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Walden Bello gets death threat from Communist Party

category dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | other press author Thursday January 27, 2005 00:36author by D O Briain Report this post to the editors

Anti-WTO activist Walden Bello is fearing for his life after the Communist Party of Phillipines brands him a "counter-revolutionary"

Source: The Transnational Institute
http://www.tni.org

Dear Friends,


We are extremely alarmed at the recent attacks by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on Walden Bello, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South. Walden is also a long standing Fellow of the Transnational Institute (TNI) and a current TNI Board Member.


We believe that this threat to Walden's life and to other Filipino activists named as "counter- revolutionaries" in the CPP diagram of December 7, 2004 cannot be ignored. Two of the persons named in the list have already been eliminated - one just a few months ago.


Walden is a lifelong and outstanding activist and writer and is internationally acknowledged for his contribution to the struggle against neo-liberal globalisation and war and to building alternatives are equitable, democratic and pluralist.


We unreservedly condemn violence, terror and assassination as a way of resolving differences and appeal to the CPP to desist from its attacks on Filipino activists and refrain from this destructive course of action.


We agree with Focus on the Global South that these attacks deserve a response from global civil society. We are therefore circulating this widely on TNI's list serves and urge you to add your name to the Focus Statement posted below.


Fiona Dove
TNI Director


Address reply to: Chanida Bamford - Deputy Director, Focus on the Global South c.bamford@focusweb.org
http://www.focusweb.org


================================================


MESSAGE FROM STAFF OF THE FOCUS ON THE GLOBAL SOUTH


Dear Friends,




Recently, our executive director Walden Bello was named by the key organ of the Communist Party of the Philippines as a "counterrevolutionary" in a list that included both living and dead activists. After consultation with a number of people, we have reasons to believe that this represents a real threat to Walden's security.


Focus staff members have therefore decided to call the attention of global civil society to this development, not only out of concern for Walden, but also because we feel strongly that the CPP's drastic method of resolving differences must be publicly condemned by global civil society.


Please find below a signed statement to this effect that we are distributing through the listserves and networks, both in the North and the South, that Focus have been interacting and working with.


We hope to have your support for this action. Any comments would be appreciated.


Chanida Bamford


Deputy Director
(on behalf of the staff whose names appear below)


============================================t


ASSASSINATION AND VIOLENCE HAVE NO ROLE IN CIVIL SOCIETY


A Statement of Concern about a Hit-list including Walden Bello and
other Activists


Out of deference to the more than 160,000 victims of the tsunami tragedy that engulfed South Asia on December 26, 2004, we in Focus on the Global South (Focus) have refrained until now from pointing to an alarming development bearing on the security and well being of our


Executive Director, Walden Bello.




Focus is not in the habit of calling attention to the status of its staff. This time, however, things are different. In the December 2004 issue of Ang Bayan, the principal organ of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), Walden was singled out as a "counterrevolutionary." His name was listed alongside fourteen other names of individuals who are either living or dead. Two of the people in the "counterrevolutionaries" list, Arturo Tabara and Filemon Lagman, have already been assassinated, the former just three months ago.


Another one, Ricardo Reyes, is being hunted down by operatives of the Communist Party and New People's Army (NPA) and has been forced to go into hiding.


For people familiar with the history and practices of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its paramilitary wing, the New People's Army, the message of the counterrevolutionaries' list to Walden and the others is unmistakable: You're beyond the pale. You're a "class enemy" to be eliminated, the only questions remaining being when and where the party will carry out the execution.


For us in Focus, the listing of Walden and other Filipino activists as counter- revolutionaries deserving of elimination comes as a shock. Walden's writings, books, and contributions speak for themselves: a recipient of the prestigious Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize), he is acknowledged to be one of the most articulate critics of US intervention and corporate-driven globalization. Others named in the list include prominent international activist Lidy Nacpil and Etta Rosales, head of the Human Rights Committee of the Philippine House of Representatives.


Walden, along with Congresswoman Rosales, did the best thing they could do to protect themselves upon the issuance of the CPP hit-list: they publicized it in the media. Since then, in a post-facto effort to justify Walden's being on the hit list, scurrilous attacks have
been heaped on him by Jose Maria Sison, chairman of the CPP, and Fidel Agcaoili, another high- level CPP officer. Walden has been pictured as, among other things, an agent of US imperialism and a pro-WTO advocate seeking reform of the organization so it can better exploit the world's people. Focus on the Global South has been pictured as a recipient of
"imperialist funds." Organizations and movements that Walden and Focus work with have been labeled "Trotskyite" or "Social Democratic" counterrevolutionary groupings. The global civil society movement that helped bring about the collapse of the WTO ministerials in Seattle and Cancun has been described as a front for global capitalism. This most
recent attack on global civil society is consistent with earlier attacks by CPP-linked groups on the World Social Forum (WSF) and Porto Alegre process as an "imperialist plot" to derail people from world revolution.


Coming from a sectarian political grouping with a very specific agenda, these fantastic charges against Walden, Focus, and global civil society do not deserve a serious answer. It is important to understand, though, what lies at the root of Walden being listed as a
counterrevolutionary. Apparently, the CPP and its allied groups are threatened by the agenda and process of civil-society- led change that Walden and Focus support -- a program that is pluralist, inclusive, and democratic, where different traditions are seen as a source of strength rather than poisons to fundamentalist purity.


But the threat to Walden's life and to the lives of the others named as counter-revolutionaries is very real and cannot be ignored. Moreover, sectarian activities carried out by CPP-linked groups -- activities carried out in the name of "isolating the reformists and counterrevolutionaries"-- are sowing intrigue and conflict in some civil society networks and movements, thus weakening our ranks in confronting corporate-driven globalization and US militarism.


Differences among groups fighting for change are natural. But these differences should be resolved through democratic debate -- this is a fundamental premise of our movement. Seeking to resolve these differences through threats, force, and assassination cannot be condoned and must be denounced in the strongest terms possible. The use of violence, terror, and assassination must always be condemned, whether the agents are states
or non-state actors like the CPP-NPA.




Focus on the Global South calls on all civil society organisations and networks globally to condemn such threats and actions in the strongest possible terms. Being part of a bigger global movement for social justice, we have interacted with, worked with, or even supported groups that are associated or working closely with the CPP such as Ibon Foundation,
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Cordillera People's Alliance (CPA), International League of People's Struggles (ILPS), KMU (May 1st Movement), Asian Student Association (ASA), and Migrante. We now appeal to the sense of decency of individuals in these and other groups and urge them to denounce these actions and apply moral suasion on Sison and other leaders of the CPP and NPA to refrain from the threat and use of force and
assassination.


We make a final appeal to the CPP to desist from its destructive course of action and refrain from dividing the movement fighting against corporate globalisation at a critical time in the struggle for a better, just and equitable world.




Aileen Kwa


Anoop Sukumaran


Ben Moxham


Benny Kuruvilla


Chanida Chanyapate Bamford


Herbert Docena


Jacques-chai Chomthongdi


Joseph Puruganan


Joy Chavez


Julie de los Reyes


Lou Torres


Mary Ann Manahan


Mary Lou Malig


Mayuree Ruechakiattikul


Meena Mennon


Neelam Dhanawade


Nicola Bullard


Praphai Jundee


Sajin Prachason


Shalmali Guttal


Sonila Shetty


Soontaree Nakaviroj


Varsha Berry




Bangkok, January 15, 2005


======================================================




APPENDIX 1






COMMUNIST PARTY 'HIT LIST' DENOUNCED AKBAYAN LEADERS FEAR


FOR THEIR LIVES




http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=22362


(Lead Story and Banner Headline of Philippine Daily Inquirer, Dec. 26,


2004.) Updated 00:10am (Mla time) Dec 26, 2004


By Juan Sarmiento


Inquirer News Service




INDIVIDUALS and groups listed as "counterrevolutionaries" in a December issue of the official publication of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) have denounced the roster as a "hit list."


"We're fair game," Walden Bello, a University of the Philippines professor who is on the CPP list, told Inquirer editors. "We don't think this is an arbitrary listing."


In an open letter to CPP founder Jose Maria Sison on the 36th anniversary of the CPP today, Bello and Akbayan Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales said: "The party which you founded 36 years ago views them as ideological and political enemies -- class enemies, as can be 'gleaned from their international links."'


In its Dec. 7 issue, the Ang Bayan identified the "counterrevolutionaries" in a diagram of individuals and organizations and their links to so-called Trotskyites and social democrats abroad. The diagram was prepared by the CPP's International Department.



"Some personalities involved with some of these groups are already dead, like Popoy Lagman, Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara. Lagman, reportedly -- and the latter two admittedly -- in the hands of your armed wing, the New People's Army. Another person on the list, Ricardo Reyes, is already in your order of battle," Bello and Rosales said.


"Outside of Ric Reyes who currently chairs Akbayan, we, Walden Bello, chair emeritus of Akbayan and Loretta Ann P. Rosales, first Akbayan representative, are also among the individuals listed. Does this mean you intend to kill us one by one?" the two said.


Lagman and Tabara were assassinated on Feb. 6, 2001, and on Sept. 26, 2004, respectively. Ang Bayan identified Lagman as someone from the PMP [Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino], BMP [Bukluran ng Mangagagawang Pilipino] and Sanlakas, and Tabara was identified with RPM [Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Mangagawa]-Pilipinas.


Besides Bello, Boy Morales and Gani Serrano were tagged as Pop Dem (popular democrats) and part of IPD (Institute for Popular Democracy); Rosales and Reyes of Padayon; Manjette Lopez and Liddy Nakpil of PPD (Partido Proletaryo Demokratiko); Sony Melencio of SPP [Socialist Party of the Philippines]; Nilo de la Cruz of RPM/RPA [Revolutionary Proletariat Army]- ABB [Alex Boncayao Brigade]; Ike de los Reyes of RPM- Mindanao; and Tito de la Cruz and Caridad Pascual of MLPP [Marxist-Leninist Party of the
Philippines] and RHB [Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan].




"These are the people who left" the CPP and its allied organizations, Bello said when he and Rosales visited the Inquirer on Dec. 15.


CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal strongly denied the existence of an "NPA hit list."


FIGMENT OF IMAGINATION


"That supposed NPA [New People's Army] hit list was only a product of the malicious figment of imagination of military propagandists. It only aims to besmirch the popular image of the Red fighters from among the masses,"


Rosal said in a mobile-phone interview when asked about the Ang Bayan diagram.




Rosal said the perennial resurrection of the alleged NPA "hit list" was part of the demolition job against the NPA being orchestrated by the military.


He scoffed at some former members of the revolutionary movement, who, according to him, were spreading wild tales on their supposed inclusion on the NPA list of people targeted for assassination.


"Probably, they are now in fear because they have committed crimes against the people and the revolutionary movement," Rosal said. "If they have nothing to fear, then why live in fear?"


Rosal said other people also left the movement, "but since they have done nothing against the movement, they just go on with their lives."


He reiterated that the NPA had nothing to do with the murder of Lagman. "Popoy was killed by his former comrades in the ABB [the former urban unit of the NPA] because of his treachery when he turned himself as partner of Ping [Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former chief of the Philippine National Police] and Erap [former President Joseph Estrada]," Rosal said.




DEEP SADNESS, ANGER




Activist Liddy Nakpil is also worried of the possible implications of the


Ang Bayan diagram.




She said she knew what it means to be labeled "counterrevolutionary" by the CPP.


"Several former leaders accused of being counterrevolutionaries and agents of the state have been killed by the CPP while others are harassed and pursued," Nakpil said in a statement. "But former colleagues are not the only targets-organizers and activists from people's organizations and movements not within the sphere of influence of the CPP are also being threatened and attacked."


She added: "Many of us who have given our youth and much of the best years of our lives in advancing the national democratic struggle, many of us whose loved ones have died for that struggle, and those of us who dare follow a different path toward revolutionary change witness what the CPP leadership is doing with a mixture of deep sadness, frustration and anger. They are squandering whatever gains and successes achieved in all these decades of struggle."


Nakpil, widow of Lean Alejandro, secretary general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan when he was assassinated on Sept. 19, 1987, allegedly by government agents, said the CPP accusations and actions "have caused loss of lives and danger to individuals, as well as terrible harm to the socialist cause."


ERRONEOUS INFORMATION


Nakpil said the diagram and an accompanying short article were another pathetic attempt of the CPP to discredit Philippine progressive groups in its effort to project itself as the only true revolutionary movement.


"The article and diagram are based on patently erroneous information, outrageously biased judgments, antiquated analysis and sheer malice," she said. "More than pathetic, this is tragic for a movement claiming itself scientific and revolutionary and seeking to be a governing force."


Bello and Rosales said they were puzzled and a little annoyed because "while we were all once national democrats, our movement was part of a much broader based anti-dictatorship united front that sought the end of one-man rule through the ouster of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos."


They noted that social democrats and Trotskyites marched side by side with national democrats, church groups and ordinary citizens who loved the country and wanted an end to the dictatorship. "In the international arena, our combined ranks actively led in strengthening the social movements against the ill effects of globalization on struggling economies of the Third World."


Rosales chairs the committee on human rights in the House of Representatives, while Bello is the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Noble Prize.


"Against which standards does the national democratic movement judge such efforts as counterrevolutionary?" they asked Sison, who is based in Utretch, The Netherlands.




UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS




Bello and Rosales said Sison would once again stand pat on his claim that he was waging an armed and just war in defense of the Filipino people's national and democratic interests.


"Considering that we are no longer part of your protracted war, does this make us class enemies and fair game as enemy targets?" they said in the open letter. "It bothers us that your 36-year-old obsession over armed warfare asserts that all other forms of struggle are inherently inferior and a threat to the primacy of the over-arching goal of a violent
upheaval.


"Even more deadly, it is justified to eliminate such a threat since your concept of revolutionary justice not only excuses but necessitates it."


The Philippine Left is a much, much bigger community than the CPP wants it to be, Bello and Rosales said.


"We want to impart upon Sison that if the party he founded is truly interested in upholding universal human rights, it has to reassess its role in the progressive movement -- as an agent of discourse and peaceful co- existence, not as a fascist harbinger of violence, hatred and murder," they said.


Rosales earlier told Inquirer editors that the CPP was angry at Akbayan because the party- list group, which has won three seats in the House, was taking a role that the CPP thinks it should do alone. "And we're doing it without guns," she said.


With a report form Delfin T. Mallari Jr., PDI Southern Luzon Bureau






================================================




APPENDIX 2




AFTERTHOUGHTS: WHY WE HAVE BEEN MARKED OUT FOR ELIMINATION




Updated 02:44pm (Mla time) Dec 28, 2004


By Walden Bello


INQ7.net




JOSE MARIA Sison must take us for fools. He and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) leadership compile a list of living and assassinated "counterrevolutionaries," disseminate it among CPP members, then claim this is simply a harmless exercise in information dissemination!


Professor Sison has a really low opinion of the public. Does he really think ordinary readers are so stupid as to believe that he is just a consultant to the CPP and not its chairman, its "pontifex maximus," the one that literally calls the shots?


Is he so out of touch as not to realize that the informed reader need not be a card-carrying party member to know that in fundamentalist Marxist Leninist parties like the CPP, being branded "counterrevolutionary" is practically a death sentence, with the only question being the time and place when the party will carry it out?


This is the hideous truth that Sison tries to cover up by his verbal acrobatics, which attempt to cover up the CPP's mistake of having made the hit-list public by cooking up the canard that we are part of a plot to discredit the CPP and "assassinate" his character. The CPP has long discredited itself, a process which began with the party's internal massacre of over 1,000 of its best cadres in Operation Ahos and other purges carried out in the mid- 1980s.


In his desperate effort to set us up for elimination, Mr. Sison implies we receive "imperialist" funds to hold conferences and write books. Yes, Mr. Sison, we have organized international conferences to formulate strategies to drive the US out of Iraq and Israel from Palestine, but with funds raised from progressive, not imperialist, sources. Yes, Mr. Sison, we plead guilty to having written books-but books documenting the depredations of US and other transnational corporations and exploring alternatives to corporate-led globalization.


While you have been busy drawing up diagrams of your perceived opponents and dreaming of world revolution in the safe confines of Utrecht, your so-called counterrevolutionaries have actually been engaged in helping create a truly global movement for change-a pluralist and
democratic enterprise that has, among other things, brought about the collapse of the ministerials of the World Trade Organization, the main agency of corporate-driven globalization, in Seattle and Cancun.


That the CPP is an agent of progressive change is a bad joke, indeed a sick joke. Today's CPP is not the party of brave but open-minded revolutionaries that we were once part of in the dark days of the Marcos dictatorship. Today's CPP has degenerated into an Al Qaeda- type fundamentalist sect that that is simply concerned with imposing its terrible vision of the future on the Filipino people.


Because the CPP's fanaticism has given the left such a bad name, paradoxically enough it serves objectively as an ally of US hegemony locally. Indeed, what better ally can the US have than the CPP-NPA? Anti- communists and US operatives do not need to cook up propaganda campaigns to discredit the Left. They simply have to point to the murderous behavior of the New People's Army (NPA). They simply have to point to the system of "revolutionary" taxes that has made the NPA complicit with the big loggers in the environmental rape of the Sierra Madre that led to the deaths of over 1,000 people in Real and Infanta.


Along with feudal landed structures, transnational capitalism, and US imperialism, leftwing fascism of the CPP variety has, unfortunately, become one of the basic problems of the Filipino people.


It is because progressives in Akbayan and other organizations have opted for a pluralist road to change, one based on vigorous democratic debate and on non-violent means, one that sees opponents as people to be won over, not eliminated, one that regards different political traditions as a source of strength rather than as poisons to fundamentalist purity, that we have become anathema to Mr. Sison.


Mr. Sison and the CPP are fossils stuck in the mud of the 20th century, with all its tragedies. We in Akbayan and other progressive organizations have moved on to confront the challenges facing the Filipino people in the 21st century. That is the real reason we have been marked out for elimination.

 #   Title   Author   Date 
   The CPP-NPA-NDF “Hit List” - a preliminary report     Pierre Rousset    Fri Jun 22, 2007 05:38 
   This is disinformation     trace    Wed Feb 23, 2005 20:25