War and progress: Chinese attack in perspective

Force is the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one. – Karl Marx

WILL China invade the Philippines? The question is raised because of the continuously heightening tension between the Chinese and Philippine coast guards in the South China Sea.

We refer to Karl Marx’s delineation of humanity’s social development as a criterion for settling the issue.

From Marx’s study, human society had progressed, and will progress according to the following stages: primitive communal system; slave system; feudalism; capitalism; socialism; and communism.

How true has this been with regard to the Philippines?

Based on fossils that archaeologists found in the caves of Tabon, Palawan, and the hieroglyphics on the walls of caves in Angono, Rizal, it appears that the first people in the Philippines were the race called Austronesians, which for thousands upon thousands of years lived under the primitive communal system.

What has been widely accepted as the start of the slave system is that in the narrative on the 10 Bornean datus who escaped from the kingdom of Borneo and migrated to Panay bringing along their respective slaves. They sailed on boats called balangay, which is why it was also by that name that the communities they established were called. In due time, in the course of its spread over the archipelago, “balangay” became “barangay,” the term known to this day.

According to one story, after a time, a portion of the balangay in Panay sailed away and landed on Batangan (Batangas), and from there started its spread over Luzon.

And that was what the Spanish conquistadors came upon in 1521. For this reason, the archipelago came under the feudal system brought by the Spanish.

For easy administration of the disparate islands, Spain implemented the encomienda system. The archipelago was subdivided into what until today are known to be the provinces of the Philippines.

In certain historical narratives, the encomienda is a system of forced labor imposed by the Spanish colonists on the natives, a slave system. This view ignores the fact that slave labor had long taken root in the entire archipelago and had only been centralized under systematic administration through the encomienda system. The centralized and strict administration of the barangay (villages) by means of the encomienda, in fact, was what assimilated the entire archipelago into the already dominant feudal way of life the world over.

At this point, we are constrained to note what specific developments the Philippines had undergone according to Marx’s criteria.

From the primitive communal system of the Austronesians, Philippine society progressed to the slave system of the Bornean datus with their barangay, which, in turn, progressed to the encomiendas which Spain implemented in administering the feudal system over all the islands.

It is quite obvious that up to this point, the internal progress of the

Philippines has always been not only influenced but also done actually and physically by external forces.

Note, from the primeval classless society of the Austronesians, the islands progressed to the slave system brought by the foreign barangay, which with the advent of the Spanish colonization progressed to feudalism which at the time had Spain as the dominant power.

Up until feudalism, the Philippines has perfectly conformed to the Marxist mandate of social development.

Question: Toward capitalism, is it also true? How was capitalism established in the Philippines?

As a result of the French Revolution of 1848, the French monarchy fell, and the bourgeoisie came to power. This is the class that had led in the earlier industrial revolution which introduced the use of machines and modern technology in the production of commodities.

The fast growth of capitalism in Europe extremely impacted on the production of goods in the Philippines. The encomiendas were transformed into haciendas for planting of the raw materials meant for the giant capitalistic enterprises in Europe: sugar cane, coconut, abaca and tobacco.

Forced labor for the natives was excessive. On the part of the ilustrados, the well-off and educated class because to them was assigned administration of the encomiendas, the development resulted in their sudden loss of affluence. The encomiendas were taken away from them by the greedy friars precisely for conversion into haciendas.

Dr. Jose Rizal organized the Propaganda Movement in Spain together with fellow ilustrados for the purpose of seeking representation in the Spanish Cortes and regain possession of the encomiendas. Failing in this endeavor, Rizal organized the La Liga Filipina intent this time on taking up arms against the Spanish colonists. (This development, which eventually led to the Katipunan uprising of 1896, is so broad a topic that it requires a separate discussion).

What needs to be stressed at this point is that Spain was ready to surrender the fight against the Katipunan which had completely surrounded the walled city of Intramuros. But America’s treachery came into play. Although having arranged with Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo cooperation in subduing Spain, Admiral George Dewey secretly liaised with the Spanish governorgeneral and agreed with him to accept his surrender to America after a mock battle at Manila Bay.

And that was the history of how America gained possession of the Philippines. By virtue of the Treaty of Paris of 1898, for the price of $20 million, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States — already the dominant world capitalist power at the time.

And this — capitalism — is the highest development achieved by the Philippines to this day.

Actual, physical occupation by a foreign power has been the way for the Philippines to progress from old to new.

Comes now the ultimate question. According to the yardstick set forth by Marx, the Philippines had conformed all the way — from the primitive communal system, to the slave system, to the feudal system, and finally, to capitalism.

In its inevitable push to the next higher stage of social development, which foreign power needs to actually, physically occupy the Philippines for the country to achieve socialist progress?