KIM JONG IL
RESPECTING THE FORERUNNERS OF THE REVOLUTION IS A NOBLE MORAL
OBLIGATION OF REVOLUTIONARIES
Discourse Published in Rodong
Sinmun,the Organ of the Central Committee
of
the Workers’ Party of Korea
December 25, 1995
Seventy
years has elapsed since
the dawn of the Korean revolution, which has advanced under the banner
of the Juche idea. In this noble revolution several generations have
shed their
precious sweat and blood for people’s freedom, national independence and
sovereignty and for the victory of socialism. A large number of
revolutionaries
have performed distinguished services and made brilliant achievements.
Our people respect the
revolutionaries of the previous generations as their revolutionary seniors, set
great store by their spirit and achievements in the struggle, and are carrying
faithfully forward and developing the revolutionary cause pioneered by them.
This is a noble morality developed by our people from generation to generation,
as well as a basic factor that ensures the steady, triumphant
development of our revolution even in the most complex situations.
The history of the world socialist
movement provides the serious lesson that a revolution advances victoriously
when revolutionary forefathers are respected and their accomplishments are
preserved and developed, and that a revolution is abandoned and frustrated when
revolutionary predecessors are betrayed and their accomplishments are negated.
In several countries that had built socialism in the past, opportunists
occupying the leadership of the parties and states defamed their revolutionary
predecessors and obliterated their achievements. In consequence of their
traitorous acts, the reputation of communists has been damaged, the image of
socialism clouded, and the socialist system itself has ended in collapse.
Establishing a correct viewpoint
and attitude towards revolutionary seniors is most important for the development
of the socialist movement.
Only
when the red flag of the revolution raised by the revolutionary forerunners is
carried forward down through generations can the cause of independence for the
popular masses, the socialist cause, emerge victorious.
1
To respect its pioneers is the
demand of the revolution and the noble moral obligation of revolutionaries.
Socialism advances to consummation
as the successors carry on and develop down through generations what their
predecessors achieved for the revolution. Their attitude towards their
revolutionary forefathers means their attitude towards the revolution. It is an
important matter relating to the destiny of the revolution.
Holding revolutionary seniors in
esteem means putting forward in every way the revolutionaries who devoted
everything to the struggle, championing and preserving their revolutionary ideas
and achievements and carrying forward and developing these ideas and
achievements. The predecessors’ noble revolutionary ideas and the results of
their arduous struggle constitute the gains of the revolution and precious
wealth for carrying out the revolution. Only when all succeeding generations
champion, preserve and develop their predecessors’ ideas and accomplishments can
the revolutionary cause continue to advance to brilliant consummation. Taking a
nihilistic approach to their predecessors’ struggle and achievements, or denying
them, amounts to retreating from the road of revolution and betraying it.
Vilifying revolutionary seniors and defaming their ideas and accomplishments
means disgracing the revolution and grovelling at the foot of the enemy of the
revolution. The working-class party must, with unbroken consistency, unfailing
loyalty to the revolution and unshakable confidence in this cause, carry forward
and develop the socialism pioneered and advanced by the revolutionary
predecessors. It must pay close attention to giving prominence to the
revolutionary pioneers and to educating the people in the ideas and through the
accomplishments of these pioneers.
The attitude towards revolutionary
forefathers reflects the attitude of revolutionaries towards the revolution, as
well as their morality.
Morality is a basic criterion for
defining the qualities of a revolutionary. A revolutionary must hold not only
revolutionary ideals as his belief, but also be equipped with genuine human
qualities supported by noble moral principles. Conscience and the sense of
obligation are laudable virtues unique to the human race; these are the source
of the spiritual force that encourages people to conscientious and noble deeds.
Even a person with advanced ideas cannot acquire noble human qualities, nor can
he be a true revolutionary, unless he has a strong conscience and the sense of
moral obligation.
Even in the old society,
conscientious people valued morality, by which they evaluated personality and
regarded immoral behaviour as unworthy of human beings. In an exploitative
society, however, genuine morality cannot thrive or become dominant.
Individualism, which is the basis of the exploitative society, cannot be
compatible with true morality, and no relations of moral obligation can exist
between the exploiting and exploited classes. Moral hypocrisy is the true nature
of the exploiting class, and moral corruption is an inevitable product of the
bourgeois society.
The most ennobling human qualities
belong to the communists, who love their fellow people and fight in the cause of
independence for the popular masses. Love for and trust in people are the basis
of genuine human relations, the basis of human morality. Promoting the benefit
of others rather than of oneself and working with devotion for one’s society and
collective are an expression of a person’s noble morality. Because they treasure
and love people and place social and collective interests above those of an
individual, communists struggle with devotion for the good of their fellow
people, their society and collective, not for selfish interests or personal
fame. Communist revolutionaries love their comrades and fellow people with noble
feelings of love for humanity, and devotedly struggle solely for the people, for
their independence, with revolutionary conscience and a lofty sense of moral
obligation. A man who shuts his eyes to the people’s interests, who is devoid of
love for them and lacks conscience, loyalty and sympathy, cannot be a communist
or a revolutionary.
Regarding revolutionary pioneers
with respect is an inviolable revolutionary obligation. In spite of the
difference in seniority in the relationship between seniors and juniors in the
revolution, their relations are the comradeship of revolutionaries who fight in
the same cause. The relationship between parents and children is kinship
resulting mainly from actual physical birth, whereas the relationship among
revolutionaries is the comradeship of fighters who share the same ideas,
hardships and successes on the road of revolution and exalt their
socio-political integrity, which is more precious to them than their physical
lives. The kinship among revolutionaries represents a truly communist human
relationship based on comradely love and revolutionary obligation. Communist
revolutionaries’ outlook on morality and their moral qualities are characterized
by their regarding it as a noble duty and honour to love their comrades most
ardently and fulfil their revolutionary obligation to them. That is why
revolutionaries consider it most shameful and treacherous to betray their
comrades or to abandon conscience and loyalty in their mutual relationship.
For the heirs to the revolution to
respect their revolutionary predecessors--the forerunners who dedicated their
lives to the revolution and left a great heritage behind them—can be said to be
a noble expression of revolutionary morality. Our revolutionary forerunners gave
their lives unhesitatingly in the fight and made precious achievements for the
country, the people and the happiness of the coming generations, not for the
sake of personal interest or honour; our revolutionary forefathers shouted,
“Love the future!” in do-or-die battles, or at the last moment of their lives on
the gallows, precisely because they loved the coming generations. By their
heroic struggle, the revolutionary forerunners paved the road of revolution,
brought about enormous gains for the revolution, and ensured the flowering of an
independent and creative new life for people. To respect their revolutionary
predecessors, who fought devotedly for those who came after, is the next
generations’ natural revolutionary obligation, its noble moral duty.
The highest representative of
revolutionary elders is the leader, and loyalty to the leader is the highest
expression of the sense of revolutionary obligation.
The leader of the working class is
the guiding intellect and leader of the revolution. The popular masses make
history, but they can hold the position of true masters of their destiny as
independent makers of history and fulfil their role as such only when they
receive the guidance of a pre-eminent leader. The leader puts forward scientific
revolutionary ideas, strategy and tactics, inspires the masses with
revolutionary consciousness and organizes them, guides the revolutionary
struggle to victory, provides people with noble socio-political integrity and
teaches them to lead honourable lives on the road of revolution. Under his
leadership tens of thousands of revolutionaries grow up, and people come to
struggle for the revolution. Under his leadership the socialist cause is
pioneered and advanced victoriously. Thanks to his noble ideas and outstanding
leadership, great revolutionary achievements are made, and the honour and
dignity of the revolutionary generations are exalted.
Carrying forward the cause of
independence for the popular masses, the cause of socialism, means none other
than the continuation of the cause of the leader. Inheriting the ideas and
achievements of the revolutionary predecessors means inheriting the leader’s
revolutionary ideas and the achievements made under his leadership. Respect for
revolutionary predecessors finds typical expression in loyalty to the leader.
Being unfailingly loyal to the great leader through all generations is the duty
of revolutionaries and the highest expression of the sense of revolutionary
obligation. Revolutionaries must resolutely defend the ideas and exploits of the
leader and loyally carry forward his revolutionary cause.
Historically, in opposing
socialism, imperialists and renegades from the revolution have directed their
attacks on the leaders of the working class and the revolutionaries of the
preceding generation. This is because socialism was pioneered and has triumphed
thanks to the guidance of the leader and the self-sacrificing struggle of the
revolutionaries of the preceding generations, and because the dignity of
socialism is associated with their honour. Modern revisionists and socialist
renegades have caused socialism to degenerate and collapse by disgracing the
leader and their revolutionary elders and by obliterating their exploits. The
process of the degeneration and collapse of socialism began with the emergence
of modern revisionism, which vilified the leader and revolutionary pioneers and
distorted and debased the revolutionary ideas of the working class. Because of
modern revisionists, socialism began to go off the track and crumble from
within. Its collapse was due to the policy of “reform” and “restructuring”,
pursued by socialist renegades who denied and obliterated every historical
achievement of socialism. Opportunists and socialist renegades slandered the
leaders of the working class and debased the sacred revolutionary struggle and
great revolutionary achievements of their revolutionary predecessors. They
destroyed socialism and revived capitalism. This is a most despicable
counterrevolutionary crime that betrayed the revolution under the pressure of
imperialism, an immoral perfidy that discarded loyalty to the revolution and
trampled underfoot elementary human morals. Traitors to the revolution left no
stone unturned in slandering and defaming their revolutionary predecessors. Thus
they created ideological vacillation and confusion among the people and gave the
imperialists and reactionaries the chance to slander the communists and
socialism even more viciously.
The traitors gained the leading
positions of the party and state through an intrigue and tarnished the honour of
their revolutionary forerunners in an attempt to enhance their popularity and
win support from the people. However, the top hierarchy of the party and state
does not necessarily mean the leader, or enjoy the support and respect of the
people. People’s confidence cannot be earned by means of power or fraud. If one
wants to become a leader and enjoy people's confidence and support, one must
have the personality and qualifications that befit a leader and fulfil the
responsibility and role as such. A leader must, above all, be the people’s
servant who loves and devotes himself to them. Love for the people and respect
for revolutionary predecessors are inseparable. A person who loves the people
and is loyal to them is bound to highly respect his revolutionary forerunners
who struggled self-sacrificingly for the people. however, one who despises the
people and lords it over them does not hesitate to disgrace his revolutionary
elders in the most despicable way. The renegades from socialism attempted to
vilify the revolutionary leaders and predecessors in a crafty way in order to
enhance their own prestige. However, they have revealed their true colours as
traitors, as well as their inhuman qualities. Those who have deceived their
people and betrayed the revolution will inevitably be forsaken by the people.
True revolutionaries who fight for
the people and for the victory of socialism must not forget their revolutionary
forefathers; instead, they must defend and develop their achievements. This is
the way to keep their revolutionary honour and dignity and lead the revolution
to victory.
2
Being loyal to morality in relation
to our revolutionary pioneers is our revolutionary tradition and the noble moral
trait of our society.
Our revolution, which paved an
original way for accomplishing the cause of independence for the popular masses
under the banner of the Juche idea, opened up a new path in the building of
communist morality. It set an example of noble and beautiful morality at its
early stages and went on to develop it. In our country the tradition of
communist morality was created in the flames of the anti-Japanese revolution. It
has been carried forward and splendidly put into effect through our struggle to
build a new society.
Today, under our socialist system
which is centred on the popular masses, communist morality is displayed at a
high degree. In our society the leader and his fighters, the Party and the
people, are united in one mind, and our people love and help each other life
kinsmen, forming a large, harmonious family. This shows the brilliant victory of
the Juche idea in the spiritual and moral spheres and demonstrates the
superiority of our style of socialism.
The communist morality of our
people finds its highest expression in their unqualified respect for and
absolute allegiance to the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung.
The respected Comrade Kim Il Sung
was a great leader, acclaimed and venerated as such by our people for the first
time in Korea’s history of 5,000 years. He was the greatest of great men, the
incarnation of all the best values and qualifications a great man must possess.
The great leader Comrade Kim Il
Sung regarded the people as his god. He dearly loved the people, firmly believed
in them, and gave his all for their freedom and happiness, undergoing hardships
and sufferings on their behalf throughout his life. The glorious history of our
revolution, the dignity and honour of socialist Korea and the happiness of our
people are associated with the respected name of the leader, the brilliant
results of his great leadership. As a veteran of world statesmanship, the
respected Comrade Kim Il Sung gave strength and confidence to the world’s
progressive people in their fight for independence, and made an imperishable
contribution to the cause of human independence.
The respected leader Comrade Kim Il
Sung was the great teacher and benevolent father of our people, and all our
people are his soldiers and devoted followers, the sons and daughters of the
paternal leader. All the generations of our country, from the first generation
of our revolution up to the present one, have grown up and led a fruitful life
under the leader’s warm care, developing their socio-political integrity. For
many years, our people have regarded the respected Comrade Kim Il Sung as a
legendary hero, the sun of the nation, a great leader and the nation’s father.
They have considered it their greatest honour and noblest moral duty to be
single-heartedly loyal and dutiful to him.
Our people’s loyalty to the great
leader has been displayed even more strongly since he passed away. People
throughout the country paid their last respects to the fatherly leader in bitter
tears and cherished their memory of him in unabated grief. As time goes by, our
people are yearning for him more and more, praying for his immortality with
their purest minds. The world is moved by the infinite loyalty and devotion to
the great leader our people have displayed before and after his death by
believing in him and regarding him invariably as their spiritual pillar.
What was most important to us,
gripped by the pain of great loss after his sudden death, was to continue to
venerate him as much as when he was alive and to carry forward his cause with
loyalty. Our Party concentrated all its efforts on the important work of holding
the great leader in lasting reverence and carrying forward and developing his
revolutionary ideology and cause, and roused the whole Party, entire army and
all the people to this end. We have solemnly rebuilt the Kumsusan Memorial
Palace as the sacred temple of Juche, reverently laying the respected Comrade
Kim Il Sung in state there, and have continued to add glory to the great name of
the leader and his immortal accomplishments. Our Party is organizing and
mobilizing its members and working people for a vigorous struggle to ensure an
impeccable continuity of the great leader’s ideology and leadership and
implement his teachings.
The leadership of our Party, which
invariably and highly respects the great leader and faithfully carries on his
ideology and cause, has convinced our people more deeply that the great leader
Comrade Kim Il Sung will always be with them, and motivated them to strengthen
their indomitable revolutionary spirit and will to carry the revolutionary cause
of Juche through to completion, true to the leader’s teachings. With a full
conviction that as long as our Party exists the great leader’s revolutionary
cause is ever-victorious, our people are fighting forcefully, placing
unqualified support and trust in the Party and united firmly behind it. Our
Party is greatly proud of having such fine people as ours, who with unshakable
outlook on the leader and a noble sense of moral obligation, are loyal to their
leader throughout the generations.
Our Party and people highly respect
the revolutionaries who fought for the revolutionary cause of Juche under the leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung.
The anti-Japanese revolutionary
veterans are the honourable first generation of our revolution. They took up
arms and started fighting the war, shedding blood, not for their personal
interests or fame, but solely for the day when people would live happily on
their liberated fatherland. The anti-Japanese revolution was unprecedentedly
arduous and beset with trials. Under the most trying conditions, the
anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters upheld the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung
as the centre of their unity, the centre of leadership, and fought by displaying
unparalleled heroism and sacrifice. As a result they defeated the Japanese
imperialists, accomplished the historic cause of national liberation, and made a
brilliant contribution to establishing the glorious revolutionary traditions of
our Party. Our Party respects them as the pioneers of our revolution and as
model revolutionaries, and sets great store by their revolutionary spirit and
exploits. Putting forward the slogan, “Let us produce, study and live like the
anti-Japanese guerrillas!”, our Party encourages the entire Party membership and
working people to emulate the revolutionary spirit and fighting attitude of the
anti-Japanese fighters in their work and life, and add glory to their exploits.
The participants in the Fatherland
Liberation War are the heroic fighters who defended the people’s fatherland by
inheriting the brilliant traditions of the anti-Japanese revolution. In the
fierce fighting to decide the destiny of the country, our People’s Army and
people defeated the US imperialist invaders and defended the freedom and
independence of the country with honour. Our Party is very proud of the immortal
achievements of our soldiers and people during the Fatherland Liberation War,
and educates the younger generation and other people in their mass heroism and
patriotic spirit.
The heroes and heroines, labour
innovators and the front rankers during the great upsurge of the Chollima
Movement in the postwar years belong to the proud generation that brought about
a high tide of building socialism, surmounting the obstacles in the way of our
revolution. We give prominence to these heroes and heroines, innovators and
front-rankers in the Chollima age, as models of self-reliance who, under the
leadership of the Party in a short period, built our country into a socialist
state—independent, self-sufficient and self-reliant in defence—on the rubble of
war in the spirit of self-reliance and fortitude.
Our Party continues to glorify the
socio-political integrity of the revolutionary and patriotic martyrs and heroic
fighters who performed brilliant feats in the different periods of our
revolution, thus passing their accomplishments down through history. We have set
up the splendid revolutionary martyrs cemetery and patriotic martyrs cemetery in
their memory, and have named their birthplaces, schools, factories, farms or the
units of the People’s Army where they studied or served after these heroes. We
give wide publicity to their distinguished services.
Our country also spares nothing to
take loving care of the children of the revolutionary and patriotic martyrs and
heroic soldiers. We have set up schools for the children of revolutionary
martyrs in many parts of the country, educating them to be stalwart
revolutionaries at state expense; we assign them to the important posts of
Party, state and army and help them work well. Our Party and people do this
because they see it as their moral obligation to the revolutionary martyrs.
In our country many revolutionary
and war veterans, disabled soldiers, merited people, renowned intellectuals and
other distinguished people in the cultural field still continue to work for the
revolution, leading valuable and worthwhile lives under the warmly loving care
of the Party and enjoying social concern and respect. To love, respect and give
prominence to the revolutionaries and merited people who are loyal to the Party
and revolution, fatherland and people—this is the politics of our Party and
lofty spirit of our society.
Our Party and people also
appreciate the people renowned in our nation’s history and keep their
accomplishments alive in the nation’s memory. We unearthed the tomb of Tangun,
the founder of Korea, and rebuilt it majestically, and splendidly reconstructed
the tombs of King Tongmyong, the founder of Koguryo, a powerful ancient state,
and of Wang Kon, the founder of Koryo. The long history of our nation has thus
acquired greater brilliance in the era of the Workers’ Party.
The cause of independence for the
popular masses, the cause of socialism, is a national, and at the same time an
international, cause. The Korean revolutionaries are genuine internationalists;
they respect the revolutionaries, anti-imperialist fighters, anti-fascist
fighters, progressive figures and revolutionary people of all countries,
irrespective of their nationality, and duly appreciate their achievements.
Our Party and people respect Marx,
Engels, Lenin and Stalin as the leaders of the working class and speak highly of
their distinguished services. Reflecting the demands and aspirations of the
working class, Marx and Engels, the first leaders of the working class,
developed socialism from a Utopian concept to a science and started the
socialist and communist movement. Lenin inherited and developed Marxism to meet
the change in the times and won the victory of the October Socialist Revolution
by organizing and mobilizing the working class. Stalin, succeeding to the cause
of Lenin, built the first young socialist state into a world power and defended
the socialist fatherland from the fascist invasion, leading the army and the
people. In their days Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin represented the aspirations
and demands of the exploited working masses, and the cause of socialism was
inseparably linked with their names. The fact that imperialists and the traitors
to the revolution viciously defame the leaders of the working class and abuse
their leadership as “dictatorship” or “infringement on human rights” only proves
that the leaders of the working class were zealous champions of the people’s
interests and enjoyed their trust and support, and that they were steadfast
communist revolutionaries who held fast to the revolutionary principle without
compromising with the enemies of the revolution.
Our Party has always assessed the
ideological and theoretical achievements of the working-class leaders in an
impartial way. It has defended the revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism
from all manner of opportunistic distortions and inherited and developed them to
meet the interests of the revolution and the requirements of the reality. The
revolutionary idea and theory of the working class must be applied to meet the
historical circumstances and specific situation of each country. The conditions
and circumstances of the revolution ceaselessly change and develop. Therefore,
if we take a dogmatic approach to the existing theories, we cannot formulate the
line and policies correctly, and so cannot avoid twists and turns in the
revolution and construction. While adhering to the revolutionary principles of
Marxism-Leninism, our Party has established its own guiding ideology and theory
on the basis of a correct analysis of the historical limitations of their
doctrines, and used them as a weapon in advancing the socialist cause.
The great leader Comrade Kim Il
Sung, in the course of creatively applying Marxism-Leninism to the Korean
revolution in his early days, authored the Juche idea and blazed the trail for
the independent development of our revolution. The Juche idea is an original
idea, which developed the revolutionary idea of the working class to meet the
new historical circumstances and the modern-day requirements the historical
limitations of the preceding theories were overcome by the Juche idea, and the
revolutionary ideology and theory of the working class developed onto a higher
stage.
The opportunists and socialist
renegades distorted and defamed Marxism-Leninism and disgraced its authors.
Modern revisionists emasculated the revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism
to please the imperialists and thus distorted and corrupted the revolutionary
ideology of the working class. The socialist renegades, claiming that the
socialist ideal itself was wrong, denied the revolutionary idea of the working
class outright. The idea that denies the working-class revolutionary idea cannot
be anything but bourgeois ideology. The traitors claimed that they were carrying
out “reform” and “restructuring” for “democracy” and “economic welfare”,
gainsaying the revolutionary idea of the working class. However, real life has
clearly shown that their “theory” was nothing but a reactionary theory for
destroying socialism and reviving capitalism.
Our people respect not only the
leaders of the working class but also the revolutionaries and peoples of all
countries who have fought heroically for the socialist cause. We remember the
great revolutionary struggles of the peoples in many countries who have rendered
distinguished services in the socialist cause. We highly appreciate their
historical achievements. Our Party and people oppose and denounce all manner of
counterrevolutionary plots and traitorous acts that defame and debase the
struggles and achievements of revolutionary forerunners who contributed to the
socialist cause.
Although the opportunists and the
socialist renegades defaced the honour of the leaders of the working class and
the revolutionary pioneers, they can never wipe out their names and their worthy
achievements from history. Just as socialism is alive in people’s minds and is
opening up the path to a new victory in spite of temporary twists and turns, so
the honour and accomplishments of the leaders of the working class and the
revolutionary forefathers be respected forever by the people as the socialist
movement advances.
Our Party and people treasure
friendship and solidarity with the peoples of various countries around the world
and have given active support and encouragement to people who are fighting for
socialism and for the cause of anti-imperialist independence. We have invariably
been true to the internationalist principle and revolutionary obligation both in
the party and state relations with the socialist countries and in our relations
with all the friendly countries and friendly people. We invariably respect the
party and state leaders, prominent figures in the political, public, academic
and press circles and friends in many countries with whom the great leader
Comrade Kim Il Sung became intimate during his foreign activities. We remember
our revolutionary comrades-in-arms and fraternal people who gave our people
disinterested help in the trying years of our revolution, and also people of all
countries who support and encourage the just cause of our people.
The noble mental and moral
qualities of the people are inconceivable without the correct leadership of the
party and the leader.
Socialist society, where comradely
unity and cooperation constitute the basis of social relations, creates the
socio-economic conditions for the formation and development of new morals which
conform to its intrinsic nature. However, people’s mental and moral qualities do
not automatically become noble with the establishment of the socialist system.
Even in socialist society, people can acquire noble mental and moral qualities
only when they are correctly guided by the party and the leader.
The mental and moral qualities of
the people take after those of the leader and follow the party’s politics. A
great leader and a great party produce a great people.
The respected Comrade Kim Il Sung
was a great man and the great father of the people who was endowed with the
loftiest human love as well as with fervent love for and trust in the people.
Our Party is genuinely a maternal party. It leads the people and takes care of
them, pursuing the politics of love and trust—benevolent politics—true to the
noble idea and virtue of the great leader. The beautiful mental and moral traits
of our people were formed and have developed and become ennobled today under the
benevolent care of the paternal leader and maternal Party. Thanks to the great
personality of the fatherly leader and to the benevolent politics of the
motherly Party, our people have acquired a high sense of moral obligation; they
love their comrades, respect their revolutionary seniors, are loyal to the Party
and the revolution and devote themselves for the society and the collective.
Consequently, genuinely communist human relationships based on comradely unity
and cooperation, love and trust, have come into bloom in our society.
The mental and moral traits of our
people clearly show that our socialism, which is centred on the popular masses,
is superior to the capitalist world politically, ideologically, mentally and
morally.
3
Establishing the moral traits of
respecting one’s revolutionary predecessors and developing sound relations
between the people, based on morality and loyalty, is an important task in
carrying forward and accomplishing the socialist cause.
As the revolution advances and
society develops, morality must also develop steadily towards perfection. The
consummation of socialism presupposes the perfection of people themselves, the
masters of society, and moral consummation holds an important place in the
perfection of human qualities. The highest stage in the development of human
morals is communist morality. Communist morality is a collectivist morality,
based on comradely love and revolutionary loyalty; it is the highest morality,
which conforms to man’s intrinsic requirement. Only through the process of
eliminating the remnants of outmoded morality still lingering in the people’s
minds in socialist society and establishing thoroughly communist morality can
people be transformed into people of the communist type and can socialism be
accomplished.
Defending and carrying forward the
revolutionary traditions established by revolutionary predecessors is a
revolutionary duty and noble moral obligation for the successors to revolution.
The revolutionary idea and spirit
of the revolutionary predecessors, the valuable achievements and experience in
their struggle and their revolutionary traits are the important contents of the
revolutionary traditions which we must inherit and learn down through the
generations. The revolutionary traditions are a priceless ideological and mental
wealth that provides the continuity of revolutionary lifeblood. Whether the
socialist cause advances victoriously through generations, or is abandoned as
one generation is replaced by another, can be said to depend on the attitude
towards revolutionary traditions. Rejecting revolutionary traditions means
renouncing the revolutionary idea and spirit and giving up the revolutionary
struggle, and in the long run, leading the revolution to frustration. The
experience and lesson of the socialist movement show that neglecting, denying or
obliterating the revolutionary traditions will lead a working-class party to
inevitable degeneration and destruction, no matter how it boasts of its long
history and rich experience in the struggle, and that such a practice will make
it impossible for a country to defend socialism no matter how long its history
of socialism or how strong its economic and military power. In order to
strengthen and develop a working-class party steadily into a revolutionary party
and carry forward and accomplish the socialist cause successfully through
generations, it is imperative to preserve and put into effect its revolutionary
traditions correctly in party building and party activity and in all fields of
the revolution and construction.
The revolutionary traditions of our
Party are the revolutionary traditions of Juche, established by the
anti-Japanese forerunners under the leadership of the great leader Comrade Kim
Il Sung. The glorious revolutionary traditions of Juche are the historical root
of our Party and the eternal cornerstone of our revolution. Defending and
carrying forward the revolutionary traditions established by the revolutionary
predecessors is the way to strengthen and develop our Party forever into the
revolutionary party of a Juche type, defend our socialism and carry forward and
accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche without fail. We must inherit the
lofty revolutionary idea and spirit of the revolutionary predecessors, staunchly
adhere to the revolutionary principle, the working-class principle, and advance
stoutly along the road of revolution, no matter what the circumstances or
co0nditions. We must ensure that the Party members and working people equip
themselves firmly with the revolutionary traditions of our Party, put them
thoroughly into practice and always live and work in a revolutionary manner. We
must see that all the Party members and working people, following the examples
of the revolutionary predecessors make loyalty to the Party and the leader their
revolutionary faith and ethics and fight devotedly for the revolutionary cause
of Juche under the leadership of the Party. In this way we will bring lasting
glory to the revolutionary traditions of Juche established by the anti-Japanese
revolutionary forerunners and developed by our Party, and keep and demonstrate
the honour and dignity of the communist revolutionaries who highly value
revolutionary principles and loyalty.
We must intensify moral education among Party members and
other working people to establish communist moral traits throughout our
society.
Morality is the social standard of
behaviour to be observed voluntarily, with conscience. Therefore, it is only
when people acquire noble moral traits with a clear conscience in and out of
work that they become revolutionaries, genuine communists truly loyal to the
Party and revolution, the fatherland and people, and establish communist moral
traits throughout all of society.
We must always educate and lead the
Party members and other working people to observe communist moral standards in
good faith in all aspects of social relations and social life, ranging from
loving their parents, brothers, sisters and comrades and helping each other with
solicitude, to valuing their communities and organizations, taking good care of
state and social property and observing public morals voluntarily.
We must pay special attention to
educating the younger generation, the successors to the revolution and the
masters of the future, to be unfailingly loyal to the Party and the revolution.
The prosperity of the country and
nation and the destiny of socialism depend on how we educate and train the
younger generation. The mental and moral qualities of the younger generation
reflect the future of their country and nation. It is a historical lesson that
even in a socialist society the younger generation are unable to grow up into
reliable successors to the revolution, nor can they defend socialism, unless
they are given proper education. The youth and children are at the stage of
ideological and mental development and they have grown up in easy circumstances
without undergoing the trials of revolutionary struggle. Therefore, if they are
not given proper education, they may be easily affected with unsound ideology,
morality and modes of life. The present mental and moral state of our youth and
children is excellent. However, we must never neglect the education of the
younger generation on any account.
We must teach them to be
revolutionaries, communists who follow the Party and the leader with loyalty,
are unfailingly faithful to the fatherland and people and equipped with noble,
sound mental and moral traits.
Giving the younger generation a
good education is an important duty of the elder generation. The most valuable
heritage that the revolutionary predecessors should hand down to their
successors is their mental and moral heritage. The elder generation should
bequeath material wealth for a rich life to their posterity, but what is more
important is to hand over valuable mental and moral wealth to them so that they
reliably succeed to the revolution. We must teach the younger people clearly how
the first and second generations of our revolution followed the Party and the
leader and how they lived and fought to overcome the difficult revolutionary
situation during the arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, the
Fatherland Liberation War, and in the years of difficult postwar reconstruction
and socialist construction. In this way, we sill ensure that all the younger
people zealously emulate the same unfailing loyalty to the Party and the leader
as was displayed by the first and second revolutionary generations, as well as
the latter’s devotion to the revolutionary cause and their indomitable fighting
spirit.
It is important to enhance the role
of youth organizations in educating the younger people. The basic task of the
League of Socialist Working Youth is to give the younger generation sound
education and train them into the kind of successors to the revolution that are
politically and ideologically steadfast and possess a noble moral character. The
LSWY organizations must step up education in keeping with the characteristics of
young people so that they all grow up to a new revolutionary generation and
reliable masters of the future.
For sound education, schools,
society and families must all join their educational efforts. Schools at all
levels, public educational establishments and families must all pay close
attention to education so that all young people receive a good grounding in
sound, revolutionary living any time and anywhere. Young people are full of
curiosity and responsive, so that everything they see, hear and feel exerts a
great influence on their emotions and lives. Therefore, we must pay close
attention to their education through mass media such as arts, literature and the
press.
Moral education in socialist
society must conform to the essential characteristics of communist mortality and
the requirements of developing socialist society.
First of all, we must regard moral
education as an important part of ideological education and conduct it in close
combination with the latter. Ideology and morality are inseparable, and morality
is inconceivable apart from ideology. Morality based on the revolutionary idea
of the working class is a collectivist, communist morality; morality based on
bourgeois reactionary ideology is an ultra-egoistic morality, a reactionary
bourgeois morality. Only when a person’s ideology is sound can he acquire a
noble moral quality, and only when his ideology is reinforced with his
conscience and morality can it be true and unshakable. We must conduct communist
moral education in breadth and depth, considering it as an important part of
education in the Juche idea. By intensifying communist moral education on the
basis of developing in depth education in the principles of the Juche idea among
the Party members and working people, we must see to it that they firmly absorb
the Juche-oriented revolutionary outlook on morality and acquire the best mental
and moral traits of a communist revolutionary of the Juche type.
We must ensure that people
cultivate their communist moral qualities through life in the revolutionary
organizations and in their revolutionary practice. People develop their
qualities as social beings through collective life in social communities, and
life in the revolutionary organizations is the highest form of social collective
life. Life in a revolutionary organization is a fine school that trains and
educates people both ideologically and morally to acquire communist traits. An
important factor that has enabled our people to acquire sound and revolutionary
mental and moral qualities lies in the fact that everyone leads his life as part
of a particular political organization. We must stimulate the activities of
people in a revolutionary organization and establish more firmly the habit of
leading the organizational life on a voluntary basis. We must do this to
encourage the people to enhance their sense of collectivism, reject all manner
of liberalistic and unsound trends and develop noble moral traits. A person’s
conscience and sense of moral obligation are expressed and verified in practical
activities. An outmoded moral outlook and immoral practices are mainly rooted in
obsolete customs. We must see to it that people remain true to their conscience
and obligation in their daily work and life and oppose an obsolete moral outlook
and conventions, thereby setting up a new socialist way and spirit of life.
It is most effective to conduct
moral education by the method of educating people through the influence of
positive examples and social campaigns. This method is a powerful means,
congenial to the nature of socialist society. Among our people are numerous
commendable people who unhesitatingly dedicate their lives for their
revolutionary comrades, unobtrusively do good things for the Party, the
revolution, the society and the collective, and live conscientiously with a
loyal and dutiful attitude throughout their lives. They are the incarnation of a
clean conscience and noble morality, are the models for the people of our era.
We must pay a high tribute to the communist traits manifested among these
people, give wide publicity to them, and launch a powerful society-wide movement
to follow their example.
We must fight against obsolete,
reactionary morality and any trend of life that runs counter to communist
morality and must prevent their penetration into our ranks.
The work of establishing a new
communist morality is carried on in the fight against obsolete, reactionary
morals and all sorts of immorality and depravity. Bourgeois morality leads
people to follow the law of the jungle and degrades them into slaves of money
who discard the most elementary human conscience and duty for the sake of cash.
In capitalist society, where bourgeois morality rules, every manner of social
evil is rampant, and a corrupt and degraded mode of life prevails. The situation
is further aggravated by the reactionary ruling circles. The imperialists are
extensively spreading their corrupt bourgeois morality and way of life both at
home and abroad. We must heighten our vigilance against the ideological and
cultural infiltration of the imperialists and completely foil it. We must also
have a clear knowledge of the reactionary nature and harmfulness of the
treacherous acts of the opportunists who slandered the pioneers of the
revolution and abused communist morality, and must staunchly oppose and reject
them. The more the imperialists and the renegades from the revolution scheme to
slander the communists and abuse communist morality, the higher we must display
our revolutionary mettle and the noble moral traits as communist
revolutionaries.
The
history of our revolution, which has advanced under the banner of the Juche idea
led by the great leader Comrade
Kim Il Sung, is a glorious one. It has been
embroidered with revolutionary comradeship and noble moral fidelity and has
paved the road of victory in our revolution on the strength of single-hearted
unity among the revolutionary ranks. Our Party and people will defend the
glorious history and traditions of our revolution and develop them for ever.