Join CPSO and Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle on February 15 at 2 pm for the Toronto Premiere of My Friend the Terrorist: A Tale of Love and Revolution! A documentary about Ka Joma and Julie De Lima!
Jose Maria Sison, or Ka Joma (1939-2022), was an important Filipino revolutionary, poet, author, and lifelong activist. His life and legacy remain a great inspiration to people struggling for a just and lasting peace in the Philippines.
In his youth,
Joma founded Kabataang Makabayan, a revolutionary youth org, after talking with farm workers, studying with activists in Indonesia, and witnessing the US invasion of Vietnam.
KM joined the struggle for a people’s democratic revolution and became a pivotal force in uniting the youth and other sectors and classes in the fight against the fascist Marcos dictatorship.
Joma met Julie de Lima in 1957 at the University of the Philippines. Together, they wanted to revitalize the communist movement. They formed the now-reestablished Communist Party of the Philippines on the theoretical foundations of Marxism, Leninism, and Maoism.
During Martial Law,
organizations like KM were forced underground. Joma and other activists built The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) out of the now-banned mass organizations.
The NDFP fights for national freedom and the democratic rights of the people. It seeks to develop and coordinate all progressive classes, sectors and forces in the Filipino people’s struggle to end the rule of US imperialism and its local allies of big landlords and compradors and attain national and social liberation.
In 1977,
Joma and Julie were arrested and tortured by the Marcos government, along with 13 other party leaders. Julie gave birth to one of their children in prison and was released after a successful campaign from the people of the Philippines.
Joma spent nine years in military detention, much of it in solitary confinement. He was released only after the EDSA People Power Revolution ousted Marcos Sr.
In 1987,
the PH government revoked Joma’s passport, leaving him stranded in the Netherlands and unable to return home. The CPP, NPA, and NDFP are still considered terrorist organizations by the Philippine government today, despite broad support from the masses.
Joma and Julie remained in the Netherlands until his passing in 2022. They were instrumental in leading the now-suspended Peace Talks between the Philippine government and the NDFP.