Workers World Party and Kim Jong Il

[derby378]

Submitted for your review and without any editorial comment whatsoever: this letter from Sam Marcy of the WWP to Kim Jong Il:

On July 9, Workers World Party Chairperson Sam Marcy sent the following statement to Comrade Kim Jong Il, the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea and the State Funeral Committee of President Kim Il Sung.

Dear Comrade Kim Jong Il:

The National Committee of Workers World Party extends our deepest condolences on the passing of the great leader of the Korean people, Comrade President Kim Il Sung.

Comrade Kim Il Sung devoted his whole life to the Korean people's struggle for national self-determination and the international working-class struggle for socialist emancipation. With his leadership, the Korean people defeated the Japanese colonial occupation and soon after brought about the first defeat of the U.S. imperialist military machine.

For over 40 years since the armistice, the U.S. military has continued to occupy the south of Korea with troops and nuclear weapons. This occupation has been the chief obstacle to peaceful reunification of Korea and poses the chief danger of a new war on the peninsula.

The recent nuclear crisis is the latest episode in a long history of Pentagon threats and provocation against Korea. At a time when the people of the United States are suffering from unemployment, racism and a general decline in living standards, another U.S. war against Korea would be a terrible crime against the poor and working people of the U.S. as well as against the people of Korea.

Comrade Kim Il Sung worked tirelessly to bring about the peaceful reunification of Korea and to forge a lasting peace on the peninsula. Workers World Party, representing class-conscious workers in the U.S., understands that Comrade Kim Il Sung's great efforts to achieve peace and reunification met the aspirations of the Korean people and also benefited the poor and working people of the U.S.

It is Kim Il Sung's remarkable achievement that in his own lifetime he became a symbol of national liberation and reunification for the Korean people, and a symbol of the anti-imperialist and socialist struggles of all the world's peoples. Although U.S. imperialism tried at every opportunity to blockade, threaten and sabotage the construction of socialism in the north, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea stands strong. The accomplishments of socialist construction will be a lasting monument to the leadership of Comrade Kim Il Sung.

International developments in the last few years have created great difficulties for the working class and oppressed peoples of the world. And in the face of these difficulties some have wavered or even abandoned the struggle. But Comrade Kim Il Sung and the Workers Party of Korea refused to let go of the principles of revolutionary socialist internationalism.

Leadership in times of great difficulties is what makes a leader truly great.

Workers World Party values our close, comradely relations with the Workers Party of Korea very highly. We are proud to have known Kim Il Sung as a great leader and a comrade in the international communist movement. And it is with the most profound sense of loss that we mark his passing. Yet it is also with the greatest revolutionary optimism that we are confident that Comrade Kim Il Sung's legacy will live on with your efforts to win new victories for the Korean people. His contributions and achievements for the cause of international socialism for all humanity will never be forgotten.

With comradely solidarity, Sam Marcy Chairperson, Workers World Party

http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/sam94/1994html/s940721.htm

[H2O Man]

1. Yep.

Thanks.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. A little late, isn't it?

(As the link shows,) Kim Il Sung croaked in 1994, when that letter was written.

[derby378]

3. As did Sam Marcy (back in 1998)

But I have yet to see where the WWP has distanced itself from North Korea in any way. Indeed, their more recent news dispatches still seem to indicate solidarity with Kim Jong Il. This bothers me a lot.

[Richard Steele]

4. No comment necessary for this. Nice post!

[davidinalameda]

5. I must admit I find some of their positions contradictory

They're big supporters of North Korea, which is obviously a totalitarian regime which suppresses all of its people, but is still in favor of same sex marriage

I tend to remember that gays and lesbians were punished quite severely in the Soviet Union, China and a host of other communist countries.

[Iktomiwicasa]

6. Anyone

who supports Kim Il Sung suffers from a major recto-cranial inversion.

[davidinalameda]

7. I like that

need to remember that phrase

[QC]

8. WWP on the Tienanmen Square massacre: It Rocks!

http://www.workers.org/ww/tienanmen.html

[derby378]

9. Exactly

And I'm sure some students fought back, but how does WWP explain this?

[QC]

12. Those students were clearly running dogs of imperialism! n/t

[Busshianic]

15. lol, thats hilarious, thanks for posting!

[derby378]

10. Your homework assignment for today

Research the background of this 2002 article from North Korea's government-controlled media:

U.S party delegation meets former unconverted long-term prisoners

Pyongyang, April 24 (KCNA) -- Members of the delegation of the Workers World Party of the U.S. led by Deirdre Griswold, member of the secretariat of its national committee, met with Kim Tong Gi and Hong Myong Gi, former unconverted long-term prisoners who are known as men of strong faith and will, at Pyongyang Koryo Hotel yesterday. At the meeting, Kim and Hong said that the former long-term prisoners had kept their pledge to the party and the leader, while undergoing mental and physical sufferings beyond human imagination behind bars, and devoted themselves to the motherland more precious than their lives.

Noting that leader Kim Jong Il put forward them as patriotic champions of reunification and bestowed deep love and benevolence upon them, they said there is no enemy to be afraid of and nothing impossible to do when people have the revolutionary faith and will to follow only Kim Jong Il.

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2002/200204/news04/24.htm

[Zynx]

11. What the hell's wrong with these guys?

They must be lunatics.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. ROTFLMFAO @

"For over 40 years since the armistice, the U.S. military has continued to occupy the south of Korea with troops and nuclear weapons. This occupation has been the chief obstacle to peaceful reunification of Korea and poses the chief danger of a new war on the peninsula. "

[Ignoramus]

14. Does your point happen to be

that therefore if a demonstration is organized/hijacked by ANSWER, that people shouldn't attend?

The democratic party also has some horrifying policies. The people that come up with bad policies for the democrats or for workers world party, are confused. The policy can be murderous, but the people might not be.

If a democrat wants to protest the occupation in Iraq, I will join with him, even if he has some whacked out, oppose the war, but support the actualization of it philosophy.

I agree that ANSWER is a problem. The way to deal with it is not to abandon the public who comes out to demonstrate. It's better to hijack the demonstration back.

There are already people at the demonstrations who make speeches and pass out literature in support of the demonstration, but in opposition to ANSWER. That's a good thing. Just don't divert people from the demonstration which is theirs, not ANSWER's.

[Generic Other]

16. So did Donald Rumsfeld ever shake their hands?

Just wondering.

There is at least some consistency in their position. Can you be a good communist and NOT support the imperfectly realized communist regimes in power?

I mean, we have a president who kisses Saudi princes' asses ten times more than the WWP is doing here.

Is Kim Jong Il's butt really any uglier?