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January 31, 2018, Kolkata Capital in the East Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group. Capital in Korea. Seongjin Jeong (Gyeongsang National University) Sibok Chang (Mokpo National University). Reception of Marx’s Capital in Korea.
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January 31, 2018, Kolkata Capital in the East Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group Capital in Korea Seongjin Jeong (Gyeongsang National University) Sibok Chang (Mokpo National University)
Reception of Marx’s Capital in Korea • 1905-(1917/1919)-1945: Import of Marxism during the Japanese colonial period, esp 1920s, after the March 1st (1919) Independence Movement • 1945-1948: The 1st Spring of Marxism. Capital vol 1 & 2 trans & published in Seoul (After 80 years) • 1948-1987: Repression of Marxism under the anti-communist dictatorships • 1955-1959: Capital 3 vols trans & published in North Korea (After 90 years) • 1987-1991: The 2nd Spring of Marxism. Capital 3 vols trans & published in Seoul (After 120 years) • 1991-1997-2018: Marxism, retreat and renewal
Historical Origin of Korean Marxism • Marx's works first introduced to Korea during the colonial period (1905-1945). They were mainly imported from Japan by radical Korean intellectuals, who utilized them as the theoretical weapons for the national liberation struggle. • 1905: Japan annexed Korea/ 1917: Russian Revolution/ 1919: May 1st Independence Movement/ Japan retreatedto ‘Cultural Rule’, space for radical thoughts limitedly opened during 1920s/ Trans of Marx & Engels in the 1920s, including Manifesto of Communist Party in Seoul, Shanghai, and Irkutsk. • Strong tradition of communism in Korea during colonial period. Establishment of Communist regime in North Korea after the Liberation in 1945.
The 1st Spring of Marxism: 1945-1948 • As soon as Korea was liberated from Japanese rule in 1945, socialist publications exploded in Seoul and Pyongyang. Hundreds of socialist books, journals, and newspapers poured forth, including Marx’s Capital vol 1 & 2. • Capital vol 1 & 2 were translated by Ch’oe Yŏng-ch’ŏl, Chŏn Sŏk-tam, and Hŏ Tong, and published during 1947-1948. The translation was based on the German edition, the so-called “Adoratski edition”, while referring to Japanese editions.
Korean Translation of Marx’s Capitalvol. 1 & 2 in 1947 in Seoul Cover of Capital, Vol.2, Translators’ Notes, 1947
Repression of Marxism in Korea during 1948-1987 • The “1st Spring of Marxism” was brutally repressed in South Korea with the establishment of the anti-Communist regime of Rhee Syngman in 1948. Almost all leftists, including translators of Capital, fled to North Korea before the Korean War (1950-53), and most of those who remained were physically eliminated by the right-wing forces. • Not just socialist politics but also academic studies on Marx were repressed in South Korea under the anti-communist dictators during 1948-1987. Just carrying Marx's books was punished by more than two years in prison. • Progressive scholars in this period had to study Marxism through roundabout way, e.g., dependency theory, Frankfurt School, “early Marx”, or Dobb-Sweezy debates on the transition to capitalism etc.
Marx in North Korea • Until mid-1960s, North Korean regime allowed Marxist scholarship to the extent that it was of use for its rule, and published the first complete Korean edition of Marx's Capital during 1955-59 as well as Marx Engels Collected Works [MECW] during 1961-65. • Some of the Marxist studies by North Korean scholars before the mid-1960s, such as historical works on the ‘capitalist sprouts’ in Korea,were of high academic quality, though framed in Stalinist 5-stage historiography. • However, serious Marxist scholarship phased out in North Korea with the rise of Juche, the extreme version of national communism, after the mid-1960s.
The 2nd Spring of Marxism: 1987-1991 • Marxism resurrected after the Kwangju People's Uprising in 1980 and the Great Democratic Struggles in 1987. • The Anti-Communist Law could not prevent the sudden explosion of publication of Marxist literatures which began in the mid-1980s. • About 70 Korean versions of various works of Marx and Engels, including Marx’s Capital 3 vols, were published during 1987-1991. • Reflecting the prevalent hope for the radical social transformation, lot of socialist literatures, including the works of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Trotsky, etc, were translated. • Marxist academics also revived after 40-years break esp in following areas; analysis of modern Korean capitalism and class structure, Marxist state theory, proletarian literary critics, reinterpretation of the period of 1945-53, Marxist philosophy etc.
Publication of the First South Korean Full Edition of Capital during 1987-1990 • The publication of the first South Korean edition of Capital in 1987 meant the de facto legalization of socialist publications in South Korea for the first time since the establishment of the anti-communist regime in 1948. The government’s arrest and acquittal of the publisher, Kim Tae-gyŏng, in 1987 was the turning point. • The first South Korean edition of Capital was the result of a collective translation by a dozen young radical scholars and student activists, although their names were pseudonymized. Young radical students and progressive publishers were the main actors in the translation and publication of socialist literature during the “2nd Spring of Marxism”.
Translation of Marx’s Capital vol. 1 by ‘Young-Min Kim’(pseudonym)in1987
Arrest and Release of Tae-Gyung Kim, Publisher of Marx’s Capital, in 1988 (HanKyoReh, 1988.9.2.) (HanKyoReh, 1988.9.3.) (HanKyoReh, 1988.9.7.)
Translation of Marx’s Capital 3 volsby Shin-Joon Gang (1987-90)
Translation of Marx’s Capital 3 vols by Soohaeng Kim (1989-90)
Debates on Korean Social Formation • The “2nd Spring of Marxism” reached its high point during late 1980s when the two variants of Stalinism, NL (National Liberation tendency which followed Kim Il-Sung's Juche) andPD (Peoples’ Democracy tendency which followed the official line of CPSU) debated furiously on how to characterize the nature of Korean social formation and determine the revolutionary strategies. • While PD characterized Korea as embodying neo-colonial state monopoly capitalism, requiring an anti-monopoly-capital people's democratic revolution, NL described Korea as colonial semi-feudal society, and argued for the anti-imperial and anti-semi-feudal people's democratic revolution.
Limitations of the “2nd Spring of Marxism” • What South Korean radicals “rediscovered” in the “2nd Spring of Marxism” of 1987-1991 was not classical Marxist tradition but variants of Stalinism. • Many Korean radicals, esp PD, rushed to embrace orthodox Marxism of CPSU etc, after they discarded their earlier Neo-Marxist references, like Frankfurt School or dependency theory. • NL and PD shared the fatal theoretical defects of Stalinism, such as economic determinism, catastrophism and stageism (esp 2-stage revolution strategy), as were obvious in the PD’s thesis of neo-colonial state monopoly capitalism, or its formula of “strengthening monopoly cum deepening dependency”.
End of the “2nd Spring of Marxism” in 1991 • As the irrelevance of two competitive versions of Stalinism became clear with the rapid development of Korean capitalism during the 1980s, the terrain of the debate itself crumbled even prior to the collapse of Communist regimes in 1991. • As most Korean Marxists had regarded the USSR as the realization of Marxism, its collapse forced them to disown Marxism. • Many Korean ex-Marxists converted to reformism or even “New Right” after 1991, via Gramsci’s theory of civil society, or Althusserian philosophy.
Drift from Marxism to Post-ism after 1991 • Main intellectual and political current after 1991 was submission to Post-ism (postmodernism, post-structuralism, postcolonialism etc) and TINA. • Neo-Marxism could not be the option for the disillusioned Korean Marxists, because the “2nd Spring of Marxism” proceeded in the form of crowding-out of already existing Neo-Marxism, such as Frankfurt School, by ‘orthodox’ Marxism. • The mass converts of Korean Marxists after 1991 were reminiscent of those of Korean radicals during the late 1930s under the colonial rule when the hope for the independence from Japanese imperialism became dim.
Attempts to ‘Return to Marx’ after the 1997 Crisis • The East Asian Crisis of 1997 and the related end of the ‘Miracle of Korea’ was a moment of awakening for Korean radicals to the forgotten contradictions of capitalism, emphasized by Marx. • Deepening polarization and inequality under the neoliberal assault on working people after the East Asian Crisis of 1997 seemed to vindicate what Marx said in Capital. • Serious attempts for ‘Return to Marx’ were made after the East Asian Crisis of 1997, such as the launching of Radical Review and Marxism 21 and inauguration of Marxcommunale, a biennial anti-capitalist academic and cultural festival.
Education of Marx’s Capital in Korea • Marx’s Capital is taught in major universities in Korea, including postgraduate program of Gyeongsang National University, under the title of ‘political economy’ or ‘Das Kapital’ etc. • More than 20 introductory books on Marx’s Capital were authored by Korean writers. • Marxist academic and cultural activities, inspired by Marx’s Capital, hit the bottom after 1997 Crisis, and now growing. Marxism (Workers’ Solidarity), Marxcommunnale, Marxism 21, etc, are examples.
Limitations of Reading Capital in Korea • Capital has usually been read politically or tendentiously and in liaison with Marxism, Lenin, through the “orthodox” Communist party-line in Korea, as is shown in “logico-historicist” or “stageist” way of reading. • While Korean Marxism might be strong in its application and politics, its basics, like Marxology, have been underdeveloped.Regardless of some differences in the quality of translation among various Korean editions, they were generally very poor, compared with the state-of-art philological groundings of the Japanese edition. • Korean scholars have not yet published the complete Korean edition of Marx Engels Collected Works or, the new translation of Capital, drawing upon the new resources of MEGA2.
Current State of Marxist Economics in Korea • Among various disciplines of Marxist scholarship, economics has been traditionally strongin Korea. Korean Marxist economists were main participants in the debates on the Korean social formation in 1980s, tackling with the issues such as agrarian question, capital-labor relation, economic dependency, monopoly capital, etc. • After 1991 Marxism retreated in economics as well, now marginalized even in Korean Association of Political Economy, (equivalent of URPE) which they founded in 1987. Many ex-Marxist economists now advocate Keynesianism or developmental state, ‘wage-led growth’. • Main research interests for today’s Korean Marxist economists are theories of value, crisis and socialism etc.
Reformist Hegemony after the 1997 Crisis • However, reformist hegemony strengthened after the East Asian Crisis of 1997. Two consecutive ‘democratic’ governments elected; Kim Dae-Jung & Roh Mu-Hyun (1998-2007). • Many ex-Marxists welcomed and joined the ‘democratic’ governments or related NGOs, strengthening the reformist consensus. • Reformists tried to find the cause of the 1997 Crisis and polarization afterwards in neoliberal globalization or “financialization” not in capitalism, and argued for “good capitalism” or reformist alternatives, like, national reformism (ex-NL) or social democratic reformism (ex-PD).
Toward the “3rd Spring of Marxism” in Korea? • Although the Anti-Communist Law is still alive, the main difficulties for today’s Korean Marxism is not the political repression but the marginalization or overall retreat of anti-capitalist movements. • Marxism will not be a counter-hegemonic idea in Korea in the near future without the revival of progressive social movements, esp workers’ movements, which have been seriously weakened under the neoliberal assaults of the conservative governments, e.g., Lee Myung-bak & Park Geun-hye (2008-2017). • Whether the recent explosion of Korean peoples’ candlelight movements against Park Geun-hye’s corruption and abuse of power, culminating in her imprisonment and launching of new government of Moon Jae-In, could be the signal of coming of the “3rd Spring of Marxism” remains to be seen.
