Part 3 - DW63 DB101 001 003

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2 led the Korean revolution to achieve victory. Now the Juche Idea has spread to all corners of the globe and Juche Idea Study Groups have been established in nearly every country of the world. I am pleased to take this occasion to announce that the preparations undertaken by Mosquito Press to found such a Study Group in this country are now at an advanced stage, and that 1985 is the year when this great idea will at last be systematically studied and applied here. Of course, a correct guiding idea can only be created in accordance with the developing conditions and demands of the era. It therefore follows that the Juche Idea accords with the present stage and tasks of the world revolution and provides correct answers to the problems posed in the revolutionary struggle. As the dear leader Comrade Kim Jong Il makes clear, "When the leader embarked on the road of revolution, a new development was taking place in the struggle of the working class and the popular masses against exploitation and oppression. On the world arena, the influence of socialism, which had won its first victory, grew strong and the revolutionary struggle of the working class and the liberation struggle of the peoples in colonies and semi- colonies were intensified sharply. In an attempt to stop the revolutionary advance of the masses and weather the serious political and economic crises they were passing through, the imperialists further increased their plunder and oppression of the people. In many countries contradictions and antagonism between revolution and counter-revolution were intensified, and the masses of people whose sovereign rights had been trampled down for a long time rose up in a struggle for their class and national liberation. A new age was approaching in which the revolutionary movement made progress in a broad and diversified way on a worldwide scale." Following the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution it rapidly became clear that the focus of world revolution was shifting to the oppressed nations, particularly those in Asia, and it is therefore not surprising, neither is it coincidental, that the leading development in revolutionary ideology should be made by an Asian communist leader. The principles and policies put forward by the Juche Idea are fully relevant and applicable to our tasks here. One of the most essential - and in many respects one that determines the approach to other questions - concerns the Juche-based stand, viewpoint and method of work with people. The dear leader Comrade Kim Jong Il has pointed out, "When they are armed with the revolutionary idea and united into an organised political force, the masses can emerge victorious in the revolution. The duty of revolutionaries is to go among the popular masses, masters of the revolution, to educate, organise and inspire them to a struggle. The revolutionary forces, too, should be trained from among the masses, and all problems arising in the revolutionary struggle should likewise be resolved in reliance on their wisdom and strength." This exposition of the revolutionary work method can clearly be seen to be in contrast to the opportunist, bureaucratic, factional and sectarian methods adopted in the main by the London-based left groups, as well as the Labour and Trade Union movement. Like their counterparts in Korea in the early part of the century they can be described as being "divorced from the masses ... only engrossed in the scramble for hegemony and empty talks. They did not unite the masses but divided them by factional strife." The endless splits and factional strife that characterise the British left do nothing to inspire the masses to fight to end their oppression; in fact all that they succeed in doing is disorienting and disillusioning the many sincere people who gravitate towards them, and generally discrediting the idea of socialism among the people. In contrast, a dynamic struggle can only be waged by relying on and organising the people themselves. This can be clearly seen in the case of the miners' strike. Of course, nearly all left wing forces involved them- selves with the epic struggle of the miners to a greater or lesser extent. But their reasons for doing so, the ways in which they intervened, and the conclusions drawn from the struggle differ widely. There are some who see the miners' struggle as confirming the correctness of an orientation to the established labour and trade union movement and its traditional methods. However, the miners' strike confirmed exactly the opposite. The reason for its endurance, militancy and heroism lies in the fact that the miners and their leadership, to a considerable extent, turned their backs on factional and bureaucratic methods of work and relied on the creative talents of the oppressed people of the mining communities themselves. Fiercely confident in their own strength and the justice of their cause, the young miners - "Scargill's Red Guards" as they were called - together with their wives and girlfriends took on the full force of the British imperialist state, and in so doing began to give an outline of what a workers' state could mean in this country. As Comrade Malcolm Pitt, President of the Kent National Union of Mineworkers said in a recent speech in Southall, the strike "showed the latent power of working people." From the logging teams who provided heating, to the food distribution teams and communal kitchens and dining halls, the importing of food, to the arranging of foreign delegations and holidays for miners and their families, we were given "signs of the ability of working people to run society". Moreover, the miners turned to, and built alliances with, their real friends - rank and file workers here and overseas, the national minority communities, the Irish people, national liberation movements, revolutionary democratic states such as Libya, the socialist countries... These forces responded with magnificent acts of solidarity, and we began to see the emergence of the type of revolutionary alliance that can defeat British imperialism. All of this is inseparable from the fact that in the person of Arthur Scargill, and other leaders such as Malcolm Pitt and Jack Collins, the miners had a leadership that was prepared to base its work on "educating, organising and inspiring" the people. Without denying the importance of struggles over wages and conditions, it is highly significant that the miners' struggle was not centred around these questions but was a battle to defend pits, jobs and communities; it was above all a fight for human dignity and Chajusong. Lenin said that strikes were "a school of war". In this great school we now have a body of graduates who have learnt lessons on the state, on imperialism, on the need to meet counter-revolutionary violence with revolutionary violence and the identities of their real friends and real enemies. Above all, it has shown working people something of what they are capable of achieving. Although, unfortunately, it did not end in a clear victory for the strikers, it has trained soldiers who will be in the frontline of many a battle to come. It was an indispensable stage in the struggle. In many respects it bears a close resemblance to the struggle of the proletariat in Dublin in 1913, about which James Connolly wrote: "Our fight of last year was not for added wages and reduction of hours; it was for an opportunity of building up in our midst men and women, a chance to build nobility and grandeur of character for men and women, a time to realise 3

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