Let's Work Together to
Globalize People's Self-Defense!

I am honored to take part in this year's conference. At the turn of a new century, we find ourselves here in the capital of Korea, which is widely recognized to be the country with the liveliest anti-imperialist movement, with its unrelenting movement for peace and democracy, and whose people have gained tremendous results from their struggle. We will hear reports and words of encouragement from outstanding fighters in the struggle and leaders of organizations from various countries. We will exchange points of view and discuss various issues together. I find it most fitting that we should do so in such a setting. Having said that, I will now proceed to put forward four points for discussion. I look forward to receiving constructive feedback from the comrades from various countries represented here.

1. It is most suitable that the Korean Democratic Labor Party should hold this conference at this time. As we would say in Chinese, "the eight winds meet in Seoul," meaning that many active organizations who each face grim situations in their respective countries are gathered here in Seoul today. This gathering has a chance of producing important results. Looking back on the last year, the U.S.A. has been throwing its weight about all around the world, be it in Europe, the Middle East or Africa, interfering willy-nilly and carelessly igniting fuses to set off bloody conflicts with all the arrogance of the world's only superpower. The deployment of new weapons on Guam, the strengthening of its network of bases in Okinawa, the Japanese archipelago and the Korean Peninsula, the quasi-war state induced by the U.S.-Japanese new defense guidelines, the supply of heavy armaments to Taiwan, interference in the Taiwan Straits, pulling the strings as Israel provokes renewed conflicts with the Arabs, its repression of Yugoslavia, its use of the Albanians to put pressure on Serbia, its leadership of N.A.T.O. in bombing Serbia and Kosovo and its brazen missile attack on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade - In all these places and more, the U.S.A. has been showing off its unmatched military might. In so doing it has not only failed to bring about reasonable and peaceful resolutions to historical conflicts that exist between countries and peoples, within countries and between people of the same ethnicity, but has often only worsened and complicated those problems.

It is quite possible that many of these problems could have been resolved where it not for U.S. interference. In instances such as the Israel-Arab conflict and the troubles within the Yugoslav Federation, the U.S.A. has not shied away from breaking relevant United Nations conventions, with no concern for the norms of international law, trampling on the sovereignty of other countries in its own national interest. That kind of power politics is what is known as hegemonism and it is the biggest cause of disorder in the world today.

The conflicts and suffering that are going on in the world around us should be enough to arouse intense concern among people in all countries who love peace, strive for development and hope that the next century will be fairer and more enlightened than the last. This conference needs to establish clear positions from which to call upon the people of Asia to wage a common struggle against the warlike policies and military preparations of U.S. imperialism. In order to achieve this, there is an urgent need at this time to establish concrete plans for the Asian people to fight imperialism.

2. The second point to be raised here is that during the 1990s the club of rich nations headed by the U.S.A. and consisting of the advanced industrialized countries of Japan and Europe have been invading the world's weaker countries and poorer regions with a tide of globalization spearheaded by transnational corporations. The capitalist-imperialist countries headed by the U.S.A. have been expanding their international system of exploitation under the guise of "gentle" capitalism, based as it is on the accumulation derived from centuries of invasion and criminal plunder. The pretty name of "development aid" can hardly conceal their true aim of sapping the world's labor and resources.

The result for the global economy is to exacerbate the miserable process by the rich get richer and the poor poorer. Above all, the U.S.A., being as it is the richest country in the world, makes use of three global organs, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization, to impose harsh conditions on countries applying for loans when they find themselves in difficult circumstances, turning them into economic dependencies - in other words, neocolonies. It forces every one of those countries which, due to imperialist exploitation, have been unable to establish independent national economies to accept often unsuitable policies of opening their economies up to foreign capital and internationalizing and liberalizing them, irrespective of the particular country's social structure, level of economic development, industrial makeup, degree of political stability and the maturity of its institutions. Its aim is to deprive the countries receiving or applying for aid of their economic defense mechanisms, and their governments of their ability to exercise control over the economy, absorbing them permanently into the world-wide economic order in which the powerful decide everything. It aims to maintain forever the gap between the advanced and backward countries, while all the world's surplus value falls into its lap.

This new brand of economic imperialism stands exposed before the oppressed and exploited people of the world. Over the past few years, wherever and under whatever name these organs of globalization have held their meetings and conferences, they have nearly always met with protests from people of many lands, and even found themselves besieged by thousands of nonviolent protesters. Invasive capitalist globalization is bound to provoke the globalization of the people's struggle to defend their livelihoods - That is almost self-evident. What our conference needs to explore is by what methods and strategy the struggle can gain the best results.

3. Another cause for excitement and joy for us Taiwan delegates as we arrive in your city of Seoul is the knowledge that a historical meeting finally took place in August between the leaders of South and North Korea. We in Taiwan were deeply moved when we saw scenes of the meeting on television and read the reports in the newspapers.

The peoples of China and Korea have suffered in common the national tragedies and historical pain resulting from the north-south division of the Korean peninsula and the east-west confrontation across the Taiwan Strait. Although internal factors played some role in creating these tragedies, the decisive factor in both cases was the Cold War which followed the Second World War. Before the Second World War, Korea was a colony of Japan, while China was semi-feudal and semi-colonial. Although there were some political and social differences between them, both countries were ravaged by imperialism. Taiwan on its own was a straightforward colony, just like Korea. The national division over which the blood and tears of so many patriots have been shed over the years came about as a result of invasion by foreign forces.

When, therefore, after many long years of bitter division, a tendency towards reunification appears, if the external forces which caused the division in the first place still exist, it will make the process of reunification extremely tortuous and difficult. This is true of both the Korean and Taiwan questions. However strong our subjective desire may be, the obstruction caused by such external forces can only be overcome by great wisdom and strength of will. When we read how Korea's academic and political circles as well as popular movements all stress in unison the basic idea of "independence and reunification," we are impressed by the steadfast will of our Korean comrades-in-arms. When we read the joint statement, we see expressed therein not only strong compatriotic sentiments, but also the outstanding wisdom of both North and South Korea in seeking the best for the country and its people. We in the Taiwan delegation wish to express our deep expectations and our best wishes for smooth progress following the first North-South summit, and for the early realization of the final goal of reunification.

4. Finally, allow me to say something about the current political situation in Taiwan. In March this year, a candidate nominated by a party whose charter includes a call for Taiwan "independence" was elected as the so-called "President of the Republic of China." Half a year later, Taiwan's political situation remains in an impasse as far as cross-Straits relations are concerned. This is because the man who was elected, Chen Shuibian, posing as the chief guardian of Taiwan's bourgeoisie, has stuck to the strategic principle of "peaceful division" across the Taiwan Straits.

In order to preserve "peace," he promulgated the so-called "five noes." In order to maintain the existing division, he has repeatedly stressed the idea that "Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country." As to mainland China, their basis for dealing with Taiwan remains "one country, two systems," and they have declared that "as long as Taiwan's leaders adhere to the one China principle, anything is open to discussion." Chen, for his part, still insists that "one China can only be a topic for negotiation, not a precondition." Beijing, on the other hand, insists that "unless the Taiwan side clearly accepts the one China principle, there is nothing else to talk about." In addition, China issued a white paper in which it declared that "an indefinite refusal to negotiate can only be interpreted as another type of 'Taiwan independence.'"

This stalemate is something which we foresaw quite a long time ago, because the Taiwan independence movement is a special form of class struggle by Taiwan capitalism against the mainland's socialism. It is an unusual historical phenomenon in which Taiwan capitalism's political, economic and military forces are the internal factor, while the U.S.A. with its Taiwan Relations Act and the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty provide the external conditions.

Something that needs to be made clear is that, although Taiwan capitalism is counted among the Newly Industrialized Economies (N.I.E.,) having taken off in the 70's and been classified by the United Nations as a high-income economy in the 80's as its per capita income passed US$6,500, it remains in essence a neocolonial form of capitalism. Its dependence on foreign economic powers surpasses its independence. Economic dependence gives rise to political dependence, so it is natural that the representative class of this dependent economy, the Taiwan bourgeoisie, should be more reactionary than it is progressive.

So the limited reformist character of the Democratic Progressive Party has withered away now that it has done away to some extent with the conservative power structures of the former ruling party, the K.M.T. Just like the old regime, it continues to provide five-star service to the big corporations, while in its foreign policy it still goes along with the Asia-Pacific policies of U.S. and Japanese imperialism in every respect. It welcomed the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, Japan's Peripheral Situation Act and Theater Missile Defense and approves of the U.S.' Asia-Pacific military base network.

In line with this background and with its very nature, the Democratic Progressive Party regime longs for the day when the Japanese and U.S. military will act together to wipe out the Chinese mainland. Since they came to power, they have stopped commemoration of the eight-year war of resistance against Japan and of Taiwan's 1945 retrocession to China. One year Annette Lu Xiulian, who is now Vice President, even led a group of Taiwan independence advocates to Shimonoseki in Japan to express gratitude to Japan for having ruled Taiwan and giving it a chance to modernize.

Beijing's repeated assertions of its determination to defend its national sovereignty, even if it means a war with the U.S.A., have compelled the U.S. government to express its support for the one China principle. At the same time, the U.S.A. has not changed its policy of military protection for Taiwan to preserve China's divided status. We believe, therefore, that the historic task of bringing about China's reunification will be a long and arduous one in the course of which many crises will occur. Nevertheless, we are determined to keep on going down that road until our goal is finally achieved.

I thank you all for your kind attention and wish everyone the best.

This article is also available here in the 1 December 2000 edition of the Workers' Daily Internet Edition, published by the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) (RCPBML).

The Labor Rights Association (Taiwan),
2F, No. 155, Ningxia Rd., Datong Dist., Taibei 103, TAIWAN, China
Tel: +886-2-2553 1842   Fax: +886-2-2550 0060
E-mail: lbp@seDELETE_THISed.net.tw

The Labor Party (Laodongdang), Taiwan

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