Lessons in the Advance of the Labor Movement as Guide to Further Expansion and Strengthening

Keynote to the 12th National Congress of Kilusang Mayo Uno, Teachers’ Camp,
Baguio City, October 21, 2018

I am honored and delighted to be your keynote speaker on the occasion of your 12th National Congress. I congratulate you and the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) for your achievements since your last Congress.

I am confident that in summing up your experience and drawing lessons during the last three years, you will be able to tighten your unity as the genuine, fighting and militant center of the workers’ movement and achieve greater victories in expanding and strengthening the KMU as you struggle against the escalating neoliberal and fascist attacks of the US-Duterte regime and advance the national democratic struggle of the people.

On the current situation

You have no choice but to stand up and fight back in greater and more militant numbers. Globally and domestically, the neoliberal attacks continue to press down wages, impose short term contractualization through hiring agencies, block job security, deprive you of the minimum daily wage level to assure all workers of decent and healthy subsistence, cut back hard-won social benefits (including health insurance, pension, housing, unemployment relief and others), reduce social services and curtail all the economic, social, political, civil and cultural rights that have been won by the working class in centuries of struggle in terms of national legislation and international labor standards.

You must also confront and fight the fascist attacks being unleashed to intensify exploitation and oppression. State terrorism is being used to force you to accept the unjust exploitative impositions of the state and the capitalist employers and perpetuate the unfair working and living conditions of the working class. The workers and their movement are being systematically weakened and dis-empowered through the denial of their most basic civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The same state instruments of terror that oppress you as a class—the laws, courts, and armed forces—also grind down the unemployed and underemployed semi-proletariat and other people in the same urban communities you live in as well as in the vast rural areas where many of you came from.

The organized workers movement is more urgently needed than ever. Capitalist exploitation is getting worse. Labor productivity in the country’s industrial sector increased 52 percent between 2001 and 2017 but capitalists made sure that all of this and more goes to them as profits by reducing the daily industrial wage to PhP388 in 2017 which is even 5.5 percent lower in real terms than in 2001. As it is, over seven out of ten (70.1 percent) families earn below the family living wage for minimum decent living.

The country’s unemployment crisis is unprecedented and disguised only by the State’s statistical trickery. There were at least 4.6 million unemployed Filipinos last year aside from around seven million under-employed meaning some 12 million Filipinos or over one in four of the labor force are out of work or looking for more work.

The real unemployment rate has risen under neoliberalism from the 1980s and has remained at well over 10 percent for the last decade. Unemployment is worst among youth 15-24 years old and is at least double the national average. The number of workers in short-term, seasonal and causal work has bloated under neoliberalism including nearly four out of 10 (35.3 percent) industrial workers as of 2017.

This domestic crisis of joblessness does not even count the millions of Filipinos forced overseas for work. For many years now, more Filipinos leave to find work abroad than new jobs are created locally—more so in 2017 when employment actually contracted by 663,000 from the year before.

The actual high rate of unemployment and the absence of a national minimum wage level of PhP750-800 daily (demanded by KMU and other workers’ organizations as of May 2018) for the employed have exposed the working class and the rest of the people to the ravaging effects of soaring prices of basic goods and services. The rising inflation rate is due to the drive of the US-Duterte regime to raise tax revenues at the expense of ordinary consumers for the purpose of increasing appropriations for the military and police, debt service and for covering budgetary and trade deficits.

In line with the theme of your Congress, “Expand and Strengthen the Workers’ Movement towards the advance of the national democratic struggle of the entire people,” let me discuss the lessons from the advance of the labor movement in the Philippines and the world as guide to the further expansion and strengthening of the workers’ movement in the next three years.

Emergence and advance of the labor movement

I shall cover the subject at a quick pace and in a summary way. The labor movement has strengthened itself and advanced through class struggle in the ideological, political and organizational fields. It can take advantage of the various contradictions in capitalist society and the conflicts among imperialist powers. It suffers setbacks when the working class lacks a revolutionary party with the correct stand, viewpoint and method of thinking and acting.

For the industrial capitalist class to emerge, it had to acquire the industrial sites, the equipment, raw materials and credit for establishing the factories or the industrial plants. The equipment and raw materials are the product of previous use of labor power but such congealed or dead labor cannot by themselves produce new material values, without further use of living labor power.

Thus the capitalist class created the industrial proletariat in greater number as the economy and society became increasingly capitalist in character, especially after the bourgeoisie seized power from, the feudalists through the bourgeois democratic revolution. It needed the working class to create the surplus value or the unpaid labor in order to extract the profits, the bank interest and rent.

The industrial workers arose at first as a class in itself, unconscious of what to do to relieve itself of extremely long hours of work, as much as 16 or even more hours in most of 19th century. The industrial workers became a class for itself when this became conscious of the need to struggle for shorter working hours, higher wages and better working and living conditions. In becoming a class for itself, the industrial proletariat engaged in organizing in trade unions for economic struggle. Subsequently, it formed political parties to engage in political struggle within capitalist society. As a class for itself, it became conscious of and driven by the need to wage class struggle in order to obtain not only immediate economic concessions from the capitalist class but also in the long run to gain political power and build socialism.

For the industrial working class to pursue class struggle against the capitalist class and clarify the correct path to socialism, Marxism provided the ideological, political and organizational lines of class struggle. By the last decade of the 19th century, it became the main trend in the working class movement in Europe. By the end of the l9th century working hours had been reduced to 10 hours or thereabouts. In the early 20th century, the working class won the 8-hour working day in the world capitalist system as a result of the well-organized and sustained campaigns of the working class parties and trade unions.

The trade union movement and the Communist Party in the Philippines

The influence of the European working class movement reached the Philippines through Isabelo de los Reyes, who brought with him from Europe the works of Marx, the anarcho syndicalists and socialists to the Philippines, and established the Union Obrera Democratica in 1902. This launched the modern trade union movement for replacing the gremios (guilds) as the organization of workers.

Modern imperialism or monopoly capitalism became dominant in capitalist countries before the end of the 19th century. As a modern imperialist power, the US engaged Spanish colonialism in a war in 1898 to grab the Philippines and other colonies of the latter and pretended to befriend the leaders of the Philippine revolution. Eventually the US unleashed a war of aggression against the Filipino people, lasting from 1899 to 1914 and killing 1.5 million Filipinos.

Marxism developed to Leninism in response to modern imperialism. Driven by the crisis of over-production, the imperialist powers engaged in economic and political conflicts that led to the first inter-imperialist war, World War I. This became the occasion for the rise of the first socialist state established by the working class, together with the peasants, in Russia and what would be the entire Soviet Union in 1917.

The salvos of the Great October Socialist Revolution immediately reached the working class movement in the Philippines. But it would only be in 1930 that the Communist Party of the Philippine Islands (CPPI) would be established by Crisanto Evangelista on the basis of a growing trade union movement spearheaded by the Congreso Obrero de Filipinas. The CPPI was soon suppressed by the US colonial government but it was able to survive and develop underground until it was legalized in 1936 on account of the anti-fascist campaign of the US against the Axis powers. In 1938, the CPPI and Socialist Party of the Philippines formed the Merger Party of the Communist and Socialist Parties.

The general crisis of capitalism resulted in one more inter-imperialist war, World War II. The Merger Party led the formation of the Peoples Army against Japan on March 29, 1942 in order to combat the Japanese fascist invasion and occupation. It gained ample opportunity to do revolutionary work among the peasants and the entire people of Central Luzon and to fight the foreign aggressor and gain political power in the region.

By granting nominal independence to the Philippines, US imperialism converted it to a semicolonial and semifeudal status from 1946 onwards. The errors of Right and “Left” opportunism committed by the Lava brothers limited and prevented the further advance of the Philippine revolutionary movement. The backbone of the armed revolution and the Congress of Labor Organizations were destroyed as a result of the enemy crackdown from 1949 to 1952.

Peaking of proletarian power and start of modern revisionism

On the world stage, the communist and working class movements could declare in 1956 that one-third of humanity was already under proletarian governance through socialist states and peoples democracies. However, in the Soviet Union, the scourge of modern revisionism would begin to undermine and destroy Soviet socialism as early as 1956. At the same time, US imperialism waged a rabidly anti-communist crusade in the Cold War, unleashed wars of aggression and military intervention, applied neocolonialism to keep the oppressed peoples in chains and propped up repressive puppet regimes.

Independent of the nearly extinct Merger Party of the Communist and Socialist Parties, proletarian revolutionaries arose from 1959 onwards to revive the national democratic movement among the youth, workers, peasants and other sectors. The Kabataang Makabayan, Lapiang Manggagawa and Malayang Samahan mg mga Magsasaka (MASAKA-Olalia) arose and grew in strength prominently. By December 26, 1968, the proletarian revolutionaries were able to reestablish the Communist Party of the Philippines under the theoretical guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

The US imperialists tried to use the Marcos puppet regime to destroy the CPP and the growing revolutionary movement by declaring martial law and establishing a fascist dictatorship in 1972. The legal democratic forces based in the urban areas had to go underground but eventually bounced back with great vigor, especially from 1981 onwards as the Marcos fascist dictatorship weakened and became isolated. The people’s war led by the CPP thrived instead of being suppressed. As early as 1974, the trade unions were able to carry out a nationwide strike in more than 300 work places, starting with the historic La Tondeña Strike that organized hundreds of workers, youth and students. On May 1, 1980, Kilusang Mayo Uno emerged to resume and coordinate the trade union struggle more comprehensively nationwide.

The great Mao Zedong put forward his theory of continuing revolution under proletarian dictatorship through the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, in order to combat modern revisionism, prevent the restoration of capitalism and consolidate socialism. But eventually, after his death, the Dengist restoration and counterrevolution succeeded in reversing the proletarian revolutionary line of Mao and in integrating China into the world capitalist system starting in 1978.

Neoliberalism and the US as sole superpower

Since the 1980s, the US and its imperialist allies has been using neoliberalism to deny the labor theory of value and the truth that the working class is the producer of social wealth and to misrepresent and glorify the parasitic capitalist class as the creator of wealth and jobs. This ideology of unbridled capitalist greed was spread and turned into policy against the working class throughout the world, in the capitalist countries, developing countries and revisionist-ruled countries.

In the years 1989-91, Russia and China became fully capitalist as did the other Soviet Republics and East European satellites that rapidly and fully reintegrated themselves into the world capitalist system. US imperialism emerged as the unchallenged winner in its Cold War with the Soviet Union. But it undermined itself and accelerated its strategic decline by giving China manufacturing and global market concessions and by engaging in many costly wars of aggression, especially in the Middle East, Africa and former Yugoslavia.

Since the global financial crisis of 2008, which was ignited by the US mortgage meltdown, the imperialist powers and the IMF, World Bank and WTO have failed to solve the problem of prolonged stagnation and depression. This has led to intensifying contradictions among the imperialist powers, between the imperialist powers and the oppressed peoples and nations, between the imperialist powers and independent-minded states and between labor and capital in the imperialist countries.

With the worsening of the aforecited contradictions, the working class and the rest of the people suffer the worsening crisis conditions and the increased frequency of wars. At the same time, they are compelled to fight for their rights and interests against the imperialist powers and all reactionary states. Great working class and popular movements are arising to oppose imperialist domination and the various reactionary currents, which are mainly fascist in character.

In transition to great resurgence of proletarian revolution

As chairperson of the ILPS, I am glad to declare that the international broad united front against imperialism has been steadily growing in the past decade, and that national chapters and member-organizations and chapters of the ILPS have been consistently in the forefront. The KMU has had a rich experience in running the International Solidarity Affair for many years as well as in participating in the ILPS since its founding in 2001. KMU’s prospects for achieving greater victories in expanding and strengthening itself and in the national democratic struggle of the Filipino people includes a potentially bigger role to play in the international united front.

At the core of the broad anti-imperialist movement, we can observe more clearly than ever before that we are now in the process of transition to the resurgence of the working class movement and the world proletarian revolution. In more and more countries, there is serious and organized re-invigoration of theoretical study and practical application of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism in the working class movement and people’s revolutionary struggles led by Maoist parties.

The CPP, which celebrates its 50th founding anniversary this year, stands out today as the torch bearer of the world proletarian revolution in ideological, political and organizational terms. It has defended and further developed the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism against imperialism, revisionism and reaction. It leads a growing people’s army and revolutionary united front of the people. And it has a solid organization bound by the principle of democratic centralism and based on the revolutionary mass organizations. It has extensive relations of proletarian internationalism with communist and working class parties and of anti-imperialist solidarity with the peoples of the world.

All these growing subjective factors are reinforced by the sharpening basic contradictions in the world today which increasingly favor the resurgence of the working class movement and proletarian revolution. These give a clearer internationalist framework for the Filipino working class to lead, at the head of the Filipino people by, in defining and achieving revolutionary tasks, in surmounting all difficulties and challenges, and in contributing to the historic mission of the world proletariat in emancipating itself and the entire humanity from the scourge of capitalism and imperialism and building a brighter and better future in socialism.

Long live the Kilusang Mayo Uno!

Expand and Strengthen the Workers’ Movement!

Advance the national democratic struggle of the Filipino people!

Carry forward the red banner of proletarian internationalism!

Long live the world proletarian revolution!