North Korean authorities have begun urging workers to “increase production” and “economize,” distributing political propaganda materials to General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea (GFTUK) organizations immediately following International Workers’ Day on May 5. This push appears aimed at meeting year-end targets related to the Eighth Party Congress’s plans.
Daily NK obtained a two-page document on political activities issued to GFTUK organizations in early May. The material was filled with propaganda slogans, including calls for a “struggle to boost production and economize” and demonstrations of “patriotism.”
North Korean authorities conducted political indoctrination sessions for GFTUK members beginning May 3, after granting workers a two-day holiday for International Workers’ Day. In essence, workers received the brief reward of time off, followed immediately by renewed pressure to meet production goals.
The political propaganda materials emphasized “learning from model examples” to increase output. Referencing the Chollima Movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s during Kim Il Sung’s era, the materials urged workers to “learn from the spirit of struggle of smelters at Kangson Steel Works, who rushed around furnaces that were hundreds of degrees hot.”
“The party’s demand is our standard amount,” the document stated. “Let’s embrace tasks we ordinarily consider impossible and create miracles.” This paradoxical message essentially calls for unconditional achievement of party targets, regardless of their feasibility.
However, GFTUK members attending these political sessions complained that the repeated use of historical examples itself reveals the party’s disconnect from current realities.
“They highlighted an example of placing a mat on a cement warehouse floor to prevent waste of supplies, but this happened decades ago,” a source inside the country told Daily NK recently. “Since neither the content nor the examples have changed for decades, workers consider these political classes to be ‘worthless, with no nutrients whatsoever.'”
The Rodong Sinmun newspaper published a series of campaign-style special reports earlier this year on the “movement for increased production and economy,” encouraging people to share success stories and pledge their commitment to production increases and resource conservation.
The newspaper solicited reader submissions of success stories, but this prompted skepticism, with people wondering if the paper “was taking reader submissions because it couldn’t find examples worth trumpeting.”
“Workers scoff, saying the party makes a big deal about preventing items from getting lost on warehouse floors, presenting it as a major transformation, but it’s just a drop in the ocean,” the source said. “The more important issue is cracking down on people who steal supplies.”
Given that the political materials included a quote from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urging people to “ceaselessly create miracles, moving mountains and filling the seas,” such political classes aimed at encouraging workers to “fulfill Kim’s words” will likely continue until year’s end, just before the Ninth Party Congress.
