Re: DPRK-baiting

[Gavin Walker <gmwalker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I find Lou Paulsen's post regarding the WWP stance on the DPRK to
be a rather ill-thought out consideration of the status of the DPRK
within the totality of "socialist states." I suppose I would agree with
his analysis if one were to limit its application to the intra-war and
immediate post-war period. The problem is that the DPRK has long
since ceased to be a socialist state as such, and while I can't
recommend at all that one trust the US media or any other reactionary
national media for that matter, it does not logically follow that
everyone demonized by imperialism isn't also actually guilty. There
are Marxists militants of endless courage and staying power in the
Korean peninsula - one needs only look at the South Korean labor
organizations, arguably the most militant in the world, or certain
political prisoners in the South such as the Marxist militant and poet
Pak No-hae (I think his collection "The Dawn of Labor" is available in
English translation). On the more "academic" side of things the critic
Paek Nak-cheong has long edited the journal Changjak kwa
bip'yeong (Creation and Criticism) which has a level of analysis
shared with Wallerstein, Amin, and the whole "world systems" milieu.
There are so many more figures to recommend that comrades read -
these are just off the top of my head. I'm afraid I'm not a Korea
specialist although I have some grasp on the language.

One point that I find most lacking in Lou's analysis is his attempt to
draw a direct correlation between the anti-Americanism of South
Korean popular sentiment with the notion that because of this, they
must naturally be pro-Pyongyang. This is so completely off-base as
to basically be funny to anyone at all familiar with Korean social
reality. The truth is that much of South Korean popular sentiment is
both anti-American and *extremely* anti-Pyongyang simultaneously.
There is a catch to all this in that in both the North and the South the
discourse of eventual "reunification" (tong'il) is a key item of
nationalist dialogue; thus the hatred of the Kim regime is mediated
by a deep feeling of mutual sympathy for the people of both regions.
The specificity of the increasing anti-American sentiment in South
Korea at present is primarily due to the continuing problem of the
goons of world enforcement, the US armed forces being stationed in
the country, effectively constituting an occupation force who act as if
they are (and they are) above the law.

Marxists in the rest of the world have a duty to study and examine the
political and social realities of given national situations without opting
for the path of least resistance ("They're called the Worker's Party!
They *must* be radical! Hail the beaming red jumpsuit of Kim Jong-
il!"). The Korean situation is inordinately complex but one thing is
clear: we can take an outmoded, poorly considered "party line" on the
DPRK or we can understand the reality - that socialist revolution must
come to the Korean people of both sides and that this requires the
dismantling of both the crazed, essentially pre-modern rule of the
DPRK as well as the super-capitalist rightist discourse mode of
Seoul.

I refuse to engage in a moralizing take on the alleged atrocities of the
Kim regime precisely because it is virtually impossible to secure
objective information on something like this, but what is clear to
anyone that wants to know the truth is that there is a sickeningly
powerful, wealthy, and dedicatedly capitalist elite in the North that
rules with an iron fist while the workers and peasants die every winter
from hunger. I would be the first to stand up for the DPRK were the
US to attempt to spread its newly invigorated love of world
colonization there, but that doesn't mean we should *support* the
DPRK politically in any way.

All of this has *not* been meant as an attack on Lou Paulsen. While I
don't precisely share the standpoint of the WWP, I think that the
formation of the ANSWER coalition shows that as a formation, the
WWP is attuned to the reality of struggle in the US at present, and that
is no small feat. I do think however, that this message from Lou
would have been better withheld and further considered, as the
analysis within is really not up to par vis-a-vis the Korean situation. A
responsible position is to engage in political work and solidarity with
the Korean people of both the North and South in their struggle for
socialism and justice, not to parrot the elite.

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