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A kerosene lamp flickers beside a Macbook in a jungle camp as aging Philippine communist leader Jaime Padilla plots the next step in one of Asias oldest insurgencies with a new generation of fighters.

Fueled by one of the worlds starkest rich-poor divides, a Maoist rebellion that began months before the first human landed on the moon plods on even though the country now boasts one of the worlds fastest-growing economies.

Theres a big pool of young people who will pursue the peoples war even if it takes us a hundred or more years, 70-year-old Padilla, one of the Philippines most-wanted men, said at a rare news conference for a small group of reporters.

Padilla, who joined the New Peoples Army a few years after the insurgency began in the late 1960s, insisted the rebels were not concerned by President Rodrigo Dutertes threats to end peace talks.

A self-proclaimed socialist, Duterte swiftly launched negotiations with the Maoists after winning presidential elections last year and there were high hopes he could end the rebellion, which the military estimates has claimed 30,000 lives.

But last month Duterte angrily declared there would be no more talks because the NPA continued to extort money from businesses and ambush security forces.

Padilla, a slight, bespectacled ex-farmer who goes by the alias Ka (Comrade) Diego, heads the Melito Glor Command, one of the most important units of the NPA, the communists 3,800-member armed wing, military commanders told Agence France-Presse.

The unit operates across the south of the main island of Luzon, the countrys industrial heartland that lies next to the capital of Manila, typically attacking isolated security outposts and taking guns from slain police and soldiers.

It also collects revolutionary taxes from businesses, ranging from big power plants and even small pig farms, as well as local politicians, Padilla said.

Hammer and sickle

The guerrillas sleep in hammocks near streams and rural hamlets, help farmers harvest crops, and melt into nearby forests to evade any approaching large military forces.

They choose only to fight smaller units, according to Padilla.

His press conference was held on a hilltop ringed with wild banana plants, about two hours hike from a poor, coconut-growing hamlet.

The 50 or so gunmen escorting him wore olive military-style uniforms inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, the movements ideological godfather.

Most also had on thick red makeup, many decorated with the hammer-and-sickle communist logo rendered in yellow, to conceal their identities.

While their numbers are relatively small, there continue to be frequent reports of communists killing security forces across the Philippines.

Last month the rebels killed six policemen and a civilian in an ambush on the central island of Negros, according to the police, and wounded five of Dutertes military bodyguards in another encounter in the southern Philippines.

Padilla said the rebels wanted the talks, held in Europe, to continue. But they stood ready to fight.

Weve been fighting for 50 years. What does it matter if it takes another 50 years, said Padilla, who gave a slide presentation by lamplight with the help of a young female guerrilla.

Padilla defended the continuing NPA attacks, calling them a form of self-defense against military operations in areas where their shadow government was in place.

Extortion He also insisted it was legitimate to demand the equivalent of two percent of any business project in revolutionary taxes, but admitted companies that refused to pay were punished harshly, with their equipment usually burnt.

The payments are vital to the communists survival.

They net the rebels up to PHP2 billion each year, Philippine military spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla, no relation to the rebel leader, told AFP, branding the practice plain extortion.

This paralyzes the local economies, keeps people poor and makes it easier to recruit them. Its a vicious cycle, the general said.

Another key reason that the Philippines continues to host a communist rebellion when Marxism has dissolved almost everywhere else around the world is an economic system that has created huge wealth but left tens of millions in deep poverty.

The Philippines has one of the fastest growing economies in Asia and has grown by more than six percent for much of the past decade.

But 22 million, or one in five Filipinos, continue to earn a dollar or less each day, according to government data.

Padilla, the NPA leader, said millions more young Filipino adults fared little better working in low-paying contractual jobs after completing their schooling.

This made the NPA a viable option even for fresh graduates of the countrys top universities, he added.

One of them, a 25-year-old from a middle-class family who called herself Ka Kathryn, told AFP she joined the NPA five years ago after her father, an engineer, was fired for organizing a union at an energy company.

We are facing an enemy who has committed atrocities against the people, said Kathryn, who had studied to become a television presenter but now carries an M-16 rifle.

We should stand up to them and not cower in fear.

Link:
Communism in the Philippines: A new generation of rebels - Coconuts

Over the last few months, The New York Times has published a number of warm and nostalgic recollections of communism. Authors have opined about the supposed optimism, idealism, and moral authority of communism. Perhaps the most bizarre article so far claimed that women behind the Iron Curtain enjoyed greater sexual satisfaction and more independence than their Western counterparts (except, of course, when it came to freedom of thought, speech, religion, association, or movement).

I would have chosen to commemorate 100 years since the Bolshevik Revolution and the birth of the Soviet Union in a different way. Over 100,000,000 people have died or were killed while building socialism during the course of the 20th century. Call me crazy, but that staggering number of victims of communism seems to me more important than the somewhat dubious claim that Bulgarian comrades enjoyed more orgasms than women in the West. But as one Russian babushka said to another, suum cuique pulchrum est.

I am, however, intrigued by the striking similarities between the Times articles. To the greatest extent possible, they seem to avoid the broader perspective on life under communism (i.e., widespread oppression and economic failure). Instead, they focus on the experiences of individual people, some of whom never lived in communist countries in the first place.

In "When Communism Inspired Americans," the author remembers her socialist parents and the life of the communist sympathizers in 1950s America. In "Thanks to Mom, the Marxist Revolutionary," the author remembers his batty mother, who dragged him from one communist hellhole to another in search of a "real world" experience. In "'Make It So': 'Star Trek' and Its Debt to Revolutionary Socialism," the author quotes Captain Picard, who explains to a cryogenically unfrozen businessman from the 20th century, "People are no longer obsessed with the accumulation of things. We've eliminated hunger, want, the need for possessions. We've grown out of our infancy."

Speaking of hunger and infancy, here are some completely gratuitous eyewitness accounts of parents eating their own children during the man-made famine in Ukraine in the 1930s. Communism may have influenced science fiction writers, but real life in the USSR was no picnic.

"Where did all bread disappear, I do not really know, maybe they have taken it all abroad. The authorities have confiscated it, removed from the villages, loaded grain into the railway coaches and took it away someplace. They have searched the houses, taken away everything to the smallest thing. All the vegetable gardens, all the cellars were raked out and everything was taken away. Wealthy peasants were exiled into Siberia even before Holodomor during the 'collectivization.' Communists came, collected everything....People were laying everywhere as dead flies. The stench was awful. Many of our neighbors and acquaintances from our street died....Some were eating their own children. I would have never been able to eat my child. One of our neighbors came home when her husband, suffering from severe starvation, ate their own baby daughter. This woman went crazy."

One has to wait until "Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism," to meet an actual Eastern European. "Consider Ana Durcheva from Bulgaria," the author writes, "who was 65 when I first met her in 2011. Having lived her first 43 years under Communism, she often complained that the new free market hindered Bulgarians' ability to develop healthy amorous relationships. 'Sure, some things were bad during that time, but my life was full of romance.'" Durcheva's daughter, in contrast, works too much, "and when she comes home at night she is too tired to be with her husband."

What are we to make of this? Are we merely to deduce that the life of a young and, apparently, attractive woman behind the Iron Curtain was not completely devoid of pleasure? No. The article is explicit in stating that "communist women enjoyed a degree of self-sufficiency that few Western women could have imagined."

This is unadulterated rubbish. I grew up under communism, and here is what I recall.

First, all communist countries were run by men; female leaders, like Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir, would have been unthinkable. Women who rose to prominence, like Raisa Gorbachev and Elena Ceausescu, did so purely as appendages of their powerful husbands.

Second, the author concedes that "gender wage disparities and labor segregation persisted, and...the communists never fully reformed domestic patriarchy." I would say so. In a typical Eastern European family, the woman, in addition to having a day job at a factory, was expected to clean the apartment, shop for food, cook dinner, and raise the children. The Western sexual revolution passed the communist bloc by, and ex-communist countries remain much more patriarchal than their Western counterparts to this day.

Third, communist societies were socially uber-conservative. As such, pornography and prostitution were strictly prohibited, divorces were discouraged and divorced people ostracized, and prophylactics and the pill were hard to obtain. (Think about it for one hot second. Why would economies unable to produce enough bread and toilet paper generate a plentiful and regular supply of condoms? This makes no sense!) The reason why we refer to communist countries as "totalitarian" is because the state wanted to control every aspect of human existence. Sexual autonomy was, well, autonomous. Being outside the control of the all-powerful state, it was treated with suspicion and suppressed.

But don't take my word for it. You can still visit a few communist countries, including Cuba and North Korea, and compare the social status and empowerment of their women with those in the West. Had the esteemed editors of the Times done so, they would have, I hope, thought twice about publishing a series of pro-communist excreta.

More:
Life Under Communism Was No Liberation For Women - Reason (blog)

Nice little show you got there... In Boston, a bizarre extortion trial involving movie-stereotype union Teamsters and celebrities from the hit television show Top Chef resulted in a verdict of not guilty for the Teamsters. Interestingly, "at least three witnesses testified that a top [mayoral] aide sought to withhold city permits for 'Top Chef' unless the show hired union members."

Why is the Times so obsessed with communism? At reason, Marian Tupy deconstructs the recent NYT articles fawning over communism. Especially the bold claim that women "had better sex"... Tupy wryly observes: "The Western sexual revolution passed the communist bloc by, and ex-communist countries remain much more patriarchal than their Western counterparts to this day."

Lawyers without borders: The American Bar Association is urging Congress to vote to allow illegal immigrants to practice law in the United States. There's an old movie trope about immigrants having to take jobs in the U.S. that would have been beneath them in their old life. "In my country, I was attorney general." It's odd, given that state bars strenuously check the background of lawyers for crimes and good moral character that they now want people who've broken our immigration laws (and continue to do so) to be able to practice law.

Paul Ryan's going to win his primary: His opponent, Paul Nehlen, who lost to him in the last primary by nearly 70 points, has revealed that he believes in the thoroughly debunked Pizza Gate conspiracy promoted by alt-right shock jocks. Alex Jones, presumably under the very real threat of litigation, renounced his Pizza Gate remarks earlier this year. When you're nuttier than Alex Jones, well, congratulations Speaker Ryan on your primary win.

The stupid "Border Adjustment Tax" is dead. But could a tax on advertisements be its replacement? Critics contend that such a measure would probably not survive a court challenge, as advertising is a commercial form of speech. They're right. However, if it results in the extinction of misleading ads like "Language Professors Hate Him!" and "Diabetes Breakthrough Leaves Doctors Baffled (Try It Tonight)," maybe it wouldn't be that bad...

Jeff Lord is the man for the job! While he's not personally a fan of Jeffrey Lordtweeting "Sieg Heil!" at people is classless and never ironicthe recently fired CNN contributor, my colleague Jim Antle at our sister magazine, the Washington Examiner, makes a compelling case for President Trump to hire Lord as communications director. Here's the nutgraf: "Have you ever seen Lord seem the least bit flustered when it comes to defending the president in public? No matter how tough the case or how many liberals and Never Trump Republicans are trying to shout him down, Lord would plunge forward." A loyalist without the baggage of the Mooch. Minus the whole Nazi tweet. Bad timing! Sad!

Never Invite Milo: At National Review, Elliot Kaufman pillories thoughtless College Republicans for bringing alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannapoulos to campus. College Republicans are worthless. (I know because I was one, once ... before I took a job on a campaign and had the wool lifted from my eyes.) Kaufman is critical and fair: "They are always broke, their leaders are always about to graduate, and nobody on campus ever cares about what they have to say." Milo? "He charges no speaking fees and, with minimal effort and planning from the students, guarantees them attention and controversy. He gives conservative student groups everything they could want." Except the real price is their souls. Because Milo Yiannapoulous is the devil.

Commentary has snagged Sohrab Ahmari, and it's a great hire. His latest today on how President Trump will always disappoint his conservative apologist defenders is a must-read. Here's a taste: "The president reversed himself again in classic Trumpian fashion. Late Monday evening, he tweeted: Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied truly bad people! Which made the afternoon statement look like a begrudging concession to an ungrateful press corps rather than a genuine expression. As if to validate the impression, Trump retweeted an alt-right figure a few hours later."

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Afternoon Links: Communism and Sex, Illegal Immigrant Attorneys, and Paul Ryan's Nutty Opponent - The Weekly Standard

NewsBusters (press release) (blog)

Latest NY Times 'Red Century' Entry: Women Under Communism 'Had Better Sex' NewsBusters (press release) (blog) The competition for the worst "communism wasn't all that bad" entry was pretty close until Saturday (seen in Sunday's print edition), when Kristen R. Ghodsee, a University of Pennsylvania professor of Russian and East European studies, told readers ...

Go here to see the original:
Latest NY Times 'Red Century' Entry: Women Under Communism 'Had Better Sex' - NewsBusters (press release) (blog)

15 August 2017 | by Jonathan Luxmoore A total of 422 Catholic priests were executed, murdered or tortured to death during the Great Purge

Russias Catholic Church has appealed to Western Christians to remember martyrs of Communist rule during the upcoming centenary of the 1917 Russian revolution, rather than just helping commemorate the countrys better-known dissidents.

The sufferings in Soviet prisons and labour camps remain an issue for the whole of society here, not just religious communities, said Mgr Igor Kovalevsky, secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops Conference. But stories of witness and martyrdom are universally known and respected. Churches have been built to those who died for their faith, who deserve to be compared to the martyrs of Christianity's first centuries.

The priest was speaking amid preparations for the hundredth anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution, which heralded more than eight decades of communist rule.

In a Tablet interview, he said the work of dissidents such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) and Nadezhda Mandelstam (1899-1980) had become well known worldwide, but should not overshadow the tens of thousands of Christians who died for their beliefs.

At least 21 million people are believed to have died in repression, persecution and terror famines after 1917, including 106,000 Orthodox clergy shot during the 1937-8 Great Purge alone, according to Russian government data. A total of 422 Catholic priests were executed, murdered or tortured to death during the period, along with 962 monks, nuns and laypeople, while all but two of the Catholic Church's 1240 places of worship were forcibly turned into shops, warehouses, farm buildings and public toilets.

In his Tablet interview, Mgr Kovalevsky said the Catholic Church was ready to help commemorate all those who died, but was particularly concerned to preserve the memory of the Soviet Unions Christian victims. Speaking earlier this year, Patriarch Kirill blamed the revolution's violence on "horrible crimes committed by the intelligentsia against God, the faith, their people and their country", and urged citizens to mark the centenary with deep reflection and sincere prayer.

PICTURE: 1933 image of one of Stalin's 'purge' committees

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Time to recall Christian martyrs to communism, says Russian catholic church - The Tablet