On Front Organizations

One of the most common allegations made by the red-tagging McCarthyites of the Duterte administration is that the organizations that comprise the national democratic movement are “front organizations” of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). They seek to use this term, “front,” which is a complex word with multiple possible meanings, to justify their persecution of activists.

What does “front organization” mean? At its most basic level, “front” is a metaphor containing two rival possible sets of signification.

Politically, “front” should invoke a metaphor of battle, in the sense of a combined force presented against a common enemy. Using this metaphor, it is certainly correct to refer to the Makabayan Coalition as being in a common front with the CPP.

This is not to say that they are secretly members of, or controlled by, the Communist Party. It is rather to assert that they have a common orientation, a common political line, and this brings them together in a “front.” This is not an attack, nor is it red-tagging. In fact, I imagine that the leaders of the national democratic movement would be proud to assert this fact if they could do so without fear of persecution.

This battle metaphor of “front” does not imply that the members of the national democratic movement secretly support the armed struggle. Rather it expresses the fact that they have a common outlook — nationalism; a common goal — national democracy; and a common strategy — an alliance with a section of the capitalist class which, the party claims, is a necessary component of the bloc of four progressive classes.

But the metaphor “front” also has a second connotation: a facade, something behind which a more sinister reality lurks. The metaphor here is not one of battle, but of the mafia. The allegation is that the Makabayan Coalition, etc, are a front for the CPP in the way that Genco Olive Oil Company was a front for the Corleone family in The Godfather.

This latter, more sinister meaning is the one being invoked by the red-taggers and McCarthyites and it is a right-wing and reactionary attack on the national democratic movement.

What my scholarship has sought to bring to light is not the secret machinations of the party, which is engaged in the manipulation of its “front organizations” — I do not assert that.

Rather, I have sought to demonstrate that the party has put forward a political line, the line of Stalinism — a two stage revolution and the bloc of four classes. It is this line that the national democratic movement was founded upon: a nationalist orientation to an alliance with a section of the capitalist class.

This orientation led the leadership of both the CPP and the national democratic movement to endorse Duterte and facilitate his rise to power. This is what I am criticizing, for it is a betrayal of the working class and has endangered the lives of activists.

I am attacking the political line of the party from the left. The red-taggers are attacking the membership of the national democratic movement from the right. Herein lies the fundamental difference.