WESTERN EUROPE- Waking Up to Reagan

more self-reliant, the area of operation and strength of each command has been enlarged by mergers. The NPA 'fronts' have in this process been reduced from 42 to 26. These 26 'fronts' now extend in 40 provinces out of the total of 60 provinces in the country convering 4,000 villages and 300 towns. The new Communist Party of the Philippines (re-established in 1968) has now 40,000 cadres and 800,000 members of the mass organisations led by it in the areas of the NPA's operation. The NPA has expanded its capacity for arms production by 200 per cent and can now manufacture highpower rifles, It is said to have consolidated its influence in the base areas through multifarious activities, Though the actual dimension of the land distribution has not been accurately compiled, the working peasants have benefited from the curbing of usury and a doubling of wage rates. Small peasants have been induced to adopt mutual co-operation. About 90 per cent of the illiterates have become literates. Public health is being sought to be improved through the practice of acupuncture, herbal medicines and minor surgery, WESTERN EUROPE The party is also gaining strength among the workers, urban poor and the students in Metro Manila. Though the independent strength of the recently formed militant trade union centre is not large, it is capable of influencing the ranks of the reformist and yellow unions through various forms of mass contact. In the recent union elections in the largest and most prestigious University of the Philippines, held for the first time since the imposition of the martial law rule eight years ago, the radical students scored a landslide victory.