“Socialism is a Science” and Anti-Revisionism A submission by the Austrian Youth Study Group for Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism
praxis. There have been various strands of Marxism considering themselves to be anti-revisionist,
notably the most widely accepted strand to bear the banner of anti-revisionism, Maoism proper and
Mao Zedong-Thought. Aside from these two most prominent strands, especially relevant in praxis
pertaining to the more than 25 million Koreans living under its jurisdiction today, and equally as
impactful towards an even larger number of people in the south of the Korean peninsula and abroad,
is Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism, the systematization of Juche and Songun.
Comrade Kim Jong Il’s work “Socialism is a science”, written in November 1994, grants us important
access towards an understanding of anti-revisionism as seen from a Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist
perspective. Therein, Kim Jong Il lays out the fundamental laws of socialist development as
understood through the principles of Kimilsungism, in light of the crumbling of revisionism in
formerly socialist countries.
“Socialism is a science” begins with a clear emphasis on its title. Comrade Kim Jong Il points out the
continuing accuracy of a Marxist outlook on the world, despite the squabbling of the imperialists on
one side and that of the treacherous renegades on the other.
Indeed, the principles of Marxism and its developments, all united in what can be called the
“principles of communism”, continue to correctly explain the inner workings of class society and
contain practically applicable, correct laws of development of human society within class society.
Today, they remain the tool wherewith the oppressed peoples continue to battle against the
hegemony of capitalism-imperialism, despite the setbacks experienced in the restoration of
capitalism in the USSR and the Eastern bloc, in China, following the coup of the Deng clique, as well
as in all other previously socialist countries on earth.
The battle against revisionism through a correct molding of socialist character, resulting in a
victorious conclusion of everlasting two-line struggle and a necessary cultural revolution, is the
primary task at hand during socialist transformation. It is the task of the correct party line to destroy
the incorrect, revisionist party line, in order to correctly transform the consciousness of the people.
Comrade Kim Jong Il has correctly identified a main cause of revisionist counter-revolution in
former socialist countries: the overt focus on objective conditions.
1 Pursuant to these, socialist
transformation was thought to come about practically on its own, once productive forces were
capable of sustaining a society of universal production and consumption according to the
fundamental principle of communism: “Each according to their needs.”
However, history and a correct understanding of dialectical materialism have shown that this was a
mistake. History is made by historical actors – and such could never be objective conditions, but
only subjects. While objective conditions clearly play a large role in the determination of history,
1 Kim, Jong Il (1994): pp. 4, 6ff
laying out the nature of development, creating and determining the framework and the details
thereof in which subjects exist, it will always be the subject, who, in a unity of opposites with
objective conditions, creates historical progress, historical change. All of this occurs, as is only
natural for a dialectical process, in synthesis of both opposites. It is the objective that informs the
subjective, and it is the subjective that informs the objective.
In our historical tasks in creating a society that is devoid of all class contradictions – such as race,
nations, gender and the like – we must be very conscious of this fact. No revolutionary progress can
live solely on objective development – as the stagist Mensheviks have purported – nor can
revolutionary progress live solely on subjective development – attempting to organize anybody, no
matter their objective interest, their class background, in the matter. True, lasting revolutionary
progress, such that eventually concludes our historical mission of establishing communism, will
have to be based on a correct synthesis of both objective conditions and subjective consciousness.
With the continuous ripening of objective conditions, so, too, must our efforts to bring about
corresponding subjective conditions, concluding both of these processes with the complementary
synthesis.
What does this mean concretely in the context of socialist transformation?
“Trying to move a man by means of money contradicts the intrinsic nature of socialist society (…) Such
a capitalist method cannot enhance the people’s revolutionary enthusiasm or creative initiative and,
worse still, it may degenerate the socialist system itself and throw it into jeopardy.”
2
The only point in question in this quote from comrade Kim Jong Il’s work concerns solely whether
such a methodology for motivation may or will definitely result in the degeneration of the socialist
system, i.e. the restoration of capitalism. In my opinion, the introduction of monetary incentives to
strengthen belief in and motivation within a socialist system will inevitably result in a degeneration
of the socialist system and, if not counteracted or replaced in a timely manner, result in the eventual
restoration of capitalism. Introducing monetary incentives can be part of a misguided motivational
program or it can be part of a willful (re-)introduction of capitalist characteristics as part of a
mistaken understanding of socialist production – no matter the intention, the general obstruction of
the development of a truly socialist consciousness will eventually put an end to socialist
transformation altogether, if not halted therebefore.
Comrade Che Guevara reported in a quite detailed manner on the Cuban experience in relation to
the proper modelling of a socialist production consciousness to gradually do away with the
necessary evil of material incentives. For example, following a given period of socialist
transformation, technicians, eligible to receive certain material incentives, refused to take such and
“relished recognition for their achievements and expertise.”
3
“Education and training were integrally linked to production and the needs of industrialisation, binding
individual improvement with economic development and the progress of the Revolution.”
4
Comrade Kim Il Sung mentioned quite clearly the necessity for a socialist consciousness revolving
not around material incentives, but around an identification of the individual production process
2 Kim, Jong Il (1994): p. 28
3 Yaffe (2009): p. 73
4
Ibid. p. 74
with the entire economic process. In his work “On some Theoretical Problems of the Socialist
Economy”, he stressed the importance of working not for yourself, not for any individual benefits,
but for the people. Comrade Kim Il Sung met with the workers of the Kangson Steel Mill and
discussed their insufficient production outputs of no more than 60,000 tons of rolled steel:
“When we asked the leading personnel of that steel works if they could not increase the output of rolled
steel to 90,000 tons, some of them, shaking their heads, said that it would be difficult. So, we called the
workers together and told them: We have barely managed to rehabilitate the ravaged economy, and now
the factionalists have reared their heads against the Party and the great- power chauvinists put pressure
on us, and the U.S. imperialists and the Syngman Rhee puppet clique are getting frantic with “march
north” clamours. But can all that be any excuse for us to get disheartened and yield to the grave
difficulties lying in the way of the cause of revolution and construction? No, that won’t do. We only trust
you—the working class, the main force of our revolution—and we have no one but you to rely on. Then,
to tide over these grave difficulties facing our Party, you must be in high spirits and work hard to
produce plenty and construct well, and thus drive the economic construction more vigorously, isn’t that
so? We conducted our political work in this way, and the workers of Kangson came out with a resolution
to produce 90,000 tons of rolled steel. Roused to activity, they strove hard improving the existing
machines and equipment and undoing entangled knots, with the result that 120,000 tons of rolled steel
was turned out instead of 90,000 that year.”
5
On the other end of this problem, we see the technocratic incentive policies that have been put
forward in the revisionist countries, motivating workers by working for themselves and focusing on
an eternal rule of the principle “to each according to their abilities”, all of which no longer exist or
have fallen to a completed restoration of capitalism. An opposition towards this glaringly bourgeois
line is vital to successful socialist transformation.
This line, however, does not only concern production consciousness, but it is also just as
importantly to be reflected in the administrative consciousness of cadre.
Comrade Kim Jong Il has touched upon this as well. He writes:
“It is important while building the socialist ruling party as a motherly party to thoroughly transform
the cadres in a revolutionary fashion and to actively struggle against the abuse of power, bureaucracy,
irregularities and corruption among them, which are the main factors that obstruct the implementation
of benevolent politics in socialist society. Socialism is opposed to all privileges. With the establishment of
the socialist system, the privileged class disappears. As long as the people possess state power and the
means of production, the privileged class cannot come into being in socialist society. But if a struggle is
not waged against the abuse of power, bureaucracy, irregularities and corruption in socialist society,
some ill-prepared cadres can deteriorate ideologically and become divorced from the masses, and thus
grow into a privileged class. However good the policies pursued by the party and state may be, they
cannot be carried out properly if the cadres resort to abuse of power and to bureaucracy, because all
policies of the party and state are implemented through the cadres. If the cadres exercise privileged
power, act bureaucratically and indulge in irregularities and corruption, the socialist party in power will
lose the support and confidence of the masses and, without their support, the party cannot maintain its
existence.
5 Kim, Il Sung (1969): p. 5f
(…)
Our Party saw through the danger of the deviations that could manifest themselves in a ruling party
early on, and it has tirelessly struggled against them. Under the Party's slogan, "We serve the people!",
our cadres are now faithfully serving the people as their servants. But we cannot in the least neglect
struggle against the abuse of power, bureaucracy, irregularities and corruption, because they are rooted
in the vestiges of outdated ideas, and because the imperialists continue their schemes of ideological and
cultural infiltration in order to implant anachronistic ideas in our country. We should continue to
vigorously wage educational work and an ideological struggle among cadres to root out these
deviations.”
6
It is regrettable that comrade Kim Jong Il has not touched upon this topic much more thoroughly. It
is important that we remember that it is not just “ill-prepared” comrades, nor is it solely a result of
the imperialists’ “schemes of ideological and cultural infiltration”, but in fact it is also a natural
tendency of cadre engaged in bureaucratic activities in socialism to underlie a process of ideological
deterioration – and it will gain a significant foothold, if it is not counteracted properly and if the
struggle for communism is not advanced continuously.
“(…) As you all know, the public, or state, sector is dominant in our economy, and the worker-peasant
alliance led by the working class is the decisive social force in all state activities. So the social source
of bureaucracy has been basically eliminated. Bureaucracy springs from the influence of capitalist
elements which still remain in our economic system (…)”
7
Based on the experience of former socialist states, we ought to go further and identify not only
“original capitalist forms of economic organization” as the spring of revisionism, such that have not
been eliminated yet, but even those forms of economic organization that have been implemented in
the public sector, those that practically resemble or equal the pragmatics of capitalist relations. As
prime example may serve the classic personification of revisionist deviation: the production
manager. Even in the public sector, the production manager is required to act like a capitalist. He
organizes labor, profit and investment, even if he is not an independent capitalist – or even doesn’t
receive any profits proper. He is very much required to operate on a basis that is opposed to the
nature of socialist transition; efficiency and paperwork make up his world.
The technocratic nature of revisionists in socialism – the primary kind – generally results in
political demands. They call for “economy in command”, instead of “politics in command.” The
peaceful development of productive forces takes priority in their opinion, not political education and
ideological remolding.
Comrade Kim Jong Il correctly stated:
“In socialist society, the transformation of man, his ideological remoulding, becomes a more important
and primary task than that of creating the material and economic conditions of socialism. (…) the
renegades of socialism are advocating the material-is-almighty doctrine and the economy-is-almighty
doctrine in order to restore capitalism, of which they harbour illusions.”
8
6 Kim, Jong Il (1994): pp. 34-35
7 Kim, Il Sung (1982): p. 237
8 Kim, Jong Il (1994): pp. 8-9
Can the historically shown tendencies of revisionist deviation in positions like those mentioned
earlier be counteracted lastingly by mere ideological education or by the correct insertion of wellversed cadre in such positions?
Praxis would suggest that it cannot.
A mere process of ideological education of these cadre is evidently not enough. These personages
not only amass, eventually, but they amass consciously – forming cliques and factions. As is only
natural in cliques and factions, leadership personalities will emerge, giving their organization a face,
becoming the headquarters of revisionism. Revisionists are masters of deception and concealment.
At any given moment they will hold up the red flag, only to combat the red flag in praxis. Not
necessarily because they would view themselves as opposed to socialism or the world communist
cause, but because they are subject to a twisted, rigid view of what socialist transition entails.
Struggle is necessary to exterminate these headquarters of capitalist roaderism. Indeed, to extend the
position of comrade Kim Jong Il, it is both a struggle against foreign imperialism and a struggle
against revisionism in state and party.
What does struggle entail?
To engage in cultural revolution. Ridding the state and the party from the capitalist roaders – those
who safeguard the gradual restoration of capitalist relations under socialism – is one of the most
important objectives of any revolutionary communist movement. It is only cultural revolution,
politics in command, that can do away with revisionist elements in party, state and society, enabling
socialist society to progress, rather than withering away not towards communism, but towards
capitalism.
Works cited
1. Kim, Jong Il. (1994). Der Sozialismus ist eine Wissenschaft (Socialism is a science). Pyongyang:
Foreign Languages Publishing House.
2. Yaffe, Helen. (2009). Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution. London & New York:
Palgrave Macmillan.
3. Kim Il Sung. (1969). Über einige theoretische Probleme der sozialistischen Ökonomik (On some
Theoretical Problems of the Socialist Economy). Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing
House.
4. —. (1982). On Eliminating Bureaucracy. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House.
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