This is partly translated and summarized version of our program from full Korean version, which is based on the general positions of the IBT especially "For Trotskyism!", to English. In this version only the main ideas of the program are introduced except for Part 4 and 9.
The Program of the Bolshevik-Leninist
17
April 2011 <Contents> 1. Party and Program 2. Democratic Centralism 3. Workers’ Democracy and Independence of Workers’ Movement
from State 4. Social Character and Revolution of South Korea 5. Degenerated and Deformed Workers’ State 6. Imperialism and War 7. Struggle for Decent job and Living Standards 8. Women, Sexual Minority, Migrant Workers and Adolecent 9. Environment Question 10. Popular Front 11. United Front 12. Election and Tactic of Critical Support 13. Consfication of Industry and Workers’ Control 14. Trade Union and Factory Committees 15. Defense
Guards/Workers’ Militia – The Arming of the Proletariat 16. Soviet 17. Workers’ Government 18. For the Reforge of the 4th International! 1. Party and Program 2. Democratic Centralism 3. Workers’ Democracy and Independence of Workers’ Movement
from State 4. Social Character and Revolution of South Korea Uneven and combined
development and (Neo) colony The
theory of Uneven and combined development prominently realizes in colonies,
though it realizes in all countries. It is because of the fact that the
capitalization of the colony is not by the long term, through the development
of the internal productive force, and correlated development between economy
and politics and systems, and between the sectors of the economy. Imperialism
reconstructs the colony’s economy and politics by their own interest. The social part
which the imperialism thinks urgent to develop is developed faster without ‘trial and error’ time than the other part
which moves slowly. The
economical and political power of the indigenous ruling class in the occupied
colony by imperialism is extremely weak. Firstly, the reason of it is that they
are invaded before the (full of) capitalist development. Secondly,
that the dominant capital of the colony is not of the indigenous bourgeoisie—which would appear after
the imperialist invasion—but of imperialism. Thirdly, that the state power is wildered by
the imperialist capital. In these conditions, the almost all indigenous ruling
class become the subordinated partner in the colony in order to survive in the
reconstructed society. The second colonial reconstruction and capitalization of South Korea under
the seizure of the USA As the
other colonies did about the dawn age of the 20th century, Korea was
capitalized by Japanese imperialism. After the 2nd World War, South Korea which
was invaded by the U.S. became the U.S’s (neo) colony. The indigenous land owners and
capitalists, who had been economically the subordinating partners of Japanese
capitalists and politically the allies with their masters, did not have any
economical power and more importantly the political legitimacy to take over the
state power without the help of masters. In front of Korean people, they were
on the brink of total destruction, while the US invader needed their indigenous
alliance. They met the US imperialist as saviour and the US imperialism took a
leverage to deal with South Korea. The alliance of these two won the class struggle in South Korea and
relentlessly crushed the South Korean working class and peasants. After
the WW II as the imperialist rivalry, the international relationship of power
between working class and capitalists was significantly changed. Due to mutual
conflict between imperialists the influence of the imperialism was largely
shrunken so that the politically advantageous situation for the international
working class was established. German and Japanese imperialism were defeated.
The Soviet took over east Europe and North Korea,
and with the support the indigenous working class the Soviet bureaucracy
collapsed the capitalist regimes in those regions and the Stalinist deformed
workers states were built up. Meanwhile, in 1949, after the civil war, the
deformed workers state was established in China as well. In
this ‘unfavourable’ situation, the priory
task for the US imperialist, the guardian of the capitalist world, was to
contain the influence of the Soviet. In Korean peninsula, this task meant to
build a military forefront base against the Soviet in South Korea.
And to achieve this task, first of all it needed to crush the Korean people who
were asking the free land distribution, nationalization of the Japanese property
and independent and united (un-split) government. The US imperialism supported
by theSouth Korean landowners and capitalists and those escaped from North
Korean social revolution relentlessly blood bathed SouthKorea.
This task was accomplished not through the contained civil war (usually ended
in massacre) in South Korea but through the full scale war in the Korean peninsula. To
obstruct the expansion of the ‘socialist area’, it needed to develop quickly adjacent regions to the ‘socialist bloc’--Taiwan andSouth Korea.
There had been the industry capital transformed from the land capital and the
properties reverted from Japanese after WWII, but the full-scale South Korean
economic development, which was started in 1960s, was initiated by the US and Japanese
capitals (mainly the US). After
this historical process, South Korea was reconstructed as (A) a production base of labour intensity
goods through ultra exploitation, (B) a consuming market for the military
equipments and hi-tech industry and (C) a military base against the Soviet,
China and North Korea. The imperialist aspect of the neo colony South Korea The
enormous input of the imperialist capital has made S Korean capitalism develop
quickly. So science technology has developed a lot and productivity has grown
up fast. Still there is clear gap of productivity with the ‘advanced’ countries, but South Korean
productivity has grown up to the extent that it surpasses that of south eastern
Asian countries and China. So some of SouthKorean capitals are directly or indirectly
invested in those regions to get super profit. This shows that South Korea has
partially imperialist aspect, as another result of the uneven combined
development. The Growth of the Working class in South Korea As the South Korean
capitalism has grown rapidly, the social power of the South Korean
working class has grown rapidly too. It is reasonable to see the origin of the
workers movement of the South Korea which linked directly to the current workers’ movement is of 1960s. The
ultra exploitation is the destiny of the South Korean
workers as is all workers in colonies: the longest working hours, the highest
rate of irregular workers, and the highest rate of suicide in the OECD
countries and so on. The
July-August Workers’ Great Struggle in 1987 showed how much the working class has
grown and how powerful it is. As the
industrialization has compressively unfolded, the growth of the South Korean
working class is compressive one too. As there is an imperialist aspect of the South Korean
capitalism, the South Korean workers’ movement has eroded by bureaucratism quickly. The cadres of the
KCTU who had been the ‘militant’ trade union mass leaders in 10-20 years ago, have quickly become
the labour lieutenant of capitalism. The Democratic Labour Party and the New
Progressive Party The Character of the South Korean State Power The
state is an armed machine to defend the current property form. The capitalist
property is the machine to defend the bourgeois property relationship.
Therefore, the specific character of a state is confirmed by the proportion and hierarchy of the
capital. The
dominant capital is the US cantered imperialist finance capital (which appears
in various forms). The South Korean state apparatus such as army and information agency are
operating in the hand of the USA. The Two faulty tendencies in workers’
movement The NL
group/ 1935 Dmitri/ overstress on the national bourgeoisie/ tendency toward
popular front Workerism(?)/
various groups/ one country viewpoint/ not to understand South Korea in the
international capitalist net/ ignoring the exigency of the US imperialism and
the colonial character of South Korea/ focusing on the interest of the workers in itself, payment
and employment/ So the state question is out of focus of them. The Permanent Revolution and revolutionary reunification The US
imperialism and S Korean lackey vs. S Korean working class. Only
by the crash of the capitalism, the imperialist chain can also be broken. Only
by the strong solidarity of the East Asian working class (South and
North Korean, Chinese, Japan and Russia), the newly formed workers government
can be defended. 5. Degenerated and Deformed Workers’ State Degenerated
Workers’ State Deformed
Workers’ State Our Position State
Capitalism Imperialism Our Position
of Conflicts Bourgeois
pacifism Guerrilla
Tactic
6. Imperialism and War