Pyongyang Declaration

The Pyongyang Declaration, officially titled Let Us Defend and Advance the Cause of Socialism was a statement signed by a number of parties on April 20, 1992. Representatives of 70 communist and other parties had come to Pyongyang for the celebration of Kim Il-sung's 80th birthday. While there, the delegates had many bilateral and multilateral contacts with each other and decided to issue a declaration reiterating their commitment to socialism in spite of the collapse of the USSR and a number of other communist regimes in recent years. On April 20 the declaration was signed by delegates of 70 parties, including 48 party leaders.

The following translation of the Pyongyang Declaration appeared in Proletarian #18 (June 2007):

The representatives of political parties from different countries of the world who are striving for the victory of socialism publish this declaration with a firm conviction to defend and advance the socialist cause.

Ours is an era of independence and the socialist cause is a sacred one aimed at realising the independence of the popular masses.

Socialism suffered a setback in some countries in recent years. As a consequence of this, the imperialists and reactionaries are claiming that socialism has ‘come to an end’. This is nothing but a sophistry to beautify and embellish capitalism and patronise the old order.

The setback of socialism and the revival of capitalism in some countries is causing a great loss to the achievement of the socialist cause, but it can never be interpreted as the denial of the superiority of socialism and of the reactionary character or capitalism.

Socialism has long been the ideal of mankind and it represents the future of mankind.

Socialist society is, in essence, a genuine society for the people where the popular masses are the masters of everything and everything serves them.

But the capitalist society is an unfair one where ‘the rich get ever richer and the poor poorer’. In this society money decides everything, exploitation of man by man predominates and a handful of exploiter classes lord it over all. It is inevitably accompanied by political non-rights, unemployment, poverty, drugs, crimes and other kinds of all social evils which trample human dignity underfoot.

Only socialism can eliminate domination, subjugation and social inequality of all kinds and ensure the people substantial freedom, equality, true democracy and human rights.

The popular masses have long carried on an arduous struggle for the victory of socialism and shed much blood in this course.

The path of socialism is an untrodden one and, therefore, the advance of socialism is inevitably accompanied by trials and difficulties. One of the reasons for the unsuccessful construction of socialism in some countries is that they failed to build a social structure conforming to the fundamental requirements of the popular masses and build socialism suited to the demand of the theory of scientific socialism.

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