This last week’s decision by President Yoon to declare martial law has accelerated the breakdown of the U.S. occupation tool which we call “South Korea.” The closer the “Republic of Korea” comes to its end, the closer the rest of the world gets to becoming free from imperial domination and aggression. But when the entire Korean peninsula becomes free, the north’s socialist Juche model won’t just be implemented in Korea’s south; it will also become ever-more relevant to how revolutionary forces operate all across the globe. Juche is universal, because it’s based within an idea that’s essential to the victory of any anti-imperialist project: national self-reliance, where the people in any given place make themselves capable of defending their gains on their own. As the hegemon continues to lose its grip, and reacts by trying to expand the Gaza genocide, more global mass movements will embrace this idea by necessity.
The extermination effort in Palestine connects to the project of crushing dissent, which has become centered around the war against the pro-Palestine movement. The incoming Trump White House is fully united with the deep state when it comes to this goal; which is why we can expect the kinds of anti-democratic tactics Yoon has practiced to be brought to the United States. This won’t look like Trump attempting to stay in power by force, like how Yoon has, because unlike Yoon Trump does not have the role of a wannabe dictator. These attacks on civil and legal norms will be carried out through a partnership between the Trump wing, and the liberal technocrat wing, with the central goal of both being to suppress Palestine supporters.
If we work to mobilize the USA’s people, though, the bulk of them will unite in resistance against this anti-democratic assault. That’s what the masses of occupied Korea have done in response to Yoon’s actions, as observed by Stephen Cho of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform:
The people of the ‘ROK’ have a proud history of protests that brought down the fascist dictatorship and defended democracy through the April Uprising in April 1960, the Gwangju Uprising in May 1980, and the June Uprising in June 1987. The declaration of emergency martial law by Yoon is an anachronistic, fascistic violence, and the people of the ‘ROK’ can never tolerate it…The more fascistic, frantic last-ditch effort the Yoon government makes, the more radicalized the consciousness of people in ‘ROK’ will become, and the timetable for the revolution of ‘ROK’ will be accelerated. It will not only lead to the downfall of Yoon and the ruling People Power Party but also to the downfall of all pro-US forces. At the center of the revolutionary process of transformation from the anti-fascist democratic front for Yoon’s resignation into the national democratic front for the withdrawal of US troops and its political struggle, there is the People’s Democracy Party, the only subject force of the revolution of the ‘ROK,’ and the only anti-US anti-imperialist party.
The conflict that’s taking place in the “ROK,” where a pseudo-democratic liberal state keeps using dictatorial methods for fighting against its people, extends across the rest of the places which remain under imperial control. The anti-democratic brutality that’s practiced by the neo-colonial states is being brought into the “First World” countries, which means the proletarian struggle throughout these countries must account for the reality of ruling class violence.
This is how the reformist, ruling class tailist elements within movements get pushed out of the struggle: the development of the conflict exposes the self-defeating nature of their ideology. It’s the same ideological struggle that’s happening between the leaders who seek to appease the imperialists, and the ones who understand the necessity of self-defense. Juche represents the side of self-defense, which is why its ideas will win. Dermot Hudson—Chairman of the British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea—explains how Juche came to be a crucial alternative towards the liberal pacifism which destroyed the Soviet bloc:
The modern revisionists compromised with the US imperialists and stifled the anti-imperialist struggle jabbering about “peaceful co-existence” they embarked unilateral and one-sided disarmament of the socialist camp. They melted down tanks and guns…Thus the need was for Korea strengthening and consolidation of its self-defense capabilities a revolutionary line in opposition to both US imperialism and modern revisionism. The great leader President KIM IL SUNG and the dear leader Comrade KIM JONG IL knew that socialism could not be defended just by talking about “peaceful coexistence” and other flowery and effete phraseology. The whole experience of the Korean revolution showed that the revolution was defended and advanced by the arms.
It’s this philosophical battle that we’re still seeing take place across so much of the globe. There’s the conflict between the Iranian reformers who seek “peace” with the imperialists, and the hardliners who want to commit to resistance; there are the “progressive” Latin American leaders who capitulate to the hegemon, and the proletarian movements which are fighting for liberation from neo-colonialism; there are the reformist “socialist” parties throughout the imperialist countries, and the communists who haven’t abandoned Marxism-Leninism’s principles.
It was inevitable that this great debate would emerge as the opposition towards imperialism developed; that there would come to be an element which wanted freedom from capital’s violence and economic destruction, but didn’t want to take on the costs of resisting capital. Then the principled elements would need to struggle against this opportunistic current, which is what we’re doing now.
The imperial system’s demise is assured, but it has many openings to inflict more death, destruction, and brutal repression. And a crucial thing that gives the enemy these opportunities is the compromised forces which claim to be the opposition. The path to victory is not a straight line; our enemy is right now carrying out the extermination of the Palestinian people, expanding its assaults upon Lebanon and Iran, as well as carrying out a massive new terrorist insurgency against Syria. The goal is to destroy as much infrastructure, property, and human life as possible before the Zionist entity becomes no more. Then the empire’s main proxy state in west Asia will become Turkey, which is already leading the Syria blitz.
Washington wants to make Gaza into the new normal; after it needs to retreat from Palestine, it will try to replicate Gaza’s demolition across every other place where it seeks to crush populations. China and the DPRK are already prepared to beat the empire in any future confrontation, and Russia’s defeat of NATO has fully revealed the aggressor’s vulnerabilities. But everywhere that the anti-imperialist forces haven’t managed to gain sufficient strength, the enemy will commit gargantuan acts of violence, and it will especially target those who are most defenseless. We must apply the lessons from the last century of anti-imperialist resistance, and prioritize defense. New possibilities are opening up for victory, but to take advantage of them, we’ll need to be ready for the enemy’s next attacks.
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