If
we recall the events of the
late 1980s and early 1990s, it would have appeared that the cause of
socialism was a lost one. Country after country in Eastern Europe
had abandoned socialism. The Soviet Union, the first workers' and
peasants' state ih history, been dissolved on December 25th, 1991. In
China on June 4th, 1989, there had an attempt to change the social
system and this was halted by the action of the Chinese communists and
people. Some of the socialist countries which had survived the
counter-revolutionary onslaught adopted "Market Economics" and
"Political and Cultural Opening".
The
intellectual climate of the time was to view socialism and communism
as obsolete concepts. This was summed up in Francis Fukyama's statement
"The End Of History". In other words, the only viable model for social
development was for post-modernism in ideology, neo-conservatism in
politics and liberalism in economics . It became an orthodoxy among
political and academic circles that communism had become redundant and
that the universalization of liberal democracy and economics was the end
point of
human evolution.
This
position in regard to socialism, was reinforced by some quarters on the
Left. Certain parties and individuals gave up their life
long allegiance to communism and went over to bourgeois liberalism
and sociology.It became a prevailing sentiment among those who had
ditched Marxism "that the forward march of labour had been halted" and
"we live in new times, where the old notions no longer apply".
Against this background of an avalanche of attacks upon the concept of socialism, Kim Jong IL published
his "The Abuses of Socialism Are Intolerable" on March 1st, 1993 in
the theoretical journal of the Workers' Party of Korea "Kulloja". Kim Jong IL in the March 1st, 1993 Discourse clearly goes on the offensive in defence of socialism.
In the opening passages of the work, Kim Jong IL demolishes the decades long slander against socialism. Kim Jong IL states the following: "The
claim that socialism is "totalitarian", "barracks like" and
"administrative and commanding" is not in essence different from
pernicious
anti-socialist propaganda which the imperialists have conducted since
the first appearance of socialism in the world. The imperialists have
always said that socialism is an inhuman society in which there is no
freedom or democracy. The terms "totalitarian", "barracks-like" and
"administrative and commanding" are a repetition of the imperialists'
false propaganda against socialism that use new words.
The democratic idea
which a long time ago advocated freedom, equality and human rights, in
opposition to feudal despotism, was transformed by the capitalist class
into bourgeois democracy, which imposed and defended exploitation and
subordination by capital. The imperialists made every possible effort to
embellish bourgeois democracy, calling it liberal democracy; however,
they can not conceal its
falsity and reactionary nature, nor could they remove from the minds of
the popular masses their aspiration and longing for socialism which
could provide them with genuine freedom".
As we can see from the above quotations, Kim Jong IL cuts
through the bourgeois mythology concerning democracy and human rights.
The imperialists distorted the democratic ideal, which was the standard
bearer of the revolutionary bourgeoisie, in its struggle with feudalism.
As most people in capitalist society empirically and theoretically know
that parliamentary democracy is of a limited nature. Even
the democracy we experience in capitalist countries is being eroded by
security/anti-terrorist measures and by the influence of the
multi-national corporations and by trans-national
formations (such as the European Union and NATO). In essence, democracy
under capitalism serves the elite and excludes the poor and oppressed.
As well as the external threat the socialist countries faced from imperialism,
like military intervention, blockade and sabotage,
these countries encountered an internal danger.The collapse of the USSR
and the socialist countries of Europe was bought about not by war or
invasion, but by treachery and by ideological and bureaucratic
degeneration. The Trojan Horse within the European Socialist Camp
was modern revisionism. Revisionism arose in the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union after its 20th Congress in 1956. Within a period of three
decades, modern revisionism had evolved in the ranks of tthe CPSU and
the ruling Communist and Workers' Parties
in Eastern Europe. Imperialism and the opportunists embedded within the
leaderships of the ruling parties, had a common agenda, that was to
destroy socialism and the revolutionary heritage in those countries.
The
notion of totalitarianism was continually used by the imperialist
information agencies to batter socialism in theory and
practice, Bourgeois ideologists equated communism and fascism as similar
totalitarian practices. Whereas "liberal
democracy" supposedly avoids these "left"/"right" extremes. There have
even been attempts by some academics and authors in the West to revise
the history of the Second World War and make the conflict between the
Soviet Union and Nazi Germany as a battle of two totalitarian systems,
and to assert that Soviet Russia was worse than the
Third Reich. Whatever their subjective motives, "National Communists"
give plausibility to capitalist propagandists in their drive to relate
Communism with the theory and practice of Nazism.
It
was the Austrian philosopher Karl Popper, who was the darling of
bourgeois liberalism, with his theories on totalitarianism and the open
society. Popper criticised Marxism and Historicism, rejected the
existence of objective laws of social development and upheld liberalism.
The ideology of Karl Popper, along with the theories of Leo Strauss and
Milton Freeman became the bedrock of neo-conservative political and
economic thought in the late 20th century. The
expression totalitarianism was coined by the Italian thinker Giovanni in
1923. Amendola used the term "Totalitaro" to refer to the structure and
goals of the state which had total representation and control of the
nation and of the national interest. Kim Jong IL makes a devastating critique of the bourgeois theory of totalitarianism with the following:"
Totalitarianism served as the political idea of fascist dictators.
Notorious Hitler in Germany and Mussolini in Italy
used totalitarianism as an ideological tool to justify their fascist
dictatorship. The fascist dictators stamped out the most elementary
democratic freedoms and rights of the working people and enforced
tyrannical policies, behind the misleading name of national socialism,
claiming that for the sake of the whole nation no working class movement
and no class struggle could be permitted. What is meant by the whole
in totalitarianism is not the whole of the popular masses but a tiny
handful of privileged circles such monopoly capitalists, major
landowners,
reactionary bureaucrats and warlords. Calling socialism under which the
popular masses are the masters of everything, "totalitarianism" is
ultimately a preposterous lie which identifies the most progressive idea
that reflects the demands of the working masses with the reactionary
idea of fascist rulers".
One
of the main planks of the ideology of "Perestroika" (Restructuring) in
the USSR was that the proceeding way of building of socialism had been
commanding and administrative. Gorbachev and his associates launched in
January 1987 at the CC CPSU plenary session launched an onslaught on
"stagnation" and bureaucracy using the methods of restructuring
and openness. The standpoint of the Gorbachev leadership was to usher
in so-called democratic socialism, to use the methods of "democracy"
over
"administrative and command ones. In the sphere of ideology, the modern
revisionists employed the tactics of firstly disparaging figures like
former Soviet Leaders, then Stalin and Lenin, and finally socialism
itself. Glasnost gave free reign to different varieties
of bourgeois ideologies. Within four years since Perestroika and
Glasnost were announced and implemented, the Party and Country of Lenin
and Stalin was no more.
The
Gorbachevite strand of modern revisionism has clearly the theory and
practice of the dictatorship of the proletariat in its sights. In
reality since the 20th and 22nd Congress of the Soviet Communist Party,
the dictatorship of the proletariat was weakened and then destroyed. In
the wake of the 20th Congress of the CPSU , the Soviet theorists came up
with the conceptions of the state of the whole
people and the party of the entire people, and that class struggle had
ceased during "advanced socialism". Internationally the theory of
peaceful co-existence was promoted as a solution to all problems. These
theories advanced by the Soviet Leadership from the late 1950s- early
1960s,laid the foundations for the openly counter-revolutionary "New Way
of Thinking" two decades later. The theories about the state of the
state of the whole people and the end of class struggle
within socialism ignored the laws of the dialectical materialism.
PRESENTATION BY Shaun Pickford ON KIM JONG IL'S WORK "THE ABUSES OF SOCIALISM ARE
INTOLERABLE" PART 2
Kim Jong IL tears
to pieces the assertions made by the revisionists on the question
that somehow socialism is administrative and commanding. Contrary to
these assertions, socialist society is a social system where the masses
of the people are the masters of everything and play the decisive role
in
social-political administration. In socialist society democracy and
centralism are organically combined.
The
issue of bureaucracy is one that has plagued socialist
societies. Bureaucracy is a mentality left over from feudalism and
capitalism. A socialist society is a transitional one between capitalism
and communism, so there are many remnants of the old social system
within the new. In Eastern Europe and the USSR, a sort of chasm grew
between, on the one hand, the Party and State Leadership and the civil
society on the other. Kim Jong IL points out about the nature of bureaucracy;"The abuse of power and bureaucracy are products of the
anti-socialist idea and expressions of anti-socialist
methods. If the mass line is implemented thoroughly under
the correct leadership of the working party in socialist society so
that the popular masses occupy the position of masters of state and
society and play their role as such to the full, it is possible to
eliminate the abuse of power and bureaucracy.
If
the abuse of power and bureaucracy are allowed to grow in socialist
society they will alienate the popular masses from the party and state,
and the enemies of socialism will exploit it. The situation in those
countries in which socialism has collapsed shows this. In every country
the people demanded socialism free from the abuse of power and bureaucracy;
they did not demand capitalism. What people have got as a
result of the collapse of socialism is
not " humane and democratic socialism" but capitalism under which
exploitation, oppression and social inequality are dominant and every
type of crime and social evil prevails. In those countries
where socialism collapsed and capitalism was revived the abuses of power
and bureaucracy have not disappeared but become institutionalized
and legitimized and are socially prevalent."
Social
wealth and productive relations are the bedrock of all social systems
and nations. In the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, from the
mid-1960s, social ownership was undermined and then during
the perestroika era it was privatized. Economic reforms carried out in
the USSR known as the "Liberman Reforms"
on enterprises having autonomy from the centre
and primary having material incentives as the key criteria of
production. This generated a sort of capitalist outlook among the
enterprise managers and led to the wholesale privatization of the means
of production during the late 1980s-early 1990s in the USSR and then in
the Russian Federation.In certain remaining socialist
countries, economic activity has become dependent on joint ventures with
Western big business and on capitalist methodology.
Kim Jong IL makes
the strong case in his work, that socialism cannot built by material
incentives alone, but with ideological incentives as well. Material
incentives are very important in socialist society, as socialism is a
transitional society, Merely putting the emphasis on material incentives
will have the effect of reducing the people to the frame of mind of
being egoists. In
those countries, which abandoned the ideological struggle and
encouraged egoism, the building of the socialist economy floundered and
capitalist economics was introduced.
It
is the basic task for the party and state to provide centralized and
systematic guidance of the economy under socialism. An economy without
guidance from the peoples states is not a socialist economy, and the
society which is not based upon a socialized economy cannot be called
socialist. Socialist ownership consists of state and all people
ownership. Socialist relations of production enable the working people
to exercise their rights as the masters of the state and society, that
is to use the social wealth in their interests. If socialist ownership
is dissolved and converted back into private property, social wealth and
relations will be consequently held by a few,ie
the bourgeoisie .
Progressive
ideology must as a necessity keep abreast with contemporary events, or
else it becomes irrelevant to its surroundings.Philosophy has been
constantly advanced from the era of the ancient scholars and writers. It
was Karl Marx who put Hegel's dialectics on a materialist basis.
Marxism became the ideology of the International Working Class after the
1840s. Leninism in its turn, was the scientific socialist thought
during the period of the emergence of imperialism and of proletarian
revolutions and of worker & peasant states. Kim IL Sung and Kim Jong IL craved out the ideological reflection of the role and position of the working masses in the age of independence. KimILSungism-KimJongILism has been fashioned as a theory which is an expression of humanity's increasing desire for independence
at the beginning of the 21st century.
In
many ways dogmatism is the mirror image of modern revisionism. It is
because those parties and states in the socialist camp could not
find adequate answers to the questions posed by further developments in
society, that these socialist countries fell into modern revisionism and
counter-revolution. As a response to revisionism, some communist
parties adopted dogmatism, ultra-leftism and a "class against class"
position.
Kim Jong IL puts the forward the point about advancing socialist ideology "If
the socialist cause is to be defended and completed, the socialist idea
should be developed and perfected constantly and the popular masses
should be equipped with it, so that they accept socialism as their
unshakable conviction. They
will keep in socialism only when they are convinced of the justness of
the socialist cause. As experience shows, if we are to defend the cause
of socialism and bring glory to it, the socialist idea should be
perfected and the working masses armed with it so that becomes their
firm conviction".
To
some people, to say that to have faith in the revolutionary cause, may
sound strange, but having a firm brief in socialism during the good and
bad times, is extremely essential. Socialism and Communism are social
systems that are constructed by the consciousness and enthusiasm of the
working masses, who by the essence of those societies are the owners of
everything within them. So if the leaders, ruling party and indeed the
popular masses in a socialist society have little or a superficial faith
in the revolution, then when they encounter difficulties and
setbacks, these societies with a weak conviction in socialism will
fall. A sign of how vital the conviction in socialism is, to uphold the
communist cause, was when the leaderships of the USSR and Eastern Europe
became hostile to the concept of socialism itself, and led
counter-revolutions in the late 80s. In a small Balkan Socialist
country, known for opposition to modern revisionism, the successor to
the founder of the Party and State proclaimed his absolute loyalty to
his predecessor's cause, at the latter's funeral. In under five years of
being the party leader, this successor rejected his forerunner's legacy
and bought in capitalism into that Balkan nation, all because the
successor's faith and will were
feeble.
Kim Jong IL puts the question of revolutionary faith into perspective with this passage"Moreover,
we should see to it that the people have unshakable faith in socialism
and regard it as their moral duty to defend it. The political and
ethical cohesion of the popular masses can only be lasting when
socialist ethics is fully prevalent. Socialism strikes deep root in
actual life when socialist ethics based on revolutionary comradeship and
obligation is established and becomes widespread. Only when this
happens can the popular masses fully discharge
their responsibilities and role as the masters of socialist society,
build socialism successfully, firmly defend the cause of socialism and
promote it, whatever the
adversity."
On
the social-political map today, there exists the Juche-type socialism
in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. The red flag still flies in
the land of Songun. The secret of the success of the durability of
Korean style socialism lies in its consolidation. This strengthening of
the positions of socialism was achieved by having the ideological,
technical and cultural revolutions. Another important ingredient in the
flourishing of socialism in the DPRK was prominence given to ideological
work. Socialist society demands by its nature, a much higher level of
consciousness with the ranks of the masses, the masters of socialism.
A
genuine socialist society is a collectivist one, by its very make up.
For socialism to be triumphant, collectivism
must become prevalent throughout all spheres of society. An intense
level of collectivism has been gained in the DPRK. Peoples Korea is like
one big family; with the Leader, Party, Army and People united as one
socialist collective. All working people in the DPRK enjoy all the
social and material benefits of socialism, such as full employment,
universal health care and education at all stages, and free housing.
Even at the time of the Arduous March ( a period shortages caused by the
imperialist's blockage and by natural disasters in the mid-1990s), not
one hospital, day care centre or school closed down.
If socialist society is to reach its true potential, then
the creativity and consciousness of the popular masses must
be unleashed. Workplace and residential democracy in the DPRK is
expressed through the Chongsong-ri method and the Taean Management
system, giving the working masses a say into every
decision made. Juche Korea is country which achieved a degree of social
harmony and has a level of egalitarianism, unknown elsewhere in the
world.
The
Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea is here twenty years after this
work was published and the DPRK will be here when imperialism disappears
from the surface of the Earth. Peoples Korea has withstood many
challenges, including the sudden passing away of Chairman Kim Jong IL on December 17th, 2011. Rallied around the Songun Revolutionary Leadership of Kim Jong Un, the
Korean people will complete the cause of socialism and communism,
and achieve national reunification and global independence. The
imperialists, their puppets
and mercenary hegemonists have intensified their campaign to stifle and
destroy Korean style socialism over the "Satellite" and
"Nuclear Test" issues. Socialist Korea will once again demonstrate to
friend and foe alike, its might and strength in the coming years and
decades.
The Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong IL made the following statement "Our
socialism is unshakable, whatever the storm. This is because the
single-hearted unity of the leader, the Party and the people has been
realized and the people are building a new life in conformity with their
independent demands under the guidance of the Party and the Leader".
Many
authors, academics and politicians, whether they be reactionary or
progressive, have wrestled with the questions concerning the future of
socialism. Only Kim Jong IL's work "The Abuses of Socialism Are Intolerable" offers a concise and comprehensive analysis of socialism's
prospects and destiny. I can recommend that all progressives and anti-imperialists read and study this work in its entirety .
A
talk delivered on the work "The Abuses of Socialism Are Intolerable" by
Shaun Pickford, the Secretary-General of the Juche Idea Study Group of
Britain, on February 16th 2013 (Juche 102). Shaun Pickford
has travelled to the DPRK five times and has authored many articles on
the DPRK & the Juche Idea.
(
All quotations used in the talks were from "The Abuses of Socialism Are
Intolerable" carried in the anthology "For The Victory of the Socialist
Cause", published Pyongyang, Korea 1999 Juche
88.
No comments:
Post a Comment