Friday, 29 February, 2008 @ 6:19 PM

Sison ( pictured) stressed that the ships are in International waters and wondered what is all the fuss about.
Siniora summoned the acting US ambassador ( she could not be confirmed as an ambassador until there is a president in Lebanon to receive her papers) to provide an explanation for the US action

According to Local observers the region is witnessing a lot of instability which may have prompted the US action:

1- Escalation of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza . Israel has redoubled its air bombardment and armored raids against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, and Hamas has intensified and broadened the scope of its missile and rocket attacks on Israeli towns and villages.

2- Hezbollah has declared an open war on Israel and vowed to avenge the death of its military commander Imad Mughniyeh. Hezbollah in the past has also threatened to help Hamas in its fight against Israel.
Intelligence sources have reported that the IDF deployed Patriot missile defense batteries around Haifa in case Hezbollah unleashes a rocket offensive on the North as in 2006 war.

3- Hezbollah with the backing of Iran and Syria has been trying to overthrow the Lebanese government and has been actively trying to block the election of a president . In doing so Hezbollah is threatening the existence of a Democratic, sovereign and Independent Lebanon

4- The quarrel between Saudi King Abdullah and Syrian president Bashar Assad over Lebanon, which is nearing boiling point and threatens to be fought out in Lebanon.

5- The boycott of the forthcoming Arab League summit in Damascus by the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Gulf states , may prompt Syria to launch attacks against its neighbors in the region, for undermining its role in Lebanon and the Middle East

6- The Lebanese majority is concerned that Hezbollah-led opposition is trying to invite Syria back to occupy Lebanon.

When Imad Moustapha, the Syrian ambassador to the United States, spoke last Monday evening at Carnegie Mellon University about occupation of the Arab land by Israel a student asked him how he could criticize Israel for being an occupier when Syria has itself been an occupier of Lebanon.

Syria occupied Lebanon, said Moustapha, to end a civil war. "We made mistakes, we overstayed our welcome," he said.

However, he said the occupation was ultimately good for Lebanon. "Lebanon was able to restore lives and rebuild," he said.

This is the first time a Syrian official admits that the Syrian presence in Lebanon for nearly three decades was an 'occupation', besides only Syria and its allies think of the occupation as being good for Lebanon . The majority of the Lebanese think the occupation was the worst thing that ever happened to Lebanon

Ric Reyes is een voormalig lid van het politiek bureau van de CPP. Tegenwoordig is hij voorzitter van de links sociaal-democratische partij Akbayan waar ook de bekende andersglobalist Walden Bello (tevens bedreigd door de CPP) lid van is. De coalitie Laban ng Masa, Gevecht van de Massa's, is een coalitie die bestaat uit vrijwel geheel non-stalinistisch links op de Filippijnen.

De bedreigingen en moorden vinden plaats in de context van een bloedige campagne tegen links op de Filippijnen. Nog afgezien van het feit dat ze sowieso veroordeelt moeten worden en angst zaaien in de progressieve bewegingen in het straatarme land komen ze de staat ook op een andere manier goed van pas; elke keer dat er weer een linkse activist vermoord is, wijst de regering met een beschuldigende vinger naar de CPP die immers bewezen heeft er niet voor terug te schrikken linkse activsten te vermoorden. Het is dan ook dubbel hypocriet als supporters van de CPP buiten de archipel discussie over deze moorden en bedreigingen proberen te dwarsbomen met het argument dat alleen de Filippijnse staat hier belang bij zou hebben en dat 'het de revolutinonaire beweging verzwakt'. Het is juist de CPP die daar verantwoordelijk voor is en hoe sneller zij haar beleid van bedreigingen en moord staakt, des te sneller kan de linkse beweging haar strijd weer volledig richten tegen de corrupte regering van presidente Arroyo.

Naar verluid zou Ric Reyes bezig zijn met het schrijven van een boek over zijn tijd in de CPP. Misschien is dat een reden voor de Filippijnse wanna-be Beria's om extra hun best te doen snel van hem af te komen...

Laban ng Masa supporters herdenken 20 jaar People Power
opstand tegen de dictator Marcos

Message: 2
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:11:18 -0500
From: "Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@bellatlantic.net>
Subject: [Marxism] Philippine Communist (and Stalinist) leader
threatens activist's life at Australia conference
To: <marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu>,
<GreenLeft_discussion@yahoogroups.com>
Message-ID: <000001c86c18$b7dda3f0$6401a8c0@office1pc>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

The following item that John Riddell posted to the Socialist Voice list
serve some time ago strikes me as very important.
Fred Feldman

A disquieting incident regarding the Philippines occurred at the Melbourne
solidarity conference. This led Suzanne Weiss and me to make some tactful
inquiries in Toronto among those familiar with Philippines solidarity, and
what we learned was also of concern. We are no experts on the Philippines,
but we'd like to pass on what we heard and saw.

One of the most memorable aspects of the Melbourne solidarity conference was
the description by Ric Reyes, a leader of the Filipino liberation movement
Laban ng Masa (LnM--Struggle of the Masses) of how his movement had searched
for links in Latin America, with which the Philippines has strong historical
and cultural ties--looking first in Brazil and then discovering the
Venezuelan revolution. A commanding figure in the conference by virtue of
his experience, reputation, and political stature, Reyes spoke only after
the defeat of efforts by persons influenced by the Maoist Communist Party of
the Philippines (CPP) to deny him the platform.

Then, on the last day of the conference, a leaflet appeared on the
conference site entitled, "Reyes is criminally culpable for Kampanyang Ahos
[Campaign garlic]" referring to a murderous purge carried out in the CPP in
the mid-1980s. The leaflet was signed by Jose Maria Sison, the CPP's central
leader. The leaflet demanded that Reyes surrender himself to a tribunal in
which his accusers would also be judge, jury, and executioner. Should he not
surrender, the leaflet said, he would be regarded as "an armed and dangerous
criminal suspect who is open to battle" and noted that the "arresting team
is authorized to act in self-defense" against him, "especially under the
current conditions of civil war."

We read this as a statement that the CPP intends to send a death squad
against Reyes.

Sison's letter was originally published in a Philippines newspaper in 2005,
and the CPP has never repudiated it. Together with it was published a
response by Reyes, which pointed out that in fact he had been already
condemned by a CPP tribunal back in 1994, when he was in jail. The same
judgment was made against three other former CPP leaders. "Of the four so
accused, I am the only one remaining alive."

In fact, there is strong evidence that the CPP is carrying out a systematic
program of death threats and killings against prominent opponents in the
Philippines liberation movement. Substantial documentation of this has been
gathered by Pierre Rousset, a prominent figure in European solidarity
activities see HYPERLINK

All this occurs in the context that the CPP is a deeply rooted liberation
organization, the strongest in the Philippines, and is carrying on a
guerilla struggle against the government. It is the main victim of the
murderous violence that the governent deals out to all sectors of the
progressive movement. The CPP, like other Filipino progressive
organizations, deserves our solidarity against the government killings. A
few weeks ago, I supported the appeal for the releast of Sison from arrest
in the Netherlands. Laban ng Masa also defended Sison, who has now been
released.

The CPP's death threats and killings against other progressive tendencies
disorganize and weaken its defense against government violence. For example,
Rousset's website records that a Filipino "fair trade" organization was
recently targeted for attack by the CPP. The "fair trade" organization's
business partner in Germany became aware that their Filipino trading partner
was in danger of being wiped out by the CPP. The German business wrote to
the Filipino president, demanding that she protect their trading partner
against CPP violence. The end result is that efforts to highlight the
government as the real source of the violence are frustrated, and the
government's campaign to murderously suppress liberation movements is made
much easier.

CPPers, Rousset tells us, argue against discussion of their killings of
leftist activists on the grounds that making the facts known strengthens the
government's hand and exposes CPP cadres to government reprisals. This line
of argument was the stock-in-trade of Stalinism at the peak of its murder
campaign against revolutionary cadres in the 1930s. Then as now, it is the
fratricidal killings that weakens the people's cause, not the action of
those who call for end to such attacks.

Many victims of these attacks, Reyes among them, are accused of
responsibility for a tragedy that shook the CPP in the 1980s. The CPP was
then at the peak of its influence, with some five million adherents. During
the 1980s, the CPP was shaken by a series of party campaigns to root out
government agents in its ranks. According to Reyes, these campaigns got out
of hand and almost wrecked the party in 1988. Hundreds of loyal party
members were killed.

In the early 1990s, after substantial forces left the CPP, the party said
that leaders among those had left bore responsibility for these killings. In
fact, Reyes says, these actions been "collectively affirmed, appproved,
reaffirmed, and undertaken by the CPP leadership, national and regional."

Today the CPP, although weakened, remains a mass organization, and is
somewhat larger in adherents and voting strength than Laban ng Masa. The CPP
enjoys substantial international support today, especially through its trade
union arm, the KMU. In Canada, it dominates Philippines solidarity work.

I had seen no evidence of the CPP in Toronto in recent years. But recently,
its supporters have been active in seeking backing from other solidarity
organizations. They are conducting educational work and recruiting among
young activists, winning them to a hardline version of Maoism that includes
support for Stalin's and Mao's murder campaigns against communist cadres.
(cut)

“History shows that successful people power revolutions are always spontaneous and unplanned. Hence the failure of Trillanes and company to mount another people power uprising last Thursday just proves that the whole thing was planned despite Trillanes’ protestations that it was done on the spur of the moment.”

You probably noticed the same thing that I noticed when I first read this: he used the word protestations! What an idiot.

Joking aside, Jose C. Sison ought to be embarrassed to print his thoughts for posterity. Quite apart from the fact that his columns are frequently littered with all kinds of questionable syntax and usage, he has no basic understanding of logic. I like to believe that this sort of silliness is rare, but just in case I will explain why logically these first two sentences make no manner of sense:

QED

More importantly, Sison has no real understanding of the situation, both of Trillanes’ pitiful uprising and of the people power revolution. Ramos and Enrile were always planning to defect; in point of fact they were planning an armed coup d’etat, Marcos found out and was planning to kill them—summary execution by the way was slang for court trial in those days—which forced them to ask for civilian support. It was meant to be a power grab. The same appears true for Trillanes’ little putsch. There is every reason to suspect that just like in his failure in Oakwood, Trillanes had planned—indeed was banking—on help, both civilian and military.

Sison goes on to tell us that the “silent majority”, for whom Sison presumably speaks, “as property owners themselves, they readily empathized with the sorry lot of the Manila Pen owner. They pictured themselves in its (sic) shoes and did not like what they saw.” Going on,

“To them, it is so revolting for [Trillanes and his supporters] to just barge in, occupy and take over their residence or place of business and create a situation that would endanger their lives and those of their guests and cause so much damage and destruction to their properties just because of supposedly noble intentions. The sight simply shocked and disgusted the silent majority because these are supposedly people of integrity who could easily distinguish right from wrong, and who readily knows (sic) that a wrong cannot be used to right another wrong. ”

Because of course people of integrity (like Sison) easily know right from wrong, right? Morality and ethics aren’t sticky issues that have occupied men’s thoughts for millennia; Sison always knows what to do.

What Sison doesn’t seem to know, for some strange reason, is that Trillanes and Gen. Lim never once even threatened violence against anyone, anyone who wished to was free to leave at any time; property damage and the loss of revenue (not counting the revenue lost on the day itself) were caused by the actions of the state. As for the “silent majority”, when your government is murdering your fellow citizens, high-jacking your democracy and legal systems, and telling you to accept it, you do not have the right to your silence. And if the cost of change is some relatively minor monetary damage to a few fat cat hotel owners, forgive me if I think that’s alright.

Sison disagrees because,

“Reforms are initiated and approved in our civilian parliament which is the Congress composed of Senators and Congressmen. Trillanes was already elected a Senator. He had all the chances and the means to initiate the needed social reforms he advocates; in the Senate not in a hotel.”

As General Lim pointed out, reforms have been attempted in Congress and the Senate, the administration sabotaged them every time. Furthermore, Trillanes has never been permitted to sit in a single senate session, because he was detained. Which Trillanes also pointed out.

This is my favorite passage:

“those who are still contemplating to launch (sic) another people power should forget about it. Non-violent people power uprising (sic) will no longer succeed in this country because people who joined them and rallied to their noble causes simply felt cheated and betrayed after the two EDSAS (sic). The prevailing mood is that they will just have more of the same kind of corrupt government they previously rallied against and toppled. Prayer power is the call of the hour.”

Did you catch that little rhyme at the end? I love it when stupidity comes in rhymes. Sison acknowledges in the final paragraph that this administration has suffered from “lack of full transparency and repeated attempts to suppress a full dress inquiry into these exposés” (no, I’m not sure what the hell a “dress inquiry” is either. Just kidding, he means “full-dress”, but the man cannot even get his subject verb agreement right, how can he handle high school stuff like proper hyphenation?)

So to summarize Sison’s position: “noble intentions” and reforms are not good enough reasons for armed rebellion—because heaven forbid property owners get inconvenienced—, reforms are initiated in the Congress, the administration has prevented our congress from doing anything at all… therefore all we can do is pray.

And that is why Jose C. Sison should shut-up his face-hole.