1973 of the UN Security Council. In fact, this so-called humanitarian intervention has been characterized by wanton bombings of homes, churches and civilian infrastructure, including power and water utilities, hospitals, children creches and schools, resulting in the killing and maiming of thousands of Libyans.

Accompanied by covert agents and special forces of the US and NATO, the anti-Gaddafi Libyan mercenaries have been able to advance from one point to another only after being preceded by NATO bombardments on the military positions of the regime as well on civilian communities regarded as pro-Gaddafi. Subsequently, the anti-Gaddafi mercenaries mostly play-act as fighters before the TV camera, attack helpless civilians off the camera and serve as bait to lure out the pro-Gaddafi forces for attack by helicopter gunships and predatory drones.

The cowardly military campaign of bombardments, involving more than 20,000 sorties by the air forces of the US and NATO and already costing more than 1 billion USD are intended not only to ruin and subjugate Libya but also to test he accuracy and killing efficiency of the weapons systems. The murderous campaign has been complemented by an internationally-coordinated psywar campaign by the biggest media conglomerates to justify foreign military intervention and aggression against the national sovereignty of Libya and the Libyan people and to misrepresent the puppets as democratic forces .

By their brazen acts, the US, UK, France and Italy have exposed their scheme of turning Libya into a neocolony deprived of sovereignty, putting the country’s oil and other natural resources under their absolute control through puppets and punishing Gaddafi for his refusal to allow the US African Command to build its military base in Libya, and for declaring that he wants to retract and re-nationalize what he has conceded to the imperialists since 2003 and to replace the US dollar with the gold dinar as the medium of buying oil from Libya in the face of the sharp worsening of the crisis of global capitalism.

When the US unleashed its war of aggression on Iraq in 2003, the Gaddafi regime worried as never before that the US could unleash a similar war against Libya. Thus, it decided to have rapprochement with the US, Britain and the other NATO powers. This enabled the imperialist powers to impose fully the policy of neoliberal globalization on Libya, which resulted in extreme privileges for the multinational corporations, wanton corruption among regime’s officials as well as Gaddafi relatives and in significant rises in the prices of basic commodities, in erosion of social benefits and in the mismatch of qualifications and jobs among the youth even as Libya continued to have the highest standard of living in Africa.

The Gaddafi regime also went into military and intelligence cooperation with the US and the other NATO powers, especially with regard to military supplies and the so-called US global policy of war on terror. Through expanded economic and military relations with Libya, the imperialists and particularly their intelligence operatives were able to gain influence among the officials of the Gaddafi regime, to recruit some of them and turn them against Gaddafi and his relatives. Thus, we now see former high officials of the Gaddafi regime in leading positions in the National Transitional Council.

The strategy of the US and NATO to overthrow the Gaddafi regime involves the use of bombardments on military positions and formations, on communities deemed as hostile and on the social infrastructure; the freezing of financial assets abroad; and the blockade on essential supplies, especially food and medicine. These brutal measures are calculated to allow the puppet opposition on the ground to rouse the people against the regime.

The imperialist powers have boasted that they shall have finished off Gaddafi by the 27th of June. But they have failed and have reset their deadline to end of September, although they now claim to be well ahead of schedule. They have also boasted that they do not have to put their boots on the Libyan sand. In fact, they are planning to deploy their troops in Libya under the cover of UN peacekeeping. Their covert agents, advisors and special forces are already in Libya to guide the puppets.

The people of Libya have suffered from the steady erosion of their national economic rights and standard of living under the neoliberal policy of imperialist globalization since the last decade. The imperialist powers aim to tighten their squeeze on the people of Libya and grab the huge oil resources and all major related businesses. They have wreaked havoc on the lives and properties of the Libyan peoples and are planning to make them pay for the costs of the war of aggression, The Libyan masses stand to lose their access to free education, free health care and other ample socio-economic benefits

Under the imperialist powers, the Libyan constitution will be replaced with one that institutes a puppet republic serving the economic, political, military and cultural interests of the imperialists. Libya will be made to accept the establishment of the military base of the US African Command and thus become another military outpost of US imperialism like Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

To dominate Libya, the US and NATO will certainly continue to promote puppetry and treason and to manipulate the differences among the various puppet political forces, the tribes, the secularists and Islamic fundamentalists in order to divide and rule the Libyan people as in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The ILPS wishes the Libyan people and their anti-imperialist and democratic forces to take advantage of the current social and political turmoil in their country in order to gain strength and override the current conflict of the pro-Gaddafi and anti-Gaddafi forces. The turbulent conditions and the widespread distribution of arms in Libya today are favorable for establishing a revolutionary party of the working class as well as for developing a national liberation movement.

The Libyan people should not be limited to choosing between the Gaddafi regime and a new regime of puppets extremely servile to the US and NATO. At any rate, a new regime of traitors conflicting with each other and having their respective armed groups is bound to be unstable. Whether Gaddafi becomes a martyr or remains alive to exercise leadership over his followers, the Gaddafi camp can redeem itself through continued anti-imperialist struggle and remain a major force for fighting the imperialists and traitors and for contributing significantly to the rise and growth of a national liberation movement.

We are confident that the Libyan people will continue to draw courage and strength from their long and proud tradition of fighting colonialism and imperialism and to advance on the road of national independence, democracy, social justice and development. They should not allow the Arab spring to be merely a way of empowering a new set of rulers that is more servile to US imperialism than a previous one.

We stand firmly in solidarity with all the people of Libya in fighting for national independence and democracy. We call on ILPS member organizations and all friendly forces to promptly mount protest actions at the embassies of the US and other NATO powers involved in the current assault on Tripoli and in the entire barbaric campaign against Libya and the people of Libya.

Uphold and defend the national sovereignty and democratic rights of the people of Libya!

Down with US and the other imperialist powers in NATO! Get out of Libya!

Long live the people of Libya! Onward with the struggle for national liberation and democracy!

Jose Maria Sison

Chairperson, International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS)

Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)

Chief Political Consultant, National Democratic Front (NDF)

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ILPS conveys Condolences to the Korean People over Demise of Beloved Leader Kim Jong Il

Dear Comrades, On behalf of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), its International Coordinating Committee and its nearly 400 member-organizations throughout the world, I wish to convey through your Committee the most heartfelt condolences to the family of the beloved leader Comrade Kim Jong Il and to the Korean people, the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea and the Workers’ Party of Korea over his passing away.

We share the grief of the Korean people and their desire to turn this into further strength. Comrade Kim Jong Il leaves a legacy that is always inspiring to his people and to the people of the world. Emulating his great father Comrade Kim Il Sung, he has rendered great service to the Korean people and has won great achievements in leading and mobilizing them in the spirit of patriotism and self-reliance against imperialism, especially that of the US.

We salute Comrade Kim Jong Il for his accomplishments in asserting the national independence and socialist aspirations of the Korean people, in seeking the peaceful reunification of the north and south, in carrying out economic construction and overcoming natural calamities, in developing a strong defense against imperialist war provocations, economic sanctions and military encirclement, in demanding the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and in contributing to the cause of world peace and the solidarity of the people of the world.

Because of the ever shining legacy of Comrade Kim Jong Il, we are confident that the Korean people and DPRK under the new leadership of Comrade Kim Jong Un will continue to take the revolutionary path and serve as a bulwark against imperialism and all reaction, especially at this time that the world capitalist system is in severe crisis and US imperialism is more aggressive and more overbearing than ever before in East Asia and elsewhere.

We of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle will always stand in solidarity with the Korean people and the DPRK along the anti-imperialist and democratic line. We are firmly and vigorously committed to the struggle for greater freedom, democracy, social justice, all-round development and world peace.

International League for Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS)