CRISIS OF IMPERIALISM, IMPACT ON THE PHILIPPINES AND CHALLENGE TO THE FILIPINO STUDENT YOUTH (Message to the League of Filipino Students)

(Message to the League of Filipino Students)

By Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, International League of Peoples' Struggle
Founding Chairman, Kabataang Makabayan
September 11, 2009

It is always an honor and privilege for me to convey warmest greetings
of solidarity to the national officers, general membership and all
chapters of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) on the occasion of its
founding anniversary today.

As requested, I am glad to update you briefly on the crisis of
imperialism in the economic, political, military and cultural fields,
assess the impact of such crisis on the semicolonial and semifeudal
ruling system in the Philippines and challenge the LFS and entire
student youth to continue advancing the struggle for national democracy.

Crisis of Imperialism

The current crisis of imperialism is as grave as the Great Depression of
the 1930s and is on the way to becoming worse in its scope, depth and
duration. It is the result of an ever worsening crisis of overproduction
and the constant drive of the monopoly bourgeoisie to extract
superprofits and overaccumulate capital.

The economic and financial crisis is certain to deepen and worsen as the
imperialist powers are driven to further exploit the working people and
plunder the underdeveloped countries. Even as they continue to spout the
slogan of ?free market? globalization, the imperialist powers
increasingly become protectionist and scramble for sources of cheap raw
materials, captive markets, fields of investment and spheres of influence.

Political crisis and disorder are spreading and intensifying on a global
scale. The imperialist powers headed by the US use the slogan of
anti-terrorism in generating wars of aggression, state terrorism,
fascism, chauvinism, racism, religious bigotry and other forms of
barbarism. But the working class and the broad masses of the people are
waging various forms of resistance against imperialism and reaction and
for national liberation, democracy and socialism.

The US is the epicenter of the crisis of the world capitalist system and
is overextended due to its plundering and aggressive character. It is in
the process of losing its position as No. 1 imperialist power even as it
remains the No. 1 enemy of the people of the world. The increase in the
number of major capitalist powers due to the revisionist betrayal of
socialism has led to what is termed as multipolarity, a euphemism for
the intensifying inter-imperialist struggle for a redivision of the world.

The rise of new technology ought to improve socio-economic conditions,
expand the range of freedom and promote the cultural achievements of the
people. But in the imperialist system, the new technology has led to
increasingly severe crises of overproduction, to the further stifling of
freedom for the working people, to the cultural degradation and mass
deception, to unprecedented destructiveness of imperialist wars and to
the ruination of peoples and the environment.

Impact on the Philippine Ruling System

The semicolonial and semifeudal character of the Philippine ruling
system has been deepened and aggravated by the US-instigated policy of
free market? globalization and by the series of economic and financial
crises of the world capitalist system during the last three decades. The
current crisis of imperialism is further deepening and aggravating the
crisis of the domestic ruling system.

The Philippine economy is pre-industrial, agrarian and semifeudal in
character. Under trade liberalization, it has lost sufficiency in rice
and other types of food for domestic consumption because of dumping by
other countries. It is dependent on the export of raw materials and
re-export of low value-added semi-manufactures. Constant trade and
budgetary deficits have resulted in heavy foreign and domestic
borrowings every year. Under current crisis conditions, the economy
suffers from diminished foreign demand for its exports and re-exports
and from the tight global credit situation.

The Philippines is in a state of economic depression. Mass unemployment
has become far worse than ever before. The low wages of workers are
further being pressed down and so are the incomes of the middle social
strata. Landlords are demanding higher rent from tenants. Prices of
basic commodities are rising and so are the taxes and the service fees
charged by the reactionary state. Social unrest is therefore building up
and bursting out.

The Arroyo regime is hated by the people for its puppetry to imperialist
interests, its unbridled corruption and its gross and systematic
violation of human rights. It is extremely isolated and ripe for
overthrow by the broad united front and the broad masses of the people.
Fearful of losing power and facing demands for justice, it is exerting
all efforts to weaken and suppress the broad legal opposition and the
mass movement.

The struggle for power among the reactionary factions of the ruling
classes of big compradors and landlords is more bitter and violent than
ever before But the anti-Arroyo reactionary factions have for the moment
a preference for the electoral method of choosing which clique is next
in line to serve the imperialists and the local exploiting classes, to
get the lion's share of the spoils of office and suppress the resistance
of the people. At any rate, the basic problems of the people persist and
continues to strain the ability of the ruling system to contain them.

The Arroyo regime has been daydreaming that Oplan Bantay Laya, backed up
by US military intervention under the so-called Visiting Forces
Agreement, can destroy or reduce the revolutionary forces of the people
to inconsequentiality. Instead, the revolutionary forces of the people
have been growing in strength and advancing. The US imperialists and the
Arroyo regime seem to forget that not even the Marcos fascist
dictatorship and the presence of US military bases could destroy the
still limited strength of the armed revolutionary movement.

Challenge to the Filipino Student Youth

Today the Filipino student youth suffer fast deteriorating living and
study conditions. They face bleak prospects with regard to prompt and
proper employment even if they were to finish their courses of study.
They are constrained by conditions which victimize their parents and
themselves, especially if they come from the ranks of the working people
and lower and middle social strata. Within the present ruling system,
education is considered a commodity that is available only to those who
can pay for it.

The private schools are dominant in the market, particularly at the
secondary, vocational, tertiary and graduate levels. The public high
schools and the state colleges and universities are charging ever higher
tuition fees because the reactionary state does not appropriate enough
public funds for education but appropriates the most funds for the
servicing of the public debt, financing graft-ridden supply contracts
and boosting the military, police and intelligence services.

The Filipino student youth are victimized not only by the rising costs
of living and study but also by the content of education or miseducation
to which they are subjected. They are systematically diverted from
consciousness that is patriotic, scientific and people-oriented. Those
who control the educational system, the mass media and other
institutions seek to alienate them from the people's demand for national
independence, democracy, social justice, development and international
solidarity and peace against imperialism and all reaction.

The League of Filipino Students and the entire Filipino student youth
are more than ever challenged to arouse, organize and mobilize
themselves and join the rest of the Filipino people in continuing the
struggle for national liberation and democracy against foreign monopoly
capitalism, domestic feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. We urge you to
exert all efforts at changing not only the US-directed Arroyo regime but
the entire rotten ruling system.

Our struggle must break the chains of our economic, social, political
and cultural captivity. We must uphold the national sovereignty of the
Filipino people, empower the working people in a new type of democracy,
develop the economy through national industrialization and land reform,
promote a national, scientific and democratic type of culture and
education and contribute to the building of a new and better world, free
from imperialism and all reaction.###