ABSTRACT
The Communist Party of the Philippines’s (CPP) strategy for seizing power calls for a "final offensive" launched by communist armed forces in the countryside to be accompanied by a series of insurrections in cities throughout the Philippines. The CPP's operations in the labor sector have always been a closely guarded secret. By the late 1980s, communist strength on the labor front remained far from the number needed to paralyze the Philippine economy, but the CPP had made impressive steps in that direction. In many cases, CPP labor organizers find themselves plagued by an annoying irony: Their successes in winning concessions from management without a bitter fight actually weaken, rather than strengthen, commitment to long-term Party goals. As the number of CPP-controlled unions continued to grow, the challenge for the revolutionary movement was how to mobilize these large numbers of workers.
