Fight for the Pacific- Anti-imperialist liberation war of the peoples of Malaya and the Philippines
Avarin
9. Anti-imperialist liberation war of the peoples of Malaya and the Philippines
The armed struggle of the people's liberation forces against imperialist exploitation and against reaction is also flaring up in Malaya and the Philippines.
Malaya is regarded by the British monopolies as a particularly valuable colony. In many areas of her domination, England was forced to yield several positions under the onslaught of the oppressed peoples. Making forced concessions to the national movement in Burma and India, retreating with fighting under the pressure of American imperialism in Thailand and Indonesia, the British colonialists intended to hold all their positions in Malaya, which plays a very important economic and strategic role.
The population of Malaya is heterogeneous in its national composition. About 2.5 million Malays, 2.5 million Chinese, one million Indians, a small number of British and other nationalities live on the Malay Peninsula and the island of Singapore. In addition to the heterogeneous national composition, the remnants of feudal fragmentation also played into the hands of the imperialists. There are nine Malay principalities on the peninsula, which are ruled by sultans - puppets of British imperialism.
The British colonialists hoped that through a little political maneuvering, as well as the use of repression and terror, they would be able to cope with the national liberation and democratic movement in Malaya without the slightest effort and expense. This task was entrusted to Malcolm Macdonald, the son of Ramsay Macdonald, the famous traitor to the English labor movement. In his role as British High Commissioner for Southeast Asia, Macdonald began to operate in Malaya.
Malaya differs from other colonies of Southeast Asia in that among its population there is a relatively large stratum of industrial, plantation and transport workers, namely, about 15% of the economically active population. The Communist Party of Malaya enjoys great influence among the working people, especially among the workers. Despite national differences, the workers of Malaya created guerrilla groups that fought with arms against the Japanese imperialists during the occupation and defended the popular interests after the return of the British. Workers of all nationalities took part in political and economic uprisings against the colonial regime.
The British colonial administration launched brutal reprisals against workers and their organizations and against former resistance fighters against Japanese imperialism. The Communist Party, founded in Malaya in 1931, was banned as early as May 1946. Nevertheless, its influence among the masses was growing.
In the first half of 1948 the British imperialists intensified the regime of terror and exploitation in Malaya. In the summer of the same year, armed uprisings by plantation workers and peasants broke out in a number of regions of Malaya. A popular guerrilla war broke out in the Malay Peninsula. The British colonialists, seeing that even in Malaya the ground was trembling under their feet, became furious. Labor Colonial Minister Creech Jones announced that the government would take the most drastic measures in Malaya. The Extraordinary Commissioner of the British government, MacDonald, declared the All-Malay Federation of Trade Unions, which numbered about 300,000 members, illegal. On June 12, 1948, the 50,000-strong British army began hostilities against the people's liberation forces. Subsequently, the mercenary troops of the Gurkas, the guard of the English king, were thrown against the partisans, savages from the island of Borneo and armed units created on the spot. Aviation bombing swept the villages occupied by partisans from the face of the earth. In cities, the corpses of partisans or people suspected of assisting and sympathizing with the partisans swayed on the gallows.
Day after day, the English press reports on the killed, shot, hanged patriots - fighters for the freedom and independence of the Malay people. The chairman of the All-Malayan Federation of Labor, an Indian Ganapati, was captured, tortured and hanged on May 3, 1949. His successor, Viracenan, was also arrested and shot. Although the number of Malay partisans, according to the British, was only about ten thousand people, armed forces of up to three hundred thousand people were thrown against them, including local police and other armed formations, as well as aircraft, tanks, warships.
Neither punitive expeditions nor the brutal terror of the colonialists could suppress the popular struggle in Malaya.
Armed clashes flared up near the outskirts of Singapore. Major General Voucher, commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Forces in Malaya, was forced to admit in the summer of 1949 that "the situation in Malaya continues to be serious."
In 1950-1952, the situation in Malaya became even more serious for the imperialist enslavers.
According to the Singapore Committee of the Communist Party, by the end of 1949, part of the Malay partisans was reorganized into detachments of the regular People's Liberation Army of Malaya. Organs of people's power were created in the liberated regions. The Communist Party of Malaya announced that the Malayan Liberation Army was fighting for a democratic republic. The program of the liberation forces includes such items as the transfer of land to the peasants, the confiscation of foreign capital, the improvement of the situation of the working people, etc.
The terrorist rampage of the English hangmen knows no bounds, but the rebellious Malays cannot be enslaved. Many thousands of inhabitants of this small country were shot, hanged, tortured. Entire villages were destroyed along with the population, or they were evicted to other areas or to concentration camps, or even deported from Malaya. Eight large concentration camps have been set up in Malaya. In 1950-1951 About half a million people were driven into the detention camps. For 1949-1950. 35,000 Chinese were deported from Malaya. 15 thousand people were thrown into prisons. Punisher losses are in the thousands, costs, like the number of British troops in Malaya, are growing, and the struggle is expanding. Malcolm McDonald, arriving in London in September 1950, was forced to publicly admit that "the jungle of Malaya is full of communist guerrillas." He declared: A military columnist for the Army Quarterly (October 1951) was forced to admit that the war in Malaya was "characterized by increased guerrilla activity." In November 1951, the Conservative newspaper The Observer stated that "the situation in Malaya is much worse than it was a year ago." The British press, reporting that detachments of the People's Liberation Army of Malaya were intensifying their activity in Johor, Kedah and other Malay principalities, sadly mourned the "stalemate" created in this colony (1) .
The commander of the 135,000-strong British army in Malaya, General Briggs, was replaced by the Conservative government. The executioner of the Malay people, General Lockhart, together with McDonald and the Minister of the Colonies Littleton, who arrived in Malaya in November 1951, developed new, even more brutal plans to "pacify" Malaya, but these plans, too, suffer failure after failure.
The Chinese, Malays and Indians are taking part in the armed anti-imperialist struggle. Attempts by the British to set off one nationality of Malaya against another are not successful, their racist policy is causing more and more anger among the population. Characteristic of both the British racist policy in the colonies and the attitude of the Malay population towards it were the bloody clashes in Singapore at the end of 1950.
The enslaved population also experiences a deep hatred for the oppressors in the Indonesian colonies of England - British Borneo, Brunei, Sarawak. The British governor of Sarawaka, appointed to this post in September 1949, was killed in December of that year during an "inspection tour." Until 1946, the so-called “white rajah”, the Englishman Brooke, “reigned” in Sarawak. But there are significant oil sources in Sarawak, and Brooke, at the request of the British government, transferred sovereignty over Sarawak to England. However, the modern population of the colonies is no longer those dumb creatures whose lives were controlled by slave owners and slave traders 100-200 years ago.
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As in Malaya, the Philippine People's Liberation Forces are waging a heavy armed struggle. The People's Army - Hukbong, formed after the war from the anti-Japanese liberation army Hukbalahap, comes out in arms against the American imperialist brigands and the fascist puppet regime of Kirino. Some mountainous areas on the island of Luzon have been turned into impregnable fortresses by the Hukbong, led by the Communist Party-led anti-imperialist Popular Front. The number of members of this party during the years of World War II grew from 1,500 to 10,000 and increased even more in the post-war years, despite the bloody terror of the American imperialists and their henchmen. The working masses, large strata of Filipino peasants and all democratic elements in the Philippines support Hukbong.
Fights with detachments of popular partisans in 1950-1951. took place not far from the capital of the Philippines - Manila, and even in the capital itself; this indicates that the people's war threatens the very centers of imperialist oppression of the Filipino working people.
Copying the methods of fascist executioners in Nazi Germany, the Minister of War of the puppet Philippine government announced that the government would pay 270,000 ammo dollars for the heads of 15 leaders of the People's Liberation Army and the Communist Party of the Philippines. For the head of Love, the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Philippine Communist Party, Capado-tsia, a member of the Politburo, and Luis Taruk, the blood dealers promised 50,000 ammo each. Just like the despicable dog of American imperialism, Chiang Kai-shek, his Filipino imitators, following the orders of their masters, try to buy the lives of the best patriots of the Filipino people for dollars. But just as Chiang Kai-shek failed utterly, so the Filipino traitors who sold themselves for a handful of pieces of silver to American billionaires are clearly failing.
The difficult economic situation of the Philippines, which is a consequence of the predatory American imperialist exploitation, for its part, induces the working people to resolutely oppose the enslavement of the country, for independence and democratic reforms. By early 1950, there were half a million unemployed in the Philippines. Tuberculosis patients make up about 25% of the population. In view of the growth of popular indignation, the government of Chirino, on October 14, 1950, repealed the law on the inviolability of the person, thereby openly establishing a fascist regime. The unbearable economic and political oppression is causing violent indignation among the Filipino people. "The worst thing," Manuel Cruz, the representative of the Philippines at the First Session of the World Peace Council, said, "is to know that US imperialism has its hand on the throat of the Filipino people." But Cruz concluded his speech, “we have confidence and strength, and there are enough of us to defeat the imperialists.
(1) See Pravda, December 3, 1951.
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