Dear comrades of the KMU and of the Partido ng Bayan,
It was with consternation and deep sorrow that we learned of the brutal murder of Rolando Olalia, chair of the KMU and of the Partido ng Bayan. We would like to reassure you in this sad hour of our full and complete solidarity. We ask you to communicate to the family, friends and comrades of "Lando" Olalia our most sincere condolences. We call on all working-class, progressive and democratic activists to join in the protest actions undertaken in response to the murder in many countries of the world.
Rolando Olalia was tortured and struck down because he had become a symbol of the Philippine workers' movement, of class-struggle unionism, as well as of the Philippine militant left. Many cadres of the workers' and people's movement disappeared and are still disappearing after he has fallen.
Crime of capitalist reaction
But this new crime of capitalist reaction is especially grave because it is the first time that a national leader of the legal left has been kidnapped and killed in this way in Manila itself. This action comes in the wake of many provocative actions staged by the military, in particular the arrest of Rodolfo Salas in October. (3)
The objective of this is clear: to block any extension of democratic rights, to put in question what the workers' and people's movement has gained by its struggle since February 1986, to recreate a climate of terror and prepare the way for a return to a dictatorial order.
The murder of Rolando Olalia must not, and will not, go unpunished. His fight for the working class and the other poor masses of the Philippines is continuing without letup. Today, more than ever before, it is essential to build active solidarity with the Philippine workers' and people's movement.
November 14, 1986. United Secretariat of the Fourth International.
3. Rodolfo Salas was arrested by the military as he was leaving a hospital in Manila. Salas is accused of having been the chair of the Communist Party of the Philippines from 1977 to mid-1986. This arrest took place at the very moment the ceasefire negotiations between the government and the NDF seemed to have entered a new phase. The same is true today with the murder of Rolando Olalia.