Despite the high workload, vice-chairman of the Paektu Czech-Korean Friendship Association Comrade Alexander Velitš sent his contribution to the international electronic seminar of the European Regional Society for the Study of the Juche Idea, which held on October 24. The following is the full text:
It can be said that the last decade in Europe has been matked by chaos and social crisis. There is also talk of the so-called crisis of democracy. But what exactly is democracy? Democracy means the rule of the people, but if we look at the practice in capitalist countries, they are ruled by those who have money, then there is some „middle class“ and finally, there is a group of people living in poverty.
Democracy itself is not bad, but it must be the real government of the people and not the bourgeois theatre which pretend like democracy. The fact that a socialist regime is more democratic than the capitalist one is also evidenced by the fact that an ordinary worker or peasant gets into the council much easier than into the capitalist parliament. Because in the capitalist parliament, there are often people who do not know the normal conditions in society, they are detached from the people and are not able to react flexibly to social events, to fulfill the will of the citizens.
Therefore, the solution for European countries would be a socialist state establishment. Thanks to the fact that the socialist establishment is ruled by the Communist or Worker´s Party, around which the people should be united, the state can move forward more effectively and meet the real needs of the people more.
As for the bourgeois parliaments in the „developed Western democracies,“ these legislatures are drowning in fruitless debates, arguing over pettiness, although the country is plagued by many more serious and acute problems.
Politicians in capitalist countries are appearing in front of cameras, signing coalition agreements, undergoing government outreach negotiations in remote areas, but nothing compares to a strong country leadership united in a national front and an excellent leader like in the Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea. Field guidance, made famous especially by General Kim Jong Il and used also by Comrade Kim Jong Un in his work, is a unique way of leadership that no Western state officials are able to emulate.
In socialism, a member of the National Assembly can also be a person who does not have big property, as long as he is, for example, an excellent worker in his workplace and if his co-workers nominate him. This is not the case of capitalism. An ordinary person, such as a poor worker, can hardly become a representative in parliament, even if he or she may be more capable to make decisions about public affairs than those sitting there. Although there is „political competition“ in a bourgeois democracy, it is really just a show of political campaigns and political marketing, with the one who has the best political marketing and enough money for an expensive political campaign combined with some populist idea which people want to hear, wins.
Since every party that manages to get into parliament in capitalism has some sponsors behind it (otherwise it would not be able to afford an expensive political campaign), the party itself must owe its sponsors not only financially but also by promoting things that they suit the sponsor – otherwise, of course, the sponsor would not be interested in financing a political party. If even an member of parliament thinks sincerely of his service to the people, he can only move in the mantinels that his party allows him and that his party‘s sponsor will allow. This is because capitalism is a regime that serves the capitalist class, that is, the wealthy entrepreneurs.
The capitalist system call itself a „democratic system“, but in reality it is the government of rich groups that already have sufficient material background and have therefore moved to the next level – they are trying to influence public events. Ordinary citizens will be blindfolded by the promises of these richly funded parties before the election, and therefore a party made up of ordinary people currently has almost no chance of being elected and representing people in parliament at the time of sophisticated political marketing that spends millions.
In the period of socialism, civil society in our country was also much more developed in Czechoslovakia; the problem was that some people were afraid to express their opinion or demand their rights in accordance with the law. Of course, socialism also behaved according to the class, who representated, and therefore treated the working class and with the class of former capitalists differently, but ordinary workers (of whom there were most in the society) had significantly greater rights. Every honest citizen, and he didn‘t even have to be a member of the party, if he had a problem, he could go up the stairs to the party‘s district committee, describe his problem in a decent way, and the party dealt with it.
The advantages of a socialist state establishment, such as in the DPRK, can also be seen in the example of the current fight against the covid-19 epidemic. In the DPRK, all the people has united under the party leadership and they are trying to prevent an outbreak in their country. The situation is different in European countries.
People often think that when they say „freedom“ and „democracy“, they have the right to do what they want, they do not have to listen to their authorities and can be ruthless towards other people by their behavior; and so they protest against state measures, refuse to comply with them and endanger their fellow citizens.
The viability of the centrally planned economy and the justification of the state‘s self-sufficiency also were reflected in the fight against coronavirus. In today‘s globalized capitalism, the economies of individual Western states (rather provinces in practice) are so interconnected and their self-sufficiency is so low that the interruption of cross-border trade would cause serious complications and the inability to travel would lead to economic failure. However, with countries that pay more attention to their self-sufficiency and to their national economies, this crisis has not shaken so much.
Recently, we have seen that various rich people and speculators, as well as organized crime groups, are trying to influence the political situation in various countries, which are doing something that does not suit these groups. In recent years, it has been an coup in Ukraine, for example, clowning with red cards in the Czech Republic, protests „for a decent Slovakia“ and currently riots in Belarus. The interesting paradox is that when protests take place in countries that claim to be the West countries, the police will crack down on them and the government will pretend that nothing has happened. But if protests (often organized from the West) take place in countries that are more geographically eastern, their suppression is a sign of totalitarianism. We see this, for example, in the words of Igor Matovic, who a few weeks ago condemned the crackdown on demonstrators in Belarus, but later praised police officers for using a water cannon in protests in Slovakia. The same is true of the attitude of the media, which try to influence people‘s opinions – when the police intervened in Russia, they wrote about it as „Putin‘s terror“, but when it intervened in France in „yellow vests“ protests, it wasn´t a terror.
European policy is largely based on Roman law, and many of the things that were valid during its existence still apply today. Everyone probably knows the phrase „bread and games“, which was used 2,000 years ago and is still valid today. The bourgeoisie and their puppets – bourgeois politicians, in an effort not to be disturbed during they accumulate their profits, try to entice people to various pre-election goulash and allow cultural decadence in society, only to make people feel free and not to resist capitalist system. Another similar slogan from the time of the Roman Empire, which is still valid today, is the slogan „divide and rule“. The powerful are trying to divide society with marginal matters, while people argue about nonsense and do not perceive the essence of the capitalist system, which is the exploitation of man by man. And thirdly, as a historian, I will mention another parallel with the ancient past, and that is defense. In the past, there was the Delian League, which brought together various smaller Greek polis, and they paid for the „collective defense“, from which Athens benefited the most, building a strong army and growing its economy from money of other members. Today, most European countries are members of NATO, having to spend a certain percentage of GDP on defense, but in real practice not all countries have the same word in this military pact, and as in Athens in the past, the United States benefits from a position in NATO and want to be a world policeman and they are also trying to control practically the whole world with the help of other states associated in this association.
Contrary to the above, the socialist state is one that seeks the harmonious cultural development of its citizens, society is not divided but united around the party and the leader and the country is protected by its own independent and strong army composed of the people.
Therefore, in the current phase of the people‘s poor awareness, it is necessary to spread the real ideas of socialism in people, undistorted by liberal or xenophobic ideas, and to obtain the means for this spread. Only then can real communists become a relevant political force in Europe again and fight for the establishment of a real, proletarian democracy.
