JUCHE AND SOCIAL ADVANCE IN WESTERN EUROPE -A TRIBUTE TO THE GREAT LEADER
COMRADE KIM IL SUNG ON THE OCCASION OF THE 96 ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTH

Dermot Hudson Chairman of the Juche Idea Study Group of England (JISGE)


Introduction The Juche Idea of the great leader President Kim Il Sung ,which was further developed and enchanced by the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il,it is known for its great vitality and durablity.Its birth was in the fiery crucible of the anti Japanese armed struggle.It guided the Korean revolution for nearly 70 years and lead it to a great victory by defeating first Japanese imperialism,then US imperialism and then the building of a socialist state independent in politics,self sufficient in economics and self reliant in national defence.The DPRK became widely admired as a model of socialism and the influence of Juche spread beyond the borders of the land of the 3,000 ri The Juche idea became the guiding idea of not only the DPRK but the oppressed peoples of the third world in their struggle for independence and liberation.However some may ask what is the relevance of Juche to Western Europe as Europe is not socialist and is not part of the third world.This humble essay aims to try and answer this burning question.
Firstly,there can be no social advance in Western Europe without achieving first of all the absolute and full independence of Europe from US imperialism.It would be unthinkable to achieve an substanial social or democratic advance in Europe whilst it is still under the domination and tutelage of US imperialism.For decades US imperialism has blocked social advance and hampered progressive movements all over the world .As the great leader President Kim Il Sung said
'US Imperialism is the most barbarous and shameless
aggressor of modern times,the main force of aggression and
war,the ringleader of world reaction,the bulwark of modern
colonialism,the strangler of national liberation and
independence and disrupter of world peace'
(Kim Il Sung September 18th 1969)

During the cold war period it even actively planned to carry out or instigate military coups in countries where communists got elected to government and throughout the world carried out military coups armed interventions,sabotage,assasinations and dirty tricks campaigns.To give examples of this in Europe it has been revealed that the US CIA planned to carry out a coup if the the PCI( a reformist and revisionist party)won an election and also the hostile campaign against to stop left reformist Mr Tony Benn becoming leader of the Labour party and possibly UK prime minister.Also the sinister terrorist “Gladio” outfit was created by US agents in European countries to destroy by force left wing movements and assasinate leftist figures .Even today the US still interferes by so called ‘colour revolutions’ ,a stereotyped method of undermining and then overthrowing independent governments.This is essentially old wine in new bottles.
US domination is particularly acute in Britain which
has US troops stationed on its soil and has dispatched many troops to help the
US imperialists in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.This is against the wishes of
the vast majority of the British people.There is not a ‘special relationship” but
vassalage and submission to the interests of the US imperialists.The domination
of US imperialist “trash culture” is prevalent in Britain,with most films shown
on TV being from the US and many British TV programmes being simply copies of US
ones.Pop singers sing in an American style.Such so called culture is in fact a poison
turning people into mindless morons and degenerates Other European countries too suffer from a lack of cultural independence.The time honoured culture of France has been despoiled by the construction of “Euro-Disney” near Paris inflicting the banality of Mickey Mouse upon the French.


Economic domination by the US still exists to some extent though this has been weakened by the decline of the dollar and the rise of the European Union,however US monopolies still have footholds in the European continent and in particular have penetrated into the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe many of which have been turned
into vassal states and pro US sychphants by the reactionary rulers that seized power
after 1989.

Thus Europe needs to to achieve emancipation in all fields political,economic,philosophical
military and cultural fields from the United States.Obvious steps are withdrawing from NATO and the explusion of US troops from European soil but this would only be the start.The ideological and cultural basis of pro Americanism in Europe must be challenged.Thus Juche must be applied and Europeans must become the masters of Europe.The DPRK is a model country of independence -there are no foreign troops on its,the people are the masters of the economy with all major enterprises being operated by Korean people and national culture is strong and omnipotent.It is an inspiration to all peoples who struggle for independence.The DPRK fearlessly oppose US imperialism and is well known for its anti US anti imperialist struggle.Moreover the Juche idea,the idea of independence can be applied in the struggle for the independence of Europe.Juche can enable us to challenge and combat the pervasive ideology of pro Americanism that afflicts Europe.Essentially the pro US ideology in Europe is a form of what the Koreans define as flunkeyism which can be defined as servility to and submission to great powers.The great leader comrade Kim Il Sung once said that if a nation embraces flunkeyism it is ruined,if party embraces it it makes a mess of the revolution and construction and if a person embraces it he becomes an idiot.

Not only can the teachings of the Juche idea on political,economic and cultural independence but applied in Europe but these are essential to free Europe from US domination and achieve social advance.Juche can form the basis for ideological liberation in Europe

The works of the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung and the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il can also help us understand better the realities of the contemporary society in Europe.Whilst most European countries are subordinated to US imperialism they are still imperialist countries themselves.As the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il pointed out as long ago as the early 1960s after 1945 imperialism assumed a pyramid structure or a centripetal axis with US imperialism become the leading imperialist power and subordinating other imperialist powers.This fundamental point is not understood by some people..

The work of the great leader comrade Kim Jong “Let Us March Dynamically Along the Road of Socialism and Communism under the unfurled banner of Anti Imperialist Struggle”(25 September 1987) makes a profound analysis of the decadence of contemporary imperialism and is very useful to us in understanding the present era and very relevant to our understanding of how to achieve social change in Western Europe.
He points out that
“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 labor aristocrats, while striving to conceal capitalist exploitation and to subdue the resistance of the working masses through unemployment and poverty”
This point is quite fundamental as the existence of labour aristocrats and people with deep
illusions about capitalist society has undermined the revolutionary movement in Western
Europe and blocked the advance to socialism.President Kim Il Sung earlier told Peruvian
leader Alan Garcia in 1983 that ;

“capitalists are very cunning.They leave no stone unturned to maintain their position.
They rear labour aristocrats among the working class and put them up to disorganise
the ranks of the working class movement.Here in lies one of the major reasons why revolution does not break out in the capitalist countries”


The existence of the labour aristocracy and the embourgeoisifiction of the working class in the developed capitalist countries is a serious obastcle to the revolution and one that will have to be addressed and dealt with by those who struggle for socialism.

However this does not mean that capitalism is strong in Western Europe.In the work
quoted above leader comrade Kim Jong Il makes a penetrating analysis of contemporary
imperialism;
“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 roiling 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 paralyze the human body and mind, with the result that the number of drug addicts, a1coholics, 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 paralyze the working masses' consciousness of independence and to make people submitt 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 inimicality and depravity, murder and robbery are roman 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 c1ass is rezoning to crafty schemes to placate, deceive and bribe the masses while melding 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 modem imperialism.”

Thus leader comrade Kim Jong Il shows a broad sweep in summing up the features of contemporary imperialism .Even a casual glance at life in Britain today and indeed in other European countries to say nothing of north America will reveal the correctness of his analysis.Crime and degeneration are rampant,most English cities are not safe after dark,drug addiction,prostitution and alocholism are rampant and all sorts of degenerates stalk the streets and even commit degenerate acts in public with no censure from the ruling authorities.The ruling class are simply concerned with making money by whatever means possible.
A few years earlier the Juche Idea Study Group of England concluded that a controlled social collapse was happening within the imperialist countries whereby working class and some lower middle class areas are allowed to degenerate into disorder but the ruling monopoly capitalists live in exclusive secure and protected enclaves.

Juche a sharp tool for analysing the realities of contemporary imperialism.The Juche
socio historical principle teaches us to that real social advance is measured by whether the
popular masses play their role as masters of society.Much is made by revisionists,social
democrats and reformists of one hue or another about the former ‘welfare state’ in the
imperialist countries.Did this really advance the interests of the popular masses by making them masters of state and society?no it did not the capitalist structures stayed intact and the ‘welfare state’was actually used to cover up the contradictions of capitalism.Rather than fighting for reforms revolutionaries in Western Europe need to fight for the popular masses to become masters of society.

Thirdly,Juche can contribute to social advance in Western Europe as it provides the correct
answers to the question of the revival of the socialist and communist movement.The
socialist movement is in a very poor state in Western Europe,in most countries of Europe it
is divided into numerous small groups which are cut off from the masses.On top of that many opportunistic and revisionist ideologies prevail.The situation became particularly bad after the 1989-1991events which led to the frustation of socialism in the European socialist countries and the USSR this caused widespread demoralization and confusion.The propaganda that socialism failed or is wrong was widely spread without being effectively challenged by support Even before that the situation
of many socialist movements was poor.The onslaught of modern revisionism from 1956 had
caused many problems including split parties etc and also led to communist parties becoming non revolutionary ,in some cases even quite conservative ie they would oppose any activity continually saying “we cant do that,we cant do this” ,”we must not do such and such”.Very quickly such parties lost the support of revolutionary youth and became ‘OAP parties’.One deeply negative consequence of this was the growth of Trotskyism in a number of Western European countries.Trotskyism did not lead the revolutionary movement but just caused more setbacks because of its counter revolutionary nature and led to the socialist idea becoming even more remote from the working class in Western Europe.
Generally most leftist parties in Western Europe do not have working class support and have few working class membersIt is now very rare for such parties to be joined by the poorest people in society.Many such parties take their support from lower middle strata and the intelligentisa-the so called chattering classes and also from some sections of the labour aristocracy.However such parties have failed to win support from both the poor white working class in the European countries but also from immigrant communities.As a result such parties are isolated and cut off from potenial support.

The Juche idea can provide a means to overcome these problems that block the advance to socialism in Europe.First The Juche idea provides the answer is to why socialism was
frustated in some countries,in particular the works of leader comrade Kim Jong Il such
as “The Historical Lesson in Building Socialism and the General Line of Our Party”
and “Socialism Is A Science” provide answers as to what really happened and show
the way to revive socialism.This works show that socialism indeed scienfitic and
not utopian.The Juche idea teaches us that socialism must be centred upon the
popular masses,if it is not it will not suceed.Moreover Juche teaches us that only when
the party goes deep amongst the masses and unites the masses around itself can it when
victory.Juche teaches us that victory in the revolution comes not from small groups
or parties and that the work of the revolution and construction cannot be carried out
by a few individuals but the masses themselves.

Juche also teaches us that the socialist movement must reject flunkeyism and dogmatism
otherwise its work will not be successful.It is the people of Britain and Europe that must
carry out the revolution not people from elsewhere.In the past many parties in Europe
blindly copied and worshipped the Soviet Union and totatlly swallowed modern
revisionism only to be left helpless and in despair when the USSR and CPSU were
no longer.Some others tried to follow China but failed to build stable parties and experienced many splits and factionalism.Thus the socialist movement must strive to have its own Juche its work.


Thus Juche and the venerable works of the great leaders comrade Kim Il Sung and comrade Kim Jong Il can make a very big contribution to the struggle for social
advance against monopoly capitalism