ABSTRACT
The Philippine communist guerrillas and their supporters celebrate December 26, 1968, as the day the revolution began. The recreation of the communist party and the rebirth of armed revolutionary struggle were dreams Janos Sison had nurtured throughout much of the 1960s. The 1960s had begun calmly enough in the Philippines, with the agrarian rebellion that had simmered in the Central Luzon provinces finally on the wane and radical politics discredited. In September, Sison set to work drafting a new communist party constitution and a plan for launching an armed revolution, while revising the rectification document. The final significant influence that shaped the Philippine communist movement in its formative years was the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Sison's growing power as the guiding hand behind the student movement and his confrontational tactics began to make the cautious Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas leaders nervous. The region's politicians knew the rules, and many prominent officials developed close relationships with local Huk commanders.
