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Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Revisiting the Socio-Ideological Spectrum



Rommel F. Bonus




“Philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.”                  - Karl Marx


On conflict of interests, on the paradigm of the oppressed and of the tyrant, are always been debatable between the orthodox and the post-Marxist in the concept of dualistic contradiction in the dialectics of Marx, the fundamental thought of its philosophy. Of the fundamentalist is of the prime idea of two classes’ mere existence against the impurities of the neo; the claim that there are always been neutrals. The first claim is of course from Marx’s metaphysical insight, his socio-economic analysis based on the nature of reality that Stalin and Lenin first called dialectical materialism (Marx didn’t mention the term; he only used the term “historical materialism”). The post’s claim may be traced to the ancient Greece’s “idiots”, those who don’t have any political participation. Albeit, Jose Maria Sison, the founder of the great party who was called by his comrades as “a true Marxist” classified social classes in the Philippines not merely Bourgeoisie and Proletariats as Marx himself referred to the two classes in the French and English social structure dominantly arose during the industrial revolution, but with another classes as Petty bourgeoisie referring to the people in intelligentsia such as students and professionals alike. He even has semi-proletarians, and even lumpen-proletarians who are those that are not employed, those are the criminals, thieves, and gangsters.

People criticize Joey Ayala’s Magkabilaan as the “dialectical materialism song”. On his blog, Joey wrote “Some people still refer to the title song as my “dialectical materialism” song!” and claim that he was really inspired by the biblical Ecclesiastes and his experience seeing social contradictions on his hometown Davao. One of the lines on the said song was “May kaliwa’t may kanan sa ating lipunan, patuloy ang pagtutunggali patuloy ang paglalaban. Pumanig ka, ‘wag nang ipagpaliban pa. Ang ‘di makapagpasya ay maiipit sa gitna” (There is left and right in our society, the struggle and war is ongoing. You should not postpone deciding now, for those who will not, will be caught in between).

There are allegations about the cold war we know that we actually encountered during high school days, written in our ever-fallacies books, that the term communist versus democracy is not the right words describing cold war and, well,  our own ideological struggle, because in context of the Left, communism is democracy. You can see it by names of the communist nations, always using “democratic”. National Democratic Front uses Pambansa-Demokratikong Pagbabago (National Democratic Movement). It is therefore a conclusion for such allegations that communism is not contradiction to democracy and vice-versa.

Rumors spread across the internet, specifically Facebook and other mass media that there is a possibility that JoMa Sison will be home in the Philippines after his exile in Netherlands when the his former student in San Beda and presidential bet Rodrigo Duterte, or Grace Poe wins the election. However, Sison argued that the party does not support any political candidate, and that - it is their firm principle not to believe in election system.  This 29th of March, 2016, New People’s Army – Communist Party of the Philippines – National Democratic Front celebrates its 47th anniversary by making a tribute to their comrade Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal who said in his days “Hindi eleksyon, kundi rebolusyon” (Revolution, not election).

On the other side Sison was so upset on his former student, because Duterte after admitting that he is a leftist issued an anti-worker statement on Kilusang Mayo Uno, a prominent progressive labor center. On the official first day of campaign period for 2016 elections, Duterte said, “I will establish economic zones. Mag-imbita ako… Dito kayo magtrabaho. Wag kayong magmamadali. Tapos kayong mga KMU, medyo pigilan na muna ninyo ang mga labor unions. Ako na ang nakikiusap sa inyo. Magkasama tayo sa ideolohiya. Wag ninyong gawin iyan. Kasi sisirain mo ang administrasyon ko. Kapag ginawa ninyo iyan, patayin ko kayong lahat. Ang solusyon dito, patayan na. Eh pag-usapan mo, ayaw. Do not do it now, iyung active labor front. Kasi kapag ginawa ninyo, nagsasara. (I will invite … here you can work. Don’t rush. And you, KMU, restrain your labor unions a bit. It is I who is requesting you. We’re comrades in ideology. Don’t do that. Because you would destroy my administration. If you do that, I will kill you all. The solution here is killing. If we talk about it, you refuse. Do not do it, those active labor fronts.) Do not do it. Give the Philippines respect for about 10 years.”

Duterte even boast to say “I share with your ideology” before threatening to kill them. “Is he joking or did he just declare war?” is KMU’s response to Duterte’s statement.
Miriam Defensor-Santiago was criticized in the internet as a “Communist” after stating her want to junk Enhance Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), the alliance between the United States of America and Philippines. She says that 17 years of colonial relationship with the US must end. The Left however views it as radical step.

On a 2014 lecture, Noam Chomsky argued that you can never have a capitalist democracy. Capitalist’s libertarian principle from the classical Adam Smith is radically far away from the genuine democracy. All they want (the capitalist) is freedom, and their concept of freedom is freedom to exploit and own laborers. And eventually, historically speaking, their freedom became power and hegemony. Quoting Marx, he claimed the prediction that with this matter, if a capitalist democracy continues to exist for several years or decades it will eventually self-destruct. A phrase “Marx was Right!” is actually humoristic for me considering the left-party. The manifestation of the prediction of Marx, as was interpreted in the Philippine society, although not full attainment of nationalization of the means of production, is little by little mobilizing the masses to a greater cause of closing the gap between the classes, and is a real proof of the destruction of capitalist system, and will always be a sign of inevitableness for people to realize the true justice.

Philippine society, at its most definite comprehensiveness, has an infamous familiarity to decline. Rereading Jose Corazon de Jesus’ Bayan Ko, “At sa kanyang yumi at ganda dayuhan ay nahalina, bayan ko binihag ka nalugmok sa dusa” (How her Charm so kind and tender, Drove the Strangers to enslave her; Native land, they forced their Will, And made you suffer Still). De Jesus lived during the American colonial times, and may still be in wonder of the Hispanic but the truth of his poem that was considered as the second national anthem when sung by Freddie Aguilar, is still and even more applicable today. We still experience imperialistic dominance through intervention instead of mediation. The only person you can ask that will counter-react to this is, of course, Pnoy, his dilawan team, and the presidential bet Mar Roxas who served as the apologist of the administration on the last two presidential debates.

It is in the time of Spanish colonization that we resist tyranny. But like Cuba, after the Spanish-American war, was intervened by US-Imperialism. The only difference is that Cuba, lead by Fidel Castro, Raul Castro (now the president of Cuba) and an Argentinean revolutionary Che Guevara, resist and revolt until they attain the true national democracy and independence of the US intervention, the imperialist nation which according to Nelson Mandela, always acts for their own interest. And so until today, we are a dependent nation, our socio-politics and economy has been in hegemony of United States of America and the bourgeoisie may it be culturally, military (bases and foreign policies), in education (as for K-12 towards neo-liberalism) and in our natural resources (as for mining).

The nation as a semi-feudal can be traced from the Hispanic encomienda, up to the landlords of our days.
Amado Guerrero on his Philippine Society and Revolution wrote:

Philippine society today is semi-colonial and semi-feudal. This status is determined by U.S. imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism which now ruthlessly exploit the broad masses of the Filipino people. These three historical evils are the basic problems that afflict Philippine society.
He addresses that the root of the social problems came from imperialistic and feudalistic US. One of the concerns of US is foreign policy. Their acts always serve their interests. For instance, free trade is manifested thru unlimited and untaxed imported goods from them, and limited exports from us. Our notion of free trade is the relationship between the serf and the lord on a feudal system. 
Lualhati Bautista, a Filipina novelist, on her novel Gapo wrote a statement with her famous anguish tone of writing, “Mababait at mapagmahal ang kano, pero una’t higit sa lahat, sa sarili. May karapatan ka sa dangal at katarungan, basta h’wag mapeperhuwisyo ang mga negosyo nila’t pansariling interes” (Americans are good and compassionate people, but first and for most for themselves. You have your right of dignity and justice, albeit never try to harm their business and self interest).

Our culture of colonial mentality plays a great role on us being a “semi-colonial” nation. The hegemony of the bourgeois takes deeper roots on our day-to-day lives making the gap between the classes even more far away from one another, without the consciousness of the masses contributing to the cultural hegemony. As long as we fanaticize other’s culture rather than value our heritage, we will always find ourselves patronizing their products – contributing to the prosperity of their economy, while here we are digging our own grave, killing our own identity. Our government is always, on the side of the joint venture mining companies who destroy our mountains, kills hundreds of Lumads who choose to resist the ongoing destruction to protect the land which according to this people was inherited from their ancestors. 

Even to these days, Cojuanco-Aquino still has the control and monopolizes vast land in Tarlac that belongs to our peasant and farmers. Videos on FB show how these modern landlords burn famers’ hut and bulldoze the crops through large vehicles and un-uniformed police authorities. On issues like this, you can’t expect justice; always remember that our own president is an ‘aciendero himself.

Even in my community, even if some people say I influence people enough to impart the ideology of the people, it always been a struggle, for I always find difficulties engaging myself to people who are so obsessed with mentality of a colony. They appreciate more of the Korean Pop and Justin Bieber, and don’t even know the name Joey Ayala or Gary Granada, or even worst calling their songs “makaluma” (oldies).
Not until the nationalization of the means of production began, the gap between the classes closed, have the liberation of ideas from the cultural hegemony of the bourgeoisie, stopped the contractualization and promote a better working conditions of our working class, stopped the monopolized control of vast lands of the feudal landlords, free from the dominance of the US-Imperialism, establish a socialist constitution that shall embody the true justice may it be retributive and distributive phase, not until then, we can never attain the real independence. 

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Sources:
Philippine Society and Revolution, Amado Guerrero
Rappler
Philippine Daily Inquirer



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