BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS

July 27 marks the 43rd anniversary of the end of the Korean War. Following World War II, the Korean peninsula was militarily occupied and divided - against the will of the Korean people - by troops from the United States and Soviet Union.

From the beginning, Korean workers and peasants fought against military occupation and for reunification.

Before the entry of U.S. or Russian troops, local revolutionary committees had divested the Japanese authorities - the former colonial masters - of power throughout most the country. The network of "people's committees" was quickly consolidated into a "People's Republic" set up in Seoul, the capital, located in the South.

In the North the Republic's activities were eventually carried on with the sanction of the Soviet troops that recognized the people's committees - which implemented a thorough land reform, nationalized industry and banking, and established a worker's state.

On Sept. 8, 1945, Washington sent thousands of troops, under United Nations banner, to block reunification and protect imperialist interests. All revolutionary overturns in property relations in the South were ruthlessly suppressed by the invaders. In 1950, the U.S.-led forces, headed by Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur, invaded the North and attempted to reimpose imperialist domination on the entire Korean peninsula. But with the help of 1.2 million Chinese volunteers, the Korean people pushed the mighty army of Washington back and fought it to a standstill at the 38th parallel. The Korean War claimed more than 3 million lives.

Ever since, Washington has maintained a large force there, with 36,000 troops in South Korea today, deployed along the so- called demilitarized zone that divides the peninsula. With U.S. backing, Seoul has built a wall dividing the country along the DMZ. Washington's troops in Korea are part of a U.S. force of 100,000 in East Asia. Recently, U.S. forces have carried out major military exercises in the area - termed "Rimpac" - simulating an invasion of North Korea.

In marking this important victory for working people internationally, we print below the message Socialist Workers Party national secretary Jack Barnes sent to the Korean people on the occasion of this anniversary.

July 27, 1996
The Socialist Workers Party joins you in celebrating the 43rd anniversary of the victory of the Korean people over Washington's brutal, three-year-long war to impose its imperial domination on the entire Korean peninsula. The refusal of the Korean people to bend their knees helped defeat the drive toward a third world war and political reaction by the U.S. rulers and was a conquest for working people the world over. Your continuing fight for national reunification remains to this day an obstacle to the aggressive ambitions of Washington, its allied regime in Seoul, and imperial Tokyo.

Revolutionists are also celebrating another date in 1953 - July 26, the day that marked the start of the revolutionary war in Cuba that just a few years later opened the socialist revolution in the Americas. As in Korea, Washington has failed in every attempt to crush the Cuban people and turn back their revolutionary conquests. We are joining with others to oppose the latest round in Washington's unceasing economic, political, and military pressures against Cuba - the so-called "Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act," which further tightens the U.S. economic embargo.

The Socialist Workers Party condemns the U.S. government-led "Rimpac" war games in the Pacific in June by the armed forces of Washington, Tokyo, Seoul, Ottawa, and Canberra - flagrantly carried out as a threat against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. These are among the war preparations being stepped up by imperialist regimes around the world, as their rivalry and conflicts intensify. While there remains no replacement for the dominant weight of U.S. military might among the capitalist powers, the Japanese rulers, long blocked from using military force abroad following their defeat in World War II, are pressing to expand their military muscle in the region.

As the exploiters push along this course, however, they are meeting resistance. Fighters in Northern Ireland are refusing to submit peacefully to continued occupation and colonial rule by London. Palestinians refuse to accept permanent dispossession from their homeland. In the United States, workers and youth are taking to the street to defend the rights of Chicanos and immigrants, and to protest racist church burnings and police brutality. Aerospace workers at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, Missouri, are on strike. Before the U.S. rulers drag humanity into fascism and another world slaughter, they will have to take on the toilers in class battles and defeat us - an outcome that your victory over imperialism 43 years ago shows is far from inevitable.

On this anniversary, the SWP pledges to continue joining other workers and youth to support the fight for Korean reunification and for the removal of all imperialist military forces from your country and the Pacific region.

Jack Barnes

SWP National Secretary  
 
 
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