I’m all right Jack…?

by Ray Jones

“Individualism is the product of private ownership…” *

 Whilst a degree of co-operation and collectivism is essential for humans to survive and to produce what they need in the way of food and shelter etc, the rise of capitalism produced an emphasis on the individual not seen before in the name of increased profits.
    In the early days the theory and practice were severe, capitalists must be allowed the freedom to exploit their workers to the limit, free of any legal or moral restriction, whilst workers must be free to move about and sell their labour power to any employer that needs it.
    Workers must not join together to demand better pay, they should stand alone and beg from the boss – one person (very poor) against one person (very rich), that’s fair isn’t it?
    The family was pressured to conform to a pattern of one man, one woman and their children, the so-called nuclear family. This was considered the optimal unit for economic efficiency and labour flexibility.
    The patriarchal nature of society was continued by making the male the head of the household with an assumption that he will be the main bread winner, whilst if she works outside the home the woman will still look after the children and do most of the domestic work.
    This pattern did not in fact suit many workers. Many people needed more co-operative forms to cope with their problems under capitalism, such as extended families with the elderly at home to help with child-care and the chores, and adult kids who still need a home. And of course gays, lesbians and transsexuals were not taken into account, except to illegalise them and drive them underground.
    Since then, Capitalism has of course given ground and many things have changed over the years due to its internal problems, the resistance of the workers and, it must be said, its successes. But it’s worth remembering that there are neo-liberals who still aimed for these conditions.
    The capitalist state has not been able to just sit back and let individuals get on with it. The individualist philosophy of laissez-faire has not worked, and they have been forced to intervene to defend the system and to try to keep it flowing smoothly. The amount it intervenes is an ongoing debate within the ruling class that often get heated and divides them into parties. Different bourgeois economists produce different theories as to how much state intervention is desirable, and the capitalists veer from one to the other.

“…society, based on private ownership, inevitably splits into hostile classes, produces class antagonism and social inequality, and is accompanied by the exploitation and oppression of the popular masses by a small ruling class.”*

The USA is often considered the most individualist of modern capitalist societies and this is re-enforced by the mythology of the Wild West – the hard-working man (with or without his hard-working woman) scraping a living against the elements, the Indians (Native Americans) and often what there was of the state on the frontier. This picture of course ignores much of reality, as the settlers included many who immediately formed small towns to provide the necessities and small luxuries of life. These small towns then sometimes grew quite rapidly into cities, with all the complexities that entails.
    Ironically the iconic figure of the Wild West, the lawman/gun-for-hire (often the same person played both roles – sometimes at the same time!) needs the setting of the town for his existence; he needs a community to employ him or that he can terrorise.
    Understandably, individualism is strongest in the areas of the USA that remain wildernesses or semi-wildernesses. Here, often long distances from major cities, people are forced to be as self-reliant as possible and have often chosen this way of life. They feel alienated from the local state authorities and even more so from the federal government and resent any intervention by them as attacks on their freedom.
    But the antagonistic attitude of individualism is not confined to individuals, it pervades the whole of society where each community is at odds with the others. It’s possible to see these off-grid semi-hermits as the bottom rung of a ladder of antagonism in the USA. Above them are the small towns that they try to avoid as much as possible and which in turn distrust the large cities, which in their turn look down on the small towns whilst objecting to any actions of the federal government that might infringe their rights. Of course, needs operate to keep the whole together and in ‘good times’ they rub along, but in problem periods and in crisis relationships can get very strained indeed.
    The racist murder by police of George Floyd in Minneapolis displayed an example of the conflicts. Following the murder, President Donald Trump sent federal officers into the city (not to help arrest the culprits but to put down the protesters against the crime!). Such was the feeling against what was seen as federal interference virtually the whole city, Democrat and Republican, turned against him and demanded their withdrawal.
    In contrast, socialism is built on the need of working people for co-operation and collectivism. A workers’ state that is built by and for the workers cannot be in constant conflict with them, and any conflicts that arise must be dealt with and not allowed to become severe.
    With socialism, individuals are encouraged to find real freedom and real independence within their collectives – in their unions, residents associations, councils etc – which now have real powers. Instead of being isolated individuals whose influence is minimal, they can express their feelings and ideas there and have them considered and possibly adopted by their comrades.

“History shows that independence for the masses cannot be realised by a society based on individualism…a society based on individualism must be replaced by a society based on collectivism, by socialism and communism.” *

* quotes from Kim Jong Il, leader of the DPR Korea, Socialism is a Science. Pyongyang 1994.

Kim Jong Il always with us

By Andy Brooks

Our Party joined millions of Koreans and millions of communists all over the world last week in recalling the outstanding achievements of dear leader Kim Jong Il on the occasion of the 4th anniversary of his passing.

Four years have passed since the loss of dear leader Kim Jong Il, who dedicated his life to the revolutionary movement that was founded by Kim Il Sung, and the young militants around him, to fight the Japanese colonialists and build a modern communist party that would lead the Korean workers and peasants to a new life under socialism. Building a guerrilla army that took on the might of the Japanese Empire, great leader Kim Il Sung mobilised the masses in a struggle that ended in victory in 1945 and the establishment of a people’s government in the north of the country.

The Workers’ Party of Korea, with Kim Il Sung at the helm, led the battle for land reform, education and socialist construction in the 1950s and 1960s, and then pushed forward on the engineering, technical and scientific fronts to build a modern socialist republic where every individual worker is master of his or her own life. The DPRK stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the peoples of the Third World struggling to break the chains of colonialism, and gave technical and economic aid to their new republics to defend their freedom and independence.

From an early age Kim Jong Il worked side by side with Kim Il Sung, and when Kim Il Sung passed away Kim Jong Il told the Korean people and the world that they could “expect no change from him”.

 Under his leadership the Workers’ Party of Korea won even more great victories. Natural disasters were overcome. Imperialist diplomatic isolation was broken and the intrigues of US imperialism were exposed. Scientists in Democratic Korea mastered the secrets of the atom to guarantee the DPRK’s defence and energy needs, and now Korean rockets reach for the stars.

The tragedy of Korea is that it has been divided since the Second World War and that division is entirely due to the United States, which has propped up a puppet regime in south Korea to maintain American imperialism’s military, strategic and economic dominance of north-east Asia and the Pacific Rim.

A monstrous concrete wall divides Korea. Tens of thousands of American troops remain are stationed in the south, backed by a US nuclear armada that threatens the DPRK and its neighbours. The communist movement is outlawed in the south and contacts with the north are tightly controlled by the repressive regime.

The Democratic Korean government has worked tirelessly to end the partition of the country. It has called on the United States to normalise relations with the DPRK. A proposal for the re-unification of Korea based on the principle of “one country – two systems” – similar to the one that led to the peaceful return of Hong Kong and Macau to the People’s Republic of China – remains on the table.

Democratic Korea threatens no one, but the imperialist campaign to demonise and isolate the people’s government continues as a smokescreen to cover US plans to dominate the entire Pacific basin.

Following in Kim Il Sung’s footsteps, Kim Jong Il led the Workers Party of Korea into the 21st century to build a strong and prosperous democratic republic. Kim Jong Il was a leading Marxist thinker who made an important contribution to modern communist theory, as well as an astute statesman who led the Korean people through thick and thin to overcome natural disasters, imperialist blockade and diplomatic isolation.

Kim Jong Il made an immense contribution to Marxist-Leninist theory and ideology. In his 1982 work On the Juché Idea, Kim Jong Il brought together and systematised the Juché theory; his 1994 thesis Socialism is a Science affirmed that socialism would eventually become the economic system of the entire world because it is the only form of society in which people can be truly free.

            Kim Jong Il worked tirelessly to ease tension on the Korean peninsula to pave the way towards the peaceful reunification of Korea whilst at the same time ensuring the DPRK’s defence against the threats and provocations of US imperialism and its lackeys.

On 15th June 2000 Chairman Kim Jong Il of the National Defence Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and President Kim Dae Jung of south Korea signed the historic North–South Joint Declaration.  This was an historic landmark in the struggle of the Korean people to reunify their homeland that had forcibly been divided by the US imperialists following World War Two. The Declaration opened up a new era for independence, peace, reconciliation and reunification on the Korean peninsula until the US-sponsored anti-national, anti-communist and retrogressive Lee Myung Bak clique in the south began to sabotage its spirit and principles.

But US imperialism cannot forgive the DPRK for being the first country following the Second World War to defeat it on the battlefield, setting an example for all people fighting for independence and self-determination. Its revenge seeking against the DPRK continues unabated to this day.

The intrigues of the US and their south Korean lackeys are becoming increasingly dangerous as they work together to try to isolate the DPRK and the movement for national reunification. This includes jailing peace campaigners like Ro Su Hui under the fascist National Security Law, and carrying out endless provocations such as the joint US–south Korean military exercises aimed at invading the DPRK and bringing the Korean peninsula ever closer to a cataclysmic nuclear war.

 The DPRK has had no alternative but to develop a nuclear deterrent to defend its socialist system. At the same time it has pledged that it will never be the first to use nuclear weapons, and it has also vowed never to threaten the use of nuclear weapons nor allow

the transfer of nuclear technology to other countries.

Kim Jong Il was a great leader of the Korean people who devoted his entire life to serving the Korean people in the cause of building a human-centred society, a cause that is one espoused by the democratic and anti-imperialist forces the world over.

We believe that the will of the Korean masses, expressed in concrete terms

by their vanguard party, the Workers’ Party of Korea now led by Kim Jong Un, and following in the footsteps of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, will overcome all obstacles to fulfil the revolutionary tasks that faced the Korean people when they began their long march to socialism in the struggle against Japanese imperialism.

Korea: A Day to Remember

Kim Jong Un following in the footsteps of those who have gone before him

By Andy Brooks

SEPTEMBER 9^th  is a special day for communists because on that day in 1948 the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was established in the free northern part of the Korean peninsula that had once been part of the Japanese Empire. It is a special day for Koreans on both sides of the divided country and amongst the overseas Korean community because on that day in 1948 the Korean people expressed their democratic will through popular power and immediately took the first steps towards building a new socialist life for the workers and peasants who had fought to free themselves from the Japanese yoke that had enslaved them for many decades.

            They were led by Kim Il Sung, the outstanding communist leader and thinker who founded of the modern Korean communist movement that began amongst the patriotic youth of Korea when he was a student in the 1920s.

From student leader to guerrilla leader, the “Young General” took up the gun to drive the Japanese colonialists out of the country. When Kim Il Sung gathered a small band of heroes to form the first guerrilla units to take on the might of the Japanese Army no one could have imagined that this would become the People’s Army that brought the American imperialists to their knees begging for an armistice in 1953.

But above all Kim Il Sung was the communist leader who built the Korean communist movement from the grass-roots in the 1920s to the Workers’ Party of Korea that was founded in 1945 and leads the Korean people from victory to victory in the 21^st century.

Kim Il Sung not only grasped Marxism-Leninism but he applied it to the concrete conditions of the Korean people. He knew that once the masses realised their own strength they would become unstoppable. He knew that serving the people was the be-all and end-all for the Korean communists and for the Workers’ Party of Korea that he launched in 1945.

He developed Korean style socialism into the Juché idea – which elevates the philosophical principles of Marxism-Leninism as well as its economic theories – and focuses on the development of each individual worker, who can only be truly free as part of the collective will of the masses.

When great leader Kim Il Sung passed away in 1994 the torch was taken up by Kim Jong Il, who devoted his entire life to serving the Korean people. Following Kim Il Sung’s footsteps Kim Jong Il led the Workers’ Party of Korea into the 21^st century.  He too was a leading Marxist thinker who made an important contribution to modern communist theory as well as an astute statesman who led the Korean people through thick and thin to overcome natural disasters, imperialist blockade and diplomatic isolation. While ensuring the DPRK’s defence against the threats and provocations of US imperialism and its lackeys, Kim Jong Il worked tirelessly to ease tension on the Korean peninsula to pave the way towards the peaceful reunification of Korea.

Now the banner has been taken up by Kim Jong Un, the young leader of the Workers’ Party and the people of Korea, who is following in the footsteps of those who have gone before him to build a strong and prosperous democratic republic.

We believe that the will of the Korean masses, expressed in concrete terms by their vanguard party, will overcome all obstacles to fulfil the revolutionary tasks that faced the Korean people when they established the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 9^th September 1948.

The New Communist Party of Britain joins with the millions upon millions in the world communist movement in honouring the determination and sacrifice of the Korean people to defend their people’s government, which has fulfilled the hopes and dreams of the generations that fought for freedom and socialism and will continue to do so as we advance into the 21^st century.