LIVING THE SPIRIT OF THE
FIRST QUARTER STORM
by Satur C. Ocampo
(Remarks at the opening of the mobile photo exhibit,
“Never Again!,”sponsored by the September 21 Committee, at the UP College of
Mass Communications Lobby, Diliman, Q.C., 25 January 2000)
Over the last few years, as the anniversary of the First
Quarter Storm came and went, I have heard questions asked and answered
repeatedly: What was the FQS all about? Does it remain relevant
today? Can and must the FQS be replicated?
It was relatively easy to answer the first question. It
merely entailed citing key historical facts. Or referring to published accounts
of the event blow by blow with background material to boot, as in the
case of Jose F. Lacaba’s popularly read book, Days of Disquiet, Nights of
Rage. Or mounting a pictorial exhibit, with accompanying text and
captions, like this “Never Again!” display that we are opening this
morning.
Explaining the continuing relevance of the FQS and answering
whether it can and must be replicated required more effort. But whenever
I was asked these questions, I have tried to be as simple and direct as
possible in my answers.
To a lot of its surviving participants, the FQS remains
relevant. This, because the twin revolutionary spirits “Serve
the people!” and “Dare to struggle, dare to win!” continue to be
their guideposts in life. (In many cases, though, it may have become a bit of
the first and less or no more of the second). These revolutionary spirits
had animated the open mass movement that impelled the FQS outbreak.
Reinforced by the FQS, they have since become part of its legacy to the
succession of mass activists.
But more than that, the FQS remains relevant for another
reason. The economic, political and social conditions that characterized
the Philippine crisis in the ‘60s and ‘70s -- which also impelled the FQS
outbreak -- basically have remained as they were today. In fact, making
comparisons between the ‘70s and the last year of the ‘90s, even among the very
poor, invariably leads to conclusions that conditions have indeed worsened in
the era of imperialist “globalization.”
Can and must the FQS be replicated then? Not
necessarily. The FQS neither happened by accident nor was it planned. Its
replication cannot be simply wished. Much less can it be planned to take
place within a designated time frame.
This is an important point: the FQS occurred because
the resurgent open mass movement developed in the ‘60s, with a definitive
national-democratic character (anti-imperialist, anti-feudal) worked on the
worsening economic, political and social crisis to politically isolate the
Marcos regime. The regime’s inability to ease the crisis (it could not
resolve it), its puppetry to US imperialism, corruption and increasing resort
to fascist means in turn spurred the mass movement onward.
It did not matter that Marcos began his second presidential
term (the first and only reelected president of the Republic) following a
landslide electoral victory in November 1969 over Sergio Osmena Jr. That
election was condemned for its inordinate campaign spending and wanton
cheating. Marcos was therefore in a gravely defensive position.
Another important point: The resurgence of the open
mass movement was owed mainly to the student movement that was revived under
proletarian revolutionary guidance. Youth militancy broke the period of
intense reaction in the ‘50s following the defeat of the armed revolutionary
movement under the old communist party leadership.
The breakthrough came with the successful demonstration of UP
students in 1961 against the witch-hunting by the House of Representatives
committee on anti-Filipino activities (CAFA). The demonstration was
organized by the Student Cultural Association in UP (SCAUP), formed in 1959 by
students who had started studying the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism.
The SCAUP coordinated with the Philippine Collegian and the UP
fraternities and sororities to mobilize 5,000 students for that demonstration.
The SCAUP activists, headed by Jose Ma. Sison, then
campaigned among progressive students in other universities and colleges to set
up counterpart organizations of the SCAUP. The efforts led to the
formation, in 1964, of the Kabataang Makabayan. The KM set as criterion
that its members went through rigorous study of Philippine history and the basic
problems of society as well as proletarian revolutionary theory and
practice.
The KM also began the policy and practice of integrating with
the masses. It sent teams of students to the factories and farms to learn
from the workers and peasants. They carried out social investigation and
mass work among them, and aided the proletarian cadres in arousing, organizing
and mobilizing the basic masses. The core of youth activists thus
developed provided much of the leadership of the mass movement, later the
underground revolutionary movement.
By the second half of the ‘60s, the student-led mass actions,
with increasing participation of workers and peasants, developed. Rallies,
demonstrations, marches were held against the US military bases, the imperialist
war on Vietnam, oil price hikes, workers exploitation and other
issues. In October 1967, riot police brutally dispersed and arrested the
activists who picketed the US-convoked summit of Asian heads of state
supporting the Vietnam war. That spurred a huge protest rally on October
24, which was more brutally dispersed. The news reports and photos on the event
were published in the foreign media, including a cover story in
Newsweek.
The KM alliance work resulted in the formation in 1967 of the
Movement for the Advancement of Nationalism, with Sen. Lorenzo M. Tanada as
chairman and Jose Ma. Sison as secretary general. (In 1985 Tanada was
also elected chairman of BAYAN, the new alliance in the upsurge of the open
mass movement.) The reestablishment of the CPP in 1968 and its
launching of revolutionary armed struggle in the countryside in1969 gave new
impetus to the open mass movement. It was no surprise that in mass
actions assailing the presidential elections in November some activists raised placards
saying, “Dante for President!” The allusion was to the then legendary leader of
the New People’s Army.
That was how it was on the eve of the FQS.
When something like the FQS develops today or tomorrow, it
will not exactly be a reprise of what took place in 1970. It will be
something better. Its character will be defined to a large extent by two
factors: the level of development of the legal democratic movement, which
is now far more politically sophisticated than in the ‘70s, and of the revolutionary
underground and armed struggle in the countryside, which are far more advance,
too.
Lest I get too far afield, let me go back to the 30th anniversary of the FQS.
Late last month I got a letter from an old journalist-friend
and comrade. Noting that the first quarter of 2000 marks the 30th anniversary of the FQS, he exultantly
declared, “This means that I’ve been in the revolutionary movement for more
than 30 years!”
His excitement was understandable: 30 years of uninterrupted
participation in revolutionary struggle is quite a feat. But
what struck me more was his reckoning of the FQS as the indicator of how long
he has been with the movement. For most of the revolutionary activists I
have known, the FQS was the defining moment the turning point, the
radical rapture that definitely set their lifetime commitment to serve
the people and the revolution.
The comrade was not a typical FQS activist. He was not a
member of the KM, the SDK, Makibaka or any of the many ND mass organizations
that mushroomed in the late ‘60s. But he may as well have been a product
of the FQS.
When the FQS broke out, he was the president of the National
Press Club. He was respected and loved by colleagues as a fair-playing
“Batang Club” or veritable all-night-stand honcho of the NPC bar. After
the FQS he achieved his radical rapture from that lifestyle.
How? Through his exposure to militant activists, who had made the
NPC their refuge whenever the riot police pursued them in dispersal operations,
and through immersion in the overnight study sessions that our small media
group held on proletarian revolutionary theory and practice.
Now 67 and senior consultant to the NDF in Utrecht, Antonio
Zumel continues to live yes, live, not simply relive the
spirit of the FQS. The spirit of serving the people wholeheartedly and
selflessly. Also the spirit of the “old man who moved the mountain”
untiring in struggle, unflagging in his faith in revolutionary victory.
Another militant member of our small media group was Henry
Romero. Suffused with the FQS spirit as KKD activist and later as
revolutionary cadre, Henry honorably went the way of scores of other FQS
participants a martyr for the cause.
As we celebrate the 30th
anniversary of the FQS, let’s think of the hundreds of comrades like
Henry Romero who have sacrificed their lives in the course of the long
struggle. Without reservation we honor them, in our hearts and
minds.
Let us likewise think of comrades like Antonio Zumel, and
many more whose names I can’t mention here, who have survived or continue to
face the perils and rigors of the underground, the mountains and the scarring
ideological and political battles. Salute them for carrying on the fight.
Makibaka, huwag matakot! Paglingkuran ang
sambayanan! Dare to struggle, dare to win! Serve the people! #