Comrade Kim Il Sung Remembered
The Friends of Korea organised a well-attended public meeting at London’s Marx Memorial Library on Saturday 12 April to celebrate the 96th birthday of the late Korean revolutionary leader Comrade Kim Il Sung and to outline some of his great contributions to the global anti-imperialist struggle.
The meeting was chaired by Comrade Harpal Brar, Chairman of the Friends of Korea and of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) (CPGB-ML), and the speakers were Comrades Andy Brooks of the New Communist Party (NCP), Chris Coleman of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) (RCPBML) and Jong In Song of the London Embassy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Following the speeches, a cultural programme was presented by the comrades of RCPB(ML), which included the Song of General Kim Il Sung. Refreshments were generously provided by the comrades from the Korean Embassy in London.
On this same occasion, the CPGB-ML sent a message to the General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Comrade Kim Jong Il. We reproduce extracts below:
“Comrade Kim Il Sung was not only the founder of the Workers’ Party of Korea, but also an outstanding Marxist-Leninist, a tried and tested leader of the international communist movement, and a staunch fighter against revisionism and both right and ‘left’ opportunism.
“Holding high the banners of both revolutionary patriotism and proletarian internationalism, he fought, throughout his life, from his early teenage years to the moment he breathed his last at the age of 82, for the independence and freedom of the Korean people, for the liberation of all the oppressed nations and peoples, and for the final and complete emancipation of the proletariat, independent of all nationality. He was a comrade-in-arms of Comrade Stalin and Comrade Mao Zedong and a true friend to struggling peoples and communists throughout the world.
“He lives on in the huge achievements of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and in the indomitable struggle against imperialism that the Korean people continue to wage under your wise leadership.
“Our Party greatly values our excellent and intimate fraternal relations with your Party, which you have rightly named as the Party of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung, and we stand wholeheartedly and unreservedly with you in your struggle to oppose US imperialism and other reactionary forces, to defend your sovereignty, and to build a great, prosperous and powerful socialist nation on Korean soil, just as Comrade Kim Il Sung wished for and expected.”