Long live the memories of Ka Benito Tiamzon and Ka Wilma Austria! Wave high the red banner of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
With deep feelings of grief, solidarity, and indignation, the International Communist League addresses the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, and all the revolutionary forces of the Filipino people on the occasion of the fall of the comrades Benito Tiamzon (Ka Laan) and Wilma Austria (Ka Bagong-tao). The death of the comrades Benito and Wilma is a heavy loss for the international proletariat that causes grief to the hearts of the communists all over the world.
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
Long live the memories of Ka Benito Tiamzon and Ka Wilma Austria!
Wave high the red banner of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
May 2023
To the Communist Party of the Philippines,
To the International Communist Movement
With deep feelings of grief, solidarity, and indignation, the International Communist League addresses the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, and all the revolutionary forces of the Filipino people on the occasion of the fall of the comrades Benito Tiamzon (Ka Laan) and Wilma Austria (Ka Bagong-tao). The death of the comrades Benito and Wilma is a heavy loss for the international proletariat that causes grief to the hearts of the communists all over the world.
We denounce and mark in fire the cowardly murder of Comrades Benito and Wilma by the reactionary Filipino army with the direct participation of the US imperialists – it is the direct responsibility of Ferdinand Marcos Jr, commander-in-chief of the AFP; Lt. General Bartolome Bacarro, then chief of staff of the AFP; General Edgardo de Leon, then head of the JTF-Storm and the 8th Infantry Division; and Brigadier General Marceliano Teofino, head of the Intelligence Service of the AFP. We also hold the US military directly involved in the crime through the Trident Joint Special Operations Task Force, a unit that is directly commanded, trained, and armed by the United States. We vow to avenge this despicable crime against the international proletariat with more and more People’s Wars to sweep away the reaction and imperialism from the face of the earth.
Follow the example of Comrades Comrade Benito and Comrade Wilma.
Comrades Benito and Wilma were among the best sons of the international proletariat, among its most outstanding leaders. Comrades Comrades Benito and Wilma dedicated their entire lives to the exploited and oppressed masses, by organizing under the leadership of the National Democratic Front and the Philippine Communist Party on the revolutionary path of the People’s War to carry out the New Democratic Revolution, to build socialism and march towards the luminous Communism. Their luminous example should be widely disseminated everywhere in the International Communist Movement, especially for the new generations of young revolutionaries.
Comrades Benito and Wilma, while still very young, had merged with the toiling masses and since then they have fully placed their lives at the service of the Party and the Revolution in such a way that their glorious paths blend with the history of revolution in the Philippines during the last 40 years.
In the 1960s, under the impact of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, of the great struggle between Marxism and revisionism, comrades Benito and Wilma, under the leadership of comrade Jose Maria Sison, stood in the front ranks of the international proletariat and, through thick and thin, assumed their historical responsibility by taking on increasingly responsibilities among the Party cadres in different regions of the country.
During the Second Rectification Movement (1992-1998), Comrades Benito and Wilma played a decisive role fighting until death and defeating revisionism that sought to deny the Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and the path of People’s War to make the New Democracy Revolution.
During the last three decades, comrade Benito Tiamzon, as president of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee, has led the CPP and the NPA, he has been a high leader of the Filipino Revolution. Under his leadership, the encirclement and annihilation campaigns of imperialism and reaction were defeated, one after another, revisionism could not raise its head, and revolution has won successive battles. Under his leadership, the glorious and invincible flag of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and the People’s War, wave invincible in Philippines, like a torch of the Proletarian Revolution!
Esteemed Comrades,
At late 2022, fifteen Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organizations have carried out the Unified Maoist International Conference. Its realization meant a leap in the struggle for the reunification of the communists in the world, with the foundation of a new international organization of the proletariat , the International Communist League – ICL , which has the supreme task of giving impulse to the world proletarian revolution, struggle tireless and conscientiously to continue advancing in the reunification of all the ICM under the slogan “Unite under Maoism”. Through permanent bi and multilateral meetings; campaigns and actions carried out in a world-wide scale against imperialism and all the reaction and revisionism, of support to the ongoing People’s Wars, to the national liberation struggles and the struggles of the toiling masses; in defense of the political revolutionaries prisoners; joint statements, debates and two line struggle.
The ICL proudly counts with two communist Parties that lead People’s Wars like the Communist Party of Peru and the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist within its ranks. Also, the member parties and organizations of the ICL work in the preparations to initiate People’s War in their own country, convinced that this is our main contribution to the world proletarian revolution.
Since the very struggle for the foundation of the ICL, the People’s War in the Philippines and the CPP are a shining source of inspiration for those who are dedicated to this cause, today members of the ICL. Today, when we receive the terrible news of the death of comrades Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria, our hearts plunged into mourning and their names were forever engraved with golden letters in our red flags. In front their glorious memory, we respectful and solemnly bend our heads and our flags.
The ICL calls all its members, all the international proletariat and peoples of the world, all anti-imperialist, democratic, and revolutionary organizations, to pay homage to the heroic Ka Benito Tiamzon and Ka Wilma Austria, to denounce their monstrous murder and grasp their glorious example.
We call to all International Communist Movement to study the theoretical work and practice of the comrades Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria and propagate to all corners of the world the slogan established by the Communist Party of the Philippines: Long live the memories of Ka Benito Tiamzon and Ka Wilma Austria! Wave high the Red banner of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
We are sure that the CPP will transform this hard loss in greater strength and that the example of the Comrades Benito and Wilma will be multiplied by the new generations of communist militants, cadres, leaders and revolutionaries in the Philippines and throughout the world. Comrades Benito and Wilma are immortal!
Comrades Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria are immortal!
Honor and glory to comrades Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria!
Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines!
Long live People’s War!
International Communist League – ICL