7 December 2002--MIM and RAIL comrades collected over 50 signatures on a petition in support of Jose Maria Sison's democratic rights during the hour-long lunch break outside of an anti-war conference in west Los Angeles today. Prof. Sison helped found the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines and New People's Army in the late 1960s and has lived in exile in the Netherlands since the late 1980s. He was a consultant to the National Democratic Front in recent peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines which led to an important agreement on human rights and international humanitarian law.
The United $tates listed Prof. Sison as a "terrorist" in August without due process and without giving any justification. The government of the Netherlands followed suit and deprived Prof. Sison of the social support he is entitled to under Dutch law as a recognized political refugee. In late October the European Union also added the New People's Army and Prof. Sison to its list of "terrorists." (See the press release from Committee DEFEND in MIM Notes 273.)
Prof. Sison commented on these charges in a telephone interview conducted by MIM.
"These decisions of the United States have been transported by the Dutch government and applied on me here, so I suffer great consequences. I am criminalized as a terrorist without due process. I am defamed and I am the object of official incitement to public hatred. My life is threatened and I suffer material and moral damages. I am supposed to be prevented from moving around from one country to another. And I am told that I can not participate in the peace negotiations if there would be any between the Manila Govt. and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
"It's so clear that my basic human right to life is violated by the withdrawal of these benefits. So the result is that there has been a public outrage here against this insanity committed by the Dutch government, and these benefits have been returned. But still, cruelly and stupidly, I'm supposed to get them back within the framework of the sanction regulation against terrorism. So they're really clever and cruel. They would like to give back those things unjustly taken away and more unjustly I am made to take them back within the sanction regulation against terrorism. But I am not getting them back unless there is a de-listing, a removal of my name from the so-called terrorist list."
Many of the dozens who signed the petition had heard of Prof. Sison's case, either by word of mouth or through radio interviews such as MIM's, which aired on KCSB 91.9 in Santa Barbara. This is a welcome sign that the work MIM and others have been doing is paying off.
Others signed as a matter of principle after only a cursory introduction to the case. They opposed U.$. government policy such as the "USA Patriot Act" which makes it possible to sanction individuals like Prof. Sison without due process or transparency and try them in secret military tribunals. One university lecturer said that he hoped somebody would be petitioning for him when he gets arrested for some of the unpatriotic things he said in class. Indeed, this is one of the reasons MIM has taken up Prof. Sison's campaign. If we can embarrass the U.$. government and turn public opinion against these measures now, we can prevent further arrests.
A few people said that they could not sign until they reviewed the charges against Sison. Comrades gave them copies of MIM Notes with more information but also pointed out there were no specific charges against Prof. Sison. He apparently has been listed because of his association with the New People's Army (NPA) and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
When Colin Powell added the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and New People's Army (NPA) to the United $tates' list of "foreign terrorist organizations" on August 9 he claimed that the NPA "has killed U.S. citizens [in the Philippines]." This was apparently a reference to the alleged NPA assassination of Col. James Rowe of the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG) more than a decade ago. The JUSMAG trains Filipino officers in counter-insurgency tactics; hence Col. Rowe was a combatant, not a civilian.
Colin Powell also mentioned that the NPA "has also killed, injured, or kidnapped numerous Philippine citizens, including government officials." What Powell did not mention is that people's war such as the NPA wages targets police and military forces, not the general civilian population. People's war should not be counted as "terrorism."
In a Maoist people's war, whether it is in Peru, Nepal, the Philippines or anywhere else, the use of force does not have the design to produce fear and hence a change of policy. Rather the strategy of people's war is to wear down an imperialist invader or overthrow a regime that is opposed to the toiling workers and peasants. Quite the contrary to producing fear, a People's War only succeeds if it garners popular support, not fear, because the governments People's Wars oppose historically--in China, Peru, the Philippines etc.--all have technologically superior weapons and financial backing from U.$. imperialism. Without popular support, the People's War would have a severe disadvantage against any invader or lackey regime of imperialism.
We laugh in the faces of Attorney General Ashcroft, President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell when they accuse Maoists of having a "philosophy of violence." Ashcroft, Bush and Powell also have "philosophies of violence" as proved by their actual use of violence.
All the hype about "terrorism" merely serves to cover the United $tates true interests in sending troops to the Philippines: preserving an important military base and neo-colony.