We commemortate this week two events which have radically changed the history of our nation. The First Quarter Storm which unleashed a swift wave of organized opposition against Imperialism, Feudalism, and Bureaucrat-Capitalism, and which ushered the intensification of repression in our system has dramatically drawn us to that qualitative leap a little closer. The Diliman Commune proved the creativity of the masses and the students before struggle.
If we remember right, it was before 1970 when the International Monetary Fund dictated the devaluation of the Peso through the floating rate. Prices soared high and even much higher when in the latter part of 1970, the oil companies in the Philippines, which belong to a well-established international cartel, raised the price of oil and gasoline. Right after that, the barricades became the mode of protest of the season till the Diliman Commune was established.
The two events cannot be entirely isolated from each other for both manifest the development of struggle as oppression intensified. Both events exposed the ruthlessness of Imperialism in collusion with the fascist Marcos regime. And more significantly, both events elevated the National Democratic Struggle to more advanced planes.
The intensification of exploitation only gives the momentum of the National Democratic Movement more energy to bring the struggle to its resolution. The pattern has been established, and with the latest moves to have the price of oil increase once more, the events turn things back to full circle. But this time, another elevation which would perhaps make our struggle leap to the most advanced form looms clearly.
The physical aspects of both events like the demonstrations and the barricades only concretely symbolize the development of the consciousness of the masses and the unity we have by now achieved.
In fact, agitation is a mere replica of past struggles, for as Angel baking said, “The time for agitation and advocacy has long passed in our history.”
The dynamism exuded by the participants of the First Quarter Storm and the Diliman Commune are aspects of a continuing, protracted and persistent struggle which shall not lose, but gain energy as the oppression intensifies.
AS week becomes once more as eventful as other AS weeks for the fact that another UP student was killed by the bloodthirsty troopers of the Marcos fascist regime.
Dennis Deveratoda was fatally wounded when the Philippine Constabulary, the mercenary arm of American Imperialism which traces its roots to the American colonization of the Philippines, indiscriminatorily fired at innocent civilians allegedly connected with the New People’s army.
It is not perhaps coincidence which makes AS weeks eventful with the killing of students from the university — it is the sharpening of contradictions between Imperialism and its minions on one hand, and the masses on the other hand, that makes the struggle more bitter and difficult. For those who die in struggle, the weight of the significance is unmeasurable, because as a great Asian philosopher once said, death is heavier than mountains.
The list of fascist atrocities gets longer, the contradictions in our society draw closer to their climax.
