.
.+-
Description
In the following short book are gathered nine speeches and articles by Comrade Jose Maria Sison (Joma) on the question of education and the youth movement. Throughout his life, as leader and founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the National Democratic Front and, most especially, Kabataang Makabayan (“Patriotic Youth”), he paid special attention to the problems of the youth, to their mobilization and their broad patriotic spirit in the Philippine National Democratic Revolution. Indeed, being a teacher himself, throughout his life he had an unbreakable connection with the youth which, as he has said, “is the best fighting age.” Even for the older generations who have held high the banner of communism and national liberation all their life, “they are still young in spirit because of revolutionary experience and continuing revolutionary commitment.”
In these works, Comrade Joma discusses the most varied of questions, from the new spirit in which proletarian, communist education must be imbued, how to overcome the semi-colonial and semi-feudal backwardness imposed by U.S. imperialism in education and among the youth, the nature of the famous ’68 movements and the impacts of the Chinese cultural revolution, what road of organizing the youth should take in their work, how the students should and must link up their struggle with the broad masses of the people and first of all the working class, how the neoliberal anti-social offensive has impacted education and the youth in the Philippines and the world, and many more key issues. Over half of these works have been written right in our times, that is, since 2011. Their relevance is manifold, useful in understanding bourgeois education and studying how to build the new education through a mass youth movement capable of standing up to the oppressive ruling class.
On Education and the Youth is the November 8th Publishing House’s tribute to Comrade Joma, who tragically passed away on December 12, 2022. The Name and Work of Comrade Jose Maria Sison Will Live Forever!