February 16th,
the birth anniversary of the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL, is celebrated by
the Korean people and friends of People’s Korea throughout as the Day of the
Shining Star and this meeting is part of these celebrations . We are
celebrating the life of the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL not to celebrate
the life of one individual but to celebrate the achievements of people-centred
socialism , Juche based socialism and to at the same time express solidarity
with the Korean people .
Comrade KIM JONG IL was born in very humble
circumstances in a log cabin on Mt Paektu on the 16th of February 1942,
some 77 years ago. He grew up not in easy circumstances but during the
anti-Japanese revolutionary war. During the intense Fatherland Liberation War
of the early 1950s he was a child and saw the privations imposed by war. As a
university student he took part of the reconstruction of Pyongyang .He also
worked at a factory making machine for the textile industry. Therefore he was
not an armchair or bureaucratic leader but one who shared life with the people.
From the mid-1960s when comrade KIM JONG IL
started to work at the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea to the
end of his physical life in 2011, he led the Korean revolution and the building
of socialism, holding positions which included member of the Central Committee
of the Workers’ Party of Korea , secretary of the Workers Party of Korea ,
general secretary of the Workers Party of Korea and chairman of the National
Defence Commission.
The maxim of
comrade KIM JONG IL in life was that “If it is the wish of the people, flowers
must be grown on rocks.”.
Thus he
resolved that the socialism of the DPRK would be people centred socialism , a
socialism centred upon the popular masses rather than bureaucratic socialism
which had been evident in some former socialist countries .
When I was
growing up in the 1960s and 1970s socialism had a poor image as people
either associated it with the bureaucratic ,revisionist USSR or with failed social democratic governments
so when you said socialism to some people they either told you to go back to
Russia or thought meant queues for council housing and dole office bureaucrats with
fags hanging out of their mouths.
Comrade KIM
JONG IL always opposed the bureaucratic method of work . In his 1991 work “Our Socialism Centred on the Popular Masses
Shall Not Perish “ , comrade KIM
JONG IL pointed out that “One important problem in
establishing a work method and style that are suited to the nature of a
socialist society is to overcome the abuse of power and bureaucracy. Being
domineering and practicing bureaucracy is an old work method and style which allow
officials to wield power by abusing their authority and to behave contrary to
the will and interests of the popular masses. Putting an end to the abuse of
power and bureaucracy among officials is a vital demand for strengthening the
close ties of kinship between the working-class party and the popular masses.
The inclination may appear among some officials after the working-class party
takes power to try to solve all problems by wielding their power and being
domineering and practicing bureaucracy.
The wielding of power
and bureaucracy have nothing in common with the true nature of the
working-class party.”
2 years
later in his seminal work “The
Abuses of Socialism Are Intolerable “ refuted
the idea that spread widely by the imperialists and reactionaries that
socialism is inherently bureaucratic , that is run by command , saying that
“Accusing socialism of being “administrative and commanding” is also
unreasonable. In general, the administrative and commanding method of
management is an old method of rule that serves the demands of the privileged
classes by invoking legal authority in an exploiter society. In capitalist
society where the economy is run spontaneously on the principles of the market
economy, state and social administration is conducted by the administrative and
commanding method and the popular masses, the target of control, are in duty
bound to obey administrative orders. Contrary to this, in socialist society the
popular masses, who have become the masters of the state and society, hold the
position of masters and play the role of masters in the administration. The
fundamental characteristics of state and social administration by the popular
masses are that priority is given to political work in all activities and
superiors assist those under them and cooperate with one another in a comradely
manner. This is fundamentally different from the bureaucratic method of
management in the old society whereby everything was imposed in accordance with
administrative orders. The administrative and commanding method of management
which was manifested in socialist practice in the past did not emanate from the
essential nature of socialist society but was a legacy of the exploiter
society. The renegades of socialism directed the spearhead of their attack
against the principle of democratic centralism on the pretext of opposing the
“administrative and commanding” method. Democratic centralism is an important
principle in the activities of a socialist state. In socialist state activities
democracy and centralism are organically combined, and herein lies an important
characteristic of socialist state activities. Those who created a chaotic
situation while emasculating centralism in the name of “democracy” destroyed
socialism, and they are now openly moving towards bourgeois dictatorship.
Comrade KIM
JONG IL not only in theory put forward people centred policies and opposed
bureaucracy but also in practice . He always wore the same clothes as Korean
working people and wore a simple parka .
When a delegation from our organisations was visiting the DPRK in April 2016 we
visited the splendid Monument to Party Foundation on the Eastern side of
Pyongyang , now if you have seen pictures of the monument you will notice
blocks of flats which are symmetrical
.The guide to the party foundation monument explained to us that originally it
was planned that the flats when built would be handed to over to cadres and
officials of the WPK . When comrade KIM JONG IL learnt of this plan he strictly
forbid it , saying that only ordinary working people could live there . So these
splendid flats contain the families of ordinary workers . I have to say that as many of you will know it is
impossible for ordinary working people to live in the centre of London where
flats cost a million or so pounds .
Even in the days of the "arduous
march" and "forced march " when everything was short and the
country faced difficulties, comrade KIM JONG IL made sure that the children of
nurseries and kindergartens were supplied with soya milk and 'bean milk vans'
drove through the streets every day . He also made sure that despite the sanctions and
blockades as well the natural disasters that the Korean people received the
benefits of free education, free medical care and even free housing. Myself and
comrade Shaun Pickford visited the DPRK in the 1990s and saw for ourselves that free education and
free health care were in force, in fact Shaun received treatment at a DPRK
hospital free of charge . When I look back on it now it seems phenomenal because
at the time the DPRK had been hit by repeated natural disasters wiping out a
large part of the grain crop and like Cuba faced the double blockade of not
only being under US sanctions but were expected to settle any foreign trade
account in dollars. These facts testify to the strengthen and durability of
Juche-based socialism .
As comrade KIM JONG IL pointed out in his
seminal 1991 work “ Our Socialism Centred Upon the Popular Masses Shall Not Perish “The secret of its durability
and indestructibility is that it is centred upon the popular masses, that it
has made the masses the genuine masters of society and that it has devoted
everything to the service of the masses. Because our socialism serves the
popular masses, our people regard socialism as the cradle of their lives and of
their happiness, and they entrust their destiny entirely to socialism. Our
people, who are enjoying unlimited happiness and a genuine life in a socialist
society under the wise leadership of the Party and the leader, are working with
devotion to safeguard the socialist system and accomplish the socialist cause.
Throughout
his life comrade KIM JONG IL had worked hard to create a socialism that was
people –centred and was based on the Juche idea. Socialism in the DPRK was not
copy of the USSR or China or anywhere else but was Korean style socialism , the
socialism That it is why he rejected
both Right opportunism and Left opportunism as well as great power chauvinism .
The legacy
bequeathed by comrade KIM JONG IL is the people –centred socialism of the DPRK
which provides people with an unprecendently
high level of benefits such as
free housing , low cost food , free education up to all levels , free health
care and the abolition of taxation . Korean style socialism is an example to
the world and this is why we’re here today celebrating the birth anniversary of
the great leader comrade KIM JONG IL .
Today the work of comrade KIM JONG IL is
carried forward by dear respected Marshal KIM JONG UN who is leading the Korean
people forward upholding the banner of
self-reliance .
LONG LIVE
THE MEMORY OF THE GREAT LEADER COMRADE
KIM JONG IL
!
LONG LIVE
RESPECTED MARSHAL KIM JONG UN
LONG LIVE
JUCHE !
LONG LIVE
SELF-RELIANCE !
LONG LIVE
THE DPRK !
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