The meeting had a civilized atmosphere.
The
speaker Kenny Coyle gave a good historical outline of Korea's
revolutionary development . He stated that the DPRK is a socialist state
and had come about as the result of a popular revolution . Land reform
in the DPRK had been extremely popular and had benefited the people.
Moreover although comrade Coyle does not like the use of the term
puppet to describe south Korea he conceded that basically that is what
south Korea is apuppet because it does not have the right of operational
control over its armed forces so yes it is a puppet . !
Coyle
rightly attributed Korea's division to the interference of US
imperialism. Coyle also rightly drew attention to Japanese militarism ,
something which ignored by the British left.
Coyle pointed out the DPRK is not a satellite of China and is no one's puppet.
However Comrade Coyle's speech and the discussion had a couple of serious flaws and errors .
Firstly
, Coyle said that the question of who fired the fist shot in the Korean
war was irrelevant as it was a 'civil war'. Of course there is some truth
in such an assertion , however it is deeply problematic for a number of
reasons . Saying it was a civil war between People's Korea and the
fascistic , feudal , reactionary puppet regime in the south does tend to
absolve US imperialism for the responsiblity for starting a war in which
millions perished. It is wrong to try and portray the Korean War or
Fatherland Liberation War as the result of contradictions within the
Korean nation , this can lead to the bourgeois liberal 'plague on both
your houses 'position . Two opposing systems on the Korean peninsula
came into existence but one was created by the intervention and
inteference of the US imperialists who landed in south Korea on the 8th
of September 1945 and dissovled the people's committees in south Korea.
Whilst is may be tempting to regard the Korean war a civil war between
the DPRK and the Syngham Rhee puppet regime , it is a fact that US
imperialism and its lackeys blamed the DPRK for starting the war and
used this as the legal grounds to send forces of 15 satellite states of
US imperialism under the cover of the UN .
The basic facts about the provocation of the Korean war are as follows : The DPRK was
established only two years before the war , its goal was economic
construction and improving people's living standards. The last thing it
needed was a destructive and costly war. No group or section of society
in the DPRK would profit from a war. The US on the other wanted to stop
what it saw as "communist expansion " in Asia and decided on the
doctrine of "rollback ", "a crusade to wipe communism off the face of
the globe". The US arms manufacturers stood to make huge profits out of a
potential war . Moreover there were fears at the end of the 1940s that
the US economy was entering another slump, War is a way out of economic
crisis as it creates high demand in the economy and the unemployed put
in the army.
Western historians purposefully ignore the fact that
John Foster Dulles the US presidential envoy visited south Korea on the
18th of June a week before the war began and visited front line areas.
Dulles visit and the outbreak of war a week later cannot be a
coincidence. The US evacuated American women and children from south
Korea in the early hours of the morning of the June 25th of June , just
before war broke . Secret documents of the US imperialists and Korean
people's army that were captured by the Korean People's Army when it
liberated show the US instigated its south Korean puppets to start the
war .
Secondly,
Comrade Coyle claimed that China "could shut down the DPRK if it
wanted to ! " .(which actually contradicted what he said earlier that
the DPRK is no one' satellite or puppet) This is complete nonsense . The DPRK has an independent , self -reliant national economy based on the great Juche idea.
The
DPRK's independent national economy can produce almost any product from
a wrist watch to a nuclear missile. In the 1970s the DPRK was able to
produce 98% of its own machinery and 75% of fuel and industrial
materials.Whilst
it may be true that a big proportion of the DPRK's foreign trade is
with China it needs to be stressed that in the DPRK foreign trade is not
a big proportion of economic output . Foreign
trade is a small percentage of gross national product in the DPRK unlike
the south Korean puppet regime which has 88% of its gross national
product coming from foreign trade and is therefore highly dependent.
Thus a large part of the DPRK's GDP would be unaffected by sanctions. $
1 billion only amounts to about 3.5 per cent of the Western estimate of
GDP for the DPRK but as the real GDP of the DPRK is in fact higher it
is a much lower figure.
Visiting the DPRK during the 1990s there were many Chinese goods in the
shops but nowadays there are not so many . The DPRK is making more
things at home and further import substitution is possible .
It should be remembered that Khruschov's USSR(a far stronger state
than todays PRC ) in the early 1960s tried to 'shut down the DPRK' and
failed ! It was worth recalling how Albania and China fell out in the
late 1970s and how China stopped aid and credits to Albania but Albania
did not collapse . The DPRK today is in far stronger position than
Albania in 1978.
Thirdly
, a member of the audience spoke taking the position of blaming both
sides for the tension in Korea , basically equating the DPRK a country
of some 25 million with the colossus of US imperialism which spends
billions and trillions on the military and has a a global empire of
military bases. This is a typical liberal pacifist position that
basically serves US imperialism by confusing and distorting the issue.
The person concerned then went on to say that all nuclear weapons are
wrong whether they in hands of US imperialism or in hands of socialist
and anti-imperialist countries. Coyle agreed this statement . Again a
typical non-class , absolute pacifist position . This approach ignores
the realities of the world ! Iraq, Yugoslavia , Afghanistan and other
countries did not have nuclear weapons and were attacked by US
imperialism. Col Gadhafi of Libya believed that Tony Blair was his
friend , that imperialism was the friend of Libya and abandoned the
Libyan nuclear programme . This proved fatal for Libya and Gadhafi as
Libya was invaded by the US and NATO and Gadhafi killed by a mob of
counter-revolutionary hooligans. Are we to believe that the CPB is
urging the same thing for the DPRK ?
Fourthly
, maybe rather sheepishly and defensively Comrade Coyle said that the
DPRK should adopt Chinese style policies , stressing it was his own view
(implying not necessarily the position of the CPB). At present the DPRK
is defying the sanctions of the US imperialists forging ahead under the
banner of self-reliance and the self-development first idea . Whatever
successes China may have achieved in the economic field , it is a fact
that in China there is a big gap between rich and poor . Large parts of
Beijing look like a Western capitalist city with advertising and
branches of McDonalds and KFC. The DPRK does not have capitalist
advertising or McDonalds or KFC or Western imperialist banks . This is
most impressive.
Fifthly,
Comrade Coyle slandered the DPRK solution to the succession issue and
the Supreme leadership of the DPRK calling it 'ridiculous !. The fact is
that dear respected Marshal KIM JONG UN is the chosen leader of the
DPRK . The 3rd Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea (which has
millions of members ) held in 2010 elected comrade KIM JONG UN to the
Central Committee and Central Military Commission of the Workers'Party
of Korea. He was elected vice-chairman of the Central Military
Commission of the WPK . When the great leader generalissimo KIM JONG IL
passed away in 2011 , the daily paper of the WPK Rodong Sinmun urged
comrade KIM JONG UN to take the leadership of the Party ,state and army
and he was subsequently appointed Supreme Commander of the Korean
People's Army on the 30th of December by the decision of the Political
Bureau of the WPK. Subsequently in April 2012 the 4th Conference of the
WPK elected comrade KIM JONG UN as first secretary of the WPK and the
7th Congress of the WPK elected Marshal KIM JONG UN as Chairman of the
WPK in May 2016. He was elected as Chairman of the State Affairs
Commission of the WPK by the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK in
June 2016. Thus Coyle basically insults the Korean people because they
are the ones who have elected
respected Marshal KIM JONG UN as their leader.
No comments:
Post a Comment