From vanguard to rearguard : the Communist Party of the Philippines, 1969-1993

Abstract

This dissertation is a study of the rise and decline of the Communist Party of the Philippines (1969 to 1993), with emphasis on the role of theory. Against the prevailing notion - in both academic and political literature - that the CPP has been ‘dogmatic in theory but flexible in practice,’ it is argued here that its very failure to develop strategy and tactics in theory ofien inhibited flexible practice. Reasons for the lack of theoretical development include not only the often undemocratic responses of the leadership, but also a number of conditioning factors present from the Party's founding and sustained by internal Party culture and external exigencies. These include the nature of the CPP's break from the pre-existing communist party; the hegemonic position held by the CPP within the Philippine left as a whole; and the very success of the Party's armed struggle in the countryside.