The Independent Stand Must Be Maintained

General Secretary Kim Jong Il said:

“If independence is to be defended, an independent stand must firmly be maintained in the revolution and construction.

As the leader instructed, the independent stand is the fundamental stand that must be adhered to in the revolution and construction.”

What is important in the guiding principle of the Juche idea is the principle that an independent stand must be maintained.

This principle consists of the principles of Juche in ideology, independence in politics, self-sufficiency in the economy, and self-reliance in defense. In this lesson you will hear what is the independent stand and the reason why the independent stand must be maintained.

An independent stand is a viewpoint and stand to defend independence, deriving from the fact that the socio-historical movement is the movement of the masses for independence and the history of human society is the history of the struggle of the popular masses for independence.

The independent stand, in a word, is a stand that makes the popular masses defend their position as masters of the revolution and construction. In other words, it is a stand that makes the masses defend and exercise the rights as masters of the revolution and construction and fulfill the responsibility as such.

First, the independent stand is a stand that enables the masses to exercise the rights as masters of the revolution and construction.

That the popular masses exercise the rights as masters of the revolution and construction means that they deal with all problems of the revolution and construction in their interests, according to their own independent judgment and decision.

The independent stand is a stand that opposes looking up to others without one’s own opinion and moving in an opportunist way in any complex circumstances. Failing to resolve one’s own problems by one’s own decision without independent character in bondage to others or following will of others and acting against one’s own interests is contrary to the independent stand.

The prolonged history of the masses’ struggle for independence has recorded the facts that the masses made a mess of the revolution and construction because they failed to defend their rights. Among them there is the event that even the gains of the revolution obtained at the cost of blood were lost. Therefore, one must firmly maintain the independent stand to defend the rights as master in order to carry out the revolution and construction successfully.

Second, the independent stand is a stand that makes the masses fulfill their responsibility as masters of the revolution and construction.

That the masses fulfill their responsibility as masters of the revolution and construction means that they resolve all problems in the revolution and construction on their own responsibility and initiative as befitting masters.

Trying to get one’s own work done by others or to get one’s own problem solved by others is tantamount to shirking one’s responsibility as masters and relinquishing one’s position as such.

Without a stand to fulfill the responsibility as master one can not make a revolution. It is true that a man without a stand befitting master can not solve even a problem of his own life far from making the revolution. And others can not make the revolution and construction instead. Of course, one might receive aid from the people of other country, but the main is one’s own strength. If the master fails to discharge his duties as master, aid from others can not take effect.

For example, in 1936 the people’s front in Spain established the republic and waged a revolutionary war against counterrevolutionary Franco forces that were in collusion with the imperialist allied forces.

At that time the former Soviet Union supplied the Spanish people with goods corresponding to 417 million rubles and heavy weapons such as planes and tanks and sent military advisers and volunteers. In August, 1938 “Spanish international co-ordination committee” was founded in Paris to send aid fund of 300 million francs and a lot of food, clothes and medicines for 2 years.

And the meeting of communist parties of 17 European countries was held and international support campaign was active for the fighting Spanish people, 35,000 volunteers from 54 countries went to the Spanish front, so the number of fighters mounted up to more than one million. However, the Spanish people’s front failed to check counterrevolutionary advance of the Franco fascist clique, and in the end the people were deprived of the government.

What was the reason? Of course, it was importantly attributable to the treacherous conspiracy of imperialist powers and in particular open armed intervention by fascist Germany and Italy. But the main reason that the Spanish people’s front failed to defend the gains of revolution to the last although international support to the Spanish revolution was ardent lies in that the people’s front failed to fortify the internal forces firmly and rely on them thoroughly.

Such historical facts show that in any case one must carry out the revolution and construction on one’s own responsibility and initiative, and only then, can one make the revolution and construction in accordance with the interests of one’s own people and consolidate its success.

By this, one can know that the independent stand is a fundamental stand that must be adhered to in the revolution and construction as a stand on which one must solve all problems in the revolution and construction on one’s own responsibility and initiative, according to one’s own independent conviction.

Then, why must the independent stand be adhered to in the revolution and construction?

First, it is because sticking this stand is the requirement of the revolutionary struggle itself.

The revolution and construction is the struggle of the masses for independence. If the masses are to realize their independence through the revolution and construction, they must solve all problems in the revolution and construction according to their own independent judgement and conviction.

If one has not one’s own sense and behaves in this way or another way according to others’ request, he can not carry out the revolution and construction at all in his own interests, so he can not realize independence.

The revolution and construction are the undertaking for the popular masses and of the masses themselves. As the revolution and construction are their own undertaking, the masses ought to solve all problems in the undertaking on their own responsibility and initiative. If one depends on others’ strength, he can not carry out the revolution and construction and realize his own independence forever.

Since the revolution and construction are the struggle for independence, dancing to the tune of others and depending on other’s power without the independent stand are contrary to the nature of the revolution and construction.

Next, the reason why the independent stand must be maintained in the revolution and construction is that the revolution and construction are carried out with each nation-state as a unit.

Country and nation is the unit of social life and stable collective of the people who are formed through the historical process.

Men, social beings, have lived in a certain social collective since the first day they came into being. This collective have ceaselessly changed and developed through the process of the people’s struggle for independence.

A clan which can be said to be the first social collective developed into a tribe, and a tribe into a race and further into a nation. A nation which was formed in this way was combined with a state machinery to become a more stable social collective, a nation-state.

Nation-states are strictly distinguished because each of them is a firm social collective that is formed on the basis of commonness in blood, language, culture and territory. As long as states and nations exist, people inevitably live and conduct with a nation-state as a unit.

Since the revolution and construction are carried with each a nation-state as a unit, masters of the revolution and construction in each country are the people of the country.

The revolution and construction in each country is the undertaking for the people of the country that must be carried out on their responsibility. Therefore, the popular masses must maintain the stand of master towards the revolution of their own country, the independent stand.

Today sophisticated technical means rapidly develop and accordingly relations and exchanges among the countries and nations become closer on the world-wide scale. The Western imperialists describe it as if the world is becoming “the world without border”, ” integrated and homogeneous”, but this is nothing but absurd sophism distorting the truth.

As society develops and the relations and exchanges among nations become close, commonness in the life of countries and nations increases, but the commonness has an independent and individual development of each country and nation as its premise and its basis. Since each country and nation has its own ideology, system, history and culture and shapes out its own destiny, the “integration” of the world is inconceivable.

This tells that one must not give up the independent stand, but maintain it more firmly although society develops, relations and exchanges among countries and nations become close and the commonness among them may be increased.

Maintaining the independent stand is the very correct way for all countries and nations to defend themselves and achieve their independent development and prosperity.