Down-with-Imperialism Union
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox political party
| colorcode = {{party color|Workers' Party of Korea}}
| continental =
| elections_dab2 =
| country_dab2 =
| country2 =
| elections_dab1 = Elections in North Korea
| country_dab1 = Politics of North Korea
| country = Korea
| flag = Flag of Down-With-Imperialism Union.svg
| symbol =
| colors =
| europarl =
| european =
| abbreviation = DIU
| position = Far-left
| ideology = Marxism–Leninism
| headquarters =
| successor =
| dissolved =
| founded = {{start date|1926|10|17|df=yes}}
| founder = Ri Chongrak
| first_secretary =
| general_secretary =
| chairperson =
| footnotes =
}}
{{Infobox Korean name
|context=north
|hangul=타도제국주의동맹 (ㅌ.ㄷ)
|hanja=打倒帝國主義同盟 (ㅌ.ㄷ)
|mr=T'ado Chegukchuŭi Tongmaeng (T'ŭdŭ)
|rr=Tado Jegukjuui Dongmaeng (Teudeu)
}}
The Down-with-Imperialism Union (DIU; {{Korean|hangul=타도제국주의동맹}}) was allegedly founded on 17 October 1926 in Hwatian County, Kirin, China, in order to fight against Japanese imperialism and to promote Marxism–Leninism.Dermot Hudson, In Defense of Songun (Lulu Press: Morrisville, NC, 2015), 15.{{cite book | last = Sweeney | first = John | year = 2014 | title = North Korea Undercover: Inside the World's Most Secret State | location = London | publisher = Corgi Books | page = 32 | isbn = 978-1-4481-7094-4 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7B2jQz5RxR8C&pg=PA32}}Johannes Schönherr, North Korean Cinema: A History (Jefferson, NC, McFarland & Company, 2012), 65. It is considered by the Workers' Party of Korea to be its root and foundation and its creation is celebrated every year.{{Cite web
| title = With Cash, Defectors Find North Korea's Cracks
| work = The New York Times
| date = 19 October 2006
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/19/world/asia/19defect.html?pagewanted=all
| title = Meagre media for North Koreans
| work = BBC News
| date = 10 October 2006
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6037715.stm
| title = Down With Imperialism Union anniversary
| agency = Reuters
| work = China Daily
| date = 8 October 2006
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-10/18/content_711087.htm
}}
History
North Korean or sympathetic sources{{Cite web
| title = North Korea touts nuclear weapons on anti-imperialist anniversary
| work = UPI
| date = 7 October 2016
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/10/17/North-Korea-touts-nuclear-weapons-on-anti-imperialist-anniversary/2211476717926/
}}[https://www.marxists.org/archive/kim-il-sung/bio/rev-act.pdf History of Revolutionary Activities of President Kim Il Sung] (Pyongyang, Korea: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 2012), 6-8.{{Cite web
| title = The strange history of North Korea's Communists
| work = BBC News
| date = 9 October 2015
| access-date = 28 February 2017
| url = https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34472080
}} claim that the organization was founded and led by Kim Il Sung, who would have been fourteen years old at the time.{{cite web|title=Kim Jong Un Elected First Chairman of NDC of DPRK |work=Korean Central News Agency |date=April 13, 2012 |url=http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2012/201204/news13/20120413-44ee.html |accessdate=31 January 2013 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510091258/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2012/201204/news13/20120413-44ee.html |archivedate=10 May 2012 }}
However, most scholarly sources identify Ri Chongrak, a radical militant, as the founder of the Down with Imperialism Union also known as Down with Imperialism Alliance.{{Cite book |title=The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2021 |isbn=978-3030299002 |pages=111}}
In 2016, in particular, the DIU received special attention, especially on 18–19 October. This included dramas, singing of songs in a Pyongyang plaza, "dancing parties" of students and youth, and wreaths laid at the graves of revolutionary martyrs to commemorate the founding of the revolutionary organisation, saying that it was the origin of the ideas of Juche.{{Cite web
| title = Drama "Blood Vessel" Staged
| work = Rodong Sinmun
| date = 19 October 2016
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-19-0006
| title = Stages of Singing Revolutionary Songs of Youth and Students Held
| work = Rodong Sinmun
| date = 19 October 2016
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-19-0007
{{Cite web
| title = Dancing Parties of Youths and Students Held
| work = Rodong Sinmun
| date = 18 October 2016
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-18-0002
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170301180211/http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-18-0002
| archive-date = 1 March 2017
| url-status = dead
}}
Additionally, commemorative stamps were released, a national meeting was held at the People's Palace of Culture attended by "senior party, state and army officials{{nbsp}}... labour innovators and bereaved families of the revolutionary martyrs," a national art exhibition opened at the Korean Art Gallery, and members (and workers within) the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea commemorated the occasion.
{{Cite web
| title = Commemorative Stamps for 90th Anniversary of DIU Produced
| work = Rodong Sinmun
| date = 18 October 2016
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-18-0007
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170301180403/http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-18-0007
| archive-date = 1 March 2017
| url-status = dead
}}
{{Cite web
| title = National Meeting Marks Anniversary of Formation of DIU
| work = Rodong Sinmun
| date = 18 October 2016
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-18-0011
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190327090747/http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-18-0011
| archive-date = 27 March 2019
| url-status = dead
}}
| title = Economic and Commercial Councilors Corps Visits Party Founding Museum
| work = Rodong Sinmun
| date = 14 October 2016
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-14-0001
{{Cite web
| title = National Art Exhibition Opens to Mark 90th Anniversary of DIU
| work = Rodong Sinmun
| date = 8 October 2016
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-08-0010
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170301092840/http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-08-0010
| archive-date = 1 March 2017
| url-status = dead
}}
{{Cite web
| title = DPRK Workers, Members of GFTUK Meet
| work = Rodong Sinmun
| date = 8 October 2016
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-06-18-0005
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170301180408/http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-06-18-0005
| archive-date = 1 March 2017
| url-status = dead
}}
A poster was even issued by Workers' Party of Korea to "mark the 90th anniversary of the formation of the Down-with-Imperialism Union (DIU)."
{{Cite web
| title = Poster Celebrating 90th Anniversary of DIU Issued
| work = Rodong Sinmun
| date = 8 October 2016
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-15-0002
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170301092634/http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-15-0002
| archive-date = 1 March 2017
| url-status = dead
}}
According to the North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun, in 2016, many people such as the chairperson of People Unity-"Kyrgyz El" Republican Political Party in Kyrgyzstan, the secretary general of Bangladesh Jatiya Party, the chairperson of the Juche Idea Study Society in India, the chairperson for the Juche Philosophy Study Committee in India, high-ranking individuals in the Pakistan-Korea Friendship Association, the National Committee for the Study of the Juche Idea of the Democratic Republic of the Congo all praised the developments of the Workers' Party of Korea and celebrated the DIU's anniversary.{{Cite web|url=http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-10-14-0005|title=Foreign Personages Praise Great Persons for Performing Feats in Party Building|date=14 October 2016|work=Rodong Sinmun|accessdate=28 February 2017}}
{{Cite web|url=http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-09-05-0008|title=DR Congolese Body Lauds History of Korean Youth Movement|date=7 September 2016|work=Rodong Sinmun|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301180406/http://rodong.rep.kp/en/index.php?strPageID=SF01_02_01&newsID=2016-09-05-0008|archive-date=1 March 2017|accessdate=28 February 2017}}
= Claimed ''Juche'' connection =
On 17 October 1982, Kim Jong Il honoured the DIU with a speech. In the speech he said that its formation meant that the Korean people had "embarked on a new road of development and our Party [Workers' Party of Korea] began to strike its glorious roots."{{Cite web
| author = Kim Jong Il
| title = The Workers' Party of Korea is A Juche-Type Revolutionary Party which Inherited the Glorious Tradition of the DIU
| work = Korean Friendship Association
| date = 1982
| accessdate = 28 February 2017
| url = http://www.korea-dpr.info/lib/Kim%20Jong%20Il%20-%204/THE%20WORKERS.pdf
| archive-date = 8 October 2018
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181008145259/http://www.korea-dpr.info/lib/Kim%20Jong%20Il%20-%204/THE%20WORKERS.pdf
| url-status = dead
}} He went on to explain the accomplishments of his party in defending the country from the American imperialism and claimed that it had promoted the idea of Juche, which, in reality, was first expressed in 1955 at the earliest in Kim Il Sung's speech entitled On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work. He also said that Kim Il Sung began the DIU with a programme to engage in "anti-Japanese national-liberation struggle relying on the masses", that its formation was the "fresh start for the Korean communist movement and the Korean revolution{{nbsp}}... the beginning of the struggle to found a new type of party," and added that "The Korean communist movement{{nbsp}}... pioneered the revolutionary road under the banner of the DIU."{{cite journal|title=none|journal=Journal of Asiatic Studies|volume=13|author=高麗大學校亞細亞問題硏究所|year=1970|page=63|issue=3–4}}
Doubts on its existence
The story of Down-with-Imperialism Union first appears in North Korean literature in {{Transliteration|ko|Minjogŭi t'aeyang Kim Il-sŏng changgun}} [Sun of the People, General Kim Il Sung] by North Korean author Baik Bong.{{Cite web|url=http://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Contents/Item/E0066846|script-title = ko:타도제국주의동맹(打倒帝國主義同盟)|script-work=ko:한국민족문화대백과사전|language=ko}} 10 years later in 1978, in the Complete History of Korea ({{Korean|hangul=조선전사|labels=no}}), the story has been lengthened with its meaning evaluated to the point of "the turning point of modern history of the Korean nation", however, no mention of such incident of such significance is found in any literature before 1968.
It is suspected that the real owner for such anti-Japanese activities was the Gilheuk Peasant Union ({{Korean|hangul=길흑농민동맹|labels=no}}) in Manchuria led by {{ill|Lee Jong-rak|ko|이종락}} which participated in anti-imperialist activities and thus, was named the "Down with Imperialism Union({{Korean|labels=no|hangul=ㅌ.ㄷ}})".
Commemorative coins
In 1996 and 2016 the Central Bank of DPRK issued commemorative coins commemorating the 70th and 90th anniversaries of the Formation of the DIU.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070309071215/http://www.uriminzokkiri.com/Newspaper/english/Books/Segi/Segi1/htm/42.htm Kim Il Sung's own account of the Down-With-Imperialism Union]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20061121002511/http://www.kcckp.net/en/event/2006-10-17/ The 80th Anniversary of Formation of the Down-with-Imperialism Union]
{{Kim Il Sung}}
Category:History of the Workers' Party of Korea