The Hukbalahap and the CLO

After the second world war, the USA and Russia were fighting for power within Philippine society. Filipinos who became allies of the USA went after the pro-USSR group in the country or the Hukbalahap. This term was an acronym for “Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon” or People’s Anti-Japanese Army. They were a guerrilla group that killed many Japanese troops and seized large areas of land in Luzon. In their attempt to fulfill their beliefs, the US Government grew suspicious of them due to the large number of rifles they possessed.

The tension between these two groups led to the formation of the Congress of Labor Organizations (CLO) or the first national labor center. Their goal was to defend the rights of the working class. The organization was found to be socialist in nature, meaning that the economic resources are allocated by the duly elected democratic government.

The Philippines gained independence from the United States on July 4, 1946. One of the reasons for this was so that their opposition, the Soviet Union would not gain reign over US imperialism. The US government still maintained ties with the Filipino bourgeois and industrialists. They remained to be the ruling class in the Philippines, especially in politics, thus the PKP, or the communist group of the Philippines, and the Hukbalahap hoped to work with the Democratic Alliance and Nacionalista party to normalize the politics in the country.