Villagers into national revolutionaries? Shifting ‘communities ‘ in a period of revolutionary mobilization in the Philippines

Abstract

The highly personalistic society of Negros Occidental witnessed a new phenomenon during the period of NPA mobilization; hundreds of women and men left home to 'sacrifice' for the welfare of people, most of whom thye would never come to know personally. Contributing to this decision was their identification with a national category of poor and oppressed people, a feeling of belonging to this 'community' and sharing responsibility for its welfare. [...] The organisational model that the NPA used, based on Mao's CCP and REd Army, resembled, in the Philippine context, the model of the 'brotherhood' combined with that of a centralized bureaucracy. The brotherhood idiom helped to create local communities of equals (in the form of village NPA organizations and activist cells) and link these to the main revolutionary community nationwide. But the hierarchy inherent in the centralized, bureaucratic apparatus of the NPA was at odds with the discourse and practice of a true community of equals, and it ultimately prevailed.