(11) KIM IL SUNG AND THE WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS

 "KIM IL SUNG and WFTU"

 

(11)

 

KIM IL SUNG AND

THE WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS

 

(Written by Debkumar Ganguli,

Deputy General Secretary, WFTU)

 

President Kim Il Sung was indeed an outstanding leader of our time who devoted all his to the cause of the international working class, as well as a leader of the working people of Korea.

It is known to all that a series of unusual situations have been created by outside forces one after another against this small country with an area of only 220,000k辰 ever since World War II – the division of the country, the state of truce, ever-present arms threat by the imperialists and reactionaries, continuing manoeuvres by the joint forces of the imperialists aimed at political, economical and military isolation and suffocation, natural disaster, etc.

I quote below the announcement by the Korean Central News Agency dated April 23, 1995.

"The past the years recorded over 435,000 cases of infiltration into the DPRK by the US army and south Korean puppet army, firing of bullets and shells, serious military actions within the Demilitarized Zone and other provocations."

it is known to all peace and freedom loving people how imperialist forces after World War II invaded Korea resulting partition, armistice, etc. in the past 10 years there have been continuous provocations through infiltration into the DPR Korea. In all these years the WFTU stood with the DPR Korea in solidarity.

This delicate situation of the country kept President Kim Il Sung very busy; he was busy visiting factories, farms, schools and the People's Army units and writing works of great importance for mankind, etc.

Busy as he was during all these year, he met and had talks with twelve delegations of the WFTU and some sixty trade union delegations from thirty countries.

Here it may be recalled the effects he made on April 2, 1947, for the first official delegation of the Federation that visited the country.

The WFTU dispatched a mission to Korea with a view to understanding the situation of workers in the north and south of Korea. The head of the mission was Louis Sailient (then General Secretary, French) and its members were Russian, American and British.

The delegation first visited south Korea and then north Korea. When it was in south Korea on a visit, the south Korean reactionaries did preposterous things to it. With hostilities towards the delegates of "red organization", they not only deliberately hampered the activities of the delegation but also threatened the safety of its members.

Having learned about this, President Kim Il Sung said to the President of the Central Committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea to the following effects:

"The south Korean reactionaries treated badly the guests of international democratic organization, and are even driving them out with guns. Where else in the world can we find such etiquette? The delegation is coming to us tomorrow. We should receive and treat them well. Since they had a hard time in south Korea, we should give them warm hospitality."

Arriving in Pyongyang on the 1st of April the delegation was deeply moved by the working people welcoming them not as a foreign mission but as brothers.

They were extremely moved when they learned later that President Kim Il Sung paid deep attention to the reception of the delegation, their accommodation as well as the programme and that he told the officials to arrange a 100,000 – person welcome rally for them.

On the 2nd of April the President met them in his simple office of the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea.

Showing his indignation at the south Korean authorities' deliberate sabotage of the visit by the delegation, which prevented it from achieving its purpose of visit and even put its members' safety to threat, he gave a warm hand-shake to every one of the delegation and offered them seats. He then began a cordial talk with them, saying "You must be tired after the long journey. How are you?"

One can see from the brief description in this article that President Kim Il Sung's life was indeed closely related with the history of the WFTU. He was awarded a gold medal of the Federation on the 13th of April, 1987 for his outstanding contribution to the development of the WFTU.

He is alive with the WFTU forever. In November, 1994, four months after his death, the 13th Congress of the WFTU was held in Damascus, Syria. Indrajit Gupta (then President of the WFTU and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India), who chaired the Congress, proposed in his opening address to observe a minute of respect, saying "the passing away of Comrade Kim Il Sung, an outstanding leader of the international labour movement is a great loss of the WFTU".

So 3,000 participants including trade union delegations from many countries, representatives of international organizations and working people of Syria observed a minute of silence in respect for the President.

In July, the following year, on a visit to Pyongyang, I presented a flower bundle in respect to the statue of President Kim Il Sung on Mansu Hill and visited kumsusan Memorial Palace(at that time) where he lies in state, wishing him an eternal life.

Visiting the Memorial Palace, I was impressed by the respected Comrade Kim Jong Il' noble communistic view of morality, who fulfilled the cause of eternalizing the leader, and was convinced that because of him the President's revolutionary ideas and cause would develop throughout centuries.

I was also convinced that because we had Comrade Kim Jong Il, who is exactly the same as President Kim Il Sung, the relation of cooperation between the WFTU and GFTUK would last forever.

And I sincerely thanked him in mid for his realization of the cause to eternalize the life of the leader at the highest level.

I am looking forward to meeting with respected Comrade Kim Jong Il sometime, which will be my greatest luck.

In the Asia-Pacific Region Office of the WFTU in New Delhi, India, we respectfully display the picture I took with President Kim Il Sung on the 22nd of March, 1992.

With pride, I tell the working people of all walks and trade unionists of India, trade union delegations from different countries and diplomatic envoys in New Delhi who visit the office, that President Kim Il Sung is a politician of our time, a veteran politician who made a distinguished contribution to the development and strengthening of the international communist and labour movements, and a patron of the WFTU.

President Kim Il Sung, the WFTU presents to you our best greetings and respect.

You are alive forever with the working people of the world.

I intend to do all I can for the cause of creating an independent world, free from exploitation as is shown by respected Comrade Kim Jong Il, the sun of the 21st century.

(The End)