Long Live the DPRK! We Celebrate its 73rd Founding Anniversary!

The International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS), the broad anti-imperialist alliance of grassroots organizations of the working people and the oppressed and exploited sectors of the world, expresses its warmest solidarity with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and with the workers and peoples of the Korean peninsula and the world who are celebrating the 73^rd anniversary of the founding of the republic on September 9.

The workers and peoples of the world recognize and value the DPRK as a country that is asserting its sovereignty against the dictates and attacks of US imperialism and is building socialism. The DPRK is an outstanding enemy of imperialism, which is the main bane and enemy of the workers and people of the world. It is an inspiration for the workers and people of the world who struggle for a better future where genuine freedom, democracy and socialism reign. Together with Cuba and other countries, it always holds a place of pride in pro-worker and pro-people analyses of imperialism and global resistance to imperialism.  

We congratulate, and celebrate with, the workers and people of North Korea who — with the leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea or WPK and the successive leadership of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un — have continuously stood up for sovereignty and socialism against non-stop imperialist campaigns of demonization and isolation, military intimidation and attacks. Their unity and perseverance have withstood the Korean War’s hot and continuing cold phases, the Cold War, the so-called “end of history” marked by the supposed defeat of socialism, the dominance of neoliberal policies, the “war on terror,” the re-emergence of a multipolar world, and the current Covid-19 pandemic.

The ILPS trusts that the workers and people of the DPRK will continue to defeat US imperialism’s attempts to launch a war of aggression, carry out regime change, and dominate North Korea, even if it deceptively uses such slogans as human rights and development, democracy and the free market. For 73 years, the North Korean workers and people have been outstanding in strengthening their republic and in fighting and defeating these attacks. At the same time, the workers and people of the world have continuously resisted imperialist black propaganda and have exposed and opposed imperialist geopolitical schemes against North Korea, and have extended anti-imperialist and democratic solidarity with the country.

The Covid-19 pandemic currently ravaging the world underscores the need for genuine independence, democracy and socialism especially in the Global South. Its origins showed in a spectacular manner the severe danger to human life posed by capitalist agriculture and wanton urbanization. It further exposed the bankruptcy of privatized and for-profit health systems, as well as monopoly capitalist-controlled vaccination and pandemic response. In many countries, it also highlighted how monopoly capitalism is an ally of ignorance and repression, racism and xenophobia, that keep workers and people in a state of subjection.

The workers and people of the world look up to the DPRK as a great red fortress of national independence, democracy and socialism against imperialism and all reactionaries. The ILPS vows to extend all forms of solidarity with North Korea as it continues to resist imperialist dictates and attacks and to build socialism. We vow to advance genuine international solidarity by continuing to struggle against imperialism and its minions, to expand and strengthen the people’s movements in our countries and bring about new societies like North Korea where it is the workers and peoples, not the exploiters, who hold political power.

Long live the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea!
Long live the workers and people of North Korea!
Down with US imperialism!

Long live national independence, democracy and socialism!
Long live international solidarity!