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BOOKS

Taruc’s autobiography is heroic

WITHIN THE past six months
these news items have appeared
in newspapers around the world:

MANILA: The Philippine Peo-
ple’s Liberation Army launched
a surprise attack only ‘22 miles
from Manila, routed govern-

ment forces and held a mass
meeting in the ‘city, on June 13.
A week later, in a night attack
on June 19, the People’s Libera-
tion Army struck at the out-
skirts of the capital itself, pene-
trating to within four miles of
the centre of Manila.

MANILA: According to an of-
ficial government report, the
Philippine People’s Liberation

Army made 370 attacks in the
central part of Luzon Island (on
which Manila is situated) dur-
ing 1953.

In the press of China and, to a
lesser extent, India, these news
items were given prominence. The
press of Canada and the U.S.,
where it published them at all,
buried them on back pages, first
having substituted “rebels” for
Philippine People’s Liberation
Army. But whether the press re-
cognizes the facts or obscures
them, the struggle of the Filipino
people for independence and free-

‘dom continues.

The story of that struggle is
told by Luis Taruc, the almost
legendary leader of the Hukbala-
hap, in his autobiography, Born
of the People. It is at once Tar-
uc’s Own personal story and the
Story of the great liberation move-
ment he has led since the Huk-
balahap — the People’s Libera-
tion Army of the Philippines —
was formed in 1952 to fight the
Japanese occupation forces and
their Filipino puppets.

* * *

TO FIND A parallel for the de-
ceit and black treachery of the
hacenderos and compradores in
their dealings with the people’s
movement you have to turn to the
history of the Chinese people’s
Struggle — and it is apparent
that Taruc and other Hukbalahap
leaders have drawn considerably
upon the lessons of this struggle
in developing their own policies.

Luis Taruc, the son of a poor
peasant family, knew early in life
the ruthless exploitation of the
peasants by the hacenderos, the
plantation owners. His love for
the people, his early experiences
organizing peasant unions and
leading laborers’ strikes in the
cities, are reflected today in the
strong bonds the Hukbalahap has

With the people and the People’s

devotion to the struggle he leads.

Tarue’s experiences with the
compradores came later. The
glossary defines a compradore as
“the middle man between the im-

» perialist country and the native

market, selling raw materials and
buying finished products; politic-
ally, puppet or agent of imperial-

aay ime

Just Arrived ! :
THE WELL OF THE
SILENT HARP:

by
JAMES BARKE

$2.50 plus .08 sales tax

The fifth and last volume on
the life of ROBERT BURNS.
Set of 5 Volumes—$10.00

People’s Cooperative
Bookstore

337 W. Pender, Van. 3, B.C.
MA. 5836

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ism.” The Hukbalahap was to
learn many bitter lessons and
some of its finest leaders were to
be murdered before it plumbed
the full depth of the “comprad-
ores’ cynicism and treachery.

There was the treachery of the
“liberation.”

In 1945 the U.S. Army return-
ed to the Philippines. It was
welcomed as an ally by the Huk-
balahap which, for three years,
had waged an unceasing struggle
against the Japanese occupation
troops and their Filipino puppet
forces, combatting alike the
treacherous policies of the open
collaborationists and the back-
stabbing tactics of the guerillas
under command of the USAFFE
(U.S. Army Forces of the Far
East).

The Japanese faced defeat, but
they yielded their newly-won col-
onial empire stubbornly. In many
islands of the Philippines the U.S.
troops had to fight for every inch
of ground. ‘But in central Luzon
the Huks paced the U.S. Army all
the way to Manila, clearing the
way for its swift advance upon the
capital. ;

How did the U.S. Army greet
the Huks, the men who had lib-
erated San Fernando, Tarlac,
Concepcion, Victoria and La Paz,

Magalang and Angeles, before its

troops arrived, saving untold Am-
erican lives.

Taruc wondered: ‘Were we to
be treated now with USAFFE
treachery, or with the dignity and
equality deserved by people’s
representatives who had won
their right to respect on a thou-
sand battlefields?”

That was the question Taruc
asked himself. And this, in his
own words, is the way the U.S.
Army answered it:

“On February 5, our squad-
rons in Manila, where the battle
was still at its height, were sud-
denly ordered disarmed by the
American’ army. Astonished,
our comrades refused. Instead
they packed up and started back
to central Luzon. Just beyond
the city our squadrons were halt-
ed and disarmed at the point of

guns by American MPs... .

“Squadron 77 passed through
Malolos. When they reached that
town they were suddenly sur-
rounded and seized by the men
of Colonel Adonais Carlos Mac-
lang, the tulisaffe, who had am-
bushed and murdered our men
before the Americans arrived.
Thrown into jail, our comrades
were accused of raiding and loot-
ing in Malolos, accused of the

very crimes which had been
.committed by Maclang. .. .
“On February 7, with the full

. knowledge of the American CIC,

the men of Maclang dragged the
109 Huks of Squadron 77 into
the courtyard, forced them to
dig their own graves, and there
shot and clubbed them all to
death.

“The Malolos massacre was
the forerunner of fascist terror-
ism in central Luzon.”

* x *

ON FEBRUARY 22, members
of the Hukbalahap command, in-
cluding Taruc himself, were ar-
rested and held in jail until March
9 when widespread popular de-
monstrations, culminating in a
march of thirty to forty thousand
peasants on San Fernando, com-
pelled the U.S. Army to release
them.

But in April Taruc was arrested
again, held in a concentration
camp with other arrested Huk
leaders and then transferred to
Iwahig Penal Colony on Palawan,
“far from the masses of central
Luzon.”

Yet even here word of political

-terests.

story of struggle in Philippines

developments filtered through to
him.

Manuel Roxas, the-arch-collab-
orator with the Japanese, was be-
ing groomed by General MacAr-
thur to head the new U.S.-sponsor-
ed government of the Philippines.

A new political party, the De-
mocratic Alliance, had been born
out of the continuing people’s
struggle against fascism.

On September 23, fifty thou-

sand workers and peasants march- ..

ed to Malacan to demand an end
to the terror in central Luzon,
and 6n September 30 Taruc was
released from prison. :

A little more,than six months
later Taruec was elected to rep-
resent Pampanga in the Congress
of the Philippines, one of six De-
mocratic Alliance candidates re-
turned in the elections of April
1946. Roxas’ Liberal party won
the elections but the six seats
taken by the Democratic Alliance
denied it a two-thirds majority in
the lower house.

Roxas’ first open move was his
refusal to allow the elected De-
mocratic Alliance .and Nacional-
ista candidates to take their seats
so that he could force through the
Bell Trade Act subordinating the
€conomy of the Philippines to the
U.S. With the Democratic Alli-
ance candidates unseated, the act
Passed —: by one vote.

The people’s protests were an-
swered with a new campaign of
terror. Once again the Huks, who
had disbanded their organization
at the end of the war, came to-
Sether to defend the people’s in-
As Taruc says:

A government which wars on the people rather than grant their

demands guards the approaches to Manila with guns.

“Now, with their lives no
longer safe from the attacks on
landlord armies and of govern-
ment troops, they reassembled
their wartime squadrons in self-
defense and fought back. No Huk
command issued such a directive.
It was a spontaneous action by
the squadrons. .. .”

The aim of the Roxas regime
was to disarm the Huks. While it
negotiated with Taruc and other
Huk leaders it plotted their assas-
sination. Two Huk leaders, Taruc
and del Castillo, were forewarned
and escaped, but a third,. Feleo,
was murdered. Cynically, the

Roxas government tried to place.

the blame upon the Huks them-
selves!

In Taruc’s words, “The -people
had been given but one choice: to
fight or to die.”

x * x

TARUC'S IS an heroic story,
told without heroics
factual style. Its pages glow with
love of his people and his country,

his confidence in their ultimate -

victory.

Born of the People (obtainable
here at the People’s Co-operative
Bookstore, 337 W. Pender Street,

in simple -

price $1.90), closes with these
words:

“During the period of ‘am-
nesty’ in 1948 I made the an-
nouncement to the press that I
was a Communist. The workers
and peasants accepted the fact,
but certain individuals expressed
astonishment and consternation.
They shouted that a foreign
ideology had seized control of
the peasant movement. ... If
I had them with me now I could
show them the exact place where
I learned to accept the logic and
truth and the need of the Com-
munist Party of the Philippines.

“I could show them the exact
places where I worked in the
fields, the places where the con-
stabulary shot down striking
peasants. . . . I could show them
Clark Field where the American
army owns a whole corner of
Pampanga for 99 years. I would
prove that any ideology that
would better the lives of the
people is foreign to those who
rule and exploit the people.”

This is a book that every pro-

Sressive should read.

—HAL GRIFFIN

Great artists must also be
trained seals in Hollywood

IN USING the life of Sol Hurok,
the American impresario, as the
basis of its latest culture vehicle,
Tonight We Sing, Hollywood falls
into some confusion. :

For here is the brash but high-

minded Hurok, in the person of

David Wayne, shocked by the
sight of the great Pavlova sharing
the bill at the New York Hippo-
drome with performing elephants.

He declares that a great artist
like her should be brought before
the great American public with
proper dignity.

And here are 20th Century-Fox
undoing Hurok’s good work by
putting Pavlova, Chaliapin, Ysaye
and many another fine artist in-
to a category next door to trained
seals — characters in a Hollywood
biography.

To portray these great figures
some very fine living artists have
been called on. Tamara © Tou-
manova makes a superb Pavlova,
one of the world’s great baller-
inas.

Ezio Pinza, the bass singer, and
Isaac Stern, the violinist, are by
no means unworthy to suggest to
cinema audiences some of the
genius of Chaliapin and Ysaye.

But in Hollywood it is not
enough for Toumanova to dance
enchantingly as Pavlova. She
must also take a hand in Hurok’s
matrimonial affairs.

It is not enough for Pinza, as
Chaliapin, to sing. He must also
act the comic, childish Russian.
Stern, as Ysaye, has to have his
dress suit stolen by Hurok before
he can play the violin.

The voice of Jan Peerce, a fine

tenor, can be heard only as the

startling sound - apparently com-
ing from a most unlikely looking
young man of the American foot-
ball-player type.

A CORDIAL INVITATION IS EXTENDED

TO YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS.
af HEAR

ie SAM LIPSHITZ

Business Manager and Co-Editor of the
Vochenblatt-Canadian Jewish Weekly
?
In a Timely Address

“Danger Signals For
— Canadian Jews”

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24 _ 8.15 P.M.

MANHATTAN HALL — 1727 W. BROADWAY:

SILVER COLLECTION

Auspices: Vancouver Vochenblatt Committee -

——————————

PACIFIC TRIBUNE _- FEBRUARY 1

It’s to the credit of the artists

that they enchant in spite of the
distractions of playing parts in
the sentimental comedy in which
Hurok’s life story has been cast.

, 1954 — PAGE 8