There was an extraordinary meeting of the Juche Ideas Study Group (England) in London last week, held to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People’s Army. For various domestic reasons I was unable to be present, but I think it went off quite well. Sandwiches, tea and coffee were served after the various speeches. Juche is the political ideology of North Korea, emphasising a steely self-reliance in the face of Yankee and Jap imperialist aggression. The meeting was taken by a chap called Dermot Hudson, who may or may not have recited the poem he wrote a while back about Kim Il Sung, the founder of the DPRK. I hope he did, because it deserves to be recited whenever three or four people are gathered together. This is how some of it goes:
Ever victorious iron-willed
brilliant commander, heroic patriotic -partisan
the illustrious General Kim Il Sung fired
the shot that tore Jap imperialism into
a million and one pieces.
Oh worthy warrior of Mt Paekdu
leading the stout-hearted partisans of
the mighty KPRA to shatter the chains
of Japanese imperialism, shock brigade of
world fascism, to dispatch
the murderous Japs to their doom.
Anyway, whether he read it out or not, Dermot was there, along with members, or member, of the only British political party to offer North Korea unequivocal support — the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist). I met its leader recently, an absolutely charming and erudite Punjabi man, now well into his seventies, called Harpal Brar. I felt Harpal had allowed his principled support for North Korea to blind him a little to what many people would argue are some of the regime’s minor deficiencies, but he denied this. ‘But it’s a Stalinist state,’ I suggested at one point. He smiled. ‘Yes, Rod. And that, for me, is a badge of honour.’
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