A Red Salute to Kim Jong Il!

Andy Brooks talking about Juche

 By New Worker correspondent

FRIENDS of Democratic Korea returned to the Marchmont Centre in central London last weekend to mark the 1^st anniversary of the passing of dear leader Kim Jong Il called by the Juché societies in Britain, electrified by the news that the DPRK had successfully put a satellite into Earth orbit.

 The achievement of Democratic Korea’s independent space programme was a fitting tribute to the memory of Kim Jong Il and the new leadership around his successor, Kim Jong Un. And that was a point stressed by all four speakers at the meeting on Saturday organised by the Juché Idea Study Group and the Association for the Study of Songun Politics.

 But first of all everyone stood to observe two minutes’ silence in memory of Kim Jong Il. A screening of Korea Changing Sorrow into Strength and Courage was followed by thoughtful contributions from Dermot Hudson and Shaun Pickford from the Juché society on the life of Kim Jong Il.

 Dr Hugh Goodacre, a lecturer at the University of London, opened discussion on the meaning of Juché that was taken up by New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks in his own contribution to the discussion. He stressed the importance of independence and self-reliance in the philosophy of Kimilsungism and the Juché Idea.

 The general secretary of the NCP said that the DPRK and the Workers Party of Korea were under attack by right-wing and bogus “left-wing” revisionists as well as the bourgeois pundits who never even bothered to read what Kim Jong Il actually said. If they had they would see that Kim Jong Il had made an immense contribution to Marxist-Leninist theory and ideology.

 “In his 1982 work On the Juche Idea, Kim Jong Il brought together and systematised the Juché theory while 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,” Andy Brooks declared.

 All these points were triggers for a lively discussion amongst the activists and supporters of Korean-style socialism which could have continued well into the evening. But sadly time ran out leaving  just enough  to end  with the enthusiastic adoption by acclaim of a solidarity message to Kim Jong Un, the new leader of the Party and People of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.