PSR 29 (1981): 133-137

ON PEASANT ORGANIZATIONS

PEREGRINO M. TARUC Agrarian Reform Institute, University ofthe Philippines at Los Banos

Peasant organizations provide additional For those who savor historical irony, it is dimensions in the implementation of indeed curious that the peasant in the modern development programs. It can be said that in era has been as much an agent of revolution this last decade, peasant organizations were as the machine, that he has come into his own • given significant recognition for their as an effective historical actor along with the contribution to the growth of the rural sector. conquests of the machine.

While before, the peasantry has always The peasant war in the Philippines is a part been kept an arm's length from power, they of the peasant wars of the twentieth century are now called upon to participate in problem such as in Mexico, Russia, China, Algeria, Cuba identification and decision-making. They are and Vietnam which ushered in "the process of now the focus of the "peaceful democratic modernization." The tension that gave rise to revolution" and the locus of the "rebellion of it had all its roots in the past. It is the the poor." revolution of the largest sector of the Filipino people - the peasantry - against foreign For the first time in the millenia, said domination and exploitation. This revolution Eric Wolf, humankind is moving toward is still in process today after taking various a solution of the age-long problem of hunger forms and functions, and its main instruments and disease, and everywhere, ancient are the peasant organizations. Today's monopolies of power and received wisdom are democratic revolution, the rebellion of the • yielding to human effort to widen poor, is a function of the continuing participation and knowledge. In such efforts ­ revolution against an unjust agrarian structure however uncertain, however beset with which created a "throne of bayonet where the difficulties, however ill-understood - there lies powerful exacts what they want and the weak the prospect of increased life for increased grants what they must." This structure humanity. constitutes an "institutionalized violence" against the poor. How to reach this solution is a question of struggle, a question of power - a political With the 20/20 vision of hindsight, said Dr. question. It is for this reason that the struggle Umali (1979), we see now that over the last against poverty becomes a struggle against the quarter century, we often mistook rural system that breeds poverty. This struggle leads poverty and hunger as the problem. Today, to rebellion and revolution. we see that they are the symptoms or consequences of the real basic problems; the unjust economic socio-political structures that According to Barrington Moore, the process distort and constrain the development process. of modernization begins with peasant revolutions that fail. It culminates during the Theneedforo'Xannation twentieth century with peasant revolutions that succeeded. No longer, he continued, is it In any society, the naves are as powerful as possible to take seriously the view that the the have-nots are powerless so that peasantry is an "object of history." perpetuation of power in the hands' of the few 133 134 PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW will always result in the perpetuation of 2. Organizational capability; poverty among the majority of the people. 3. Rapport with politico-administrative T9 free themselves from the cycle of decision-making groups or individuals; poverty and exploitation, the people must and realize their potential strength and power and use it. To quote Umali (1979:8), "people 4. IiJ.t~r-supportiveness, of peasant cannot develop if they have no power, and organizations in the area, the region, or development will occur if, and only if, the the country as a\ whole especially for people can organize their own power in their mass action or "agitational activity." own .interests," These roles in tum are influenced, he ~ntinued, by another four basic factors: The sources of this e9wer are resources and organization. Any organizational structure is a 1. The genesis of the peasant organization structure of power whether economic, (as a direct result of governmental political, social or cultural. policy).

The, rich are powerful because they are 2. The local power structure (economic, organized and have access to power. social, politico-administrative). Institutional services and decision-making have 3. Levels of peasant awareness (the more generally been their monopoly because those aware peasants are' of developmental and who control the resources' also control the modernization trends and objectives of economic, social and political power. the country and the outside world, the higher their performance in support of The poor, especially the. peasantry, are mobilization, organizational capacity, powerless because the majority are still rapport with decision-makers and unorganized. According to labor statistics, intersupportiveness; the less aware, the only about 10 percent of the labor force lower the level of role performance). including agricultural laboris organized. 4. The policy environment (government To .alter the basic power. relationship and policy either strengthens or weakens the obtain greater access to society's benefits, ability of peasant organizations in the there is, therefore" an urgent need for WIder performance of their roles). participation and higher level of performance among peasant organizations. To understand the roles of existing peasant organizations, let us view them in a historical The role ofpeasant organizations context, in the genesis of their structure and functions. We have observed that it was only in this last decade that significant recognition was The Federation of Agrarian and Industrial given to peasant organizations on their Toiling Hands (FAITH) Inc. and contributions to the growth of the rural Veterans Inc. (HUKVETS) sector. This recognition was brought about by four basic performances of peasant FAITH was initially organized as FARM in organizations. According to Wanashinghe 1969. It was formally organized as FAITH on (n.d.) these are:' - January 20, 1974. The HUKVETS, an affiliate of FAITH, was formally organized on 1. Support or mobilization of local November 30, 1975 (National Heroes Day), peasants; and recognized by the Government under P.D~ • ON PEASANT ORGANIZATIONS 135 No. 1207 on October 7, 1977. Relative to the parties merged and their mass organizations, past, FAITH is the tip of an iceberg of various the KPMP and the AMT joined a united front peasant organizations that gave rise to it. against Japanese fascism. On March 29, 1942 the merged peasant organizations created the In 1919, a sharecropper's union was Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon organized by a communist leader, Jacinto (HUKBALAHAP). The aims of the Manahan. This was renamed in 1924 as the HUKBALAHAP were to drive out the Katipunang Pambansa ng mga Magbubukid ng. Japanese, cooperate with the allied armies, Pilipinas (KPMPj the main objective of which apprehend and punish collaborators, attain was to fight usury and obtain equal share of complete independence and establish a • 50·50 under tenancy (Huizer 1977:4-5). democratic government with land reform, national industrialization and guarantees for a In 1930, lawyer Pedro Abad Santos, the higher standard of living ( Huizer 1977:8). Socialist Party leader, though a wealthy landlord in , created the Aguman The Huk resistance against the Japanese ding Maldang Talapag-obra (AMT or V nion of gained the support of the masses of Central All Workers) in response to the grievances of and Southern Luzon that in many areas de farmers and workers. One of the leaders of facto political control and local governments Abad Santos was Luis M. Taruc who, during were in the hands of the resistance forces the anti-Japanese war, became the Supremo of which had their base in the peasantry. the HUKBALAHAP. Although the efforts of the Huks The peasant organizations generally used considerably facilitated the liberation of the non-violent methods: demonstrations, sit-down Philippines from the Japanese by the strikes to let everyone be arrested and sent American army, the relations between the together as a group into jail, and so on. Huks and the American army were never • Dramatic stage presentations and similar good. There was fear that the Huks would cultural activities were used to teach the radically change the social order in the peasants about the labor struggle, and to turn Philippines, if they got the chance. the strikes into public manifestations. By After the war, the Huks joined a popular 1938, the AMT had 70,000 members who front with several other groups, such as the participated actively in mass actions. Democratic Alliance, the Pambansang Kaisahan The socialist peasant organization, AMT, ng mga Magbubukid (PKM) and the had good chances to develop during the Congress of Labor Organizations (CLO) and 1930's while the communist mass supported Osmena for the April 1946 election organization, KPMP, and the communist party against Roxas, a former collaborator with the were officially prohibited. Landlords organized Japanese who was supported by the V.S. • armed groups or private armies such as the Supreme Commander, Douglas MacArthur. Kawal ng Kapayapaan (Soldiens of Peace) to Roxas won the election with a slight majority. oppose and clash with the socialists. This led With him in power, three Nacionalista senators to considerable violence in the rural areas in and six Democratic Alliance congressmen were Central Luzon. When the socialists were also unseated; including Congressman Luis M. Taruc prohibited to hold' meetings, the organizers and Jesus Lava. used any kind of gathering, such as protestant As a result, the Huks lost hope in the religious meetings, to make propaganda for Roxas administration, After several Huk the peasant cause. leaders were kidnapped and assasinated, violence flared up again. The Huk problem In 1938, the Communist and Socialist was not solved by violence. 136 PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW • According to Secretary Conrado Estrella of revolution and not to peaceful reform. the Department (now Ministry) of Agrarian Because of these prevailing attitudes, the FFF .Reform, land reform would have to be the met only marginal success in terms of answer to the Huk movement. 'Estrella expansion and growth during the late 19508 (1961:13) says: and early 1960s,' By mid 1960s attitudes . . . One cannot question the validity of began to change in support of utilizing farmer the objectives which the Huk presented to organizations' towards affecting agrarian the Government. The Pambansang Kaisahan reform. And with this change of attitude ng Mga Magbubukid (PKM) which was the support. for the Federation of Free Farmers Huk farmer's organization, presented to the began to increase, allowing the organization to Government in 1948 a program for agrarian greatly expand. reform. The organization asked for the end of tenancy and.' its replacement by leasehold. They also asked. for rural The crisis government has· promoted a cooperatives and credit facilities for farmers favorable climate -. for the establishment of and, finally, they asked that the peasant organizations. So aside from the FFF government expropriate the .big landed oandFAITH, another privately initiated estates and 'sell them to the tenants, organization, the FLRF (Federation of Land particularly in Pampanga, which was at the time the center of the Huk.movement. It Reform Farmers), the third largest peasant couldn't .have been. otherwise, for more organizations joined the ranks of than 80' percent of the farmers of non-government organizations. Pampanga weretenants. Government agencies also took' the The crisis generated by the continuing initiative in forming farmers'organizations. peasant rebellion and enlarged by student The Bureau of Agricultural Extension . activism led to the' declaration of a crisis organized the Federation of Farmers' government on martial law. When under .. Association, the BCOD organized the martial law, government reforms were . Samahang Nayon, .the ACA organized the launched; 'specifically Agrarian Reform and Compact Farms and the MAR organized the Cooperatives development, former farmer and ARBA. The government-initiated associations labor leaders released from prison were above are considered as non-government. allowed to form their organizations in support organizations (NGO's). of said programs. Thus FAITH and Ht1KVETS were organized in 1974 and 1975 respectively under the atmosphere of reform generated by Both government and non-government the crisis government. organizations concerned with development in the countryside adopt strategies promotive of I . The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) was participation. But participation in something formally- organized in October 1953 by a which is already defined for peasants has not group of Catholic Laymen following the promoted development. • break-up of the communist-led revolutionary movement in the Philippines. The FFF was to . As development is a matter of institution have reorganized the old communist-led building, the 'peasantry and their organization peasant base into an organization "with a must fully participate in all aspects of truly Christian and democratic leadership." activities - economic, social, political and' But the fresh' reminder of the cultural. This participation must assure for the communist-inspired program led many people peasantry not merely involvement in to become apprehensive towards organizing decision-making and control, but also in the . future organizations viewing them as benefits, in the equitable distribution of structures ultimately leading to violent income and wealth. ON PEASANT ORGANIZATIONS 137

This is the essence of democratization of Huizer, C.J. wealth and opportunities. It includes the 1977 Historical Background of Peasant democratization of power. Without power, the Organizationsin the Philippines. peasantry and their organizations cannot be Umali, Dioscoro L effective instruments of development. 1979 Samonte Lecture Series on Management of Rural Development, University of the References Philippines at Los Bafios, August 9, 1979.

FJltre11a, Conrado F. Wanashinghe, H.S. 1961 The Democratic Answer to the Philippine n.d. Role of Peasant Organizations in Rural Agrarian Problem. Manila: Solidaridad Development, United Nations Centre for PubHshing House. Development Administration.

• 138 PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

PIULlPPINE POUTICAL SCIENCE JOURNAL June 1979 Number 9

S. V. Epistola Kaunlaran at Pagpapahalaga Comments by Agerico Lacanlale

Anemia Palongpalong A Study of Paoay, Escopa, and Andam-Mouswag Public Housing Projects Comments by Romualdo Tadena

Violeta Adorable The Barangay and Citizens' Participation for Development Comments by Felino Lorente

Alejandro M Fernandez A Harsh Land: An Intrepid People Comments by Ifor Solidum

Honoria Mellora The Five-Year Ilocos Region Development Plan: An Overview Comments by Romualdo Tadena • EvaDuka Ventura Political and Administrative Organization in the Area Serviced by the Upper Pampanga River Project Comments by Segundo Romero.

Patricio Guyguyon History of the Chico River Project

Carol de Raedt To Know the Meaning of the Chico Project Comments by Patricio Guyguyon Reactions by an NPC Representative • Zenaida H. Pawid The Mountain Provinces as a Regional Development Area: Regional Development for What? Comments by Tito Bernabe

Epidio R. Sta. Romana On the "Power of the Poor," Power and Development