KIM JONG IL
THE WORKERS’ PARTY OF KOREA ORGANIZES AND GUIDES
ALL THE VICTORIES OF OUR PEOPLE
October 3, Juche 79 (1990)
Forty-five years have passed since the Workers’ Party of Korea, the General Staff for the Korean revolution and the guiding force of our people, was founded.
Our Party has performed brilliant exploits which will shine forever in history for the freedom and happiness of our people and the prosperity and progress of the country, treading a long and thorny path under the banner of the Juche idea. It has carried out, by over-coming manifold difficulties, deep-going social reforms and grand construction work, converted our country into a socialist country that is independent in its politics and self-reliant in its economy and national defence, and firmly defended the country and revolution against imperialist aggression and the subversive acts of the class enemies. Our Party, which is always faithful to the cause of mankind’s independence, has fulfilled its international duty with credit and made valuable contributions to the development of the world revolution.
Through its protracted, arduous and glorious struggle our Party has become stronger and developed into a veteran and militant party which always leads the people to victory whatever the storm or stress, a seasoned General Staff for the Korean revolution which commands the implicit support and confidence of all the people. Our Party’s members and the working people now look back upon the revolutionary road travelled by our Party with great pride and self-confidence; they are full of a determination to fight more vigorously to build a socialist paradise in our country and achieve national reunification, the cherished desire of the nation, under the banner of the Party.
On the international scene at the moment an acute struggle is being waged between progress and reaction and between revolution and counterrevolution, and the socialist cause, the cause of the independence of mankind, is facing a grave challenge from the imperialists.
Our Party’s duty to our revolution and to the world revolution has become heavier. To meet the requirements of this situation we must further strengthen our Party, enhance its leadership role in the revolution and construction and so discharge our mission with credit.
1. PARTY LEADERSHIP IS THE DECISIVE GUARANTEE OF THE VICTORY
OF THE SOCIALIST CAUSE
Party leadership is vital to the socialist cause.
The socialist cause in our country has developed and triumphed under the leadership of our Party, and it will be brought to splendid fruition in the future, too, only under the leadership of the Party.
Party leadership is the decisive guarantee of strengthening the driving force of the socialist cause and increasing its role.
The socialist cause is a revolutionary cause which the popular masses, who have emerged as an independent driving force for the first time in human history, carry out by themselves. The popular masses have long remained outside history, though they have made history. It is the working-class party that awakens them and organizes them into a strong driving force which shapes its destiny independently and creatively.
Under the guidance of our Party led by respected Comrade Kim Il Sung our people have become an independent driving force which develops society and the revolution dynamically as the genuine masters of their own destiny. Our Party has always directed great efforts to building up the revolutionary ranks for the revolution and construction and, as socialist construction developed to a high level, waged a more vigorous struggle to strengthen the driving force of the revolution. Our Party equipped all our people fully with the Juche idea, united them closely behind the leader organizationally, ideologically and morally, and thus made the revolutionary ranks a socio-political organism. Today the Workers’ Party of Korea stands firmly in the centre of the revolutionary ranks in our country, and the masses of the people, who have withstood every manner of ordeal by sharing their destiny with the Party in the long revolutionary struggle, are united rock-firm behind the Party and the leader, sharing one mind and one will.
Our people are displaying inexhaustible creativity in socialist construction under the Party’s leadership. The great motive power of socialist construction in our country is, above all, the politico-ideological strength, conscious enthusiasm and creative activity of our people. This comes from the leadership of the Party which educates the people to regard the socialist cause as genuinely their own undertaking. The collective strength and mass heroism of our people, who are promoting socialist construction, is also brought into full play by the leadership of the Party which combines the interests of individuals and those of the collective and increases the power of unity and cooperation. The creativity of our people is displayed to the full in socialist construction. This reality clearly shows that the slander of the imperialists that Party leadership restricts the creativity of the people is a counterrevolutionary sophistry to whip up bourgeois liberalism and undermine socialism.
In the future we must continue to strengthen Party leadership and thus steadily consolidate the close revolutionary unity of our people around the Party and the leader and give full scope to the devotion and creative enthusiasm of the people in the struggle for the complete victory of the Juche revolutionary cause.
Party leadership is the fundamental condition for developing the socialist cause in accordance with a correct struggle strategy and proper tactics.
The socialist cause is a difficult and complex undertaking which is accompanied by an acute class struggle; through it we must create new things while treading an untrodden path. Only a correct struggle strategy and proper tactics can allow the socialist cause to follow a clear-cut direction and can provide ways to explore the socialist road successfully.
The strategic and tactical leadership of the socialist cause can only be given by the working-class party that can show correct ways to develop society and the revolution and can organize and mobilize the broad masses. The position and role of the party as the General Staff for the revolution which puts forward a correct strategy and proper tactics for socialist construction and organizes and leads the struggle to implement them cannot be taken by any other organizations or bodies. Of all organizations and bodies, including the organs of state power in socialist society, the working-class party alone has emerged with the mission to give political, strategic and tactical leadership to society and the revolution, and it alone is capable of fulfilling this mission.
In every period and at every stage of the revolution and construction work our Party has laid down a Juche line and Juche policies to suit the desires of our people and the actual situation in our country and implemented them by mobilizing the entire people, thereby developing socialist construction along a straight road and bringing about amazing miracles and changes.
In the future, too, we will at all times strengthen the strategic and tactical leadership of the Party, the General Staff for the revolution, and thus develop the socialist cause unwaveringly along a victorious road.
The Party’s leadership is indispensable if revolutionary principles are to be adhered to consistently and implemented thoroughly in the whole course of developing the socialist cause.
The socialist cause differs from other social movements because of its revolutionary principles, and it advances by relying on the justice and vitality of these principles. The history of the revolutionary struggle shows that when revolutionary principles are firmly maintained, the socialist cause will make progress in the face of any difficulty and ordeal, but that when they are abandoned the socialist cause will deteriorate and collapse.
Adherence to revolutionary principles in the building of socialism means supporting and meeting the fundamental demand of the working class and masses for independence, as well as all their interests, to the end. In the course of building socialism the circumstances and conditions of the struggle may change, but the fundamental demand and position of the masses of the people to realize their independence cannot change. If the socialist cause is to be carried to fulfilment, one must at all times adhere to the revolutionary principle of supporting and realizing the independence of the masses.
The demand for independence, as well as the interests, of the masses can be firmly supported and realized through the leadership of the working-class party alone. The working class embodies independence at the highest level and struggles more staunchly to realize the demand for independence, as well as the interests, of the masses than any other class or social section. The working class and its party have no demands and interests other than those of the people, and the mission of the working-class party is precisely to defend and meet the demands and interests of the masses.
It is due to the revolutionary leadership of our Party that the revolutionary principles reflecting the fundamental demand and position of the working class and masses are maintained invariably in socialist construction in our country. Our Party established the socialist system and has consolidated and developed it to meet the demand for independence, as well as the interests, of the masses and developed the revolution and construction work in keeping with the essential nature of the socialist-communist cause.
The more the imperialists have intensified their counterrevolutionary and anti-socialist offensives to stifle the independent interests of the masses, the more resolutely our Party has defended and implemented revolutionary principles.
The revolutionary principles of the working-class party in socialist construction are expressed mainly in its response to the imperialists’ anti-socialist manoeuvres. The imperialists’ counter- revolutionary moves to disrupt and destroy the socialist cause can be frustrated only through a principled struggle by the working-class party. Facts show that the counterrevolutionary offensive of the imperialists does not work where the party adheres to revolutionary principles and that socialism is weakened where the party ignores or forsakes these principles.
Thanks to the guidance of our Party which has consistently and resolutely adhered to revolutionary principles in the whole course of the revolutionary struggle, our people have been able to advance dynamically along the road of revolution under the banner of socialism even when the situation has been unprecedentedly complex and acute because of the US-led imperialists’ concentrated offensive. Thanks to our Party’s principled struggle, all the imperialists’ acts of sabotage and destruction have been thoroughly frustrated and the socialist cause firmly safeguarded. Even in the present situation in which unexpected, complicated events have been taking place within the communist movement, our revolution has won victory after victory without being guilty of the slightest deviation. Proceeding from the fundamental requirements of socialist construction and from the experience gained and the lesson learned in the revolutionary struggle, we should resolutely follow and implement revolutionary principles, socialist principles, in state and public activities under the Party’s guidance.
It is the invariable will of our Party and people to fulfil the cause of socialism and communism by strengthening the Party and enhancing its leadership role. The Party’s revolutionary leadership is necessary not only for the successful promotion of socialist construction but also for the building and development of a communist society. Even in communist society the people’s demand for independence will continue to increase. This demand can be realized only through a conscious and organized struggle by the popular masses under the political guidance of a guiding force such as the party. We should strengthen our Party still further and continuously enhance the Party’s leadership role in keeping with the current requirements of socialist construction and the long-term requirements of the developing socialist society.
2. WE SHOULD FURTHER STRENGTHEN OUR PARTY AND DEVELOP IT INTO A
REVOLUTIONARY PARTY OF A JUCHE TYPE
Our Party’s primary efforts have, in discharging the mission it assumed on behalf of the guiding force of the revolution, always gone into strengthening the Party itself. We will, in the future, too, ceaselessly strengthen and develop our Party and invariably lead the socialist cause along the road of victory.
The most important matter in strengthening and developing our Party is to uphold its revolutionary character, befitting the Party of a Juche type.
Defending the Party’s revolutionary character is a crucial matter affecting the existence of the Party and the destiny of the revolution. In the course of the development of the revolution there may be a change in the duty of the Party, its strategy and tactics, as well as its methods of struggle. But there should never be a change in the Party’s revolutionary character. If there is a change in the character of the Party, it will lose its originality and turn into an alien one. In the long run, it will fail to carry out the functions of leading the revolution. Now that the imperialists, in opposing socialism, are directing the spearhead of their attack to making the Party, the guiding force of socialist society, degenerate, we should step up our efforts to maintain the revolutionary character of the Party.
The revolutionary character of our Party as a party of a Juche type is defined by the Juche idea, the guiding ideology of our Party.
If we are to maintain the revolutionary character of our Party, we should firmly safeguard its guiding idea and hand it down in a perfectly pure state. Of course, the guiding idea of the Party should be developed ceaselessly and brought to fulfilment as the times and the revolution progress. However, even if the circumstances and conditions of the revolution change, the revolutionary principles of the guiding idea should be firmly upheld and no alien ideological trend should be permitted. If the revolutionary principles are forsaken and heterogeneous ideological trends are adopted because the guiding idea of the Party does not accord with the different circumstances and conditions, the Party will be swayed onto the road of revisionism.
Our Party is a new type of revolutionary party of the working class guided by the Juche idea. Its building and strengthening have been guided by this idea. Because it is guided by the Juche idea, our Party has become an ever-victorious party with the most solid foundation, with a unique history of development and with great exploits and valuable experience behind it. Our Party has opened up the absolutely correct road in the building of a revolutionary party in the era of independence. When others have experienced setbacks, our Party has been able to uphold the revolutionary banner without the slightest vacillation. This is because Party-building and Party activities have been carried out guided by the Juche idea.
The fact that our Party was built on the basis of the Juche idea has enabled it to preserve its class character. In the past our country was a semi-feudal colony. So, the working class was young and the people of a working-class origin were few in the Party’s membership. But, because our Party was guided by the Juche idea, it could be founded and strengthened as a working-class party from the start and it could rapidly expand and develop into a body of communist revolutionaries. Because our Party conducted Party-building and Party activities on the basis of the Juche idea, it has been able to maintain its class character in keeping with its revolutionary nature even though the revolution has covered a long distance and the circumstances of the struggle and its tasks have changed.
In the future, too, we must at all times remain loyal to the revolutionary banner of the Juche idea, the guiding idea of our Party, vigorously promote the work to make the Juche idea permeate the whole Party, and thus develop our Party into an eternally revolutionary party of a Juche type. We must see to it that our cadres and Party members are firmly armed with the Juche idea, that they acquire the Juche revolutionary outlook on the world and that they become communist revolutionaries of a Juche type who fight actively for the realization of the Juche idea. Along with this, we must firmly defend the purity of the Juche idea and wage an uncompromising struggle against every manner of outmoded idea, such as bourgeois ideas and revisionism, lest alien ideas which contradict the Juche idea should infiltrate into our Party.
In order to maintain the revolutionary character of our Party, we must strengthen its social and class foundations still further.
Our Party is a mass-based political party the core of which consists of the vanguard fighters of the working class and behind which the excellent progressive workers, farmers and working intellectuals are organized. The mass character of our Party is a reflection of the basic demand of the present era when broad sections of the working people are marching in a struggle for independence and, at the same time, the specific conditions of our revolution. This has made it possible for our Party as a working-class party to accelerate its development into a revolutionary party which is deeply rooted among the broad masses, instead of weakening its class and revolutionary character.
We must, in the future, make increased efforts to consolidate the socio-class foundations of our Party.
As socialist construction progresses, the socio-class basis of the working-class party grows in scope and strength. As a rule, as society develops the number of people engaged in physical labour decreases and intellectuals, people engaged in technical and mental labour, make up a greater part of the population. But this does not mean that the socio-class basis of the working-class party is weakened. Those engaged in technical and mental labour essentially share the same socio-economic position as those engaged in physical labour. It is a law that as socialist construction progresses the socio-economic position of all the members of society, including the intellectuals, becomes that of the working class. It goes without saying that if the party makes light of ideological work in socialist society the bourgeois ideology spreads among the members of society and the socio-class basis of the party is weakened. The solidity of the socio-class basis of the working-class party is guaranteed by the high political and ideological standards of the masses and, accordingly, depends on how the party does its work among the masses. Our Party has always regarded the working class, the peasantry and the working intelligentsia as its socio-class footholds, intensified its political and ideological work among them and, with the development of socialist construction, striven to make all the members of society revolutionary and assimilate them to the working class. In our country the work to make all the members of society revolutionary and assimilate them to the working class has been promoted dynamically under the Party’s leadership, with the result that the ideo-moral qualities of the working people, as well as their socio-economic position, are now rapidly becoming those of the working class, and the socio-class basis of our Party has expanded and strengthened.
It is particularly important in consolidating the class position of the Party to build up its cadre and its rank and file with people who are faithful to the revolutionary cause and fully prepared ideologically. We must build up the ranks of cadres with those who have been trained and tested in the revolutionary struggle and practical work over a long period, and those who have revolutionary drive, organizational ability and a popular character. We must also guard strictly against the infiltration of alien and chance elements among cadres. We must admit to the Party hardcore elements of the working class who have been trained and tested, as well as those who are loyal to the Party’s revolutionary cause, and must build up and strengthen the Party’s ranks from the class point of view.
In order to strengthen our Party it is also necessary to defend its unity and solidarity and consolidate it still further.
Our Party has directed its greatest efforts to strengthening theorganizational and ideological unity and cohesion of its ranks on the Juche principle of party building, and has achieved a signal victory in this. We can say with confidence that our Party has acquired the strongest, most vital unity and cohesion which no force can break and which can overcome any trials.
The unity and cohesion of our Party means single-hearted unity by which the whole Party is united around the leader on the basis of one ideology, the Juche idea.
Ensuring the uniformity of ideology and leadership is a basic principle to be adhered to consistently in consolidating the Party organizationally and ideologically and in strengthening and developing its unity and cohesion. The history of the communist movement shows that there should be a single ideology in a party and that if there are different ideologies in a party it cannot achieve genuine unity even though it is an organization. The unity which is based on common but temporary interests or on a business-like approach, not on a common and uniform ideology, is no better than a castle built on sand. If a party allows the existence of different political views and if every person advocates his own principles, that party cannot guarantee unity of action and will give counterrevolutionary elements a chance to flourish.
Our Party’s unity and cohesion has been achieved through a hard struggle to model the whole Party after the Juche idea. Due to the peculiarity of the development of the communist movement in our country, there once existed in our Party anti-Party ideological elements such as factionalist, flunkeyist and dogmatist elements which tried to hinder the Party’s unity. Factionalists raised their heads whenever our Party was experiencing trials, and staged anti-Party, counterrevolutionary manoeuvres. Our Party, through an intense struggle to establish its monolithic ideological system in the whole Party, eradicated the filth of factionalism which had remained for many years, as well as the newly-emerged anti-Party revisionists, and so ensured the firm unity of the Party. The unity and cohesion of our Partywas so stable and powerful because they were achieved by imbuing the whole Party with one ideology based on the leader’s revolutionary idea.
We must steadily intensify the struggle to establish the Party’s monolithic ideological system in accordance with its consistent revolutionary line so that we model the Party ranks after the Juche idea exactly, resolutely defend the Party’s unity and cohesion with respected Comrade Kim Il Sung as the centre, and consolidate and develop it at a higher level. We must continue to improve the education of our cadres and Party members in the Party’s monolithic ideology so that they thoroughly establish the revolutionary outlook on the Juche idea, the outlook on the leader, think and act in terms of the Party’s idea and purpose however complicated the situation, and wage an uncompromising struggle against any act that might undermine the Party’s unity and cohesion.
In order to embody the leader’s ideology and guidance and,on the basis of this, to cement the party’s unity and cohesion, it is necessary to adhere firmly to the principle of democratic centralism in the building and in the activities of the party.
As an organizational principle of the party, democratic centralism ensures uniformity of ideology and leadership in the building and in the activities of the party. Displaying democracy in the party is of great importance in giving free scope to the awareness, responsibility and creativity of the masses of party members so that they act like masters. However, democracy must in all circumstances be realized on the basis of firmly guaranteeing the party members’ unity of ideology, will and action. The essence of democracy within the party finds expression in the fact that all the people who make up the party are encouraged to bring their revolutionary enthusiasm and creativity into full play in order to carry out the objectives set by the party better. If democracy is to be applied within the party as its essence requires, it must be linked with centralism. The intrinsic requirement of centralism is that it integrates the wishes of the broad masses of the party members into a single will so that the whole party thinks and acts with one mind and purpose. Just as centralism without democracy is unthinkable in the working-class party, so there can be no democracy without centralism. Democracy which runs counter to the party’s ideology and leadership, and pure democracy separated from the unified leadership of the centre, are no more than bourgeois democracy and liberalism.
We must hold fast to the principle of democratic centralism in the building and in the activities of the Party and apply it in keeping with the present developments. We must, above all, establish iron discipline in the Party so that the whole Party acts as one, and we must also establish the revolutionary habit whereby the major issues of principle arising in the Party’s work and in its activities are reported and dealt with promptly and its decisions and instructions are accepted and implemented without reservation. All cadres and Party members must strictly observe the established order and rules in the Party, acquire a correct view of the Party organization and take part in Party activities willingly. Also, democracy must be fully displayed in the whole course of Party work and life. All Party members must be encouraged to advance their creative opinions at Party meetings and to exercise their rights to the full. Party committees at all levels must observe the principle of collective leadership and must not tolerate the subjectivity and arbitrariness of individuals.
If the Party’s unity and cohesion is to be consolidated and developed, we must inherit and develop the tradition of unity and cohesion in our revolution.
This tradition was established by our young communists and anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners when the revolutionary cause of Juche was launched under the leadership of respected Comrade Kim Il Sung. The revolutionary unity formed in the period of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle was ideological, purposeful, moral unity and cohesion based on an unbreakable conviction that victory could be won in the revolution only when the people had great Comrade Kim Il Sung as their leader, as the leader of the revolution, and fought, rallied closely behind him and on the basis of the noble communist obligation and warm comradeship with which to fulfil the duty of revolutionary soldiers whatever the adversity. The noble tradition of unity and cohesion established in the days of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle serves as a lasting basis for consolidating and developing our Party’s unity and cohesion from generation to generation.
We must make our Party members and the working people, particularly the workers of the new generation and young Party members, clearly understand how our Party’s tradition of unity and cohesion was established and how precious it is; then they will be able to protect and maintain the tradition of unity from generation to generation and dedicate their all to the struggle to strengthen and develop the Party’s unity and cohesion, holding the Party and the leader in high esteem, just as our anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners did.
In order to consolidate the Party, we must unite the broad masses around it and make the ties between the Party and the masses unbreakable.
The Party’s invincibility is guaranteed by the fact that it strikes deep roots among the popular masses and thus becomes one with them. If the Party enjoys the full support and love of the masses and is in perfect harmony with them, it can carry out any task, however difficult, creditably and with no fear of any enemy.
Strengthening its ties with the masses and uniting them around itself has been a very urgent and important matter facing our Party since its foundation. Our country was a colony of the imperialists for many years, with the result that the people were profoundly influenced by the anti-communist propaganda of the imperialists. And, after liberation, the country was divided into north and south, and the imperialists and their stooges engaged in every manner of divisive and destructive manoeuvre, as well as in a reactionary offensive. Under these conditions our Party made it an important principle in Party-building to form a complete whole with the popular masses, and has made energetic efforts to unite around itself workers, peasants, working intellectuals and all the masses. In view of the very complex composition of the population, which is due to Japanese imperialist colonial rule, the country’s division and the three-year long war, our Party put particularly great efforts into the work among the masses from all walks of life. While strengthening its work among the basic masses, our Party steadily developed in depth its work among the masses with problematic family backgrounds and socio-political careers and worked hard to re-educate and rally all the members of the society around the Party. We raised it as the fundamental principle of Party activity to combine the Party’s leadership with the revolutionary mass line and have made every effort to realize the Party’s leadership to meet the wishes and will of the masses and to encourage the masses to support the Party’s leadership with all their hearts. “We serve the people!” is the slogan put up by our Party to realize its leadership in proper combination with the revolutionary mass line. Regarding it as its highest duty to serve the people, our Party has always proceeded from the position of thoroughly defending the people’s interests and has subordinated everything to this in the whole process of formulating and carrying out its lines and policies. Our Party has positively educated its officials to adhere to the view that they are the servants of the people and to devote everything to their interests. Our Party’s spirit of selfless service for the people, its popular policies and its warm, impartial care and consideration for all families and individuals have brought out their unreserved faith in it and made the ties between the Party and the masses unbreakable. The people’s great confidence in our Party is manifested in their position and attitude towards its lines and policies. The watchword “When the Party is determined, we can do anything!” put up by our working people expresses the noble fidelity of the masses who accept the Party’s lines and policies as their own essential requirements and implement them on the principle of absolute and unconditional devotion. This great unity of the Party that serves the people faithfully and the masses who uphold its leadership with loyalty has enabled our Party to crush promptly the counterrevolutionary moves of the imperialists and their stooges and the intrigues of the opportunists and the anti-Party elements within the Party in the past and to achieve a continuous upsurge in the revolution and construction work.
We must have the highest regard for the unity and cohesion of the Party and the people, strengthen and develop them further and make the Party powerful and rooted still deeper among the masses. We must strengthen the ideological education of the Party’s members and working people, conduct work with the masses of all social sections unremittingly and with persistence, and closely combine the Party’s leadership with the revolutionary mass line so that all the members of society are united more closely around the Party and that the Party and the masses form one body sharing the same fate eternally.
As in the past, so in the future, too, we must pay primary attention to consolidating the Party and continue to strengthen and develop it into a revolutionary Juche party, thereby increasing its fighting capability and leadership effectiveness so that it can acquit itself of its revolutionary duty with credit.
3. THE PARTY’S LEADERSHIP SHOULD BE STRENGTHENED WITH THE MAIN
STRESS ON WORK WITH PEOPLE
For the Party to strengthen its leadership by putting the main stress on work with people is the fundamental way for it to fulfill its mission and duty as the leading political organization.
On the basis of the Juche idea which considers man to be the central factor in everything, our Party put forward for the first time in the history of the building of working-class parties the new principle that work with people is basic to party activities, and it has unceasingly worked to strengthen the Party’s leadership.
From the standpoint of the development of Party work, the course of the building and of the activities of our Party is the course of strengthening the Party and leading the revolution and construction work through work with people, and this was set as the first process. Under the guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung, the Korean communists built up the framework of the revolution and laid the organizational and ideological foundations of the Party through work with people from the early period of preparing for the foundation of the Party, led the anti-Japanese armed struggle to victory and attained the cause of national liberation by rousing the broad masses. Operating as the governing party from its inception after liberation, our Party consolidated itself organizationally and ideologically and led the revolution and construction work to victory always through work with people and, whenever it was confronted with a difficult situation or a heavy task, promoted the revolution by further strengthening its work with the people.
We should convert Party work fully into work among the people, as the development of the Party and revolution demands, and thereby further increase the might of our Party and steadily enhance its leadership role.
What is important in strengthening Party leadership with the main emphasis on work among people is, above all, for it to fulfill its duty as the Mother Party responsible for the destiny of the popular masses.
It is our Party’s original principle of activity that the Party should be the mother who takes responsible care of the destiny of the people.
The working-class party appeared to meet the requirements of the revolutionary struggle for forging the destiny of the people and has made it its basic mission to take responsible care of the destiny of the people. The relations between the party and the masses are those between the leader and the led, between the giver and the receiver of life and between those who look after people’s destiny and the people who entrust it. The relations between the party and the people can be firmest and strongest when the party values and takes the greatest care of the people as their mother.
Our Party has won the unreserved support and trust of the masses of the people and has steadily strengthened its leading position. This is because it has fulfilled with credit its duty as the Mother Party responsible for the destiny of the people. Our Party made the masses of the people the genuine masters of the state and society, gave them valuable political integrity and led them to glorify it, taking full responsibility for and looking after their material and cultural life. Our Party has paid primary attention to the people in all its activities and ensured that all Party activities are organizational and political work for the people to enjoy a worthwhile life and happiness as social beings. Thus it has taken the people into its motherly embrace and the people entrust their destiny entirely to it.
We should continue to meet the essential requirements of our Party and ensure that it performs its duty as the Mother Party better.
If our Party is to work as the Mother Party, we should establish the Juche viewpoint of considering the people to be the most valuable and powerful beings and of trusting and loving them from the bottom of our hearts.
The Party’s love for and trust in the people find expression mainly in its shaping of its lines and policies to reflect the will and demands of the broad sections of the people and in its carrying them out by enlisting their creativity.
Recalling the days of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung said that the masses are wise teachers who have taught the truth of revolution. It is our Party’s traditional principle in its activities and work to give prominence to the masses, considering them to be teachers. We should always learn from the masses with an open mind, respect them and enlist their strength in solving all problems. We should further intensify our work among people and thus make all Party lines and policies completely independent and popular ones fully reflecting their desires and will, give full play to the people’s creativity and execute these lines and policies better.
The Mother Party’s love and trust also find expression in her taking full responsibility for and care of the socio-political life and material and cultural life of the people. The most important thing for social man is his political life and political integrity. We should pay primary attention to the question of the political integrity of Party members and the working people in Party work, work among people, value and show concern for their political integrity as a mother does the life of her sons and daughters and lead the people so that they glorify their political integrity to the end and do not allow a single stain on it. We should also pay keen attention to the material and cultural life of the people and fight with devotion to provide them with a more affluent and civilized life.
Love of the people and trust in them find concrete expression in the popular traits and character of officials. We should see to it that all our officials fight with devotion for the people, sharing life and death with them, and that they have the popular character of being simple, modest, fair and upright.
Implementing the Party and political method is also important in strengthening Party leadership with the main emphasis on work among people.
The party of the working class in socialist society holds power as the ruling party, but it cannot administer the affairs of state in accordance with the will of the people by wielding its power. In socialist society the masses of the people have seized power; so, giving orders to them in a bureaucratic and administrative way, drawing on power, runs counter to the nature of socialist power. A bureaucratic and administrative method of work is very harmful in socialist society where the party and the state bear full responsibility for the lives and living of the people.
If the party tolerates this method of work, it will lose the support and confidence of the people and endanger its existence. So, our Party always stresses that being domineering and practicing bureaucracy over the people is like a person taking a poisonous drug. Of course, it is not admissible in socialist society, on the excuse of opposing the bureaucratic and administrative method of work, for a party to resign its leadership as a ruling party and to weaken the state power. In socialist society, a bureaucratic and administrative method of work is evidence of the fact that the party is not giving guidance, and that the organs of people’s power are not working in keeping with their intrinsic nature. The party should give guidance in keeping with the political way of leadership of a working-class party while continually strengthening its leading position, and the organs of people’s power should work to meet the intrinsic nature of socialist politics.
Our Party has, from the first days of its foundation, regarded it as a fundamental matter in Party-building and Party activity to establish a method of Party work suited to the nature of the Party of a Juche type and has striven energetically to apply the political method to Party work. Our Party created the Chongsanri spirit and the Chongsanri method by applying the traditional anti-Japanese guerrilla work method to meet the practical demands of socialist construction, and it has applied them throughout the Party. By doing so, it put an end to the bureaucratic and administrative method of work which had been brought into the Party by the anti-Party, counterrevolutionary factionalist elements and established the revolutionary method of work, the Party and political work method, with emphasis on organizational and political work with people. We should now grasp the demands of the revolution as it develops and meet the needs of the situation in which the workers of a new generation that have not been trained in the arduous struggle are continuously increasing in number, and strive without cease to apply the Party and political work method.
The Party and political work method means giving priority to political work and rousing people to activity by informing them of the intentions of the Party through explanation and persuasion. By the method of giving orders and directives one cannot rouse people to action. We should strongly oppose those who are disposed to rouse people to activity by orders and directives, keep political work in advance of other things and effectively persuade and educate people until they sincerely accept the intentions of the Party and are motivated. Moreover, officials must uphold the slogan “Let the whole Party go among the masses!” and always go among the masses to share their joys and sorrows while educating them and rousing them to action, and, at the same time, learn from them and improve themselves.
To establish the Party and political method, it is necessary to step up the struggle to put an end to obsolete work methods. Because officials retain ideological hangovers from the exploiting society, old work methods find expression in socialist society. We should intensify educational work to equip officials with the Juche theory and method of leadership and vigorously step up the ideological struggle to eradicate old methods and styles of work and so establish a revolutionary method of work, a Party and political method, more firmly in the Party.
In order to improve the leadership of the Party by attaching primary importance to work with people, it is also necessary to establish firmly the system of Party work.
Before anything else, a more efficient inner-Party work system should be established.
A well-regulated system of work with cadres, Party members and the masses has already been established in our Party and its vitality has been confirmed in the course of a long practical struggle. To meet the needs of the developing situation we should develop in depth the inner-Party work system and make Party work fully work among people.
It is necessary firmly to establish a system under which the whole Party works among the people. This system is a work system under which one person educates and rouses ten to action, ten people a hundred, a hundred people a thousand and a thousand people ten thousand. All officials, whether of the Party or of an administrative body, whether of an upper organ or of a lower organ, whether cadres or ordinary Party members, should regard work with people as an important revolutionary task and conduct it actively. We must firmly establish a work system under which superiors educate their subordinates responsibly and cadres and Party members go among the masses and educate them, and ensure that all officials and Party members become the objects of work with people and, at the same time, conduct this work.
The Party’s leadership system should be established properly so as to guide the revolution and construction work with the main stress on work with people.
Our Party has established a work system by which Party committees at all levels give guidance to all activities as the highest leadership bodies of the given units, thereby ensuring the unified political leadership of the Party in the revolution and construction and, at the same time, harnessing the masses’ creative power to the maximum through work with people. In future, we should consolidate and develop the Party’s leadership system by which all matters are settled through political work, work with people, under the collective leadership of the Party committee. We should firmly establish a system and an order so that Party committees at all levels have unified control of the activities of the given state, economic and cultural establishments and social organizations and guide them by political methods, and so that officials in all branches of activity, in conducting their work, give preference to political work, work with people, by firmly relying on the Party committees.
In particular, it is important to strengthen the system of Party, political leadership over economic affairs. Socialist economic construction can only be conducted properly under the leadership of the working-class party. We should firmly defend the system of the Party’s political guidance in economic construction and further strengthen it to develop the socialist economy in keeping with the political task of the revolution and the nature of socialism. If we are to strengthen the Party’s political leadership of economic activities, we should thoroughly introduce the Taean work system established by our Party. The Taean work system is a system for managing the economy on the principle of giving priority to political work, namely, work with people, under the collective leadership of Party committees. Party committees at all levels should be expert at piloting economic activities as required by the Taean work system, and all officials should, in managing the economy, give priority to work with people in accordance with the policies discussed and decided on by the Party committee.
We should strengthen and develop our Party steadily and achieve greater victories in socialist construction by making Party work absolutely work with people and realizing, through this work, the Party’s leadership of the revolution and construction.
Today our Party, as it marks the 45th anniversary of its foundation, is organizationally and ideologically united more firmly than ever before and is advancing vigorously along the road indicated by the great Juche idea, with confidence in the justness of its cause and in victory. The great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung, who had wisely guided the whole course of our Party-building for 60 years since he formed the first Party organization of the Juche type in the flames of the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, until the present day when the Party has been strengthened and developed into an ever-victorious revolutionary party, is organizing all Party members and non-Party people and leading them along the road of victory at the helm of the Party, and the revolutionary enthusiasm of our people who follow the Party and support its leadership is higher than ever before. Our people see a bright future for themselves in the leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea and are confident that they will accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche since they are led by the Party.
Only victory and glory await our Party which, as it leads the revolution and construction, is holding high the banner of the Juche idea under the wise guidance of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung and enjoying the unreserved support and confidence of the popular masses.
