The revolutionary mass movement

Revolutionary Workers Party-Philippines, [1999]

The mass of the population is made up of the ploretarians, semi-proletarians, and poor peasants. They are the vast majority of the nation....

At the beginning of the struggle it took only a few thousand genuinely revolutionary workers to warrant talk of the masses. If the Party succeeds in drawing into the struggle not only its own members, if it also succeeds in arousing non-party people, it is well on the way to winning the masses....

On the matter of the mass movement, Lenin has elaborated several Marxist points that have been used as guide in setting the framework of our orientation in the mass movement, as mentioned above.

As Lenin boldly added the matter: You will have a mass movement if such a Party comes forward with its slogans at such a moment and succeeded in getting millions of workers to follow it. I would not altogether deny that a revolution can be started by a very small Party and brought to a victorious conlusion....

Based on our reorientation of revolutionary strategy and tactics, following our repudiation of the war strategy in the revolutionary struggle, we will develop and advance the revolutionary mass movement as the main form of struggle while promoting its dynamic relationship with other forms of struggle (i.e. armed, electoral/parliamentary, etc.) that stand as secondary, tertiary, etc. forms of struggle, also with dynamic relations among them and the revolutionary mass movement.

This will be our conduct until the condition ripens—when the working class and other oppressed sections of the people are ready to seize political power, and the open-legal struggle will be transformed into armed struggle in order to ultimately crush the exploitative system and the ruling class. Or until an extraordinary political development happens such as during a fascist rule and the revolutionary movement are obliged to effectively advance and sustain the revolution.

The Revolutionary Mass Movement

The revolutionary mass movement is the movement and struggle of the working class and other oppressed and exploited sections of the people to fight for their economic and democratic interests and objectives which can only be achieved through the complete demolition of the exploitative system and the ruling class to ultimately seize political power.

As the revolutionary mass movement advances, it will gradually weaken the strength and power of the ruling class and system while building up the strength and power of the working class and other oppressed sections of the people. It will directly hit and weaken the foundation of capitalist rule, power and privileges.

The over-all direction of the revolutionary mass movement is to prepare the grounds for and actual establishment of socialist democracy, even at a gradual pace and a slow but steady foundation of the working class power.

This can be done through the relentless pursuance of the revolutionary mass movement. Even though we see that all components and favors are in the hands of the ruling class and system, the revolutionary mass movement must persevere in the struggle to finally “turn the table against the enemy.”

The revolutionary mass movement should never be afraid or be limited by laws imposed by reaction, on the contrary it should work to stretch and override these to widen the space for advancement of the revolution. Only through the insistence of strength of action of the working class and other oppressed sections of the people will legitimize this even if it runs over the laws of the reactionary state.

Hence, to achieve its aims, the revolutionary mass movement should have the following features:

a. as a vehicle for the advancement and intensification of class struggle.

As they engage in the revolutionary movement and mass struggle, the working class and other oppressed sections of the people gradually but in large numbers develop their consciousness on the uselessness of reaction in achieving genuine change. From here, as their consciousness development they will gradually but in large numbers heighten their form of struggle.

This will be its dynamism until it leads to the direct action of the working class and other oppressed sections of the people that will challenge the rule of the ruling class and the moribund system until its ultimate demolition.

b. as vehicle in the transmission of the political leadership of the party.

The guarantee in the revolutionariness of the movement and the mass struggle that we will develop and advance is the leadership of the Party. Accordingly, the revolutionary mass movement will be the vehicle in transmitting and implementation of the political leadership of the Party. Aside from the publications and journal of the party, the revolutionary mass movement will also be able to effectively propagate the party line and tactics, specifically in the concretization of its call, line and tactics. According to what the Party adheres to, the revolutionary mass movement will transform the call and line of the party into direct action, slogan and calls in the language of the masses to get the most effective response from the class and other oppressed sections of the people.

k. as a vehicle in establishing the revolutionary front.

As the revolutionary mass movement develops, it will become a significant force that will influence the other progressive and nationalist sections and individuals in Philippine society. With this, the revolutionary mass movement that we strive to advance will become an effective vehicle in the establishment of a broad alliance of the people.

And as the mass struggles are pursued, it will be the allies and prospective friends of the revolution that will volunteer for the struggle for genuine change. Hence, it is the revolutionary mass movement that will be able to effectively lead to a revolutionary front of all oppressed and exploited in the present society.

The Spontaneous Mass Movement

The revolutionary mass movement that we are advancing is a conscious and organized movement primarily composed of revolutionary forces. But we should understand that spontaneous movement cannot be disregarded and is in fact a part of the mass movement, that will happen in certain periods as the masses react from their oppressed and exploited condition.

Even on their own and without the leadership of the revolutionary forces, the masses respond to the oppression and exploitation they experience. Specially during times when the social crisis worsens and the inutility of the reactionary rule becomes more and more exposed, spontaneous actions of the masses correspondingly become more widespread and bigger. While the actions of the revolutionary forces also intensifies at widens.

It is the duty and responsibility of the revolutionary movement to link up with or join such spontaneous movements. We should be able to effectively influence the spontaneous action of the masses so that we can bring this, or develop this towards the correct direction of revolutionary change. The spontaneous mass movement is a bigger part of the whole movement and its development is important for the revolutionary forces to be able to attain victory in this struggle. However, at the same that we are persevering to bring this spontaneous movement to the path of the revolution, counter-revolutionary forces are also persevering to sabotage our moves. This is the lesson of EDSA.

The Struggle for Reforms

Besides our pursuance to develop the essentially reformist spontaneous mass movement into the revolutionary mass movement, we should also be conscious—our initiatives and our leadership—the class struggle and the struggle of all oppressed sections for reforms.

Through struggle for reforms, the class and oppressed masses will concretely discover, acquaint with and utilize their own strength and power towards the development of their class consciousness.

Moreover, it is through this this inutility of the present ruling class and system will be exposed in the face of the widest sections of the people on the matter of genuine change for the sake of the whole world and the people. Hence, it will be their experiences in mass struggle that will mould and develop their consciousness to wage revolution and achieve genuine change.

There is no reason to worry or fear if we engage in the advancement and development of struggles for reforms. The important things is it will be within and according to the framework of the overall revolutionary struggle and only through the recognition of the process of wide reaching upliftment of the consciousness of the masses. This will be the guarantee that will not fall into the mud of reformism.

Whatever small gains or big successes we attain in our struggle for reforms will add to the strength of the people while failures will serve significantly in the development of the consciousness of the people.

Therefore in every opportunity and in periods when there are burning issues concerning the economy, employment, housing and democractic rights to social issues such as drug addiction, corruption, criminality, prostitution, and even on environmental issues, should be acted upon to rally the broad masses of the people.

The Party

As the leadership of the party in the revolutionary mass movement is being carried out, we should see to it that the development and advance of the revolutionary mass movement is paralleled with the corresponding sustained development of the party. Hence, in every mass organization, we should see to it that we are able to establish party units/ groups. The existence of the party will guarantee the sustained development and growth of socialist cells in mass organizations, and ultimately towards the sustained growth and strengthening of the party. While mass organizations continue its expansion work in the ranks of the broad masses. When the organizations have consolidated its areas, this should be followed with efforts to form territorial organizations of the party. In this period, or even before this, it is necessary that party cadres along with socialist activists have been deployed in these areas to take the task of solidifying the base of the revolutionary mass movement.

It is the duty of every party member within the mass organizations, and the socialist activists, to work for the expansion of the revolutionary mass movement in every corner of the country. And during this process, we should persevere in strengthening and expanding the party by establishing party organizations in areas there is none and strengthening and reinforcing them in areas where there is already an existing party organization. This is the kind of dynamism that we want to develop in our work of advancing the revolutionary mass movement, so that it will eventually lead to the expansion of the party that will also result in the the advancement and strengthening of the revolutionary mass movement—an unending cycle that will that time when the condition ripens when the revolutionary forces will be put in the position to topple the ruling class and system and seize political power.

General guidelines on Style and Method

To be effective and successful in our work of expanding and developing the revolutionary mass movement, we should always be conscious of our style and method of work. Our determination and perseverance in pursuing revolutionary work will be reinforced by our immediate gains if we pursue the correct style and method of work. If not, our errors, weaknesses and failures will dampen our spirit for us to smoothly carry out our responsibilities and achieve victory.

Initially, and in every opportunity, our main tactic in expansion is to connect with whole organizations, unions, associations, and federations, and its key individuals or leaders to effectively influence the whole membership.

In this way, we will be able to recruit in large numbers the broad masses along with the upliftment of their consciousness also in large numbers. Following this is the solid organizing to be able to establish the bases or bailiwick of the revolutionary struggle.

2. Keep in mind that we will conduct our work within the open/legal organizations, associations, federations, etc. Hence we will subordinate ourselves under the process of these organizations. In other words, we should fully be a part of or a member of the open/ legal formations and we will not work in these organizations as members of the party or as a super elements or entity. Hence our style and method of work would be open/legal and we should be positive elements towards the advancement and strengthening of the dynamism of open/ legal framework and process. We should be persevering and committed in these process so that we will be able to achieve the highest, strongest unity.

Being a member of the party is not a license for one to supersede the processes of the open/legal. Only by putting forward correct and superior ideas will transmit the leadership of the party on the revolutionary mass movement. Just like within the party, only through free and democratic methods and processes would ensure the strengthening of the organization’s unity. Or in simple terms, we should already set aside the style and method of bullying. Aside from the fact that this kind of style and method will isolate the party from the broad masses, this will also stunt the growth of mass leaders, activists and even cadres and members.

Only through the proper style and methods would be able to differentiate ourselves from the opportunists, saboteurs and (iskirol) and others of their kind that will not create confusion but will instead establish the processes and tradition for a free and democratic approach.

3. Understand and utilize correctly the relationship of expansion and consolidation. In developing and advancing the revolutionary mass movement, there are 3 levels that should be assured, and this will be the reflection of work.

First we should ensure that all the mass membership of the organization are continually expanding and increasing in number. Second, the recruitment of socialist activists should be sustained; third recruitment of party members should also be sustained.

The matter of expansion and consolidation is also a matter of quantity and quality. Particularly in the aspect of consolidation, there should be a concrete reflection of quality of the whole organization—level of consciousness, strength of commitment, persistence in work, higher skills, etc. Hence this matter is smoothly planned and implemented to ensure expected results.

4. Understanding the development of conditions and development of skills/capacity of the revolutionary mass movement.

In the process of our work in advancing the revolutionary mass movement, we should be able to effectively understand and correlate the development of the objective condition and the level of skills/consciousness of the forces. This (the objective condition and the capacity/skills of the forces) should always be balanced to prevent either the overstretching or deficient work which would result in the exhaustion of our forces or being overtaken by momentum. When we are already able to effectively balance and integrate the two aspects, we can expect a smoother development of forces and the level/form or work/conduct that adopts with the continually changing and development objective conditions.

5. Along with the no. 4 point, in every stage of our struggle, development of the objective conditions and expansion of forces and capacity, it is only appropriate that we are able to understand and utilize the correct form of organization and struggle towards more effective strengthening and development of our forces, skills, organizations and conditions—a cycle that if we are able to sustain will bring about a spiral development wherein every cycle moves towards a higher level/ stage that comprehensively responds to requirements so that the revolutionary movement will be able to completely prepare for the seizure of political power.

6. Comprehensive understanding of the relations or connection between the revolutionary mass movement with other forms of struggle. The revolutionary mass movement is our primary form of struggle, but this is not the only form of struggle that the party pursues. There is the parliamentary and electoral struggle and there is the politico-military struggle.

As a primary form, other forms of struggle will stand as secondary, tertiary, etc to the revolutionary mass movement. Hence it will support and complement the revolutionary mass movement. But concretely as it operates dynamically and conditions develop, the revolutionary mass movement will also effectively support at complement other forms of struggle.

While other forms of struggle ensure the strengthening and advancement of the revolutionary mass movement, the revolutionary mass movement in turn prepare the conditions for the development of other forms of struggle that will ultimately advance the revolution into a higher stage. This is also a cycle that should continually develop and be sustained so that development will move in spiral where in every turn there is a higher development that put the working class and other oppressed sections of the people in more prepared position towards the final aim of seizure of political power.

These are only a few of the important point that should be understood and taken to heart. There re many others things to learn and understand, or in other words, what we want is to understand the whole dialectics of our struggle and its development. Or in simpler terms, our being comprehensive.

It is a must that we understand and attend to our duties wholistically taking into consideration all aspects, angles and all interrelations of all elements/components. In this way, there should be no hindrances for us to advance and attain victory.