THE GENESIS of the PHILIPPINE COMMUNIST PARTY Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Ph.D. Dames Andrew Richardson School of Orienta
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THE GENESIS OF THE PHILIPPINE COMMUNIST PARTY Thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D. dames Andrew Richardson School of Oriental and African Studies University of London September 198A ProQuest Number: 10673216 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10673216 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT Unlike communist parties elsewhere in Asia, the Partido Komunista sa Pilipinas (PKP) was constituted almost entirely by acti vists from the working class. Radical intellectuals, professionals and other middle class elements were conspicuously absent. More parti cularly, the PKP was rooted In the Manila labour movement and, to a lesser extent, in the peasant movement of Central Luzon. This study explores these origins and then examines the character, outlook and performance of the Party in the first three years of its existence (1930-33). Socialist ideas began to circulate during the early 1900s, but were not given durable organisational expression until 1922, when a Workers’ Party was formed. Led by cadres from the country's principal labour federation, the Congreso Obrero, this party aligned its policies increasingly with those of the Comintern. The struggle for independence, it asserted, had been betrayed by the Filipino elite and should be spearheaded instead by the toiling masses. Between 1925 and 1928 the influence of the Workers’ Party within the Congreso Obrero grew steadily, resulting most notably in the affiliation of the federation to a subsidiary of the Profintern. As the Workers’ Party adopted the ultra-leftist and sectarian positions which characterised the Comintern's "third period", however, it attracted mounting hostility from moderate and conservative labour ites, and in 1929 the Congreso Obrero split apart. The radical faction thereupon formed a "red" trade union centre which the following year was instrumental in establishing the PKP on the foundations the Workers' Party had laid. Highly belligerent in its stance, the PKP was quickly subjected to government persecution, and for this and other reasons was unable to make much headway during the depression years in either city or countryside. 3 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 5 INTRODUCTION 7 CHAPTER ONE 14 THE URBAN SETTING: LABOUR AND POLITICS IN MANILA Ilustrados and Americans Weakness, Discord and Fragmentation The Congreso Obrero de Filipinas CHAPTER TWO 54 THE RURAL SETTING: THE PEASANTRY AND POLITICS IN CENTRAL LUZON Agrarian Problems and Colonial Response The Early Peasant Organisations CHAPTER THREE 97 THE PARTIDO OBRERO Industry and Labour in the Twenties The First Working Class Party The Independence Question Turning Leftwards CHAPTER FOUR 136 RADICAL ADVANCES Sympathy and Goodwill A Link with the Profintern The XVIth COF Convention CHAPTER FIVE 161 POLARISATION AND SCHISM Issues of Leadership and Organisation The Peasant Movement Filipino-Chinese Solidarity The Issue of Patriotism Backlash The Katipunan ng mga Anak-Pawis sa Pilipinas CHAPTER SIX 206 THE PKP: INTERNATIONALIST, PROLETARIAN AND REVOLUTIONARY The Depression and the City A Party of the "Third Period" Ultra-Leftism and "White Terror" Sectarianism The Anti-Imperialist League The Red Labour Unions 4 CHAPTER SEVEN 267 THE PKP AND PEASANT UNREST The Depression and the Countryside Revolt in Tayug The Tanggulan The Kalipunang Pangbansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Pilipinas The Case of Oacinto Manahan EPILOGUE 313 ABBREVIATIONS 330 GLOSSARY 332 BIBLIOGRAPHY 334- A. Manuscript Sources B. Government Documents C. Conversations D. Philippine Newspapers and Periodicals E. Contemporary Radical and Labour Movement Sources(i) Philippines F. Contemporary Radical and Labour Movement Sourves(ii) Overseas G. Secondary Sources (i) Unpublished Studies H. Secondary Sources (ii) Books and Articles 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Over the many years that this thesis has been in gestation I have been assisted by more individuals and institutions than it is possible to name or adequately thank. All, needless to say, are absolved from responsibility for any errors in the final product. My initial research was made possible by a grant from the Social Science Research Council, and additional funding for work in the Philippines was received from the London-Cornell Project. During my seventeen month stay in the Islands (September 1970 - February 1972) the Institute of Philippine Culture kindly gave me accreditation as a visiting research associate, which helped open many doors. The Institute also gave me useful administra tive support and arranged accommodation for me on the splendid campus of the Ateneo de Manila. Much gratitude is due to the staffs of several libraries and depositories, and in particular to the following: Allan Lodge and Helen Cordell of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; Uohn Williamson and Margaret Kentfield of the Marx Memorial Library; Natividad Oardiel, Carolina Afan and Flor Cabacungan of the National Library of the Philippines; Fe Verzosa and Rosalinda Roldan of the University of the Philippines Library; and Sergeant "Rod" Rodriguez of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. For providing documents and papers unobtainable elsewhere I am indebted to Miguel R. Cornejo, Philip 0. Uaffe, Harry A. Poeze, Ildefonso T. Runes, William Henry Scott and Melinda Tria Kerkvliet. William and Celia Pomeroy gave me generous access to their private collection and afforded me many other kind nesses, as did Renato and Letizia Constantino, Oonathan Fast and Luzviminda Francisco. Without the invaluable materials so generously made available by the late Cirilo S. Honorio, it is no exaggeration to say that this thesis could not have been written in its present form. The hospitality and.friendship extended by Atty. Honorio and his wife during my frequent visits to their home in Marilao will remain amongst my fondest memories. 6 Assistance in making arrangements to meet latter and present-day activists in the PKP and the labour movement was received from several people. Francisco Nemenzo (in 1971) and Romeo and Aida Dizon (in 1982) were especially helpful. I should also like to express my appreciation to all those I spoke to about their political pasts, both those listed in the bibliography and others with whom I discussed the events of later years. As a strange foreigner asking sensitive questions at a time when the political climate in the country was troubled, I might have deserved a cool reception. In fact the door was closed in my face just once, and even then only with the utmost courtesy. Otherwise my informants bore my intrusion genially, and the majority spoke frankly and freely. Finally, I would like to thank three people who have endured my research and writing for far longer than I had a right to expect: my tutor Ruth McVey, whose criticisms have only erred for being insuf ficiently harsh; and my wife Margie and son Christopher, who have tolerated their persistent neglect with much forbearance and good humour. 7 INTRODUCTION The history of communism in the Philippines now spans some sixty years; ,the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP), founded in 1930, can legitimately lay claim to a longer unbroken existence than any other party in the Islands. In a country where politics has traditionally revolved around personalities, patronage and the pork-barrel, the PKP and its Maoist offshoot can also claim to be the only parties with more than an ephemeral existence to have based their programmes and appeals on ideological principle. Socialist parties and parties of the ultra right have come and gone; no anarchist or Trotskyist party has yet surfaced. Despite a near lifetime of illegality and suppression, the PKP has sustained a presence on the Philippine political scene whose importance if not virtue is beyond dispute. Most notably, the Party instigated the premier guerrilla resistance movement in Central Luzon during the Japanese occupation and then in the late 194-05 and early 1950s led the armed struggle for national liberation known as the Huk rebellion. In more recent times it has played a significant role in championing progressive nationalist alternatives to neo-colonial sub servience and dependency. This study explores the origins of the PKP and examines the character and fate of the Party in its early years. My original intention was to open the dissertation at the revolutionary era (1896- 1902) and to conclude with the outbreak of the Pacific War, but con straints of length have forced the recognition that it would not be feasible to cover such an extended period without an unacceptable sacrifice of detail. With some reluctance, the account has therefore had to be trimmed at both ends. Discussion of attitudes and events around the turn of the century has been severely compressed, and the fortunes of the PKP between 1934- and 194-1 will have to await separate treatment elsewhere. The period reviewed most closely in these pages consequently commences in 1924-, when the Partido Obrero was relaunched and Filipino labourites