KIM IL SUNG
LET US
INTENSIFY THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST, ANTI-US
STRUGGLE
Article Published
in the Inaugural Issue of the Theoretical
Magazine Tricontinental,
Organ of the
Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples
of Asia, Africa and Latin America
August 12, 1967
Two years ago the Organization of
Solidarity of the Peoples of Asia, Africa
and Latin America was inaugurated in Havana, the capital
of Cuba.
It was an event of enormous
importance. The aims and ideas of this
organization have aroused the sympathy of
hundreds of millions of Asians, Africans and
Latin Americans and are exerting a profound
influence on the great changes taking place
in the world today.
The peoples of Asia,
Africa and Latin
America, who had been
oppressed and plundered by Western
capitalism and imperialism for centuries,
have risen courageously and taken their
place on the stage of history. The strong
tide of national liberation is rising with
an irresistible force. Hundreds of millions
of people on the three continents are
fighting for their freedom and are
struggling to defend the revolutionary
achievements they have already won. The
colonial system of imperialism is rapidly
disintegrating.
Imperialism is making
desperate attempts to retain its former
positions and regain its lost ground. As the
dying hour of imperialism draws closer, the
struggle is intensifying further. Thus, the
peoples cannot but continue their struggle,
holding high the banner of anti-imperialism,
until imperialism is totally wiped off the
face of the earth.
The newly independent
countries which have thrown off the yoke of
imperialism are confronted with the very
difficult and important tasks of defending
their national independence, carrying
forward the revolution and aiding the
liberation struggle of the peoples still
chained by imperialism. The peoples who have
won their independence must fight to crush
the subversive activities of foreign
imperialism and the domestic forces of
reaction, tear down their economic
strongholds, strengthen the revolutionary
forces, set up a progressive social system
and build an independent national economy
and national culture. Only in this way can
they protect the gains of the revolution,
achieve the prosperity of their countries
and nations and contribute to the common
struggle of the peoples of the whole world
to bury imperialism.
Asia, Africa and Latin America
comprise 71 percent of the world’s land
surface. These continents are inhabited by
more than two-thirds of the world’s
population and are blessed with
inexhaustible natural resources. Imperialism
has grown and become fat by grinding these
peoples down and robbing them of their
riches. Even today imperialism is squeezing
tens of billions of dollars in profits from
these areas every year. Once Asia, Africa
and Latin America are completely freed from
old and new colonialism, there will not be
an imperialist Western Europe and an
imperialist North
America.
The struggle of the
peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America
against imperialism and colonialism is a
sacred liberation struggle for hundreds of
millions of oppressed and humiliated people;
it is also a great battle to cut the life
line of world imperialism. This struggle and
the revolutionary struggle of the
international working class for socialism
are the two major revolutionary forces of
our times, and they join into one stream
which will carry imperialism to its grave.
The imperialists
cannot bestow independence upon the colonial
peoples. Is there any need to prove the
falsity of the imperialists’ declaration
that the Western world can help the peoples
of the three continents to achieve
independence and progress and can coexist
with a free and independent Asia, Africa and
Latin America?
The imperialist leopard cannot change his
imperialist spots, and he never will.
Imperialism will exploit, oppress and
plunder the people until it meets its doom.
The oppressed peoples
can liberate themselves only through
struggle. This is a simple and clear truth
confirmed by history. It is necessary to
expose the false propaganda of the
imperialists and thoroughly dispel the
illusion that they will give up their
positions in the colonies and dependent
countries with a good will. Where there is
oppression, there is bound to be resistance.
It is inevitable that the oppressed peoples
should fight for their emancipation. As long
as imperialism plunders and oppresses small
and weak nations by force, it remains an
inalienable right of the oppressed nations
to rise up in arms and fight against the
aggressors.
It is wrong to try to
avoid the struggle against imperialism under
the pretext that independence and revolution
are important, but that peace is still more
precious. Is it not true that the line of
seeking unprincipled compromise with
imperialism only tends to encourage its
aggressive actions and increase the danger
of war? Peace secured by slavish submission
is not peace. Genuine peace cannot be
achieved unless a struggle is waged against
those who break the peace, unless the
slave’s peace is rejected and the
oppressors’ rule overthrown. We are opposed
to the line of compromise with imperialism.
At the same time, we cannot tolerate the
practice of only denouncing imperialism but,
in actual fact, being afraid to fight it.
This is a line of compromise in an inverted
form. Both have nothing to do with a genuine
anti-imperialist struggle and only help the
imperialist policy of aggression and war.
It is most important,
when fighting against imperialism, to
concentrate the attack on US
imperialism, the ringleader of world
imperialism.
By stretching out its aggressive
tentacles all over the world, US imperialism
has become the common enemy of all peoples
of the world. There is no country on earth
whose sovereignty is not violated by US
imperialism; there is no country which is
free from the menace of US imperialist
aggression. The US
imperialists are brutally suppressing the
liberation struggle of the peoples of Asia,
Africa and Latin
America and constantly
perpetrating acts of aggression and
subversion to re-enslave the newly
independent countries. Bluntly revealing
their true colours as gangsters, the US
imperialists are waging a war of aggression
against a socialist country and interfering
in the domestic affairs of other countries
by force of arms. Over the past 20-odd years
since the end of World War II, not a day has
gone by which has not witnessed the flames
of aggression and war kindled by US
imperialism. US
imperialism is, indeed, the most heinous and
shameless plunderer known to history. It is
the US
imperialists themselves who are causing
peoples all over the world calling for
peace, independence and progress, to unite
in a common front against US
imperialism.
The peoples of Asia,
Africa and Latin
America have common interests
and are in a position to support each other
in their anti-imperialist, anti-US struggle.
As long as Africa and Latin America are not
free, Asia cannot be free; driving the US
imperialists out of Asia
will benefit the liberation struggle of the
African and Latin-American peoples. Victory
over US
imperialism on one front will sap its
strength and facilitate victory on other
fronts by that much. If the US
imperialist forces of aggression are
defeated in any part of the world, it will
be a very good thing for all the peoples of
the world. It is necessary, therefore, to
form the broadest possible anti-US united
front to isolate US imperialism completely,
and strike it in unison wherever it extends
its talons of aggression, This alone will
make it possible to disperse and weaken the
force of US imperialism to the maximum and
to lead the people with their unquestionably
superior power to defeat US imperialism on
all fronts.
For more than 20
years the US
imperialists have been occupying the
southern half of our country. They have
enforced colonial rule in south Korea
and turned it into a military base for their
aggression against the whole of Korea and Asia. In spite of
their ignominious defeat in the aggressive
war against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the US
imperialists have not yet given up their
aggressive design to conquer the whole of Korea and
are unceasingly planning to unleash another
war in Korea.
The supreme task of the Korean people at
this time is to liquidate the colonial
system of US
imperialism in south Korea,
accomplish the national-liberation
revolution and reunite the country. For the
Korean people to achieve the cause of
national liberation, forces must be prepared
along three fronts: strengthen the socialist
forces in north
Korea; increase and
augment the revolutionary forces in south
Korea;
and develop the international revolutionary
movement and strengthen solidarity with it.
North Korea
is the base of the Korean revolution. The
successes of socialist construction there
encourage the south Korean people in their
anti-US, national-salvation struggle and
stimulate the preparation of revolutionary
forces in south Korea.
We are striving to strengthen and develop
the revolutionary forces in north and south
Korea
and, at the same time, to cement solidarity
with the international revolutionary forces.
The Korean people support the struggle of
the peoples of all countries against US
imperialism, and regard it as support for
their own cause of liberation. We maintain
that all the anti-imperialist forces of the
world should unite in a joint struggle
against US
imperialism, and we have been working
consistently to achieve this goal.
The US
imperialists are more afraid of the united
strength of the revolutionary peoples of the
world than of anything else. That is why
they are resorting to all kinds of tricks to
obstruct the formation of an anti-US united
front and are using the strategy of
conquering small, weak countries one by one.
This strategy of US
imperialism must be thoroughly frustrated.
The Asian, African and Latin-American
countries have differing social systems, and
there are many parties and groupings with
divergent political views there. But all
these countries, parties and
groupings—except the stooges of
imperialism—have a common interest in
opposing the imperialist forces of
aggression headed by US
imperialism. The difference in social
systems and political ideas can never be an
obstacle to united struggle and concerted
action against US
imperialism. No one must be allowed to
divide the anti-US united front or refuse
joint action, claiming primary importance
for his own specific national or partisan
interests. Such an act will only benefit
imperialism led by US imperialism and harm
the revolutionary peoples.
It is very important
in the joint struggle against imperialism to
defend the revolution which has already
triumphed.
It is an
internationalist duty of all the
revolutionary peoples to fight to defend the
gains of the Cuban revolution. Revolutionary
Cuba
represents the future of Latin America, and
its very existence encourages the peoples of
that continent in their liberation movement.
The triumph of the Cuban revolution is
striking evidence that imperialism is doomed
and that the national-liberation revolution
and people’s revolution will assuredly
triumph in our times. It is for this very
reason that the US
imperialists hate and fear this small island
country so much. They are trying to strangle
the Republic of Cuba.
The peoples of Latin America and the
progressive peoples of the whole world must
do everything in their power to foil the US
imperialists’ blockade policy against the Republic of Cuba and
frustrate their preparations for a military
invasion of Cuba.
Today the Vietnamese
people’s war of resistance for national
salvation against the US
expeditionary forces has become the focal
point of the anti-imperialist struggle. The
US
imperialist forces of aggression and the
anti-imperialist, peace-loving forces of the
world are having a showdown in Vietnam.
The US
troops are suffering one defeat after
another in face of the heroic resistance of
the Vietnamese people and are being driven
into a corner. Contrary to the expectations
of the US
imperialists, the Vietnam
war has become a grave for the aggressors.
The Vietnamese people’s war of resistance
for national salvation is another graphic
example that a people who are determined to
defend their independence and freedom at any
cost, and who have the support of the
peoples of the whole world, cannot be
defeated.
At present, the US
imperialists are escalating the war,
continuously reinforcing their own military
strength in South Vietnam,
bringing in more troops from their satellite
countries, and perpetrating the extensive
aerial and artillery bombardment of the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
The Vietnamese
people, through their heroic struggle, are
shouldering the enormous burden of resisting
the aggression of the most barbarous and
most heinous imperialism of modern times.
They are fighting not only to defend their
independence and freedom, but also to
safeguard world peace and security. Once US
imperialist aggression against Vietnam is
checked and frustrated, US
imperialism will sink like the setting sun
and the situation will be more favourable
for the peoples of all countries fighting
for peace, independence and progress. The
peace-loving peoples of the whole world have
a duty to give all forms of aid to the
Vietnamese people, and the Vietnamese people
are entitled to receive it. The peoples of
the socialist and the newly independent
states and the peoples of all countries in
Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the rest of
the world should make the greatest efforts
to broaden the anti-US united front, to aid
the Vietnamese people in their war of
resistance for national salvation and,
through concerted action, check US
imperialist aggression. No one has the right
to force a solution of their internal
affairs on the Vietnamese people. The US armed
forces of aggression must withdraw from Vietnam
and the Vietnamese question must be settled
by the Vietnamese people themselves.
We must neither
underestimate nor overestimate the strength
of US
imperialism. US
imperialism can still commit many crimes.
But it is on the decline. Today when US
imperialism is behaving most outrageously,
its vulnerability is more evident than ever
before. The Korean people know what US
imperialism is. Our people have fought US
imperialism, and defended their country
against its aggression. The Korean war
showed that US
imperialism is by no means invincible, and
that it is quite possible to fight it and
defeat it. The triumph of the Cuban
revolution again proved this truth under
conditions which were different from ours.
The Vietnamese people’s war of resistance
for national salvation also clearly confirms
this truth.
US imperialism is doomed to complete
destruction. Through a unified struggle
against imperialism headed by US
imperialism, the peoples of Asia, Africa and
Latin America will build a new, independent
and prosperous Asia, Africa and Latin America, and
will make a great contribution to world
peace and to the liberation of mankind.
|
Ce site est l'organe officiel de publication des oeuvres idéologiques et pratiques du Comité Central du Parti du Travail de Corée et de ses Dirigeants par le Comité Suisse-Corée, Rodong Sinmun et l'ambassade de la République Populaire Démocratique de Corée |