To: Communist Party of the Philippines
From: Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Dear Comrades,
It is with great sorrow that we learned of the passing of Comrade Jose Ma. Sison. The Freedom Road Socialist Organization extends our sincere condolences to Ka Joma’s many comrades, friends, Ka Julieta de Lima and his entire family. He will be missed wherever working and oppressed people are striving for their emancipation. We mourn the departure of a true titan in the world communist movement.
As a founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army, Comrade Sison made tremendous contributions to the people’s democratic revolution in the Philippines and helped bring closer the day when the burdens of imperialism, semi feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism are lifted off the backs of the Filipino people.
Ka Joma was an outstanding proletarian revolutionary whose life and work stands as example to communists everywhere. Enduring hardship and torture at the hands of the enemy, he embodied what it means to serve the people. He indeed feared neither hardship nor death.
Comrade Jose Ma. Sison made numerous contributions to Marxism – Leninism, thus enriching the content of scientific socialism. A relentless opponent of revisionism and opportunism, Comrade Sison’s thinking – his contributions to revolutionary theory – have an application internationally and deserve study by all serious communists.
Ka Joma was a true working-class internationalist, who took seriously the dictum “workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite.” As the leader of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, he spearheaded the building of international solidarity in practice.
The people of the Philippines and the people of the U.S. have a common enemy in the monopoly capitalists that rule Wall Street’s American empire. Comrade Sison stood in the front lines of those fighting to bring the empire down.
The leadership and members of FRSO appreciate the keen interest Ka Joma took in the development of a revolutionary movement in the United States, and warm friendship that he extended to our organization. When the U.S. government launched an attack on antiwar and international solidarity activists, and attempted to imprison key leaders of FRSO, he was among the first to speak out against the repression. His efforts helped to forge an unbreakable bond between the revolutionary movement in the U.S. and the revolutionary movement in the Philippines. We will miss him.
Freedom Road Socialist Organization shares the grief of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and we extend our solidarity at this difficult movement. We are also committed to learning from the life and work of Comrade Sison.
The contributions of Comrade Jose Ma. Sison will live forever!
With communist greetings,
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
