Filipino political scientist and writer Professor Jose Maria Sison’s latest volumes of selected writings were launched last 15 May 2010 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The books, Crisis of Imperialism and People’s Resistance (Volume 3) and People’s Struggle Against Imperialist Plunder and Terror (Volume 4) were launched in the wake of Prof. Sison’s legal victories against the false charges filed by the Dutch prosecution and the victory at the European Court of Justice which annulled his inclusion in the so-called terrorist blacklist of the European Union.

Prof. Sison is the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front Peace Panel in peace negotiations with the Manila government, and is currently chairperson of the global anti-imperialist alliance International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS).

The books Crisis of Imperialism and People’s Resistance, and People’s Struggle Against Imperialist Plunder and Terror, are part of a 4-volume series of Prof. Sison’s selected writings. The first two volumes namely, For Justice, Socialism and Peace (Volume 1) and For Democracy and Socialism Against Imperialist Globalization (Volume 2), were released in 2009.

Prof. Jose Maria Sison signing books during launch

In his opening statement during the launching, Prof. Sison remarked that he wrote the selected writings in the current four volumes in various capacities since 1991 as a fervent student of Marxism-Leninism, as the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, as a teacher of political science, as chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front Peace Panel and as the chairperson of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle.
Prof. Sison stated: “We are living today in interesting times. A severe crisis unprecedented since the Great Depression and World War II is shaking the world capitalist system. I hope that my writings can shed light on the causes of the intolerable suffering of the proletariat and people of the world and on the road of revolutionary resistance that leads to a fundamentally new and better world.”

Dr. Mario Fumerton (Ph.D.), Research Fellow on Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Utrecht University, presented his review of Crisis of Imperialism and People’s Resistance (Volume 3), while Ms. Maitet Ledesma, Chairperson of Pinay sa Holland-Gabriela read Dr. Pao-Yu Ching’s (Ph.D.) review of People’s Struggle Against Imperialist Plunder and Terror (Volume 4). Dr. Ching, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan, was unable to come for the book launching.

In his review, Dr. Mario Fumerton noted that the principal purpose of the author for penning these essays in Crisis of Imperialism and People’s Resistance (Volume 3) has been to educate his readers as to the context and necessity of people’s armed struggle for national liberation. He does so in three steps. First, he carefully situates people’s resistance within a global system of monopoly capitalism, or modern imperialism. The material contradictions, economic crises, exploitation, oppression and destitution brought by imperialism to nations throughout the world—coupled with the intransigent and violent opposition by imperialist powers and their client-states to true, meaningful change for social justice and human development—are the catalysts for the emergence and rise of armed revolutionary forces. Second, he describes in detail, with special reference to the experience of the Philippines, the organizational and mobilizational capacities of revolutionary forces as they wage a political and moral struggle against imperialism and neo-colonialism. And third, he offers reasoning and argumentation as to why the only real solution to the crisis of imperialism is militant and uncompromising armed struggle for national liberation, social justice, and socialism.

Dr. Fumerton continued: “While I was reading this essay (Contradictions in the System and the Necessity of Revolution), I thought about how suitable it was for understanding the root causes and dynamics of the current global economic crisis. I thought about the thousands of Americans who, during the credit crisis, had lost their jobs and their homes, and were reduced to living in tent cities in places like Southern California, Nevada, and Florida. I thought about how rapacious American military aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan had inadvertently provoked the multiplication of insurgent groups in other countries, like Pakistan and Yemen. Indeed, while it quickly became obvious to me that this essay can competently frame what is happening in the world today, what is truly remarkable about it is that it was an essay written back in May 2001. That his political-economic assessment of world affairs a decade ago could accurately anticipate future political, economic, and social developments attests to Professor Sison’s power of astute observation, and the explanatory potency of his method of analysis, which is based on historical-materialism.”

Dr. Mario Fumerton and Prof. Jose Maria Sison

Dr. Fumerton pointed out that on 18 September 2001, Prof. Sison released a public statement of sympathy for the victims of 9/11 which makes clear that his fight is not against the ordinary people of America. Prof. Sison stated that terrorism from any quarter is reprehensible and must be combatted and eradicated. But according to Dr. Fumerton Prof. Sison was careful to add, however, that the state terrorism meted out by US imperialism is what provokes “…such terrorists as those responsible for the 11 September terrorist attacks to give the US a dose of its own medicine.” His outspoken criticism of US state terror and its politics of labeling have undoubtedly played a role in landing him on various terrorist lists. Such has been the price he has paid for speaking out against the hypocrisy that underlies the so-called “global war on terror.”

Dr. Pao-yu Ching, in her review of People’s Struggle Against Imperialist Plunder and Terror (Volume 4) stated that Volume 4 impressed her on the depth of Sison’s analysis and the ranges of issues he covers such as the analysis of economic and political crisis of monopoly capitalism, and how United States masquerades military aggression as “war on terror”. The range of issues that Sison covers extends from national to regional and to international so that the reader is given a knowledge of both historical and current people’s struggle against imperialism in Asia, Latin America and Africa as well as people’s struggles in imperialist countries.

To gain clarity about the current global economic crisis and what to do to push the anti-imperialist struggles forward, Dr. Ching stated that the reader will benefit from Sison’s paper on “What the People Can and Must Do about the Financial and Economic Crisis”. The paper explains not only the fundamental cause for the crisis but shows how the neo-liberal policies pushed forward by imperialist powers in the past three decades has actually intensified the crisis. On what is to be done, Sison outlines a program focusing on organizational, information and education campaigns and mass mobilization, all of which are to be carried out according to the concrete conditions of different countries.

Dr. Ching ended her review by quoting from the preface of the book: “For exercising his right to speak on the side of the people, Prof. Sison has been subjected to various forms of persecution, including the use of false charges to malign him as a “terrorist”; denial of his bid for political asylum, deprivation of employment and social benefits; imprisonment and threat of imprisonment; and threats of and attempts at assassination.”

And yet through all this adversarial situation, Dr. Ching stated that Prof. Sison thrives and his conviction and commitment to the cause of revolution shine through his writings and speeches.

A photo exhibit of Prof. Sison as gleaned through the eyes of photographers Viory Schellekens and Nwel Saturay was launched during the event. Schellekens and Saturay followed Prof. Sison’s daily activities and photographed him in different situations. Guests at the book launching gave very positive remarks on the photographs which according to them showed Prof. Sison in a very different light.

Jeffrey Guiban sang“ Pulang Saludo, Ka Joma” [Red Salute, Comrade Joma], with lyrics written by Danilo Robles and put into music by Guiban.

The program was emceed by Theo Droog, Chairperson of Committee DEFEND-Netherlands. – International Committee DEFEND

Under the auspices of the International Committee DEFEND, Filipino political scientist and writer Professor Jose Maria Sison will launch his latest two books on Philippine and global issues at the ABC Treehouse, Voetboogstraat 11 in Amsterdam on May 15, Saturday, from 3 to 6pm.

The books, Crisis of Imperialism and People’s Resistance (Volume 3) and People’s Struggle Against Imperialist Plunder and Terror (Volume 4) are part of the four-volume series of the selected writings of Prof. Sison from 1991 to 2009.

The earlier volumes were launched year also in Amsterdam. Volume 1 is entitled For Justice, Socialism and Peace and Volume 2, For Democracy and Socialism Against Imperialist Globalization. These shall also be available for sale at the new launch.

Prof. Sison is the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front Peace Panel in peace negotiations with the Manila government. He is also the chairperson of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS), an anti-imperialist and democratic alliance of more than 300 organizations in more than 40 countries.

Prof. Sison will autograph the book copies sold and will have a commemorative photo with every book buyer. The four volumes have been published by Aklat ng Bayan, a progressive Philippine publisher, to celebrate Prof. Sison’s fifty years of patriotic service to the Filipino people.

The book launch comes in the wake of his legal victories, one involving the dropping of false charges against him by the Dutch prosecution service and the other requiring the removal of his name by the European Court of Justice from the terrorist blacklist of the European Union.

Prof. Dr. Mario A, Fumerton, a professor in conflict studies at the University of Utrecht, will give a brief review of Volume 3. Prof. Paoyu Ching, professor emeritus of economics at Marygrove College, will give a book review of Volume 4. Other distinguished guests will be present.

To enliven the book launch, a song in honor of Prof. Sison shall be sung by the music composer Jefrey Guiban. There shall also be a photo exhibit by the documentary photographers Viory Schellekens and Nwel Saturay, presenting candid still photos of Prof. Sison in the course of his daily life. – International Committee DEFEND

Dear Friends,

I thank all of you for your solidarity and support by participating in this launching of the books, Crisis of Imperialism and People’s Resistance and People’s Struggle against Imperialist Plunder and Terror. These are volumes three and four, respectively, of the four-volume selection of my writings covering 1991-2009. I hope that you enjoy the showing of the DVD of the musical play “Makata’y Mandirigma, Mandirigma’y Makata”, featuring songs based on some of my poems.

I thank and congratulate Aklat ng Bayan for publishing the four volumes in the span of one year. I appreciate the fact that Aklat ng Bayan was able to surmount sudden and unforeseen obstacles, including the Ondoy floods that victimized some of its key members and that damaged at least eighty percent of its book inventories.

I am elated that Aklat ng Bayan has persevered in publishing my written contributions to the Filipino people’s struggle for national liberation and democracy as well as to the world people’s struggle against imperialist plunder and war. I commend Aklat ng Bayan for rendering an important service to the people, the progressive forces and the activists, scholars and others.

Volumes 3 and 4 reflect how the Filipino people’s struggle developed and advanced amidst the rapid deterioration of the local ruling system and the grave global economic and political crises during the period of 2001 to 2009. They are the necessary and logical sequel to the first two volumes covering the decade from 1991 to 2000, which saw the revitalization of the revolutionary forces and the resurgence of people’s struggles in the Philippines despite the fierce ideological, political, economic and military offensives unleashed by the US-led imperialist powers and the local reactionaries.

In the last nine years, imperialist plunder under the slogan of “free market” globalization intensified as the world capitalist system rushed inexorably to its worst crisis in eighty years, culminating in the bursting of the financial bubble in the US and causing the collapse of financial markets all over the world. The US also escalated imperialist aggression and state terrorism under the policy of a permanent and borderless “war on terror” in a futile attempt to stave off the impending collapse of its bubble economy as well as to further expand and consolidate its global hegemony as sole superpower.

Attempts by imperialist states and their propagandists to cushion and cover up the impact of the financial meltdown have proven futile as public funds have invariably bailed out the big culprit banks and corporations in the military industrial complex rather than the mass of victimized people suffering from unemployment, fallen incomes, homelessness and deprivation of social services. So called stimulus packages have dismally failed to revive production, generate employment and expand the market.

The current global economic and financial crisis is bound to deepen further, inflict further suffering on the people, but is opening up the possibilities for dramatic advances in peoples’ struggles all over the world. Contradictions are intensifying between imperialism and the oppressed nations and peoples, among imperialist powers competing for economic territory and political control, between imperialism and countries asserting national independence and sovereignty, and between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in the capitalist countries. The increasingly intolerable conditions of oppression and exploitation compel and impel more and more people all over the world to protest, resist and fight imperialist plunder and war.

Under the weight of the grave crisis of the world capitalist system, the crisis of the semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system in the Philippines will worsen at an accelerated rate. The persistent evil forces of foreign monopoly capitalism, domestic feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism will wreak further havoc on the lives of the people and ruin the environment. But the broad masses of the people and their patriotic and progressive forces will become more determined than ever before to fight for their national and democratic rights and advance from one level of the struggle to a new a higher level.

Once again, thank you. With your solidarity and support, we can look forward to Aklat ng Bayan’s publishing more books from this author and others who are for a new and better Philippines, characterized by genuine national independence, democracy, all-round development, social justice and peace.

Aklat ng Bayan, Inc. publishes and circulates books and other publications that are socially relevant and that are specifically committed to furthering the goals of peoples’ struggle for national and social liberation and democracy.

We would like to invite you to attend the launch which will feature reviews of the two volumes, as well as musical performances from Sison’s poetry and other cultural presentations.

Copies of the book will be available at a discounted price. While for obvious reasons the author cannot be present to sign copies, each copy will include a bookmark that bears his signature.

We earnestly hope that you can come.

Yours sincerely,

LUIS V. TEODORO
Chair, Board of Directors
Aklat ng Bayan, Inc.

Volume 3: Crisis of Imperialism and People’s Resistance

(Please click on the cover image for a larger version.)

Volume 4: People’s Struggle against Imperialist Plunder and Terror

(Please click on the cover image for a larger version.)

Excerpts from introductions

1. Elmer A. Ordonez

“Writing an introduction to what is basically history of struggle benefits from hindsight. Past, present and future are intertwined in these essays. No linear time here, shifts in chronology are inevitable, but the inexorable march of history as a Marxist sees it in stages is unmistakable.”

2. Rey Claro C. Casambre

“It is not an exaggeration to say that Prof. Sison’s ideas and works, part of which are contained in this volume, have served to inspire, educate and enlighten tens of thousands of revolutionaries and social activists not only in the Philippines but all over the world.”

Volume 1: For Justice, Socialism and Peace

(Please click on the cover image for a larger version.)

Volume 2: For Democracy and Socialism against Imperialist Globalization

(Please click on the cover image for a larger version.)

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.”

HOW TO ORDER BOOKS: Please email us at anbi[at]aklatngbayan[dot]org.

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.

Author:
José Maria Sison

Size: 6 in x 9 in
Process: Offset
Binding: Smythe Perfect Binding
No. of Pages: 200, excuding cover
lamination in full color
Publisher:
Aklat ng Bayan, Inc.

Philippine price: Php 250.00
Price abroad: US$ 12.50

Excerpts from “Two nationalist books” by Elmer A. Ordoñez

Nationalism is the basic ideology of Philippine Society and Revolution (PSR) which was first issued in 1970. Early versions (Philippine Crisis) appeared in mimeograph and in the Philippine Collegian and Ateneo’s Guidon in the late sixties (as recalled by Monico Atienza). PSR, which uses the materialist approach in its historical account and Marxist class analysis in its dissection of Philippine society, became the primer of young activists who had also read Sison’s Struggle for National Democracy, Teodoro Agoncillo and Renato Constantino. With these readings they were just a step away from reading the works of Marx, Lenin and Mao.

The fifth edition of PSR reproduces the original text with slight revisions for the author and publisher maintain its continuing relevance in a “semi-feudal and semi-colonial” society like ours. As Luis Teodoro quotes, “the more things change, the more they are the same.” The land question, bureaucrat/crony capitalism, and US imperialism (now in the vesture of globalization) remain unresolved. The fifth PSR edition may be compared to the third (1979) and fourth (1996) editions which include two “praxis” documents: Specific Characteristics of People’s War (1973) and Our Urgent Tasks (1976). The fourth edition has excerpts from later writings of Sison. The Bibliographical Dictionary of Marxism (London, 1986) lists Sison as among the most important 200 Marxists since the 1848 Communist Manifesto. Historian Agoncillo in 1985 said that Sison was one of three most influential revolutionary leaders after Andres Bonifacio and Crisanto Evangelista.

– “Two nationalist books” in The Other View by Elmer A. Ordoñez, Manila Times, February 18, 2006