Keith Bennett. Notes for speech to the meeting on the Korean Revolution held at the Marx Memorial Library on 25 October 2025.

• Thanks. Organisers – ad hoc group.
• I think Dermot has explained very well & very vividly the current realities and situation in the DPRK and the scale of the magnificent celebrations this time.
• It’s hard to describe in words the grand scale and the sheer perfection of diverse events (mass gymnastics and artistic performance; military parade; mass procession and torchlight gala) on successive nights.
• Visited DPRK many times. From 1983. 45^th WPK anniversary – 1990. Fall of USSR. Many CPs present. CPB. PTB. But no official representation from last days of USSR or Eastern Europe. As with Pyongyang Declaration 2 years later, WPK was saying it would stand firm. (Words of Red Flag.)
• 70^th anniversary – 2015. Cuban Vice President.
• But this one on higher standard. Scale & perfection of celebration. Breadth of international representation.
• It was all the more impressive as the weather was unseasonally chilly and rainy. (Extreme weather a universal trend.) To have carried on for hours – not just military but orchestra – in driving rain…. New meaning to old saying: The band played on.
• As KJU put it: Quote. “The weather was unfavourable throughout the events, yet everybody performed their role both perfectly and creditably. All the events were impeccable as a whole and in minute detail.”
• One of the things that impressed me most in the military parade. Of course, it could be many things. The absolute precision. The advanced weaponry – with for example new ICBMs on display – developed completely self-reliantly by a relatively small country under draconian and crippling sanctions. But – and you can see it very clearly if you look at the videos on YouTube and elsewhere – it was the broad smiles on the faces of the participants. The sheer pride that the servicemen and women displayed. Something I’ve not seen elsewhere. A unique combination.
• It was a celebration of 80 years. But it was also very much a forward looking celebration. Looking to the next steps in building a modern and prosperous socialist state.
• 80 years. A very considerable accomplishment. Longest ruling socialist party. Vietnam. But clearly longer than USSR lasted. And predates the PRC. Has survived all the vicissitudes of the international situation. Has defied the critics and cynics. Not just in the imperialist camp. There is no shortage of them on the left, too.
• KJU quote. Party founding museum.
• “Our Party is proud that it laid the foundations of socialism on this land in the face of manifold challenges and trials, that it is striving hard to build a powerful country, which no one would dare to provoke, and that it has defended the glory of socialism, which must never be buried in history, through an indomitable struggle over the past arduous 80 years.”
• Very much an international occasion.
• China & Russia. Li Qiang & Dimitri Medvedev.
• Follows September 3 in Beijing.
• But also people from all walks of life from Russia and China. Other Russian parliamentary parties. People to people friendship. Cultural troupes. Chinese revolutionary opera. Shaman – 2^nd visit in 2 months. Old friends from Russia. Chinese young people; Returned overseas Chinese from DPRK. St Johns Ambulance Hong Kong – visited hospitals, nurseries, old peoples homes….
• But not just Russia & China.
• Tongloun Sisolouth [dates] & To Lam
• Unity of the socialist countries in Asia.
• Reminder that over decades, whilst of course there have been challenges in the relationships, sometimes quite severe, nevertheless, in the broad sweep of history, the main current has been that the peoples of DPRK, China, Russia/USSR, Vietnam & Laos have fought shoulder to shoulder in their common struggles against imperialism.
• Follows: September 3 – Heads of State of all 5 socialist countries.
• Celebrations were in the tradition of DPRK’s long standing anti-imperialist internationalism. Tricont.
• Revival and development of ties with Global South. Iran & Equatorial Guinea.
• But especially progressive Latin America. And worth noting that the history of DPRK’s support for & solidarity with the Latin American revolution is a long and honourable one going back to the 1960s. Worth a seminar.
• The party and government delegation of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and the Republic of Nicaragua, led by Brenda Rocha Chacon, President of the Supreme Election Council of the Republic of Nicaragua
• National leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) of Mexico (part of current ruling progressive coalition)
• Vice-chairwoman of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)
• National vice-chairperson of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) and a member of the Sao Paulo State Committee of the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT) (Lula’s party – PcdoB in government)
• Noteworthy that Nicaragua, Venezuela & Brazil have all opened their embassies in PY in recent times.
• Indeed PY was buzzing with foreigners.
• Imperialists say that DPRK is a closed & isolated country. Reminds me of: Fog in Channel. Continent isolated.
• Because it is Britain and other imperialist countries, not the DPRK and other socialist countries, that are in the grip of a nasty wave of racism and xenophobia. Riots. Attacks on “asylum hotels”.
• My experience in 50+ visits to the DPRK over 4+ decades is that the people of the DPRK – from the most senior leaders of the party and state to drivers, waiters, shop assistants, bar staff, whoever – treat all foreign visitors who come with good intentions (and frankly some who do not as well) with extreme courtesy and kindness.
• I think this reflects the innate nature of working people and most human beings. Especially when they are not ground down by the intolerable pressures of capitalist society and cynically manipulated by the mass media and demagogic bourgeois politicians.
• The DPRK in contrast to this is a state where the intrinsic decency, solidarity and kindness of working people is embodied and placed on a scientific level. That of anti-imperialist solidarity, peace and friendship, and proletarian internationalism.
• KJU quotes embodied.
• Quote 1: Socialist forces. Socialist countries.
• At national meeting: ““Our Party has struggled under the uplifted banner of independence and socialism in any adversity; this has made an enormous historic contribution to implementing the common cause of mankind for justice and peace.
• “Our Party has cherished as part of its faith the validity of the socialist cause and the inevitability of its triumph and perfectly proved the scientific accuracy of its ideals both in theoretical and practical terms, thus offering a substantial contribution to building a powerful barrier against the allied imperialist forces’ schemes against socialism and achieving solidarity and unity among the world’s progressive forces.
• “Our Party and government are still coping with our adversaries’ ferocious political and military moves of pressure by pursuing harder-line policies, holding fast to firm principles and employing brave, unflinching countermeasures. This is powerfully propelling the growth of the progressive camp against war and hegemony, and the international prestige of our Republic as a faithful member of the socialist forces and a bulwark for independence and justice is further increasing with each passing day.”
• Moreover, at the military parade, he said:
• “I take this opportunity to affirm that our Party and the government of the Republic, together with the powerful revolutionary armed forces, will, in the future, too, fulfil their responsibilities in the joint struggle of the progressive mankind for opposing injustice and hegemony and defending justice and peace.”
• History – Vietnam, Middle East, Africa. But of course today above all: SMO.
• DPRK only country to extend combat solidarity to Russia against the Ukrainian neo-nazis in this way.
• Military parade. Those who participated in liberation of Kursk. Flying DPRK & Russian flags together.
• Sitting very near Russian friends. Could sense & feel the real gratitude that has brought the DPRK & Russian peoples – even though their friendship has a long history – together in an unprecedented way.
• Indeed long history. KIS 1930s: Let us defend the Soviet Union with arms. Absolute duty to defend the world’s first socialist country.
• Of course, Russia today is not the Soviet Union. But it remains (or has become again under President Putin) a bastion of independence, an ally of the socialist countries, and a key supporter of the Global South. And very much today a frontline state defending independence alongside DPRK, China, Venezuela, Cuba and others.
• Long ago, DPRK put up the slogan, “All anti-imperialist, independent forces unite.”
• Anything that strengthens the unity and solidarity of the forces standing against imperialism, or facing its aggression, should be supported and anything that seeks to weaken or undermine it should be opposed.
• Other important things about KJU speeches. Recommend they be read in full.
• FOSC article (which obviously mainly concentrates on China/DPRK bilateral) has quotes & links.
• In many ways, a proper reading of them is the best possible answer to the hostile propaganda, lies, and frankly racist demonization.
• What type of party. Relationship between party & people.
• At Party Founding Museum:
• “The socialism the generation opted for in the days of taking the first step towards building our Party in the liberated country was Korean-style socialism that conforms to our actual conditions, and the way of building it was from A to Z self-sustenance and self-determination, i.e., believing in the people and relying on their strength.

• “The history of our revolution and socialist construction gives clear answers to the questions of how a party, the people and socialism can be bound together with shared destiny, how the party can gain the dignity and fame as an ever-victorious guide and how the ordinary and simple people can become a great people with a strong character and temperament.”

• (Ordinary and simple people – Lenin: Thousands of examples of building new life.)
• In the same speech, he frankly addressed the dangers facing a long ruling party with passage of time:
• “Today we need the same spirit, courage and self-confidence as we had at the time when the Party and a new country were built.
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• “Leading officials of the Party and the state should keep the Party’s original ideals and spirit as their mental attributes, have a correct understanding of the requirements of the times and reality and the essence and core of the Party’s policies, and firmly cherish the intrinsic nature of the communists who shoulder their responsibilities while directly connecting all issues to the future of the Party and the state.
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• “Our Party will accelerate the advance of the revolution, sweeping away all evil practices such as ignorance, incompetence, irresponsibility, self-protection, formalism and expediency, as well as arbitrariness, high-handedness and abuse of power which are rejected by the people and cause damage to socialism.
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• “When we feel tired and when we need greater courage, we should take to heart the spirit and fighting will of the Party-founding generation, who held high the red flag only in their empty hands and cut their way through bloody battles to bring about a new world of communism, and should display high enthusiasm for the revolution.”
• At the National meeting he said:
• “The past 80 years were really complicated and arduous, yet worthwhile and glorious.
• “Those years witnessed a hard-fought war for repulsing the armed invasion by the allied imperialist forces and defending the land and dignity of the country, processes for building a country and creating a life again from scratch, and social revolutions that were accompanied by an acute class struggle and elimination of factions in the Party.
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• “Following the establishment of the socialist system in our country, we found ourselves standing at the forefront of the most acute confrontation between the progressive and the reactionary and between socialism and imperialism. Given the geopolitical position of the country, our Party had to adopt a more resolute approach towards performing its mission of defending socialism; it had to give a strong impetus to implementing the cause of building the country’s self-reliant defence capabilities. As the vicious schemes for isolating and stifling the country economically persisted from one century into the next, it had to cope with these schemes proactively and aggressively while pushing forward with the gigantic projects for socialist construction.
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• “Particularly, amidst the worldwide political upheaval in the 1990s, it had to defend our ideology and social system, and entering the new century, in order to cope with the growing nuclear war threats by the US imperialists, it had to lead the people to make a new leap forward in socialist construction while simultaneously carrying on economic construction and build-up of the nuclear forces.”
• And very importantly he added: “He added: “Always aware of and guarding against the possible budding of authoritarianism and a number of other problems which are likely to separate the Party from the masses as its ruling years get longer and one generation is replaced by another, we have made sure that an absolute spirit of serving the people prevails across the Party. This is an important factor in our Party’s winning the unchanging trust of the people and encouraging them to entrust by themselves their destiny to our socialist state as a whole.”
• Towards the conclusion, he stated: “A party that is among the people, not standing above them, a party that shares with them aspirations and ambitions, wisdom and strength, and sweets and bitters, can never disintegrate and does not lose vigour and vitality forever.
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• “It always remains as iron truth that our Party cannot exist apart from the people and that the Party is great as the people are great.
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• “I would like to offer thanks once again to our great people who have always injected strength and wisdom into our Party and devoted pure mind and diligent efforts with belief in victory as well as the Party, while pioneering the arduous and yet sacred socialist cause for as long as 80 years.
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• “When we strive for some more years in the same spirit as now, we can well change our life remarkably and get closer to the goals we aspire to.
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• “Availing myself of this opportunity, I will always cherish love for the people and not neglect my obligation of requital. I affirm my commitment to working harder to live up to their trust.”
• And I can’t think of a better way than this to conclude my remarks.
• Thank you