The document outlines the Communist Party of the Philippines' approach to agitation and propaganda. It discusses historical uses of propaganda and how the CPP uses propaganda as its central activity to influence public opinion and organize the masses. Key tactics discussed include combining legal and illegal means, sweeping work to broadly propagate ideology followed by solid organizing, and using mass actions and campaigns to mobilize the public and provoke authorities.

1. AGITATION
AND
PROPAGANDA

2. SCOPE OF PRESENTATION
A. Historical Background
B. The Central Activity - Agit-Prop
C. Propaganda and Organization
D. Propaganda Aspects
E. Methods of Agitation Propaganda
F. Mass actions and Mass Campaigns

3. SCOPE OF PRESENTATION
G. Political Education and Propaganda
H. CPP Guideline for Sweeping Work
I. Style of Work

4. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• “Propaganda” comes from the Latin
word “propagandus”, gerundive of
“propagare” which means “to
propagate”.

5. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• Pope Gregory XV was the first to
officially use the word “propaganda”
when he formed the “Congregatio de
Propaganda Fide” or Congregation of
Propaganda of Faith in 1662 to
defend and propagate the Catholic
Faith.

6. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• Propaganda during that time also
stressed the importance of political
acts like assassination and the
creation of front organizations.

7. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• The “propaganda by deeds” was a
concept propagated by the communist
movement which, under the leadership
of Lenin effectively used what was
called as “Agitation–Propaganda
Trains” to influence the masses.

8. AGITATION & PROPAGANDA
The objective of the Agit-Prop; To
develop the fundamental change in the
balance of forces entails not merely a
contest of arms but mostly a contest of
minimizing one’s sympathizers.

9. AGITATION & PROPAGANDA
• To the CPP, agitation-propaganda is
the central activity while fighting (at
least during the early stage), is
secondary.

10. AGITATION & PROPAGANDA
The twin effort of Agitation-Propaganda:
• Ideological indoctrination - convincing
the people.
• Unifying - poisoning the people’s
minds, agitating them and ends up by
organizing them for confrontation.

11. AGITATION & PROPAGANDA
• Compensates for the CPP’s
inferiority of weapons.
• A saturation campaign using word of
mouth, leaflets and bulletins,
newspapers, books and pamphlets,
play and films.

12. AGITATION & PROPAGANDA
• It is an “objective factor” which is to
be manipulated to maximize the
balance of forces in favor of the CPP.

13. RELATIONSHIP OF PROPAGANDA
& ORGANIZATION
“The scale of our effective propaganda depends upon
the level of our organizational strength.
The growth of our organizational strength depends
upon the scale of our effective propaganda.”
MLMTT

14. PROPAGANDA
• Never-ending fault-finding campaign.
• Encompasses all forms of political
methods used to broadcast and
popularize a political or ideological
stand .

15. FORMS OF PROPAGANDA
ORAL
• teach-ins
• Speeches
• group discussions
• disseminations by word of mouth

16. FORMS OF PROPAGANDA
AUDIO-VISUAL
• plays and movies
VISUAL
• Paintings
• Drawings
• graffiti
RALLIES, DEMO, & MASS ACTIONS

17. ASPECTS OF CPP PROPAGANDA
• Quantitative Aspect - refers to the
number of people who receives the
propaganda.
• Qualitative Aspect - refers to the
political and ideological stand.

18. QUANTITATIVE ASPECT
• Effort to identify minority
– sympathetic and responsive
– against or hostile
• Effort to identify majority
– Neutral
• Effort to identify “progressives or
advanced elements”.

19. QUALITATIVE ASPECT
• Effort to bring down to earth Marxist-
Leninist ideology and CPP political
line.
• To link the insurgent political aims
with the peasantry, the proletariat
and the middle sector.

20. AGITATION
• Persistent and sustained attempt
to arouse public feelings or
influence public opinion as by
appeals, discussions, or
demonstrations.

21. METHODS OF AGITATION AND
PROPAGANDA
• Combining the legal & illegal means.
• Combining solid organizing and
sweeping work.
• Mass actions and Mass Campaigns.
• Combining General Propaganda and
Specific Propaganda.

22. COMBINING THE LEGAL AND
ILLEGAL MEANS
• The party’s legal arm organizes
seminars, dramas, symposia, farmers
consultations leadership trainings,
labor workshops, etc., with the aim of
identifying and evaluating probable
recruits.

23. COMBINING THE LEGAL AND
ILLEGAL MEANS
• Names and addresses of the probable
recruits are submitted to the illegal or
underground arm through a cut-out.

24. COMBINING THE LEGAL AND
ILLEGAL MEANS
• The illegal arm or the underground
contacts the candidate and recruits
them to form cells under the
appropriate mass organizations.

25. COMBINING THE LEGAL AND
ILLEGAL MEANS
• Covert or illegal arm is able to focus
his attention immediately upon the
most eligible recruits, saving him time,
giving him flexibility and allowing his
identity to remain a secret.

26. COMBINING SOLID ORGANIZING
AND SWEEPING WORK
• Solid Organizing
• Sweeping Work
• Sweeping Organizing
• Sweeping Propaganda
• Sweeping Mobilization

27. SOLID ORGANIZING
• Clandestine cellular expansion of
the party and the underground
mass organization.
• Establishing party cells or study
circles to tighten the party’s hold
over the entire organization.

28. SWEEPING WORK
OR MASS WORK
• Effort of the party and the underground
mass organization to reach the grass-
roots and establish contact with the
numerous masses through sweeping
organization.

29. SWEEPING WORK
OR MASS WORK
• An effort which consists of involving as
many people as possible in a widespread
and open propaganda through:
– Symposia
– Seminars
– Rallies
– Mass leafleting
– Cultural presentations, etc.

30. SWEEPING ORGANIZING
• Effort to organize open and broad
legal mass organization.
• Loose or alliances are formed based
on particular sectoral and class
issues.

31. SWEEPING ORGANIZING
• Provides cover for the party workers
as well as protection.
• Main effort is the capture of leader-
ship to control and manipulate an
organization which will serve the
interest of the party.

32. SWEEPING PROPAGANDA
• Enables the party to reach-out to the
greatest number of the unorganized
masses in order to entice them
progressively into the front
organization.
• An essential tie-up between sweeping
organizing and sweeping mobilization.

33. FORMS OF
SWEEPING PROPAGANDA
• Seminars, symposia, cultural
presentations, slide show and others
where a captive audience composed
of organized and unorganized
elements are gathered to propagate
the communist political line on
certain issues.

34. FORMS OF
SWEEPING PROPAGANDA
• Pamphlets, manifestoes, newsletters,
journals, comics and other written
forms where the communist political
lines are presented to reach the
greatest number of people as
possible.

35. FORMS OF
SWEEPING PROPAGANDA
• Press statements, press conference,
feature articles, news items and
others that appear in the so-called
bourgeois media.
• It bears the stamp of legitimacy.

36. TWO TYPES OF
SWEEPING PROPAGANDA
1. Explicative propaganda
– Propaganda that explains issues.
– Intended to deepen the under-
standing of the target audience.

37. TWO TYPES OF
SWEEPING PROPAGANDA
2. Agitation Propaganda
– Propaganda that seeks to move
the target audience to a definite
and immediate actions.
– Contains only the data necessary
to move the public to that action.

38. SWEEPING MOBILIZATION
• Entices the greater number of
organized and unorganized masses
to participate in open confrontation
with the government.
• Intends to provoke the government to
take harsh measures and put itself
into an embarrassing situation.

39. Relationship Between Sweeping
Work and Solid Organizing
• Casting a net and drawing the net in.
• Each time the net is cast and drawn,
the CPP underground organization is
ensured of a good harvest of more
and more activists & party members.

40. MASS ACTIONS AND
MASS CAMPAIGNS
Mass actions
• CPP planned and organized actions
for specific objectives.
• Includes rallies and demonstrations,
worker’s strikes, peasants
confrontations, protest marches, etc.

41. MASS ACTIONS AND
MASS CAMPAIGNS
Mass Campaigns
• CPP planned, organized & sustained
mass actions on a wider scope to
attain a set of objectives.
• Launched according to objectives:
Political Educational
Military Economic
Organizational Health

42. COMBINING GENERAL AND
SPECIFIC PROPAGANDA
• General Propaganda
– a broad range of issues which are
often national in scope.
– target audience is relatively
inactive.

43. COMBINING GENERAL AND
SPECIFIC PROPAGANDA
Specific or Topical Propaganda
– issues are narrowed down to
those which directly affect the
target audience.
– Target audience now politicized.

44. POLITICAL EDUCATION AND
PROPAGANDA
Political education
– implants in the minds of CPP mass
members a firm and strong
ideological stand.
– ensures that the CPP mass
members will be unified around the
party’s political line.

45. MAIN TYPES OF EDUCATION
• General Mass Course (GMC) -
presents a slanted history of the
Philippines and seeks to stir up the
emotions of the people and the
necessity of a violent revolution.

46. MAIN TYPES OF EDUCATION
• Special Mass Course (SMC) - slants
history and stirs up a certain group or
sector along a particular propaganda
line.

47. CPP GUIDELINES FOR
SWEEPING WORK
General steps in sweeping work:
• Identification of principal and
secondary targets
• Methods
• Appropriate form
• Organizational Considerations
• Post Mobilizations

48. IDENTIFICATION OF PRINCIPAL
AND SECONDARY TARGETS
• Total population is determined by
quantitative ratio of principal and
secondary target.
• General activities of the principal and
secondary targets are determined.
• Level of political consciousness of
the target population is determined.

49. METHODS
• General survey is conducted.
• Party elements, activists and
sympathizers are directed to gather
data and information.
• Leading group and subordinate
teams are organized.

50. FORMS
– Symposia/Seminars
– Rallies/Demonstrations
– Mass Leafleteering
– Cultural Presentations
– Slide shows/movies
The main point here is to play up the interest
and grievances of the target sector.

51. ORGANIZATIONAL
CONSIDERATIONS
• Degree of penetration within the sector.
• Spread and strength of CPP legal
(front) and underground organizations,
legal programs and legal institutions.
• Experience of legal and underground
organization in sweeping works.
• Other sweeping work being organized.

52. POST MOBILIZATIONS
Sweeping work in post mobilization:
• Expansion of party mass organization
• Formation of study circle
• Formation of support groups or
branches
• Assessment - reflection sessions

53. STYLE OF WORK
• Mass mobilization and mass
campaigns requires patience and
perseverance.
• Finish the task once started.
• Mobilize the people for varying
degrees of confrontation.

54. STYLE OF WORK
• Employ the principle of struggling
on a just ground/taking
advantage of the constitution.
• Provoke those in authority.
• Stretch the limits of legality.

55. SOFT-SELL vs AGIT-PROP
• SOFT-SELL
– advertising complex
– does not offend the public nor
attack established values
– debatable issues are avoided
– appeal to attitudes

56. SOFT-SELL vs AGIT-PROP
• AGIT-PROP
– evangelical propaganda
– always sides with the people and
violently attacks the leadership,
the present government, the
military and the social system
– face-to-face communication and
intense group pressure

58. SUMMARY OF PRESENTATION
A. Historical Background
B. The Central Activity - Agit-Prop
C. Propaganda and Organization
D. Propaganda Aspects
E. Methods of Agitation Propaganda
F. Mass actions and Mass Campaigns

59. SUMMARY OF PRESENTATION
G. Political Education and Propaganda
H. CPP Guideline for Sweeping Work
I. Style of Work