PHILIPPINES: Socialists unite in new party

[The following statement was issued on August 5 by the central committee
of the newly formed Workers Party of the Philippines.]

MANILA — In a historic step forward for the Philippine left, more than
a hundred delegates from three revolutionary parties held a unity congress
and formed a unified party, after more than a week of congress debates
and deliberations.

The Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino (Workers Party of the Philippines,
PMP), the Sosyalistang Partido ng Paggawa (Socialist Party of Labour, SPP)
and the Partido Proletaryo Demokratiko (Democratic Proletarian Party, PPD)
have come together, under a new program and constitution, to form a new
party which is now simply called the Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino (PMP).

The merger of the three parties, which comes after almost 10 years of
disunity and splits, is a trailblazer for the revolutionary movement. It
will result in the strengthening of the revolutionary forces with the new
party now constituting the largest cadre force and mass base in the revolutionary
movement.

A group of revolutionary socialists from the Bangsa Moro nation, inspired
by the merger process, also joined the congress and are now a part of the
united party.

The PMP, PPD and the revolutionary socialists from the Bangsa Moro nation
were formerly members of units of the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines.
They split from the CPP in 1993 against the Stalinist/Maoist method of
leadership and argued for a congress to sort out the differences within
the party (the CPP has held only one congress — its founding congress in
1968). They subsequently argued for a reappraisal of the CPP's entire program
and strategy.

The SPP brought together revolutionary forces from the two main revolutionary
traditions in the Philippines: the CPP and the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930.
(The PKP-1930, which aligned itself with Moscow, was the first revolutionary
socialist party in the Philippines. The CPP split from the PKP in 1968,
critical of the PKP's class-collaborationist and opportunist politics.)

The merger is a product of some 10 years of clarification of the views
and line-of-march of our forces after the split from the CPP in 1993.

The merger process was co-ordinated by a Pre-Congress Committee which
was set up in August 2001 by the leadership of the PMP and the SPP. The
PPD subsequently joined the PCC.

The basis for the merger was stated in a PCC statement announcing the
beginning of the merger talks. There was unity on ideological questions
in the framework of Marxism-Leninism and a high level of political unity.
It was emphasised that there was a political imperative for the revolutionary
forces to unite and lead the major upheavals which would inevitably result
from the social and political crisis facing the country.

The PCC also outlined the points of difference between the parties.
The differences included the nature of the transition to socialism, the
relationship of the party to the peasant struggles and others. The PCC
oversaw a rich pre-congress discussion during which the parties' positions
were debated in written form through an internal discussion bulletin.

The PCC presented a draft unity program and constitution to the congress.
These documents were adopted unanimously, with minor amendments. Almost
two days were also set aside for lively debates around the outstanding
issues of differences. These issues entailed further clarification and
fine-tuning of basic unities that already existed on these questions, which
were reflected in the program. These issues will continue to be debated
and discussed within the united party.

A new central committee was elected, unifying the forces under a single,
united leadership.

From Green Left Weekly, August 21, 2002.

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From GLW issue 505