LET US MARCH FORWARD DYNAMICALLY ALONG THE ROAD OF SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM UNDER THE UNFURLED BANNER OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE

Talk to Senior Officials of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea

September 25, 1987

 

The general situation in the revolution at present is very complicated. An analysis of the developments in the international arena shows that there are serious problems concerning 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 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 confronted 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 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 antagonism between the capitalist powers. As the internationalization 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.

As a result of capital being internationalized and of world imperialism having realigned itself, centring on US imperialism, 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 plundering 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 undermined, so they brought up large numbers of labour aristocrats, while striving to conceal capitalist exploitation and to subdue the resistance of the working masses through unemployment 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 unprecedented 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 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 independent 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 socialization of production rose markedly, and production and technology developed quickly in the capitalist world.

These changes in the capitalist world offered the advocates 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 that it has become much more sly, and in the range of capitalist contradiction in that it has extended on an international 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 nowadays 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 situation 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 to develop, whereas production has to be limited, it has become impossible to prevent the growth of unemployment and inflation. In the major capitalist countries of Europe the rate of unemployment has now reached 12-13 per cent and the inflation crisis is sweeping the capitalist world.

The crisis of capitalism finds clear expression in the fact that the position of the United States, the ringleader of world imperialism, is becoming more and more difficult.

The United States is in this difficult position because it is not only sharing the same crisis as the capitalist powers, but has also been gradually losing its leading position in the capitalist world. As their economic domination is being weakened as a result of the economic progress of the European capitalist countries and Japan, the US imperialists are basing their economy more and more on armaments in order to maintain their domination over the capitalist world and allow the large munitions monopolies to make profits. As a result, the deficit in their state budget has become enormous, and their foreign debts have swollen so that the United States, which was once the greatest creditor country in the world, has, now, become the largest debtor nation.

Since in the United States the armaments monopolies are trying to make greater profits by ceaselessly expanding the munitions industry, the process of basing the economy on armaments cannot be halted. The United States has attended the negotiations on nuclear arms reduction, but in no way does this mean that its monopolies have abandoned their desire to expand the munitions industry. The American armaments monopolies may not regard the reduction of those nuclear weapons which have already been manufactured and sold as affecting their interests directly, but on no account will they tolerate any reduction or banning of nuclear arms production. That is why the United States, while negotiating for nuclear arms reduction, continues to push forward the adventurous "Star Wars" programme, which is said to cost thousands of billions of dollars. It can never free itself from the heavy burden of its ever-growing military expenditure, and its budget deficit and foreign debts will increase further. In the long run, this will lead its economy into a bottomless mire.

The most effective way for the imperialists to overcome their political and economic crises is to abolish the outdated international economic order of exploiting and plundering the developing nations in a neocolonial way and establish a new, equitable one so that these countries can make economic and technological progress.

It is only when the economies of the developing nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where there are enormous natural and manpower resources, develop that the problem of markets for the developed capitalist countries can be solved. In this way alone will the developed capitalist nations survive. However, the imperialists are taking the path of self-destruction by clinging to their neocolonial exploitation and plunder because of their exploiting nature, instead of accepting the developing nations' demand for a new international economic order.

The contradictions and antagonism between the imperialist powers will be further exacerbated in the future. Though the imperialist powers are now collaborating with each other in an attempt to maintain their position of monopoly, there is no doubt that their interests will conflict with each other and that the contradictions between them will become aggravated as their markets grow narrower and the way to the growth of capital and of making money reaches a dead end. It is only natural for hungry wolves to bite each other.

Contemporary imperialism has also a serious inner contradiction because of which it cannot escape its doom.

Outwardly, the developed countries seem to be prospering, but inwardly they are rotting due to ever-worsening contradictions.

As the marketing channels are clogged to a greater extent, capitalists are moving towards deforming the material life of people by creating an artificial inhuman demand. They are manufacturing a variety of things to stimulate extravagance, corruption and dissipation and to paralyse the human body and mind, with the result that the number of drug addicts, alcoholics, as well as degenerates pursuing abnormal desires, is growing rapidly and people are becoming mentally and physically deformed. Even the defenders of the bourgeoisie are lamenting and calling this phenomenon an incurable disease of modern capitalism.

The capitalists are frenziedly spreading reactionary and anti-popular ideas and culture, as well as the decadent bourgeois way of life, in order to paralyse the working masses' consciousness of independence and to make people submit to the capitalist exploiting system. In capitalist countries all manner of reactionary ideology and superstition which, like a narcotic, numb the sound mind of the people and make them ignorant, are widespread. The way of life in which the weak fall prey to the strong is fostered and, as a result, such social evils as immorality and depravity, murder and robbery are rampant and people are trembling with fear and apprehension. Thus, in capitalist society the mental life of the people becomes all the more intolerable with the increase in material wealth.

With a view to maintaining its privileged position, which is being endangered with the passage of time, the capitalist class is resorting to crafty schemes to placate, deceive and bribe the masses while making its reactionary ruling machine fascist and furthering its policy of aggression and war.

A decadent material life, a poor mental and cultural life and a reactionary political life-these can be said to be the main characteristic of capitalist society, and they show the anti-popular nature and corruption of modern imperialism.

People not only want to be physically healthy and developed while enjoying a prosperous material life, but also desire to develop mentally and culturally while leading a rich mental life. In addition, they want to live and develop with immortal socio-political integrity by joining with each other as equal masters of society. We can say that this is the inherent desire of a man as a social being.

In order to develop social life to meet this desire, it is necessary to promote the mental, cultural and political life of the people in step with the enrichment of their material life. However, capitalists do not like to spend money on enriching the mental and cultural life of people because they want people to become the slaves of a corrupt material life and of money. On the contrary, they waste a large sum on restricting the mental and cultural development of the working people. Worse still, capitalists try to restrain the development of the working people's political life as far as possible because enhancing their political position and role endangers their political rule. In capitalist society people are becoming more and more the slaves of money and property and their political integrity is being repressed.

In capitalist society it is not possible to eliminate inequality in material wealth, nor is it possible to remove the imbalance between the improving material life and the deteriorating mental and cultural life, and between the masses' growing desire for independence and their worsening political life. In order to eliminate this inequality and imbalance and achieve harmonious development in all the material, mental and cultural and political aspects of life of the working masses, one must follow the path of socialism. However, because of their class nature, the imperialists are not only unwilling to break with capitalism but also getting more and more reactionary, contrary to man's inherent desire for independence.

As inequality and imbalance, as well as the reactionary nature and anti-popular character of imperialism, are now growing in capitalist society, the contradiction between the masses of the people, who desire to live and develop independently, and the capitalist class is becoming more serious, and capitalism is precipitating itself into ruin.

Contemporary imperialism is in a dilemma internally and externally, and is making frantic efforts to free itself from the daily aggravating, catastrophic crisis.

The US imperialists and the international reactionaries are concentrating the spearhead of their attack on the socialist countries, which are the bulwark of peace and progress, and are brazenly attempting to stamp out the struggle of the progressive people of the world who desire independence. As the leader has said, the imperialists are now dancing around wielding a nuclear weapon in one hand and a purse in the other. The schemes of the imperialists are becoming ever more vicious and crafty as they try to bring the people of the socialist countries and other progressive people throughout the world to their knees by threatening and blackmailing them militarily, bribing and subordinating them economically and disrupting them ideologically and culturally.

Whenever imperialism faces a crisis, its reactionary and aggressive nature increases and it makes desperate efforts to maintain its existence. The frenzied efforts of the imperialists are not an expression of their strength; they reveal their vulnerability. The more reactionary the imperialists become and the more frenzied are the efforts they make, the more the people will be awakened to revolutionary awareness, and the day of the collapse of imperialism will draw nearer.

It is an indisputable fact that the end of contemporary imperialism is nigh, and it is historically inevitable that imperialism will perish and socialism triumph.

However, imperialism will not fall of its own accord. It can be defeated only by the revolutionary struggle of the working masses led by the working class.

Building up the motive force of the revolution is decisive in destroying imperialism and winning victory in the revolution. In particular, it is important to strengthen the working-class party, the vanguard detachment of the revolution, and to enhance its role.

If we are to strengthen the revolutionary forces we must correctly analyse and appraise the

changes that have taken place in social and class composition.

Since the end of the Second World War social and class composition in the capitalist countries has undergone a great change. As the mechanization and automation of production has been promoted with the advance of technology in the developed capitalist countries, so the number of people who engage in physical labour has been considerably reduced, whereas the number of those who do technical and mental labour has increased rapidly and they have become the overwhelming majority of the working people.

It is a law that as society progresses, so the technical and cultural standard of the workers improves and the number of intellectuals increases.

Certainly, it is true that the rapid growth in the number of intellectuals greatly influences the working people towards petit bourgeois ideology. Particularly in a capitalist society where systematic revolutionary education is impossible, it is unavoidable that many intellectuals are tainted with bourgeois and petit bourgeois ideas. Therefore, it is difficult to win them over to the revolution. But we cannot say that the change in social and class composition has weakened the social and class basis of the Communist and Workers' Parties or created unfavourable conditions for the socialist revolution. Neither the working people engaged in technical labour nor those in mental labour are owners of the means of production. There are some differences between them and physical labourers in their technical and cultural levels and in their working conditions, but there is an essential community between them in that they are all employed and paid by capitalists.

Today the number of working people-the conventional working masses plus the newly-emerged technical and mental labourers-employed by the capitalists accounts for 80 to 90 per cent of the working populations in the developed capitalist countries. This shows that the social and class basis of the Communist and Workers' Parties has, far from being weakened, actually been strengthened.

The point at issue is how the Communist and Workers' Parties should conduct political work to make the broad working masses revolutionary and win them over, to suit the change in social and class composition.

The working masses do not take part in the revolution spontaneously. Even the working class can work for the revolution only when they have acquired class awareness.

Awakening the working class and other working masses to revolutionary consciousness is all the more urgent at the moment. The working class of today cannot simply be identified with the proletariat of the past. Needless to say, the working class in socialist society is not proletarian, but even the working class in the developed capitalist countries is also different from the proletariat who, according to the classics of the previous age, had nothing to lose but their chains. Property status is not the only factor that prompts a man to take up the revolutionary cause.

We should not say that a man is impelled to revolution only by hunger and poverty. An independent man's basic desire is to be the master of his own destiny, the master of the state and society. As the leader has said, there will always be resistance where independence is trampled upon, and a revolutionary struggle where there is resistance.

The intellectuals in our country before it was liberated from Japanese imperialist rule received better treatment than the ordinary workers and were comparatively well-to-do. However, their attitude towards imperialism was revolutionary because they suffered national discrimination as colonial intellectuals.

Even though the standard of living of the technical and mental workers in the developed capitalist countries has risen, they are ill-disposed towards the capitalist system and desire an independent life, free from the rule of capital, because they still suffer capitalist exploitation and oppression. Their desire for an independent life means that they aspire to socialism. As a matter of fact, most of the intellectuals in capitalist countries sympathized with socialism at one time. Their failure to continue to fight for socialism was due to the lack of proper ideological education and leadership rather than to limitations to their social and class positions.

The party of the working class is always the principal factor in making the working masses revolutionary and winning them over. Unless the party is strengthened ideologically and organizationally and party work methods improved to accord with the actual situation, it is impossible to lead the masses to become class-conscious and organized, unite them behind the party and strengthen the revolutionary forces. Expecting success in the revolution without giving precedence to the work of building up the motive force of the revolution by strengthening the party and rallying the masses behind it, would be as stupid as wishing to gather fruit without tending a tree.

If it is to be strengthened, the party must, above all else, develop itself on the principle of guaranteeing its monolithic ideology and leadership and acquire a new guiding ideology and theory that enables it to strike its roots deep among the broad masses, including the intellectuals, and lead them to revolution. The revolutionary theory is not a dogma, but a guide to action. The party must develop its revolutionary theory and improve its work method steadily to suit the changes in the situation, based on the principle of the independent position and decisive role of the masses of the people. This is the way to make the broad sections of the masses revolutionary, win them over and lead the revolution to make a new upsurge.

We must have a clear understanding of the true nature of modern imperialism, which is blustering and making desperate efforts before its doom, and must hold the conviction that its downfall is inevitable. Only then can we maintain an unshakeable revolutionary stand with a firm confidence in and optimism about victory in the revolution.

In order to assess today's revolutionary situation accurately and adhere to the revolutionary stand, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the superiority of socialism and its inevitable triumph.

We must see historical development since the Second World War as the history of victorious socialism.

The defeat of fascist Germany and Japanese imperialism and the victory of the Soviet Union in the Second World War meant the great victory of socialism and dealt a fatal blow to imperialism.

As a result of this war, many new socialist countries emerged in Europe and Asia, and socialism has developed to become a worldwide system. Today many countries of Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa are advancing towards socialism. The magnetism of socialism has grown stronger than ever, and socialism has become a beacon of hope for the progressive people throughout the world.

Of course, the development of socialism has not been smooth. The birth of the new and its victory are always attended by difficulties.

Socialist countries had to overcome a series of difficulties because they were beating an untrodden path.

The transition from capitalism to socialism is the most deep going social transformation in the history of mankind. Socialism has to pave the way for its own development through an arduous and protracted struggle to sweep away all the rubbish that has been accumulated over thousands of years. In particular, because imperialism remains in the world, the struggle for the victory of socialism involves a fierce and complicated struggle against the enemies at home and abroad.

Originally, the socialist countries took over backward economies and technology, but they were unable to concentrate their efforts on economic construction from the first. The working class which had taken power was faced with the urgent task of effecting a thoroughgoing social change-the abolition of the old exploiting system and the establishment of a new socialist system-and of safeguarding the revolution against a counterrevolution. For instance, the Soviet Union, the first socialist country, had to wage a difficult and complicated struggle, in capitalist encirclement, to ensure the victory of the socialist system and shortly afterwards, shouldered a heavy burden in the Second World War. In the postwar period, too, the Soviet Union had to put great efforts into defence construction to safeguard socialism against the cold war policy of the imperialists. The people of socialist countries had to build socialism and defend the revolution while countering the military threat and economic blockade of the imperialists, and, at the same time, make great efforts to support the revolutionary movement in the world and the struggle of the progressive people of the world to build a new society.

Considering these factors, we can say that the successes achieved by socialist countries in economic construction are tremendous, not to mention the achievements in the political, ideological and cultural fields. In a period of a little over half a century, since the first socialist country emerged, socialist countries have made greater economic, scientific and technological progress than capitalist countries have done in hundreds of years. In addition they have laid solid foundations for progressing even more rapidly in the future.

Historical experience has already proved unequivocally that socialism is superior beyond compare to capitalism and has unconquerable vitality.

There is a great gulf between life under socialism, where the masses of the people equally enjoy independent and creative activities to the full as masters of the state and society, and that under capitalism, where people become the slaves of money and seek only their own pleasure. A man whose mind has been paralysed by capitalist ideology cannot see the difference.

It is obvious, when socialism strikes root deeper in the future and the remnants of the old society have been eradicated and so the political and ideological unity and the creative power of the people become stronger, that the socialist system will demonstrate its advantages more clearly and that in the near future socialist countries will outstrip the developed capitalist countries by far even economically and technologically.

Of course, we cannot say that so far socialist countries have brought the superiority of the socialist system fully into play.

Frankly speaking, they have deviated sometimes to the Right and sometimes to the "Left" in managing the new social system. Deviations occurred in the process of establishing the socialist system, but in particular, grave mistakes were made in finding answers to new problems as to how the revolution and construction should be promoted after the establishment of the socialist system. A series of serious deviations were also made in dealing with the mutual relations between the socialist countries which carry on the revolution and construction in different historical conditions. All this has tarnished the image of socialism.

These deviations have nothing to do with the intrinsic nature of the socialist system. They are due totally to the fact that those who administer the socialist system are not experienced and fully prepared politically and ideologically.

The struggle between socialism and capitalism is the struggle between the new and the old. That the new emerges victorious and the old perishes is an immutable law of historical development. This law will never change, though the victory of the new may be attained only after experiencing twists and turns.

The development of the history of mankind is the process of realizing independence for the masses of the people, the makers of history. A new thing is that which contributes to realizing independence for the masses in the course of historical development; an old thing is that which, on the contrary, restrains the realization of independence for the masses. Capitalism was a new system compared with feudalism when it abolished the feudal caste system and realized bourgeois freedom and equality. However, it became an old one which ran counter to the development of history by trampling upon the masses' desire for independence, the desire to become fully-fledged masters of society, free from not only feudal fetters but also capitalist exploitation and oppression. Just as there can be no capitalist who does not seek profits, so there can be no capitalism that does not exploit and oppress the working masses.

The path of socialism is the only way to satisfy the desire of the masses to become real masters of the state and society, free from exploitation and oppression. Capitalism, no matter how it may be beautified and embellished, cannot throw off its old form of the exploiting society. It is only in socialist society that the masses of the people can hold the position of complete masters in all fields of politics, the economy and culture and play their role as masters. Socialist society is the new society which conforms to the independent character of the masses and the requirements of social development.

The old may disguise itself as the new and the dying may temporarily seem to be reviving. However, the old has no future because it is perishing. Revolutionaries must not be misled by passing phenomena but clearly distinguish the new from the old; they must fight for the victory of socialism to the end, convinced that the new will, without fail, emerge victorious.

If we are to adhere to the revolutionary stand of the working class and follow the path of socialism to the very end, we must enhance the leadership role of the party to meet the requirements of the development of socialist society in the given period.

As socialist construction makes headway in socialist countries, so the material and cultural standard of living of the working class and other working masses rises, their cultural and technical qualifications generally improve and the number of intellectuals grows considerably. As socialism approaches the higher phase of communism, the differences between physical and mental labour diminish and the whole of society becomes intellectual. This accords with the law of social progress. This, however, does not mean that the working-class character of socialist society changes. The process of change and development in socialist society is a process in which class distinctions disappear gradually and the whole of society becomes working-class. In socialist society intellectuals can be regarded as the working class which engages in mental labour. As socialist society makes progress, so the working-class character of this society is not weakened but, on the contrary, it is strengthened still further.

Socialist society is a society which meets the inherent desire of the working class, and this desire is that all the people be provided with full independence by opposing selfishness and on the basis of collectivism. This desire of the working class agrees with the common human aspiration to independence.

Because socialist society is a society which meets the inherent desire of the working class, socialism and communism can be built only under the leadership of the party which is the vanguard detachment of this class. The further the building of socialism and communism proceeds, the more the leadership of the party should be strengthened, instead of being weakened. Without the party's leadership it would be impossible to ensure the unity of the people in ideology and will, display the superiority of collectivism that is inherent in socialism, and beat the untrodden path of communism.

Strengthening party leadership means improving the standard of party work in keeping with the developing situation, while maintaining the revolutionary principle of the working class in the revolution and construction. If a party fails to see the developing situation and retains outdated theories and methods, it will commit dogmatic and subjective mistakes; if it abandons the revolutionary principle of the working class on the plea of a changed situation, it will make revisionist and reformist errors.

The working-class party which leads socialist construction must concentrate every effort on strengthening and enhancing the role of the motive force of the revolution by improving party

work.

It is only when the motive force of the revolution is strengthened and its role improved that we can succeed in harnessing nature and transforming society and also emerge victorious in the fight against the enemy. Needless to say, it is important in bringing out to the full the superiority of the socialist system to lay firm material and technical foundations for socialism and improve the method of managing the socialist economy. But it is more important to strengthen the motive force of the revolution. It is people that develop the economy and technology and it is also people that manage the socialist system. Therefore, the superiority of the socialist system cannot be displayed unless the motive force of the revolution is strengthened.

Strengthening the motive force of the revolution is also essential in preventing the ideological and cultural infiltration of imperialism. The great leader has said that a man with a well-trained body will not fall ill even if he is attacked by disease. However violent the imperialists' desperate manoeuvres may be, revisionism and reformism cannot raise their heads when the motive force of the revolution is strong.

We must always seek the key to victory in the revolution and construction in the motive force, not in the objective conditions, and seek the basic method and means of promoting the revolution and construction in strengthening the motive force and enhancing its role.

The strengthening of the motive force of the revolution must begin with the consolidation of the party, the core and leading force of the subject.

When the party is sound ideologically, the masses can be sound in their ideology; when the party suffers from ideological malady, the masses also suffer from ideological sickness. It is only when the party is united that the masses can be united; when it is divided, the masses will be divided. Therefore, primary attention must be paid to maintaining the purity of the party's revolutionary idea, improving steadily its ideological and theoretical levels and cementing its organizational and ideological unity and cohesion.

In order to strengthen the motive force of the revolution, it is also imperative to make the broad masses revolutionary and unite them closely around the party.

The education of the people in the revolutionary ideology of the working class must be intensified in step with the improvement in their material and cultural lives and in their cultural and technical standards, which rise with the progress of socialist construction. If not, a cavity might be created in their consciousness and bourgeois ideas can infiltrate. If this happens, people may lose confidence in socialism and communism and cease working for the revolution.

Enhancing the role of the motive force ceaselessly is of decisive significance in promoting the revolution and construction.

The party's unified leadership in all fields of the revolution and construction must be fully ensured, and on this basis the creative zeal and activeness of the masses must be brought out to the maximum in accordance with the revolutionary mass line. The construction of socialism and communism is an undertaking for the masses and of the masses, so the only way to promote socialist construction is to encourage them to work willingly and with devotion. Any attempt to seek a clever way, other than this, will end in clinging to the capitalist method that has nothing in common with socialism and will cause grave and irrevocable consequences to socialist construction.

Our Party has been able to lead the revolution and construction to victory in the arduous and complicated circumstances that are unprecedented in history because it has consistently strengthened the subject of the revolution and enhanced its role.

Under the difficult situation in which the US imperialists, the chieftain of world imperialism, have been occupying one half of our territory and perpetrating ceaseless aggressive manoeuvres against our Republic, our people have been carrying out two tasks at the same time-building socialism independently, and thwarting the aggressive manoeuvres of the imperialists in order to reunify the country. At present our people are fighting, bearing double and triple burdens on their shoulders. However, our Party has always stuck fast to the revolutionary stand with the conviction that victory will be won, precisely because the motive force of our revolution has been strengthened.

On the basis of a scientific review of the historical experiences of the Korean and world revolutions, the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung further developed the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theories in a creative way to suit the new situation, established the immortal Juche idea in his early years, and provided a contemporary guideline capable of leading the revolutionary movement in a steady upsurge. On the basis of the Juche-oriented principle of Party building, he has strengthened our Party organizationally and ideologically, established unbreakable ties between the Party and the masses in every possible way and steadily enhanced the Party's leadership role in all fields of the revolution and construction. In this way he has been leading our revolution to brilliant victory.

The great leader gave instructions that, in order to build socialism, the ideological fortress of communism must be conquered along with the material fortress and that, to this end, the three revolutions-ideological, technological and cultural-must be promoted on the principle of giving precedence to the work of transforming the people, the masters of society, along communist lines. In this way a correct way of continuing the revolution after the establishment of the socialist system and of achieving the cause of communism has been elucidated for the first time in history.

Following the path indicated by the great leader, our Party has been building socialism successfully, without any deviation, and fully displaying the advantages of the socialist system.

Holding high at all times the revolutionary banner of anti-imperialist struggle, our Party has been fighting resolutely against the imperialist moves of aggression and war and safeguarding the eastern post of socialism with credit.

The US imperialists lay stress on the strategic importance of south Korea, which is situated near Japan, their biggest ally, and which occupies a strategic point on the Asian continent, and so have not only turned south Korea into their nuclear war base to bring military pressure to bear upon us, but also converted it into an economic and political base against socialism in collaboration with the Japanese imperialists and other reactionaries in the world and are manoeuvring in every possible way to demonstrate the "supremacy" of capitalism on the Korean peninsula. Despite the desperate manoeuvres of US imperialism and its stooges, our Republic has been advancing along the socialist road without the slightest vacillation. Encouraged by this, the south Korean people are fighting resolutely against the United States and for independence, against fascism and for democracy, thereby shaking the colonial rule of US imperialism violently. The fact that our country, though small, is holding fast to its independence while building socialism successfully confronted by the allied force of imperialism is clear proof that socialism is in all ways superior to capitalism and has unconquerable vitality.

Our era by no means suits imperialism; it is an era of historical change in which imperialism is on the brink of ruin and the people of the world are marching forward boldly along the road of socialism, the road of independence.

The contemporary age requires that revolutionary people the world over should rise up as one in the struggle to inflict a decisive defeat on the doomed and desperate imperialists and create an independent new world. Opposing imperialism and defending independence is the common fighting task of the revolutionary people of the world today.

The motive force of the struggle for independence in each country is the people of that country, whereas the motive force of the struggle to oppose imperialism and make the world independent consists of the socialist countries, the international communist movement, the national-liberation movement in colonies, the non-aligned movement, the world peace movement and other anti-imperialist, independent forces.

The anti-imperialist, independent forces are incomparably stronger than the imperialist forces. What is important is whether the anti-imperialist, independent forces fight in unity or not.

That unity is a decisive factor for victory in the revolution is an immutable truth. Particularly today, when the imperialists are aligned and allied in opposition to socialism and the progressive people of the world, it is essential for all the anti-imperialist, independent forces to fight in close unity.

In strengthening the unity of the anti-imperialist, independent forces, it is particularly important to strengthen the unity of the socialist countries and the international communist movement. The socialist countries and the Communist and Workers' Parties have the honourable tradition of having adhered to the revolutionary stand and fought in solid unity under the banner of proletarian internationalism. By carrying forward this tradition, all the socialist countries and Communist and Workers' Parties must hold fast to the anti-imperialist stand and unite rock-solid, based on the relations of comradeship, the relations of respecting and cooperating with each other against national egoism.

Modern imperialism is not only the enemy of socialism but also the common enemy of all the progressive people of the world who advocate peace and independence. It is only when the people of socialist countries and all the other progressive people of the world who advocate peace and independence are solidly united that they can emerge victorious in the struggle for independence against imperialism. The progressive people of the world must smash every manoeuvre of the imperialists for division and alienation and unite firmly under the banner of independence against imperialism, regardless of ideology, system and religious belief.

There is no doubt that if all the anti-imperialist, independent forces in the world fight as one in firm unity, they will be able to destroy imperialism and create an independent, new world.

Our Party will make every effort to strengthen solidarity with the anti-imperialist, independent forces of the world, particularly the socialist countries, the international communist movement and the non-aligned movement.

The struggle of our people, who are advancing at the forefront of the struggle for independence against imperialism under the revolutionary banner of the Juche idea, is a source of great encouragement to the progressive people of the world in their struggle for independence. We must take due pride in this.

Revolutionaries must fight on resolutely, always remembering the lessons of history as well as being confident in the future. There still remain the imperialists who brutally massacred and plundered our people in the past and are now watching for a chance to commit further acts of aggression. In this situation it would be a grave mistake to assume that our struggle to create an independent, new life will be plain sailing. Just as today's happy, new, socialist life has been provided for us through the arduous and bloody struggle of our revolutionary predecessors and patriotic people, so the complete victory of socialism and the eventual triumph of our revolution can be won only through our people's indomitable struggle against imperialism.

Our Party has been entrusted with a noble historic mission to lead our revolution to victory in the present complicated circumstances. All Party members and other working people must march forward dynamically along the road of socialism and communism, solidly united behind the great leader and the Party, under the unfurled revolutionary banner of the anti-imperialist struggle.