The war the world forgot
They are barely old enough to remember the cold war. Deep in the jungles and mountains of the Philippines, thousands of young communists fight a battle begun by their grandfathers. By Andrew Marshall
Comrade Giegie is getting married. Her wedding will be held in a jungle clearing, which she will enter through an archway of raised assault rifles. The bride and groom will make their vows draped in a red flag bearing the spear and Kalashnikov of the 7,500-strong New People's Army (NPA). Then they will pledge allegiance to the masses, and promise to raise their children as revolutionaries...
Hidden in mountainous Mindanao in the southern Philippines, Giegie's platoon is fighting a rebellion older than most of its members. Her late father was an NPA rebel; her mother is a left-wing activist. Most of the platoon have family members or friends in the NPA; some have been branded from an early age and had no choice but to join.
If the army is diminishing, generation by generation (at its peak it had more than 12,000 members); if its raison d'être seems ever more confused in a post-communist world, Giegie seems unaware.
Read entire article at Times (of London)
Comrade Giegie is getting married. Her wedding will be held in a jungle clearing, which she will enter through an archway of raised assault rifles. The bride and groom will make their vows draped in a red flag bearing the spear and Kalashnikov of the 7,500-strong New People's Army (NPA). Then they will pledge allegiance to the masses, and promise to raise their children as revolutionaries...
Hidden in mountainous Mindanao in the southern Philippines, Giegie's platoon is fighting a rebellion older than most of its members. Her late father was an NPA rebel; her mother is a left-wing activist. Most of the platoon have family members or friends in the NPA; some have been branded from an early age and had no choice but to join.
If the army is diminishing, generation by generation (at its peak it had more than 12,000 members); if its raison d'être seems ever more confused in a post-communist world, Giegie seems unaware.