KIM
JONG IL
OUR
SOCIALISM CENTRED ON THE MASSES SHALL
NOT PERISH
Talk
to the Senior Officials of the
Central
Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea
May
5, 1991
...
3
Socialism in our
country is invincible socialism based on
the single-hearted unity of the leader,
the Party and the masses.
The driving force
of a socialist society is the popular
masses themselves. But only when the
popular masses are closely united behind
the Party and the leader can they play
their role as the independent driving
force of the revolution and successfully
carry out socialist construction.
A socialist
society is an organized society based on
collectivism. Therefore, it can never
forge a path spontaneously. When a
socialist society is guided by a correct
guiding idea and a scientific strategy and
tactics, and when the political awareness
of the popular masses and their sense of
organization are raised, it can fully
display its advantages and be steadily
consolidated and developed. Presenting to
the popular masses a correct guiding idea
and a scientific strategy and tactics, and
ensuring that they become politically
conscious and organize themselves, is done
by an outstanding leader of the working
class and the party.
The leader is
the centre of unity and cohesion which
ensures that the popular masses become
politically conscious and organize
themselves so that they are united into a
political force, and he is the centre of
leadership at the head of the
revolutionary struggle of the popular
masses, leading it to victory with his
scientific theory and strategy and
tactics. He is the great revolutionary
leader who defends the independent demands
and interests of the popular masses; he
has an unusual gift of foresight, is
all-powerful in the leadership art and
noble in personal virtue, and leads the
people wisely in their struggle. When, in
the days of national suffering, our people
were buffeted by the waves of adversity,
unable to find the way to take, they
eagerly sought an outstanding leader. This
desire was magnificently fulfilled when
the great Comrade Kim Il Sung
became our people’s leader. With our
people under the leadership of Comrade Kim
Il Sung, the greatest leader they
had acclaimed in their history of several
thousand years, they were able to put an
end to their prolonged history of
suffering, create a new era of revolution
and forge a victorious new history of
socialism. The excellent people-centred
socialism of our own style built in our
country is a brilliant fruition of the
tireless and energetic activities of the
great leader and his wise guidance, the
leader who boundlessly loves the people
and has devoted his whole life to their
interests.
The idea and
theory and the policy put forward by the
great leader are the full embodiment of
the people’s will and requirements. Our
great leader has taught us that the
popular masses are teachers. Not in his
office, but in the midst of the populace,
he discovered the truth of the Juche
principles, put these principles in a
systematic form, reflecting the people’s
aspirations, and on the basis of a review
of the experience of the struggle waged by
the popular masses for realizing
independence, he moulded the Juche idea
into a comprehensive system. He has always
mixed with the popular masses in order to
discover their will and demands, and, on
this basis, he pas put forward new lines
and policies. The leader also presented
the Juche method of farming by
systematizing the experience of farmers,
working among them, while giving
on-the-spot guidance at many rural
villages. The famous Chongsanri spirit and
Chongsanri method which are the communist
guiding idea and the method of guidance of
mass leadership, were also presented by
him by systematizing the aspirations and
will of the farmers of Chongsan-ri while
sharing board and lodging with them.
He has covered
millions of miles in giving his
on-the-spot guidance, and in the course of
this he has put forward lines and policies
reflecting the aspirations and will of the
popular masses, and encouraged them to
implement them, thus leading our
revolution into an uninterrupted upsurge.
The Juche method of leadership which the
great leader has created, personally
setting a shining example, his method of
work, has become our Party’s traditional
method of work.
The
single-hearted unity of the leader, the
Party and the masses which is an
imperishable life blood of our socialism
emanates from the great leader’s infinite
love for the people. Because the leader
shows boundless affection for the people
and meets all their desires, our people
respect him profoundly as their true
father, hold him in high esteem and are
completely devoted to him.
The leader
effects his guidance through the
working-class party. The working-class
party is the vanguard detachment made up
of the leading elements of the working
people, and it is the General Staff of the
revolution leading the struggle for the
independence of the popular masses.
The
working-class party is the sole guiding
force in socialist society. No other
political organization can take its
position and role. The government in power
and working people’s organizations,
mass-based political organizations made up
of certain sections of society, cannot
take the place of the working-class party
in view of their characters, and they
should be subject to its guidance. Nor can
political parties other than the
working-class party become the guiding
force in socialist society. Socialist
society is a transitional society in which
class distinctions and other differences
remain. Therefore, other political parties
can exist with the working-class party.
But parties representing certain political
forces or sections can never take the
position and role of the working-class
party. Transferring the hegemony in
socialist society which embodies the
demand of the working class to the hands
of a political party other than the
working-class party means, in the final
analysis, abandoning socialism. Other
political parties in a socialist society
are not political organizations competing
with the working-class party for power.
They should be friendly political
organizations cooperating with one another
in conditions where the leadership of the
working-class party over the whole society
is ensured. This is an essential demand of
a socialist society, where the desire for
independence of the farmers, working
intellectuals and other broad sections of
the people, to say nothing of the working
class, the leading class, is being met. If
this demand is disregarded and the leading
position and role of the working-class
party are weakened or ignored, the working
people will be reduced to unorganized
masses bereft of their guiding centre and
will finally break up. The result may be
that counter-revolutionary elements
mislead public opinion and seize power,.
Whether the leadership of the
working-class party over a socialist
society is ensured or not is a crucial
problem affecting the destiny of
socialism.
Our people
regard the Workers’ Party of Korea, their
working-class party, as their only guiding
force, entrust their destiny entirely to
it and faithfully uphold its leadership.
The advantages
and solidity of socialism depend on the
revolutionary character of the
working-class party, the guiding force of
socialist society, and its leadership
role.
Our Party is
guided by the people-centred Juche idea
and is fighting to fulfil the cause of
independence for the popular masses.
Regarding the people-centred Juche idea as
its only guiding ideology and the complete
realization of their independence as its
noble mission form the basic character of
our Party, a revolutionary Party serving
the people.
Our Party was
built as a mass party embracing the
progressive workers, farmers and working
intellectuals in conformity with its
intrinsic character as a party serving the
people, and has strengthened and developed
into a revolutionary party which is rooted
deep among the popular masses.
Even when
shaping a single policy, our Party, which
is infinitely faithful to the people,
always goes deep among the people to
acquaint itself with their will and
demands and mirror them in it. Because
they reflect the people’s will and
demands, all the policies of our Party
have become the concern of the popular
masses themselves and are applied in their
actual lives. In the future, too, we
should regard the protection of the
people’s interests as the supreme
principle governing our Party’s activities
and should ensure that all its activities
are conducted fully in keeping with the
will and demands of the masses.
If the
working-class party is to carry out its
mission of serving the people, the party
itself should be strengthened unceasingly.
Even if it regards serving the people as
its mission, the party cannot play its
role satisfactorily if it fails to build
itself up.
The source of
the might of the revolutionary party of
the working class lies in its achieving
its complete unity and solidarity on the
basis of one ideology. Our Party has made
its basic line in Party building the
establishment of a monolithic ideological
system and has striven to embody it fully.
This has enabled us to establish the
leader’s ideological system and system of
leadership throughout the party and
achieve unbreakable unity and cohesion
and, on this basis, to step up the
revolution and construction forcefully.
Ensuring
continuation in building the working-class
party is the guarantee of its
invincibility. This is a requirement of
the law that guides the development of the
communist movement and the party. The
revolutionary cause of the working class
has to be carried out over a long period
of time from generation to generation and
the generations change constantly in the
course of the development of the communist
movement. This makes it necessary for the
building of the working-class party to be
carried forward and developed through the
generations. Ensuring continuation in
party building is, in the final analysis,
the question of ensuring continuation in
party’s leadership. The question of the
continuation of party leadership for
carrying forward the cause of the leader,
the pioneer of the revolution, has been
solved in our country. In order to ensure
continuation in the building of the
working-class party, the revolutionary
traditions of the party should be
protected and revolutionary principles
firmly maintained. Socialism develops
unceasingly and many problems requiring
fresh solutions occur during the advance.
However, in the whole process from its
beginning to its accomplishment, socialism
advances through the course of inheriting,
developing and enriching the exploits
performed and the experience gained
previously. In the course of overcoming
grim trials under the guidance of the
party and the leader, valuable traditions
that will be regarded as a permanent model
in the revolution and construction are
built up and the principles to be
consistently held fast to are established.
Our Party has not only solved the problem
of the continuation of the leadership but
also fully protected and maintained the
glorious revolutionary traditions
established in the flames of the
anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. It
has also consistently adhered to Juche
revolutionary lines and policies, and
thereby carried the revolutionary cause of
Juche unfailingly along the road to
victory.
Revolutionary
organization and discipline are the
life-blood and the source of strength of
the working-class party. It leads the
revolutionary struggle and construction
work, surmounting every manner of trial
and difficulty in the fierce class
struggle. If it becomes an amorphous body,
it cannot work effectively. Our Party
embodies the principle of democratic
centralism and has firmly established the
revolutionary habit of leading a Party
life among its members based on the
unified rules of a Party life. As a
result, it has strengthened and developed
into an invincible militant Party with
strong organization and discipline, all
the members of which act as one under the
leader’s unitary leadership.
The
working-class party should make the basis
of its activity work with people. Man is
the driving force of the revolution and
construction. Accordingly, the
working-class party should, through
organizational and political work with
people, solve all the problems arising in
party building and activity. Whether the
working-class party discharges its mission
to the full or not depends on how it works
with people. Our Party has steadfastly
converted Party work into work with
people, that is, work with cadres, work
with Party members and work with the
masses, and established a well-regulated
system for working with cadres, for
guiding Party life and for working with
the masses. This has enabled our Party to
build itself up strongly and its
revolutionary ranks up organizationally
and ideologically, as well as to
strengthen the driving force of the
revolution considerably and, on the basis
of this, to promote the revolution and
construction.
We should
continue to embody the Juche theory on
Party building thoroughly and strengthen
and develop our Party into a militant
political organization which is united on
the basis of the monolithic ideological
system and which is strong in organization
and discipline, into a seasoned political
General Staff which at all times ensures
its political leadership over society
through work with people and into a
revolutionary party of a Juche type which
invariably defends its revolutionary
character.
If the
working-class party is to serve the
popular masses faithfully in conformity
with its intrinsic nature, officials
should learn a correct work method and
style. However correct party policy may
be, it cannot enjoy the support of the
people nor be implemented fully if
officials are at fault in their work
method and style. Only by establishing the
revolutionary method and popular style of
work that are suited to the nature of
socialist society can the trust of the
people in the party grow and their
revolutionary enthusiasm and creative
activity be displayed at a high level in
the revolution and construction.
One important
problem in establishing a work method and
style that are suited to the nature of a
socialist society is to overcome the abuse
of power and bureaucracy. Being
domineering and practicing bureaucracy are
an old work method and style which allow
officials to wield power by abusing their
authority and to behave contrary to the
will and interests of the popular masses.
Putting an end to the abuse of power and
bureaucracy among officials is a vital
demand for strengthening the close ties of
kinship between the working-class party
and the popular masses. The inclination
may appear among some officials after the
working-class party takes power to try to
solve all problems by wielding their power
and being domineering and practicing
bureaucracy.
The wielding of
power and bureaucracy have nothing in
common with the true nature of the
working-class party.
These are the
method of government employed by the
reactionary ruling class of the old
society. The appearance of such a method
in socialist society is mainly due to
outmoded ideological remnants in the minds
of officials. The work method and style
peculiar to the working-class party which
struggles for the interests of the people
are the revolutionary method and popular
style of work. From the first days of
building a new society we have set an
important task for the Party and state to
be to oppose the wielding of power and
bureaucracy and to establish the
revolutionary method and popular style of
work among officials, and we have striven
for this. Taking into consideration the
fact that the generations change and the
number of officials who lack sufficient
revolutionary training is on the increase
among cadres, we have at all times
considered the establishment of the proper
method and style of work to be an
important task.
In order to put an
end to the abuse of power and bureaucracy
and to establish the revolutionary method
and popular style of work all officials
should acquire the habit of serving the
popular masses faithfully with the spirit
of selfless service for them. This spirit
is based on the revolutionary view on the
popular masses. This view considers the
popular masses to be the masters of the
revolution and construction and the most
precious and powerful of beings. The
revolution and construction are work for
people and work to be done by the people
themselves. The popular masses have
inexhaustible wisdom and strength.
Officials should regard the popular masses
as the masters of everything and as the
most powerful of beings, respect and love
them, believe in their inexhaustible
strength and work by relying on it. They
should not fall prey to subjectivism or
arbitrariness but always lend an ear to
the voices of the masses and bring their
revolutionary enthusiasm and creative
initiative into full play.
Officials are not
special beings standing over the masses
but their servants who have come from
among the masses and serve them. As the
servants of the people, officials should
always think more of the interests of the
people than of their own interests. They
should regard the demands and sufferings
of the people as their own and help them
promptly to solve any difficult problems
in their lives and share life and death,
good times and bad, with them.
Officials should
treat all the people kindly and respect
their personality, displaying profound
humanity and heart-warming hospitality for
them. They should value the
socio-political integrity of the people,
solve any problems in their
socio-political life promptly and treat
them without discrimination.
Officials should
not be estranged from the popular masses
but be familiar terms with them. They
should not put on airs and show off their
authority but always be modest and simple
in their behaviour. They should not pursue
their own interests and seek special
favours and preferential treatment, but
lead an upright and clean life. They
should observe the legal provisions of the
state willingly and set examples for the
masses in doing difficult and arduous
work.
The most worthy way
for officials to live is to enjoy the
affection and trust of the people while
serving them. Faithful to the slogan of
the party, “We serve the people!”, they
should have a correct view of the popular
masses, thoroughly defend the interests of
the people and dedicate their all to them.
In order to put an
end to the abuse of power and bureaucracy
and to establish the revolutionary method
and popular style of work a proper work
system should be set up.
Without going among
the masses, officials cannot listen to
their voices or work in keeping with their
will and demands, nor can they organize
and mobilize them. Our Party put forward
the slogan, “Let the whole Party go among
the masses!” and established a
well-organized work system under which al
officials go among the masses.
Going among the
masses to work has become the habit of our
officials and in the course of this
subjectivism, bureaucracy, formalism and
other outdated work methods and styles
have been overcome.
Our Party has
ensured that officials not only go among
the masses but also keep political work
ahead of all work and solve problems by a
political method. Keeping political work
ahead of all other work is the intrinsic
demand of a socialist society which
develops due to the high revolutionary
enthusiasm and creative activity of the
working people. Our Party put up the
slogan, “Let the whole Party become a
propagandist and agitator!” and has made
sure that all officials go among the
masses and give priority to political work
to fire the revolutionary enthusiasm of
the working people. Our officials go among
the masses and arouse them vigorously to
join the revolution and construction while
explaining Party policies to them and
sharing weal and woe with them.
In order to put an
end to the misuse of power and bureaucracy
and to establish the revolutionary method
and popular style of work, ideological
education and the ideological struggle
should be undertaken boldly by officials.
The wielding of power, bureaucracy and
other obsolete work methods and styles are
a manifestation of outdated ideological
remnants, and they are deep rooted.
Without constant ideological education and
a continuous ideological struggle among
officials it is impossible to eliminate
outdated work methods and styles such as
the misuse of power and bureaucracy. While
ensuring that officials equip themselves
fully with the theory and method of Juche
leadership created by the great leader,
our Party has seen to it that ideological
education was provided and ideological
struggle launched with data on positive
and negative phenomena manifested in work
methods and styles. In the course of
persistent ideological education and a
continual ideological struggle the
wielding of power, bureaucracy and other
outdated work methods and styles are being
eliminated. As a consequence, the
revolutionary method and popular style of
work are being firmly established within
our Party.
In the future, too,
we should continue with the struggle to
overcome every manner of outdated work
method and style, such as the wielding of
power and bureaucracy, and to establish
the revolutionary method and popular style
of work. In this way we shall strengthen
and develop our Party into an invincible
revolutionary party which is in perfect
harmony with the popular masses and enjoys
their unreserved support and confidence,
and lead them to accomplish the
revolutionary cause of Juche.
Today our people
have infinite trust in the Party and the
leader and are marching forward along the
road indicated by the Party and the
leader. Faithful to the slogan, “When the
Party is determined, we can do anything!”
our people are striving to implement Party
lines and policies, through thick and
thin. The Party and the leader believe in
and have profound love for the people, and
the people place absolute trust in the
Party and the leader and support them.
This is the true nature of our
single-hearted unity. Nothing can break
the might of our style of socialism in
which the leader, the Party and the masses
are united as one. By drawing on the might
of the single-hearted unity among the
leader, the Party and the masses, we must
frustrate the anti-socialist machinations
of the imperialists and reactionaries,
achieve the independent reunification of
the country and win without fail the final
victory of socialism and communism.