Honouring a great Korean revolutionary

Dermot Hudson and Theo Russell

by New Worker correspondent

Kim Il Sung was born on 15th April 1912 and his birthday has long been celebrated as the Day of the Sun in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and by everyone who stands by the DPRK. And on that day last week solidarity activists gathered at the Cock Tavern in London to recall the outstanding achievements of the leader of the Korean revolution.
    Speakers included Dermot Hudson, the chair of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) that organised the meeting and NCP national organiser, Theo Russell. The Democratic Korean embassy in London sent a tribute that was read out at the meeting and messages were received from Korean friendship groups in Germany, Poland and Switzerland.
    In his tribute Dermot Hudson praised the successful test firing of the Democratic Korean ballistic missile as a great victory for Juche and self-reliance – the Korean-style socialism pioneered by Kim Il Sung that is followed by his successors in the people’s republic today.
    Kim Il Sung was a great anti-imperialist revolutionary who turned the DPRK into a fortress of militant anti-imperialism and totally opposed the line of compromise with imperialism. His life from beginning to end was one of principled and constant struggle against imperialism and for independence’.
    Theo Russell praised the life of Kim Il Sung as that of a great revolutionary . He said that the achievements of the DPRK are great and are due to the Juche philosophy authored by the great leader of the Korean people who worked tirelessly throughout his life for the communist cause.
    Shaun Pickford, the head of Staffordshire KFA focused on the international dimension of the DPRK and the Juche Idea. The first Juche idea study group was formed in Mali , West Africa and since then many international seminars on the Juche Idea have followed.
    This was followed by a general discussion on Juche and life in the DPRK and ended with the traditional refreshments and informal chat amongst friends of Korea old and new.

A great Korean revolutionary

Kim Song Gi, Andy Brooks and Michael Chant

By New Worker correspondent

London communists met last week to celebrate the life of Kim Il Sung, who led the mighty movement that freed Korea from Japanese colonialism and established the people’s government in the north that was to become the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Comrades gathered at the John Buckle Centre in south London for the commemoration called to honour the 107th anniversary of the birthday of President Kim Il Sung, the father of modern Korea, and to hear a report on the current situation by a diplomat from the DPRK embassy in London.

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 Korean communists and for the Workers’ Party of Korea that he launched in 1945. He developed Korean-style socialism and 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.

In the western world Juché is often described as “self-reliance” but it is much more than that. Kim Il Sung said that working people could only become genuinely emancipated if they stood on their own feet – but the Juché idea doesn’t negate proletarian internationalism. The Soviet Union, People’s China and the people’s democracies of eastern Europe all closed ranks behind Democratic Korea during the Korean war.

The Korean people responded with their trade and assistance whenever they could, whilst Korean experts and advisers helped the Vietnamese, the Arabs and the Africans struggling to break the chains of colonialism, and they continue to do so today. And Kim Il Sung’s successors, dear leader Kim Jong Il and leader Kim Jong Un have followed his footsteps to build a modern socialist republic, where every individual worker is master of his or her own life.

New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks opened the formal part of the meeting, which began with a tribute to the life of Kim Il Sung by Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML). That was followed by a talk by Kim Song Gi from the Democratic Korean embassy on Kim Il Sung’s immense contribution to the world communist movement. The Korean comrade also spoke about the current status of negotiations with US imperialism following the collapse of talks between Donald Trump and Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi in February.

The Q&A session soon led into a lively discussion with the Korean comrade on the efforts of the people’s government to ease tension on the Korean peninsula, and the need to put Korea back on the peace and anti-war movement agenda in Britain and build solidarity with the Korean people on both sides of the divided peninsula.

Finally the comrades sent a solidarity message to Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and called on everyone to support the right of the Korean people to self-determination and independence in the context of taking up the cause of global peace.

The Co-ordinating Committee of the Friends of Korea brings together all the major movements active in Korean friendship and solidarity work in Britain today. It is chaired by Andy Brooks and the secretary is Michael Chant. The committee organises meetings throughout the year, which are publicised by the supporting movements and on the Friends of Korea website.

Remembering a Great Korean

Andy Brooks recalls the life of a great Korean

by New Worker   correspondent

Friends of the Korean people returned to the Chadswell Centre in central London last weekend to celebrate the 105^th anniversary of the birth of great leader Kim Il Sung, the Korean communist who led the guerrilla struggle that broke the bonds of Japanese colonialism to build the people’s republic which now stands as a bright red bastion of socialism in north east Asia.

Kim Il Sung was born on 15th April 1912 and his birthday has long been celebrated as the Day of the Sun in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and by everyone who stands by the DPRK.

Speakers, including solidarity activists and DPR Korea diplomats, spoke highly of Kim Il Sung’s immense contribution to the theory and practice of scientific socialism at the meeting called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA).

KFA Chair Dermot Hudson opened the meeting with a talk on the outstanding achievements of the Korean revolutionary whose life spanned most of the 20^th century. This was followed by Kim Song Gi from the DPRK embassy in London who said that his country was firmly based on the revolutionary traditions of Mt Paektu started by the great leader Kim Il Sun. Now the Korean people are successfully implementing the twin line of developing the economy and nuclear force in parallel under the wise leadership of Kim Jong Un.

Alex Meads spoke about the revolutionary traditions of the Korean People’s Army and their internationalist support for the Vietnamese, Egyptian and Zimbabwean revolutions while NCP leader Andy Brooks talked about his personal recollections of Kim Il Sung whom he met when the NCP sent a delegation to Pyongyang in 1990.

There was plenty of time for questions and general discussion which continued over refreshments long after the meeting ended.