No nation will tolerate interference in its internal affairs and infringement upon its honour. Not only the socialist countries but also the newly independent countries oppose foreign interference and restrictions, and are taking the road to independence and self-reliance. Even capitalist countries do not want to follow the big powers blindly any longer but are demanding the right of independent action. The people of the world are now demanding the Juche idea and many countries are on the road of independence. This is an irresistible trend of our time.
—Kim Il Sung, 1986
The Juche idea is important to focus on at this moment because it provides a theoretical basis for the politics of popular struggle, which are what can rescue Venezuela and the world from the threat Washington poses. When I say that mass struggle is what gives the working class a fighting chance, I do so to delineate Juche’s position from the position of those who support “anti-imperialism” in an idealistic way; who act as if peace can come about simply by making “peace” deals with the hegemon. Such dangerously naive notions, which have recently become prominent amid the misplaced hopes for Trump 2.0 bringing an end to America’s wars, are among the biggest ideological enemies we need to struggle against right now. We must respond to the three big losses that the anti-imperialist cause has recently experienced—those being Syria, Bolivia, and Venezuela—by reorienting our movement towards Juche’s view of resistance.
Part of this means fighting against any narratives that propagate dishonest kinds of optimism about Venezuela; the seriousness of this loss cannot be minimized. The U.S. has gained the ability to threaten Venezuela’s new leadership into complying with big oil’s demands, and the only way this situation will be ended is through popular struggle. Not through simply waiting for the process of multipolarity to keep playing out, as many within anti-imperialist spaces have made the mistake of doing.
The empire has been declining in power these last couple decades, but we must understand that every blow it’s experienced has come about due to the efforts of the world’s popular masses. It hasn’t happened on its own. And to expand upon these efforts, we must implement the Juche idea, which embodies the mass-centered mode of practice they represent. As Kim Il Sung explained, this practice is one that places the masses within one’s own country as the definitive force in that country’s revolution, thereby bypassing any illusions about being able to rely on some larger historical trend:
Establishing Juche means having the attitude of masters towards the revolution and construction. In other words, it means discarding the idea of dependence on others and displaying the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance. This enables one to maintain at all times the independent standpoint of tackling one’s own problems on one’s own responsibility, and to adhere to the creative standpoint of solving all the problems that arise in the revolution and construction in line with the interests of one’s people and the actual conditions of one’s country. The independent and creative standpoints are embodied in the principles of independence in politics, self-sufficiency in the economy and self-reliance in national defence. Political independence is the lifeblood of a country and nation. Only when independence is maintained in politics is it possible to defend the nation’s prestige and to accelerate the revolution and construction. Political independence must be guaranteed by an independent economy. An independent national economy is essential for the consolidation of political independence and national prosperity and for providing the people with an affluent material standard of living.
The USSR’s fall was not enough to prevent the new wave of revolutions that Venezuela’s Chavista victory started off. The Global South’s workers had too great of a desire to reach these anti-colonial goals, especially amid the intensified exploitation that had come with the neoliberal reforms. The Bolivarian revolution was the only practical way Venezuela could further Juche’s goals, even though Bolivarianism is not based within Juche’s Marxist-Leninist ideology; in a time when Leninism was on the retreat, Venezuela’s one path forward was to take a non-Leninist route, and have the working-class movement take over the capitalist state rather than overthrow it. As it couldn’t be expected to wait for a time when overthrowing the state would be viable.
This is the context behind why Venezuela is now in such a compromised position: its popular masses have done the best they can to free themselves from neo-colonial rule, in an era when the global workers movement is far from rebuilding what it lost during the 20th century. When we account for this context, we can see the vacuousness of the rhetoric that simply puts the blame on Delcy Rodriguez for making concessions to Washington, or that vilifies Maduro as a traitor; to truly understand why the empire has gained this victory, you need to look at just how narrow of a path the Venezuelan workers were left with following the USSR’s end, and how easily this path could be diverted by the revolution’s enemies. Chavez and Maduro did their best to fortify the revolution’s strength amid the nearly insurmountable obstacles they were facing; they put in the effort to connect the people with the revolutionary government, and to build a massive civilian militia.
It’s because of this extra work, where the revolution’s leaders refused to become complacent and acted as the masters of history, that Venezuela still has a fighting chance. It’s why a Bolivarian republic still exists after Washington’s first big attack this year, which could have taken on a much more destructive form but had to be done in a cautious way. The U.S. knows that trying to occupy Venezuela would mean another Vietnam, because Venezuela’s masses have gained a level of strength that must be respected.
It’s this factor—the power of popular organization—that’s truly behind every part of progress within the multipolar shift. Without organization, the world’s workers would be utterly powerless, and the less organization there is the further the enemy will be able to push its lines. We must recognize this indispensability of organized popular struggle, and know what it really means to be organized; for us to have organization, and not merely mobilization or sloganeering, we must build centers of dual power that have a sustainable presence within their communities. This is what Marxism-Leninism and Juche mean in terms of pre-revolutionary work, and it’s how we within the imperialist countries can take guidance from the Global South’s struggles. If we internalize these lessons, our protests against the war on Venezuela will come to have a real impact, because they’ll be secondary to the mass power-building that’s at the heart of any successful liberation project.
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