Abstract
This research note puts into record ditties sung by communist cadres in the 1970s and 1980s that were never part of the melodies approved by the Communist Party of the Philippines. The songs range from those chanted during marches and demonstrations to ballads about love and sexual opportunism inside the movement. Their popularity among those who heard them was a source of pride for their composers and lyricists. They suggested that party life was not all that “grim-and-determined” and that, to slightly alter the famous statement of Mao Zedong, a revolution was no dinner party, but some cadres were able to picnic along the way.Keywords: Communist Party of the Philippines • revolutionary songs • heretical ditties • Marcos era
Recommended Citation
Abinales, Patricio N.;
(2015)
"Can Communists Laugh? Recalling Vanishing Leftist Ditties of the Marcos Era,"
Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints: Vol. 63:
No.
1, Article 6.
Available at:
https://archium.ateneo.edu/phstudies/vol63/iss1/6
