This gap was evident during the vice-presidential elections last year, when many of the older activists blamed millennials for former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr.’s near-win. From these splits against those loyal to the party orthodoxy or “reaffirmists,” many different Leftist factions or “rejectionists” emerged, including insurrectionists in the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa and social democrats who would eventually compose groups such as Akbayan.Īccording to Juliano, activists now do not think the same way as those in the past, which creates a gap between the two generations. The CPP – and the subsequently founded NPA – reached the peak of its membership under the Martial Law era, when it presented itself as a revolutionary alternative to the abuse and corruption of the Marcos dictatorship.Īfter the toppling of the dictatorship, the CPP experienced internal schisms which severely weakened and fragmented it. Sison broke away from the older leadership due to disagreements regarding the approach to the struggle-he was a strong adherent of the Maoist strategy of protracted people’s war from the countryside. Jose Maria Sison, then a young cadre and founder of the revolutionary youth group Kabataang Makabayan, split from the older PKP (known now as PKP-1930), to form what is now recognized as the CPP. The communist movement would only regain wide support during the Marcos dictatorship. The debacle would culminate in the capture of former Hukbalahap commander Luis Taruc, under the guise of peace talks with the government of Ramon Magsaysay. The government believed that Philippine communists wanted to seize state power, leading to further discrediting the Philippine popular movement. Anti-communist action was relatively halted for a while during World War II, however, as the PKP’s armed faction, the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (Hukbalahap), proved itself to be an effective guerrilla army against the Japanese.Īfter the war, the Hukbalahap and the PKP would be subject once again to discredit, first as illegitimate guerrilla units and later on, as threats to the Philippine state, then only newly-granted sovereignty by the US.

Support from the United States (US) also meant that the Philippine Commonwealth took after the anti-communist rhetoric of the US. Historian Patricio Abinales writes that in clashes against these opposing actors, the Sakdalistas and PKP with their bolos, machetes, and homemade guns, would go up against an American-supported, well-armed Constabulary. Both groups were vocal in their opposition against the ruling elite class, which then found its representative in the Partido Nacionalista, the party of would-be presidents Manuel Quezon and Sergio Osmeña. The 1930s saw the formation and eventual merging of the proletarian groups Partido Sakdalista and the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP), in the face of burgeoning poverty in the countryside as well as among the urban working class. “There are different definitions of Leftism around the world, based on the country’s situation, conditions, and priorities,” says Political Science Department lecturer Hansley Juliano. However, over the decades the Left has come to develop a more dynamic identity in the Philippine political consciousness. The CPP-NPA-NDFP, after all, remains to speak on behalf of peasant-based armed struggle in the country, openly espousing the Maoist rhetoric of seizure of state power through power from below. Traditionally, when one speaks of the Left, one is easily reminded of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), its armed segment, the New People’s Army (NPA), or its political arm, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). This year, there were four separate protests in Mendiola, each with representatives occupying a different place in the spectrum of the Philippine Left. They all say they want contractualization to end, that they want fair wages, while calling out unfair conditions in the workplace. They change along with the flyers and the protesters who distribute them. On Labor Day, the banners tied to the Mendiola footbridge change multiple times.

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