National Democracy Movement (Philippines)

The Movement for National Democracy (Tagalog: Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya, KPD) is a broad-based alliance of left-wing, progressive individuals and organizations seeking comprehensive social, economic, and political justice in the Philippines composed of landless peasants, urban and rural poor, indigenous peoples, oppressed religious minorities, activists, workers, youth, and students.[1][2] The movement seeks to address what they consider to be the root causes of injustices affecting the Filipino masses in what is analyzed to be a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, by confronting the three fundamental problems of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism.[3]

Movement for National Democracy
Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya
Active regionsPhilippines, United States, Canada, Netherlands, Australia
IdeologyCommunism
Marxism–Leninism–Maoism
Anti-imperialism
Left-wing nationalism
Progressivism
Socialism
Political positionLeft-wing to far-left
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The national democratic struggle wishes to achieve "genuine" national liberation for the country and the realization of the democratic rights of the people[4] by expunging the nation of foreign imperialism, landlordism, monopoly capitalists, and corrupt government officials.

History and background

The National Democratic Movement has its origins in opposition to former president Ferdinand Marcos during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but in its entirety is interpreted by the ND as a continuation of struggles since the 1896 Philippine Revolution led by the Katipunan. As a result of sustained economic, political, and military abuses during the Marcos dictatorship, several figures such as Jose Maria Sison (writing under the eponym Amado Guerrero) proposed that the creation of a revolutionary mass movement of a national democratic character was necessary to overcome the "three basic problems" underpinning the oppressive conditions of Philippine society in the 1970s. Sison's vision uses Marxist–Leninist–Maoist principles for social analysis and in carrying out people's democracy or national democracy:

Under the present concrete conditions of Philippine society which are semi-colonial and semi-feudal, the Communist Party has to wage a national democratic revolution of a new type, a people's democratic revolution. Though its leadership is proletarian, the Philippine Revolution is not yet a proletarian-socialist revolution. We should not confuse the national-democratic stage and the socialist stage of the Philippine Revolution. Only after the national-democratic stage has been completed can the proletarian revolutionary leadership carry out the socialist revolution as the transitional stage towards communism. — Philippine Society and Revolution p.78[5]

Once martial law was lifted in 1981 and Corazon Aquino was elected to the Presidency in 1986 after the People Power Revolution, corruption and abuse of government power remained endemic in the Philippine political system, which according to the ND were exemplified by the Mendiola massacre, the counter-insurgency programs waged against the armed groups of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the New People's Army, embezzlement and graft during the terms of Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and the 2004 Hacienda Luisita massacre. According to the "ND analysis" espoused by Sison and others throughout the 1970s until today, the continuation of human rights violations in the Philippines at the hands of government officials and other social, economic, and political injustices highlight the need of liberating the nation the imperialist forces—primarily led, from what ND proponents identifies, the United States. As a former U.S. colony, the Philippines' dynamic with the United States dates back to the Philippine–American War.

Alliance Organizations

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, GABRIELA, and Kabataan Partylist, to name a few, are among a multitude of organisations that comprise and overlap with the movement. The movement seeks to advance national democracy and freedom from imperialism in the Philippines. The ND movement of the Philippines is interwoven with a larger global alliance: the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS), in which Joma Sison serves as its chairperson.[6]

Its member organizations include:[7]

References
  1. "Youth and Student Movement in the Philippines". Anakbayan-LA. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
  2. "Sounds of a New Hope (Trailer)". Sounds of a New Hope. tha illest 59. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  3. Guerrero, Amado (1979). "Philippine Society and Revolution" (PDF). Book. International Association of Filipino Patriots. p. 215. Archived from the original on 2011.
  4. "About | Anakbayan". Retrieved October 17, 2012.
  5. Guerrero, Amado (1979). Philippine Society and Revolution. p. 78.
  6. "International League of Peoples' Struggle". Retrieved January 1, 2013.
  7. "Participating Organizations". Fourth Assembly of the ILPS. International League of Peoples' Struggle. Retrieved January 1, 2013.
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