A new Jose Maria Sison book titled “Little Book on Fascism and How to Fight It” had been launched in The Netherlands on Saturday.
Sison’s widow and National Democratic Front of the Philippines Negotiation Panel chairperson Julie de Lima led the launch before a live audience in the university town of Utrecht as well as online participants in other countries.
Sison’s latest book is a compilation of eight articles written between 1986 and 2022 on fascism, covering topics such as the origin and development of fascism, the basis of a fascist state and tools and technologies of contemporary fascism.
“[M]ost importantly, (the book discusses) how we can fight to eliminate fascism at its roots,” the Jose Maria Sison Legacy Foundation, the publishers, said.
“Little Book on Fascism and How to Fight It” is the Foundation’s first title.
READ: Foundation to preserve Joma Sison legacy launches
Sison had previously authored dozens of books in his name and nom de plumes with many local and international publishers.
His writings, speeches and lectures are credited for inspiring and guiding the world’s longest Marxist-Leninist-Maoist armed revolution in the world today. He died in Utrecht in December 2022. He was 83.
“In the current world situation, characterized by economic crises, heightening contradictions, and fascist upsurge, both in the neocolonies and the imperialist heartlands, JMS’ (Sison) writings on fascism continue to be relevant and instructive to all revolutionaries, activists, scholars, and seekers of a just society,” the Foundation said.
University of the Philippines (UP) Center for International Studies director Prof. Ramon Guillermo said Sison’s new book pointed out that the most important sworn enemy of fascism is communism espoused by Sison. The scholar said: “It is important for every student and educator in the Philippines to read this little book by Joma, which gives us the tools to fight against the rise of a new fascism.”
UP Prof. Sarah Raymundo, for her part, said Sison’s book matters in efforts to understanding ongoing geopolitical tensions in the world. “[I]t compels us to recognize fascism not only in the spectacle of strong men, but in the normalization of militarization, surveillance, permanent war, dispossession, techno-imperial control and the criminalization of dissent,” Raymundo said.
Reactors from The Netherlands, the United States of America, and Pakistan equally praised the book’s importance and relevance in national and global struggles against fascism.
Sison’s book are being sold at the Jose Maria Sison Legacy Museum in Utrecht and online. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
