KIM JONG IL LET US MARCH FORWARD DYNAMICALLY ALONG THE ROAD OF SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM UNDER THE UNFURLED BANNER OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE
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WORKERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD, UNITE! KIM JONG IL LET US MARCH FORWARD DYNAMICALLY ALONG THE ROAD OF SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM UNDER THE UNFURLED BANNER OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE Talk to the Senior Officials of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea September 25, 1987 MOSQUITO PRESS LONDON 1988 ک
The general situation in the revolution at present is very complicated. An analysis of the developments in the inter- national arena shows that there are serious problems concern- ing the destiny not only of our revolution but also of the world revolution. The Korean communists who are working towards the fulfilment of the revolutionary cause of Juche initiated by the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung must adhere to the revolutionary stand of the working class with a correct understanding of the present situation, and bring about a new advance in the revolution. This is their historic task. In order to assess the present revolutionary situation correctly and maintain a revolutionary stand, we must, above all else, have a proper understanding of the real features of contemporary imperialism and its fate. World imperialism was hard hit in the second world war. The vanquished countries, such as fascist Germany, Japan and Italy, suffered fatal blows, and the capitalist powers, including Britain and France, that belonged to the Allies also suffered no less a loss than the vanquished countries. In short, capitalism was significantly weakened as a result of the second world war. However, US imperialism alone made a colossal profit from the war and thus rapidly became bloated. The industry of the United States was not damaged during the war, but instead its industrial output more than doubled. During the war the United States expanded its munitions industry on a large scale and acted as a supplier of weapons and other war materials to the Allies and also made enormous profits by 1
selling surplus goods at high prices. Taking advantage of the war, it became the greatest creditor nation in the world. In this way US imperialism came to occupy a dominant position in the capitalist world economically and militarily, and this was an important factor in the process of change in the capitalist world following the second world war. After the war the US monopoly capitalists were con- fronted with a vital problem: how to maintain their colossal munitions industry, and what to do with their tremendous amount of surplus capital. The US imperialists clamoured about a "communist threat" in order to provide an excuse for continuing to expand their munitions industry, adopted the policy of a cold war that was directed against the socialist countries and increased international tension, under the pretext of protecting the "free world". This was essentially the "Truman Doctrine". Meanwhile, in order to avoid an economic crisis and dispose of their surplus capital, they carried out the policy of gaining hold of the economies of the major capitalist countries in Europe by means of capital investment in the name of "aiding" their economic recovery from the ravages of war. This was what they called the "Marshall Plan". In this way US imperialism acquired a firm grip on the capitalist world militarily and controlled it economically, while clinging more and more to an aggressive policy in order to check the growing socialist forces and materialize its ambition for world conquest. Drawing on developed technology and superior economic strength the monopoly capital of the United States intensified its inroads into other countries and established multinational companies by setting up daughter companies in various countries. In the 1960s many multinational companies based 2
in the other developed capitalist countries also appeared. Thus the internationalization of capital was accelerated and the economies of the capitalist world were brought under the domination of the multinational companies of the US and other developed capitalist countries. With the rapid internationalization of capital through multinational companies, new changes took place in the mutual relations between capitalist countries. Before the second world war the capitalist powers engaged in fierce competition to seize commodity markets and spheres of influence, and this led to destructive armed clashes and wars. It can be said that both the first and second world wars were the results of the sharpening contradictions and antag- onism between the capitalist powers. As the internationaliza- tion of capital progressed after the second world war, however, the capitalist powers depended on and collaborated with each other economically and technically. Previously they had expanded great energies on competing with and defeating each other, but, from that time onwards, they joined hands to oppose socialism and intensify capitalist exploitation and plunder. It might be said that the greatest change in the capitalist world since the second world war has been that the capitalist powers have gone over from dog-eat-dog relations to those of alignment and cooperation. Of course, this does not mean that no contradiction exists between the capitalist powers, but now this is of secondary importance and alignment is the basis of their relations. During the 40 years since the end of the second world war there have been more than 170 wars, major and minor, but none of them has been fought between capitalist powers themselves; rather their military alignment has been strengthened through military blocs. 3
As a result of capital being internationalized and of world imperialism having realigned itself, centring on US imperi- alism, capitalism has survived its imminent doom and made rapid economic and technical progress. Since the end of the second world war the imperialists have not only aligned themselves with each other politically, economically and militarily, but also evolved more cunning techniques of domination and crafty methods of plunder. This is also an important feature of contemporary imperialism. The imperialists could not help being extremely alarmed at the rapidly-growing socialist forces and the upsurge of the working-class movement and national-liberation movement in the colonies. That is why they have devised new and more cunning techniques of ruling and crafty methods of plunder- ing to weaken the influence of socialism and appease the working-class movement and national-liberation movement in the colonies. The imperialists were keenly aware of the fact that they would not be able to maintain the capitalist system unless the working-class movement in their own countries was under- mined, so they brought up large numbers of labour aris- tocrats, while striving to conceal capitalist exploitation and to subdue the resistance of the working masses through un- employment and poverty. The imperialists also had to change the method of plundering their colonies. Imperialism has always existed by exploiting and plundering colonies. As a result of the second world war, the national-liberation movement gained un- precedented momentum and the colonial system crumbled. This was a fatal blow to imperialism. The imperialists resorted to the crafty method of neocolonialism to regain their lost 4
d e s , g e colonies. Unlike in the past when they had ruled and plundered their colonies by means of overt coercion, they now nominally recognized the sovereignty of the newly independ- ent countries and developing nations and offered them so- called "aid". In this way they subjugated these countries politically and economically, exploiting and plundering them. Neocolonialism became a means for the imperialists easily to infiltrate the developing countries. In former days the imperialist powers scrambled fiercely for colonies, but since beginning to rely on neocolonialism they have conspired together to penetrate the developing countries and pacify the resistance of their peoples using "aid", in particular, as a bait. In this way they were able to seize commodity markets and raw material resources without difficulty. With capitalist countries acting in collusion economically and technically and acquiring large markets and raw material resources in the developing countries, the level of socializa- tion of production rose markedly, and production and technology developed quickly in the capitalist world. These changes in the capitalist world offered the ad- vocates of imperialism grounds for the argument that the basic contradiction of capitalism had been resolved and that capitalism was no longer moribund capitalism, but growing and prospering capitalism. However, the basic contradiction of capitalism has never been settled, nor has the predatory nature of imperialism ever changed. Capital cannot be anything but capital however international it becomes. The multinational company is nothing but a mode of existence for major monopolies; it intensifies capitalist exploitation and guarantees imperialist domination, on a world scale. A change, if any, has taken place in the method of capitalist exploitation and plunder in 5
that it has become much more sly, and in the range of capitalist contradiction in that it has extended on an inter- national level beyond the bounds of individual countries. Formerly, capitalist exploitation caused the phenomenon of "the rich getting ever richer and the poor getting ever poorer" to prevail within individual capitalist countries, but now- adays this phenomenon is getting worse on a global scale with the world being divided into rich capitalist countries and poor developing countries. Today the contradictions of the capitalist world have been exacerbated still further, and imperialism finds itself in serious political and economic trouble. Because of neocolonialist exploitation and plunder by imperialists, national industries in the developing countries have further deteriorated, the people of these countries have become poorer and their foreign debts have increased as the days go by. In the developing countries the purchasing power for capitalist commodities has declined and their ability to pay foreign debts has diminished. This cannot but be a blow to the imperialist powers which have grown fat at the cost of the developing countries. The development of capitalism presupposes the expansion of markets. But as the developing countries have reached the point where they can no longer serve as commodity markets and areas of capital investment, the imperialists have found it difficult to sell their surplus goods there and have had to reduce their loans to them gradually. This has not only placed the developing countries in a more difficult economic situ- ation but also compelled the developed capitalist countries to limit their production. The developed countries are now fighting among themselves to make each other restrict production. Since in capitalist countries technology continues 6