#KaJomaLives |  In Memoriam: Professor Jose Maria Sison (1939-2022)

From Professor Immanuel Ness 

Professor of Political Science 

City University of New York (CUNY) 

Chair, International Committee, Professional Staff Congress- CUNY

 In Memoriam | Professor Jose Maria Sison (1939-2022)

Chairperson Emeritus of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines and Co-Founder of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines

The direction of our lives is shaped by our political subjectivity. For many, the formation of a revolutionary consciousness originates from our life experiences that are fully coincidental. We do not choose the socio-economic conditions of the society we live or our class positions within social formations, which intensely diverge from one society to another. We cannot simply explain epistemological awareness on random identity, but we draw metaphysical subjectivity through our perception of the historical and material existence.

Only serious leaders like Jose Maria Sison who have the popular support among peasants and workers are feared by the ruling class.  Jose Maria Sison is a legend among his own people, Marxist Leninists, and Maoists. Comrade Joma was a revolutionary and intellectual leader in the national democratic movement to liberate the Philippines from the clutch of Western imperialists. Joma recognized that the principal contradiction of the Philippines is its semi-colony status, controlled by a comprador class beholden to American imperialism for its social reproduction. In December 1968 Joma was instrumental in the formation of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army. For more than 50 years, the National Democratic Revolution has sustained popular struggle to educate the urban and agrarian working class to recognize its historic subjective position as inexorable heir to the land and resources that have been plundered by comprador and foreign capitalists. The pillar of the liberation of the Philippines is implanting socialism and anti-imperialism among the working class.

Like Marx, Lenin, and Mao who preceded him, Joma’s colossal intellectual impact will infuse the  national democratic movement in the Philippines and beyond.  His formidable intellectual whose corpus provides the basis for understanding the constellation of class forces that subordinates the Filipino working class at home and the world.

Jose Maria Sison’s prolific body of work is profound and will stand the test of time. His leading works include On the Philosophy of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Critique of Philippine Economy and Politics, On the People’s Democratic Revolution, On the Communist Party of the Philippines, On People’s War; Socialism: Resistance and Resurgence, and most recently, Upsurge of People’s Resistance in the Philippines and the World.

I became a friend and comrade of Joma in 2020 and 2021 when Joma appeared on a featured panel discussion on Organizing Insurgency, which focuses on the practical necessity to build strong and resilient political parties and working class mobilization to seize state power. Joma’s contribution to the debate was formidable and revealed his profound recognition of a materialist revolutionary program.

Till his death, Joma remained focused and committed to the struggle for national democratic revolution, evident in his endorsement of Organizing Insurgency:

‘The rising anti-imperialist struggles in both the underdeveloped and developed countries are signalling the resurgence of the world proletarian-socialist revolution. Immanuel Ness makes a just call for forging a global workers’ movement by reinvigorating and further developing the trade union movement, the workers’ parties and political movements to fight for the rights and interests of the working class and the rest of the suffering people’

It is the obligation of those of Marxist Leninists in the imperialist core to seek unity with the Philippine people to support the CPP, National Democratic Front, and allied organizations. We mourn for Jose Maria Sison and our comrades who are bravely challenging the criminals who are leading the rapacious capitalist neo-colony against the popular will of the people.

— Immanuel Ness

26 December 2022