AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

148 TERESA LORENA JOPSON
Audience and Social Context
Pulang Mandirigma is a small coffee table book printed in smooth white
paper and covered in two-toned matte-finish board – a far cry from the
mass-produced primers that the CPP distributes for free. The cost of
production of this book suggests that the CPP has financial support
from its organized forces or allies. Its very form, a coffee table book, as
well as its sleek look, clean layout and general aesthetics appeal to the
middle class. It is in this light that I assume that the book is mainly intended
for allies and the middle class forces it solicits support from. In
the rhetorical analysis of the text and photos, I will have this audience in
mind. Although I have no idea how many are in print, the use of the
English language in the book also broadens this middle class audience to
Filipinos and their allies abroad.
Published in 2004, it celebrates the 35th anniversary of the New People’s
Army and its renewed strength after the Second Great Rectification
Movement. It might be said that it is long overdue for the CPP to muster
confidence to assert its own identity in public. In 2004, they finally gathered
energy to put together a project that needs national coordination of
protected files, not to mention the logistic of quality book printing machinery.
It is, indeed, a show of organizational strength. Furthermore, in
asserting an identity that is revolutionary, the publication is a glimpse to
alternative governance in the country.
The book is released at a time when the political crisis in the Philippines
was intensifying. That year, one of the most contested presidential
elections took place. The spate of political killings is on the rise, targeting
legal organizations that were said to be supportive of the underground
movement.
THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES AND THE NEW PEOPLE’S
ARMY
Criticizing the leadership of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (“old”
Communist Party of the Philippines), Professor Jose Maria Sison reestablished
the CPP in 1968. The CPP on its First Great Rectification
Movement led by Chairperson Armando Liwanag, reaffirmed its Marxist-Leninist
principles and incorporated Maoist thought in its guiding
political line. It also made clear a struggle for a national democratic revolution
through a protracted peoples war with a socialist perspective. To