This is a moment in history when Juche’s practical applications for the global anti-imperialist struggle have become highly apparent. We’ve come to a point in which the forces that challenge U.S. hegemony have gained unprecedented potential for victory; but the enemy has launched an offensive which could derail much of our progress if we don’t respond to it correctly. And a crucial part of how to respond is by adopting the Juche idea, which says that the masses are the drivers of the revolution.
It’s through implementing this idea that we can avoid the structural problems which led to the demise of the USSR, as well as Syria’s anti-imperialist state. Kim Jong Il concluded that the Soviet bloc’s ruling parties “neglected the revolutionary education and tempering of their cadres and members, with the result that some people gradually degenerated and became traitors.” This parallels the events that led to Syria’s fall; as Mücadele Birliği of Turkey’s Struggle Unity organization has observed: “The relations of some cadres in the upper bureaucracy of the state, including the army, with the bourgeois class, and the reaction to the decay and corruption in this section of society had broken the desire and will of the army to fight.”
These problems came from the same errors which brought about the USSR’s downfall; such a scenario, in which a leadership loses its will to resist imperialism’s pressures, can only happen when the duties of the revolution have been neglected. To preserve the integrity of the revolutionary structure, a leadership has to take the path of Juche, and constantly work to sustain cohesion within the structure’s ranks. There must be a perpetual effort to cultivate dedication towards the class struggle, which is why Juche places the masses at the center: to commit to the class struggle is to foremost prioritize the interests of the people. Any anti-imperialist leadership that fails to do this will become at risk of getting undermined; which means that when the enemy intensifies its offensive, as it’s doing now, the contradictions within the weaker anti-imperialist leaderships will be exposed.
Syria’s deposed Baath party showed itself unable to withstand the tests of this era within the struggle. Next the imperialists hope to bring about similar outcomes in Iran and Russia, which have the same issue that Baathist Syria did: they aren’t sufficiently controlled by the proletariat. The proletarian forces within these countries are engaged in a struggle with their national bourgeois forces, which can’t be underestimated. There are strong elements of the capitalist class, both within Iran and within Russia, that desire to end all anti-imperialist policies. They want to open their countries up to international capital, which would enrich themselves while their workers suffer the destructive consequences. This is what the dominant wing of the U.S. ruling class wants as well: “peace” agreements where Iran and Russia majorly capitulate in exchange for the sanctions upon them being lifted. And there’s a real danger that this project to compromise the two countries will succeed.
If Iran were to give up its anti-Zionist resistance efforts, Washington would reward Iran’s bourgeoisie massively, which is why there’s such a strong push among Iran’s capitalists to strengthen relations with the USA. Should the imperialists succeed at assassinating Khamenei, which they clearly want to do, the country’s liberal reformers will gain even more sway. The liberal forces within Russia also have a chance of gaining more power, and preventing Russia’s anti-imperialist forces from aiding China during the next war escalations. This scenario isn’t guaranteed, but we must be aware that there’s a risk of it becoming reality. For Washington to make this happen, it won’t need to get Russia to surrender in Ukraine. Washington will only need to get Russia to become dependent on Turkey—as it’s increasingly been doing since Assad left Damascus—while not assisting China if the U.S. starts war over Taiwan.
Washington never had hope of winning in Ukraine, and Russia’s decision to take on that fight has accelerated the transition towards multipolarity; so in response, the hegemon has taken advantage of the anti-imperialist side’s vulnerabilities within West Asia. Ultimately, this will backfire on the hegemon in many ways, because it will force Washington to put its resources into the West Asian front. This is going to frustrate its project for a Taiwan war, thereby making a Russia-China split less likely. The enemy’s recent victories in West Asia may prove to be pyrrhic victories, because West Asia is a tactical front, not a strategic front. Eastern Europe and East Asia are strategic fronts, and the anti-imperialist side is in place to win within both regions; it’s already effectively won in Ukraine just by exhausting NATO’s arms supply, which has ensured that the Donbass will never fall to fascist Kiev.
These victories for multipolarity, though, can only bring the liberation struggle so far. The enemy’s tactical victories within West Asia have already made Russia friendly with Turkey, one of Washington’s most dangerous and aggressive proxies; how far the enemy will get in compromising Russia, as well as Iran, has yet to be determined. It largely depends on how successful their respective class struggles are. Regardless, we already know that these tactical victories for the hegemon will expand and intensify the genocide; this is what’s been happening during the last month, as Washington and its Zionist proxy have attacked Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and most of all Gaza with even more boldness. Iran is next, and should the country’s proletariat lose the power struggle with the bourgeoisie, Iran will respond to these attacks by capitulating further.
We within the United States cannot affect these struggles, beyond helping bring scrutiny upon the capitulationist elements inside Iran and Russia. The most impactful thing we can do is apply Juche’s model to our own class struggle; which means joining with an international anti-imperialist united front. A crucial part of following Juche is to side with every anti-imperialist effort, whether or not the country embarking upon this effort is socialist. That’s why the DPRK has supported Russia’s Ukraine operation, both rhetorically and materially. As Kim Il Sung said: “The differences of state socio-political systems, political views or religious beliefs can by no means be an obstacle in the way of joint struggle against U.S. imperialism. All countries should form an anti-imperialist united front and take anti-U.S. joint action to crush the common enemy and attain the common goal.”
When socialism was destroyed in Russia, the DPRK did not abandon this principled stance. Its leadership has taken the lessons from the Soviet bloc’s errors, while remaining committed to collaborating with post-Soviet Russia whenever it defies the hegemon. And we must respond to Syria’s fall in the same way: by learning from the mistakes within the struggle, while not forsaking international solidarity.
Three years ago, when Russia’s operation had catalyzed a conflict within the global communist movement, this was the big lesson I took from Kim Il Sung’s insights. It became apparent that all of the “Marxist-Leninist” groups which refused to support Russia due to its economic character had abandoned Marxism-Leninism. Now, after Palestine has become the primary issue and Syria’s fall has accelerated the genocide, there is another part of Kim Il Sung’s analysis which we must consider. This is the part where he observed how crucial it is to commit to each task the struggle demands of us, regardless of the costs:
If an active struggle is neglected, only waiting for a favourable situation to arise by reason of the arduousness of the revolution, revolutionary forces cannot be fostered. Revolutionary forces cannot be prepared spontaneously without any struggle, they can be fostered and strengthened only through a hard struggle. If preparations are not made to meet the decisive hour of the revolution by preserving the revolutionary forces against the enemy's suppression and, at the same time, constantly accumulating and building them up through a positive struggle, it will be impossible to win victory in the revolution even when the objective situation has been created. To turn away from the revolution on the pretext of avoiding sacrifices is in fact tantamount to forcing the people to remain in lifelong slavery to capital
This lesson is so applicable to the post-October 7 era because at this moment, our class enemies are using Palestine as a pretext for orchestrating an unprecedented crackdown. Or more accurately, they’re reacting to the recent gains of the Palestinian struggle and its allies by speeding up their repressive plans; fighting Palestinian “terrorism” is only the narrative they’re using to justify the repression.
Many objective conditions have come to be in our favor. The more the imperialists try to reverse multipolarity’s rise, the faster a multipolar world emerges; the Zionist entity’s collapse is accelerating, and it will be furthered by the entity’s invasion of Syria; labor revolts keep growing as the imperial system’s decline puts more pressure on the workers. But unless we sufficiently prepare our organizations for the crackdown, and keep operating amid severe repression, we won’t be able to take advantage of these developments. Even if the form of our practice is correct, and we’re supporting every anti-imperialist country or rebel group, we can still fail within our own struggle. We must have both the right form and the right content. That’s the most important thing we can learn from Juche.
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