A LECTURE ABOUT THE WORK "ON REVOLUTIONIZING AND WORKING-CLASSIZING WOMEN" A SPEECH GIVEN BY PRESIDENT KIM IL SUNG TO THE FOURTH CONGRESS OF THE KOREAN DEMOCRATIC WOMEN'S UNION ON OCTOBER 7TH, 1971.

All over the world during December 2017, the centenary of KIM JONG SUK is being commemorated. It is appropriate that I shall review this work of KIM IL SUNG on the subject of women's emancipation when progressive humanity is paying tribute to KIM JONG SUK. KIM IL SUNG's work clarifies how to solve the issue of the full participation of women within a socialist society. The principle of the Workers' Party of Korea is to prioritize the need to revolutionize, intellectualize  and working-classize  all women. Therefore the sound development of women will contribute to the revolutionizing and working-classizing the whole of society. KIM IL SUNG stresses in his work that it is only when men and women are revolutionized and working-classized, in other words, when men and women become the equal, independent masters of society, can socialism be successfully built. The wheels of a cart is used as a metaphor in the speech to demonstrate that a society with just one wheel running cannot operate perfectly, it needs two wheels to achieve harmony.

From the first days of  his revolutionary activities, KIM IL SUNG considered that women should play a leading role in the struggle for national and social liberation. The first mass Korean revolutionary women movement was established by Kang Ban Sok on December 26th, 1926. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, KIM JONG SUK was leading the women of Korea into the fight against Japanese Imperialism and for the effort of nation building. KIM JONG SUK is regarded as a paragon of communist virtue and as the heroine of the Korean Revolution. After liberation from Japanese colonial rule, the Democratic Union of Women was founded on November 18th, 1945. The Women's Union organised and mobilized women to carry out the Anti-Feudal,  Anti-Imperialist Democratic Revolution in Korea and to carry out the Socialist Revolution. The Women's Union conducted campaigns to raise ideological and cultural awareness of the female population and engage them in Anti-illiteracy campaigns.

According to KIM IL SUNG, the revolutionization of women is of vital importance in making the their homes socialist and revolutionary. The ideals and values of socialism do not end at the front door of an apartment or a house, but must extend throughout the entire society. Men are influenced by their wives and children are moulded by their mothers, whether the citizens of a society turn out good or bad depend upon women. Also the home is a place of struggle, where women are constantly battling obsolete ideas about family life and asserting the rights and duties of females. The Juche Idea regards the position of women in socialist society as being central to  the goal of human independence. Without the active participation of women in the revolution and construction, there cannot be meaningful independence and socialism.

The work in question explains on how to organise women into social-political collectives. The Women's Union took the initiative to guide the organisational lives of their membership and to train women politically and ideologically. It is only when women are drawn into the world can they lead full organisational and political lives, and constantly temper themselves through revolutionary activities. Social-political existence is seen by the Juche Idea as the highest form of human life. Two examples from the Korean Revolution spring to mind as role models of female politicization, one being in the form of Mother Sun Nyo in "The Sea of Blood" and the other being Nurse Kang Yon Ok in the "True Daughter of The Party".

KIM IL SUNG viewed the participation of women in social affairs presupposing excellent conditions, so as to carry out their work without worries. In the DPRK, there are Kindergartens and nurseries in every town, village and enterprise. Working women are provided by the state with paid maternity leave and indeed even ensures them time to feed their babies. One important fact, is that there is full equality in terms of pay and conditions for women with men in the DPRK. There is a proactive policy by the WPK of increasing the proportion of women cadres and improving the qualifications of female functionaries in their roles. We witnessed a recent example of the evaluation of female cadres within the leadership of the Party and State, with the election of Kim Yo Jong to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in October 2017. Women in the DPRK have gained some prominent positions, such as the Korean Television Newsreader Ri Chun Hee, the Scientist Paek Sol Hui, the Labour Heroine Jong Chui Sil and the Marathon Runner Jong Song Ok. When I attended  a social sciences' course in Pyongyang some years ago, the main lecturer was a women named Mun Jong Suk.

KIM JONG IL considered the part played by women in the transformation of society as being decisive for the victory of the socialist cause. KIM JONG IL devoted his theoretical and practical efforts to the emancipation of women and led them along the road of the Songun Revolution. On November 17th, 2017, the Korean Democratic Women's Union held its 6th Congress. It was the women of the DPRK who were in the vanguard of the 200 Day Campaign of 2016, helping to transform the DPRK into a economic giant. Kim Jong UN sent a letter to the 6th Congress entitled "Let Us Further Intensify The Work of The Women's Union Under The Banner of Modelling The Whole Society On KimIlsungism-Kimjongilism". The letter of KIM JONG UN said that women perform an active part in the shaping of the DPRK on Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism. At the behest of KIM JONG UN, the 6th Congress of the KDWU took the momentous decision to rename itself the Socialist Women's Union of Korea, reflecting the actuality where women of the DPRK have been building a thriving socialist nation.

The bourgeois ideologies of "Political Correctness" and "Third Wave Feminism" have not served the aspirations of women in Western Countries, all what these theories have done is to have produced more antagonism and alienation among people. To say that one gender is negative, while the other gender is positive, is really nonsensical and does not correspond to reality. For instance, there were the outstanding women revolutionaries like Rosa Luxemburg and  Dolores Lbarruri (La Pasionaria) while there was the notorious female politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and Pak Gyeun Hee. In Britain and in other capitalist nations, women will only be truly liberated when they take up the study of the Juche Idea and apply Juche to their struggles.

The work on revolutionizing and working-classizing women by the Great Leader President KIM IL SUNG is a document which should be taken as a guiding principle in solving the problems of women by expounding the position and role of females in the socialist revolution and construction. In the DPRK, women are advancing as the loyal detachment of Kimilsungist-Kimjongilists  under the leadership of the Dear Respected Marshal KIM JONG UN and inspired by the Songun-Type Communist Woman Revolutionary KIM JONG SUK!


GLORY TO THE 100TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE IMMORTAL WOMAN REVOUTIONARY GENERAL COMRADE KIM JONG SUK!!





(A presentation given to the commemorative meeting on the birth centenary of KIM JONG SUK by Shaun Pickford, held in London, UK on December 9th, 2017. Shaun Pickford is currently Secretary General of  the Juche Idea Study Group of Britain and has been to the DPRK seven times in total)