chosun ilbo: what's your impression before retirement?
kim: i'm uncomfortable. once i retire, the right-left ratio at the s.n.u.'s school of economics will turn from 32:1 to 33:0. this is a serious problem. if capitalism is to develop soundly, there has to be both economics that defends capitalism and another kind that points out its negative effects.
c: you must have had many difficulties when you translated "das kapital."
k: at the time, the book was banned. in september 1988 when i was translating it, the president of a publishing house was arrested for having translated part of the book. as soon as i was employed as an s.n.u. professor in february 1989, i published book 1 in two volumes. i published book 2 in may that year and book 3, also in two volumes, in march 1990. police seemed to be at a loss when they found an s.n.u. professor bold enough to publish them. i bought an apartment in sanbon, gyeonggi province with the money i earned from the book's publication. i thought marx helped me buy it. [laughs]
c: is marxism still an effective model to analyze south korean society?
k:
yes, it is. as long as south korea is a capitalist society, the basic problem lying before us is still a matter of conflict between capital and labor. marxism is important because it provides a framework whereby we can analyze the issue. amid the frenzy for global capitalism and neoliberalism, workers and low-income people are forced to live in destitution. this issue cannot be solved by british or american-style mainstream economics.
c: are you a marxist?
k: [pause] yes, i am. i am a marxist who believes that capitalism still has many problems and marxism provides good viewpoints to correct them. marxism aims at liberating humans from all kinds of bondage, but it doesn't try to increase g.d.p. by a few percent as the old soviet union did or to embody a material world "where people can eat rice and beef,"
as north korea has been doing. such a narrow interpretation of marxism led the party cadres of former communist countries to establish oppressive systems in place of capitalist ones. and they collapsed in the end.
c: they say you’re a fool if you’re not a marxist when young and a greater fool if you’re a marxist when you’re old.
k: that is a sarcastic comment made by people who don't know much about marxism. it sounds as if you should seek compromise when you’re old. but i'm not dazed by such comments.
c: toward the end of his life, marx himself famously said, "i am not a marxist."
k: it shows how many pseudo-marxists were about at that time. a sort of mechanical materialism was very common then, making people see marx's thoughts from a blinkered point of view and believe that the economic structure or unterbau determines everything in the world. that led marx to deny he was a marxist himself. ironic, isn't it?
c: you mean the problem is not with marxism itself but with those who claim to be marxists?
k: i think what is more serious is the mentality of those who claim to be marxists or progressives. in the 1980-1990s, everybody in south korea seemed to study marxism. all of them have given it up now, but i doubt there has even been a genuine marxist in south korea. most of these people used to study materials that the japanese communist party translated from soviet pamphlets. these pamphlets merely carried quotes from brezhnev. they are not marxist theories. even though they claim to be progressive, many people are still working against progress, just as many did in the past.
c: do many s.n.u. students study marxism?
k: there are nine doctoral students, three graduate students and about 100 undergraduate students who attend marxist economics classes. they study hard. marxist economics requires students to have a wide range of knowledge, including philosophy, history and sociology, as well as economic theory. so it can be very helpful to corporations or research institutes. parents don't have to worry when their children study it. [laughs] |
