“The goal of revolutionary war is socialist peace” – Commander Juan Antonio Corretjer, Puerto Rican anti-revisionist revolutionary and poet

The New People’s Army (NPA) in the Philippines continues to show their tactical power in the protracted struggle against imperialism, for national independence of the Philippines and for New Democracy. The bourgeois press, predictably, has alleged this attack was on an unarmed patrol doing routine physical training, but the video clearly shows this was not the case – the Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Battalion unit was fully armed and in full tactical gear – and the casualties sustained by the police unit – 1 killed, 9 wounded – were clearly the result of combat, in which the NPA unit was victorious.

We have addressed before the issue of violence in ongoing People’s Wars, but this video offers a rare insight into how this kind of combat plays out. One can see the professional, organized, and compassionate treatment of the enemy on the part of the guerrillas – which lays bare the propaganda, unfortunately often believed completely by leftists, that these are disorganized attacks by “anarchist” or “militarist” elements or that guerrillas are cruel and vengeful. They are not – they are disciplined soldiers in a People’s Army, following tactical and strategic leadership that is political in nature, and for whom violence and war are a means, not an end.

We do have differences with the Filipino comrades – as Marxist-Leninist-Maoists we consider to have developed Mao Zedong Thought further than they have – but we have the utmost respect for their revolutionary morality and their tactical military capacity – and share completely their ultimate goal of freeing the Filipino people of the yoke of imperialism and capitalism. And contrary to the Gonzaloist view on Total War (something we will address in the future), the NPA is a keen practitioner of one of the most fundamental aspects of the Maoist and Mao Zedong Thought view on war discipline doctrine: Three Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention. Maoist People’s war is not just a war to liberate the people, but it is also a different way to pursue war, down to how the enemy is treated. This is a fundamental ideological aspect and difference between Mao’s conception of People’s war and that of revisionism, foquismo, and other forms of People’s war – as well as being different from how the enemy pursues war themselves. This video highlights this difference.

So against the bourgeois lies and the sectarian opportunism, here is the whole truth, not just half of it.

Congratulations to the comrades on their tactical success – onward to victory!