Stephen Cho | Coordinator of the Korean International Forum
Commemoration of the 58th anniversary of the massacres in Indonesia, Colonel Fabien, Paris
September 8 2023
Indonesia’s tragedy is our tragedy. The tragedy is to suffer, whether we are the people of a colony or the workers of an imperialist country. For as long as imperialism exists, the tragedies like that suffered by the Indonesian people will be repeated many times. In order to liberate themselves from invasion, subjugation, genocide, oppression, exploitation and suffering, all the peoples of the world must fight to the end against the imperialists and their proxies.
The Indonesian Communist Party, once the third-largest in the world, has experienced periods of rise and fall since its founding in 1920, but the indomitable Indonesian communist and working people had to suffer the greatest hardship in 1965. In the wake of an infamous ‘false flag’ operation—of the kind that the imperialist powers and their proxies are accustomed to using all over the world—a regime-change operation was effected. Sukarno was replaced by Suharto and a massacre of communists and pro-Sukarno forces was perpetrated.
The dead were never counted, but it is believed that 800,000 party members were done to death in this horrific bloodbath of progressive forces. More than one million people were imprisoned, more than 1,000 were exiled abroad, and more than three million workers and peasants were massacred in total nationwide. Anyone who was thought to have sympathy for the communists was a target during this US-directed massacre—a slaughter comparable to the crimes against the humanity committed by the Nazis during WW2.
We are confident that the communists and working people in Indonesia will rise like a phoenix and surely rebuild the communist party, creating a new people-centered society where the working people become the masters of their country and means of production, where everything serves the needs of the working people. We are also sure that they will drive out imperialism, liquidate its puppets and realize a true people’s democracy where there will be no more slavery or genocide.
Strongly believing in the truth of history, in the dialectical law of the negation of the negation, which shows how progress is achieved through contradictions and vicissitudes, we are convinced that the tragic misfortune in the history of Indonesia will ultimately be transformed into its fortune. We are certain that this is the path of human history, and that all of the people of the world will follow this path.
Indonesia is a part of Asia and of the world. The revolution in each country is a part of the world revolution. The individual and the universal are closely related as one. When the Indonesian revolution goes forward, so does the world revolution, and vice versa (when the world revolution is progressing, the Indonesian revolution is, too). Our revolution is a revolution that advances to the full realization of people’s independence in their country, also that of advancing to the full realization of all humanity’s independence through achieving global independence. Every communist must be an internationalist, and a true internationalist must be a communist.
At present, the biggest and most important event in the world is the war in Ukraine. This war, which was escalated in eastern Europe in 2022, is on the verge of spreading into wars in Taiwan and South Korea in East Asia. Today, in 2023, the probabilities of the spread of war in eastern Europe and of the outbreak of war in East Asia are rising. When war breaks out in East Asia, it will become clear that we are in a world war. History will record that the third world war began in eastern Europe in February 2022 and came into full swing with the breakout of war in East Asia.
Taiwan is in the middle of East Asia, and South Korea is to its north. Indonesia is to its south. If war breaks out in the East and Northeast of Asia, and WW3 becomes full-blown, Indonesia will not be left out. In fact, the president of the Philippines said during a recent visit to Japan that the Philippines would be involved if a war breaks out in Taiwan.
It has been reported that, besides the Philippines, Indonesia is preparing an operation to evacuate those of its citizens who are presently living in Taiwan. The USA also conducted an evacuation exercise last May. The USA, which suffered the unforgettable nightmare of being expelled from North Vietnam and Afghanistan, has a clear case of ‘evacuation trauma’.
Wars in Taiwan and South Korea are most likely to break out simultaneously. An agreement to this effect was signed in 1961 between the President of the DPRK Kim Il Sung and the Premier of China Zhou Enlai, and was apparently reaffirmed when President Xi Jinping visited North Korea to meet Chairman Kim Jong Un in 2019. If one is pulled into a war against US imperialism, the other will automatically follow, forcing US imperialism to wage its war on two battlefields simultaneously—Taiwan and South Korea.
With NATO also running the war in Ukraine, the USA will in fact have to fight in three theaters, since it is the main, directing force within the Nato ‘alliance’. Moreover, not only Russia, but also China and the DPRK are nuclear and missile powers armed with all kinds of advanced weapons, including hydrogen bombs and tactical nuclear bombs, and with various sort of missile, including hypersonic missiles unrivalled by western armouries.
These three countries, which have been superhumanly patient in the face of imperialist provocations, have said that they will not stand for it anymore and have launched a decisive counterattack, beginning with Russia’s special military operation to stop NATO’s advance into Ukraine. If the wars over Taiwan and South Korea break out soon, US imperialism will have to fight a fierce war on three battlefields against the three nuclear and missile powers.
Moreover, these wars are all expeditionary, making them very unfavorable to US imperialism. Above all, the anti-imperialist, national-liberation and preventive war being waged by Russia and the anti-imperialist, national-liberation and reunification wars being forced onto China and the DPRK are clearly just wars, with progress and socialist justice on their sides. Thus Russia, China, and North Korea have launched or are preparing to launch wars that are superior not only militarily and technologically but also politically and morally.
Whereas WW1 was an interimperialist war and WW2 was an antifascist war, WW3 will be characterized as an anti-imperialist war. The imperialist powers are increasingly jeopardizing their position through waging this world war and are on the path of decline and destruction. As a result of WW1, the world’s first socialist country emerged, and as a result of WW2, the number of socialist countries increased more than tenfold, and the progressive and revolutionary movements reached an unprecedented high. WW3 will deal a decisive blow to imperialism and bring about a new phase of history and revolution.
The World Anti-imperialist Platform, which emerged in the present period of great transformation and turn of history, will fulfill the mission of justice dictated by our times. It will realize the three goals of waging anti-imperialist struggle on worldwide scale, of conducting a fierce ideological struggle against opportunism, and of strengthening the international communist forces, taking the lead in promoting revolution in each country and global independence movements worldwide.
We believe in the slogans ‘Workers of the world, unite’ and ‘The people united will never be defeated’. We are convinced of the scientific truth, the truth of revolution; that the united struggle of the working people, led by the working class, will be victorious. We will stand firmly united with the working people and the communists in Indonesia, stand firmly against our common enemies, and remain firmly committed to the ultimate achievement of a brilliant victory together.
