CPP/CNL: Statement of the Christian for National Liberation On its 8th National Congress April 24-26, 2017

CNL propaganda statement posted to the Communist Party of the Philippines Website (May 28):
Statement of the Christian for National Liberation On its 8th National Congress April 24-26, 2017



Renmin Malaya, Spokesperson
CNL National Executive Committee

28 May 2017

We the 57 official delegates of the 8th National Congress of CNL uphold and resolve to carry over the theme of the Congress and over-all thrust of the organization to “Persevere in Attaining greater Heights in the National Democratic Revolution with Socialist Perspective; intensify our participation in the people’s armed revolutionary struggle.”

We commend the entire membership of CNL both the living and the deceased for the heroic achievement of maintaining and sustaining the correct line of struggle enthusiastically and even have expanded the sphere of influence in most of the regions despite the ideological attack from within its own sector and state brutal repression from without.

It is in this context of moving forward the current level of the revolution from the middle phase to the advanced sub-stage of the strategic defensive that we re-vitalize the Christian imperative of being in unity/ in close fervent participation in the struggle of our neighbor especially the poor and the oppressed and as solid moral basis for the justness of war of liberation.

It is also at the service of pursuing armed revolutionary vigorousness and growth that we need to acknowledge and repudiate the currents of conservatism, individualism, liberalism and sluggishness in our methods of revolutionary work. We criticize the slow and minimal increase of recruiting subjective forces for the revolution in the last fourteen years. We also need to address the minimal participation and support of the church sector both for armed revolution and open democratic mass movement. Specifically we call on the youth of the sector to revolutionize their ideas and actions and respond to the signs of the times.

In this regard we also place special emphasis on the need to increase our ranks among Roman Catholic lay, priests and nuns which in the past contributed greatly to the advancement of the anti-dictatorship struggle and the fight against fascist terror. We need to develop deeper relations with its church hierarchy by storming their doors together with the poor, deprived and oppressed. Ecumenical partnerships must also be enhanced and CNL members in different denominations have the responsibility to reach out to their counterparts in the Roman Catholic church.

We thus now resolve at this juncture to address our weaknesses by completing the summing-up of our revolutionary work in the past 15 years, identify our errors, derive lessons that will guide our aspiration to attain an expanded and more militant organization.

We take note of the landmark significance of this 8th congress being held at a Moro community being organized by the CPP/New People’s Army. This provides us with a real and visible situation of the struggle of the Moro people for self-determination.
We offer our great resolve and enthusiasm to all the martyrs and heroes of CNL who have sacrificed and gone before us. In their honor we pledge our commitment and allegiance to the moral emancipation of the poor.
Ultimately the 8th Congress reinforces our conviction that earthly salvation is always a collective and participatory endeavor by the toiling and exploited people.

Long live the struggling people!
Long live the Christians for National Liberation

https://www.philippinerevolution.info/statements/20170528-statement-of-the-christian-for-national-liberation-on-its-8th-national-congress-april-24-26