THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF JOSE MA. SISON (1991-2009)
Volume 1: For Justice, Socialism and Peace
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Volume 2: For Democracy and Socialism against Imperialist Globalization
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Size: 6 in x 9 in
Process: Offset
Binding: Smythe Perfect Binding
Publisher: Aklat ng Bayan, Inc.
Cover design: Diego Siquieros
Philippine price: Php 300.00 each
Price abroad: US$ 15.00 each
Reviews
1. Elmer Ordonez (See full text below)
2. Judge Ad Litem Atty. Romeo Capulong
“I have been tasked to review Prof. Sison’s twelve articles and speeches on justice, socialism and peace for Volume 1 of the series covering the period from 1991-1995. I dare say that the breadth and depth of these three topics encompass the entire gamut of the writer’s life-time revolutionary work and commitment, manifested in his fifty years of selfless service to the national democratic struggle and to the Filipino people.”
3. UP Faculty Regent Judy Taguiwalo
“Tunay na napapanahon ang aklat na ito (For Democracy and Socialism against Imperialist Globalization) sa ngayon na kinakaharap ng mundo ang walang kapantay na kapitalistang krisis pang-ekonomiya at ang patuloy na mga digmang agresyon ng US sa Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine at sa atin dito sa Pilipinas.”
“Humayo’t bumili ng libro at basahin ito. Mas mahalaga, patuloy na kumilos para sa isang mundong malaya sa imperyalismo at kapitalismo. Tulad ni Prop. Sison, isabuhay natin ang turo ni Marx, ‘Philosophers have merely interpreted the World, the point, however, is to change it.’ Unawain natin ang daigdig para baguhin ito.”
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The Other View
by Elmer A. Ordonez
TO CHANGE SOCIETY ONE HAS TO INTERPRET IT
The title of course is an inversion of what Marx said that “philosophers have interpreted the world in various ways; the point however is to change it” — inscribed on his tomb in Highgate, London. This is the key premise of publishing Selected Writings of Jose Maria Sison in four volumes covering the period from 1991 to 2009, involving historical junctures after the disintegration of the “revisionist” Soviet Union to the now raging global economic crisis. The first two volumes were launched recently by Aklat ng Bayan.
From his student days Jose Maria Sison has not only sought to interpret society at large; he has contributed significantly towards changing it as the leading light of the “longest running” revolutionary movement in this part of the world. Sison is cited in the Bibliographical Dictionary of Marxism as among the 210 most important Marxists since the 1848 Manifesto. Historian Teodoro Agoncillo acknowledged Sison as one of the three most influential revolutionary leaders after Andres Bonifacio and Crisanto Evangelista.
Sison was founding chairman of the reestablished (1968) Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), jailed for ten years (1977-86) by the Marcos regime, and now lives in Utrecht as chief political consultant to the National Democratic Front (NDF) Panel engaged in on-and-off peace talks with the Philippine government.
As an English major scholar in UP Diliman in the late 50s, Sison began his study of the history/science of revolution towards the application of Marxism-Leninism/Mao Zedong Thought in changing social relations in what he considered a semi-feudal/semi-colonial Philippine society. He wrote primers for the education of the organized masses that would carry out the revolutionary tasks. Thus Struggle for National Democracy (1967) and (under the pseudonym Amado Guerrero) Philippine Society and Revolution, 1970).
When martial law was declared in 1972, he saw in the countryside the lessons and needs of the revolution and thus wrote Specific Characteristics of People’s War (1974) and Our Urgent Tasks (1975). He was no arm-chair Marxist intellectual.
Captured and tortured severely in 1977, Sison continued his study in prison and wrote poems published in 1983 by the Free Jose Maria Sison Movement. His prize-winning Prison and Beyond was the basis for his getting the S.E.A. Write Award in 1986 in Thailand. Released during EDSA by President Aquino who promised to free all political prisoners, Sison lectured in U.P. and chaired the Partido ng Bayan which fielded senatorial and congressional candidates in the trapo-dominated 1987 election. Only two PnB representatives made it.
Harassed and eluding assassination attempts. Prof. Sison accepted invitations to give lectures abroad. He sought asylum in Netherlands when his passport was cancelled. Settling in Utrecht where the NDF office is located he has kept himself busy giving public lectures in Europe. His speaking engagements outside of Netherlands were stopped when the U.S., the European Union, and the Philippine government tagged him a “terrorist.” He was deprived of his allowance and housing as a political refugee and has survived, with his wife, Juliet de Lima, in Utrecht, with the help of friends.
Attempts on his life are ever present.
At the book launching, Senator Jamby Madrigal shed tears when told that Sison had fallen sick and could not address his well-wishers at the event. The senator recalled her visit to meet Joma and Juliet in Utrecht.
Since he left the country he has had several books published including his lectures and interviews. His and Juliet de Lima-Sison’s book Philippine Economy and Politics was issued in 1998. Ninotchka Rosca wrote Jose Maria Sison: At Home in the World launched by Ibon Foundation in 2004.
Volume One of Selected Writings is titled For Justice Socialism and Peace which includes 12 articles starting with an analysis of the Iraq War in 1991 to human rights violations under the Aquino regime, the peace negotiations, the World Economic Summit, the resurgence and the future of socialism, the question of revolutionary violence, a symposium on Mao Zedong Thought, the rectification movement in the CPP, socialism and the “New World Order,” technology and poverty in the Third World, and strengthening the alliance for human rights.
Volume Two titled For Democracy and Socialism against Globalist Imperialism highlights what Ed Villegas calls the “glory days of globalization” in the latter 1990s. Here Sison anticipates the collapse (now in progress) of the world capitalist system — a kind of poetic justice for Francis Fukuyama’s book which spelled “the end of history”with capitalism and “liberal democracy” permanently installed. Sison is right in dismissing Fukuyama’s oracle as nonsense.
The last two volumes will follow within the year to complete Sison’s project of providing guidelines for the resurgence of anti-imperialist and socialist movements. In his 70th year, he has sustained his Marxist interpretation of the world and his active participation in the historical process of changing it.