title: Economy of France

text: France's economy entered the recession of the late 2000s later and appeared to leave it earlier than most affected economies, only enduring four-quarters of contraction. However, France experienced stagnant growth between 2012 and 2014, with the economy expanding by 0% in 2012, 0.8% in 2013 and 0.2% in 2014. Growth picked up in 2015 with a growth of 0.8%. This was followed by a growth of 1.1% for 2016, a growth of 2.2% for 2017, and a growth of 2.1% for 2018. According to the French Economic Observatory (), the expected growth rate for 2022 will be 1.2%.


title: Economy of France

text: With 31 companies that are part of the world's biggest 500 companies, France was in 2020 the most represented European country in the 2020 Fortune Global 500, ahead of Germany (27 companies) and the UK (22).


title: Economy of France

text: As of August 2020, France was also the country that weighed the most on the Eurozone's EURO STOXX 50 (representing 36.4% of all total assets), ahead of Germany (35.2%).


title: Economy of France

text: Several French corporations rank amongst the largest in their industries such as AXA in insurance and Air France in air transportation. Luxury and consumer goods are particularly relevant, with L'Oreal being the world's largest cosmetic company while LVMH and Kering are the world's two largest luxury product companies. In energy and utilities, GDF-Suez and EDF are amongst the largest energy companies in the world, and Areva is a large nuclear-energy company; Veolia Environnement is the world's largest environmental services and water management company; Vinci SA, Bouygues and Eiffage are large construction companies; Michelin ranks in the top 3 tire manufacturers; JCDecaux is the world's largest outdoor advertising corporation; BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Société Générale rank amongst the largest in the world by assets. Capgemini and Atos are among the largest technology consulting companies.


title: Economy of France

text: Carrefour is the world's second-largest retail group in terms of revenue; Total is the world's fourth-largest private oil company; Danone is the world's fifth-largest food company and the world's largest supplier of mineral water; Sanofi is the world's fifth-largest pharmaceutical company; Publicis is the world's third-largest advertising company; Groupe PSA is the world's 6th and Europe's 2nd largest automaker; Accor is the leading European hotel group; Alstom is one of the world's leading conglomerates in rail transport.


title: Economy of France

text: France embarked on an ambitious and very successful program of modernization under state coordination. This program of "dirigisme", mostly implemented by governments between 1944 and 1983, involved the state control of certain industries such as transportation, energy and telecommunications as well as various incentives for private corporations to merge or engage in certain projects.


title: Economy of France

text: The 1981 election of president François Mitterrand saw a short-lived increase in governmental control of the economy, nationalizing many industries and private banks. This form of increased "dirigisme", was criticized as early as 1982. By 1983, the government decided to renounce "dirigisme" and start an era of rigueur ("rigor") or corporation. As a result, the government largely retreated from economic intervention; "dirigisme" has now essentially receded, though some of its traits remain. The French economy grew and changed under government direction and planning much more than in other European countries.


title: Economy of France

text: Despite being a widely liberalized economy, the government continues to play a significant role in the economy: government spending, at 56% of GDP in 2014, is the second-highest in the European Union. Labor conditions and wages are highly regulated. The government continues to own shares in corporations in several sectors, including energy production and distribution, automobiles, aerospace industry, shipbuilding, the arms industry, electronics industry, machine industry, metallurgy, fuels, chemical industry, transportation, and telecommunications.


title: Economy of France

text: In April and May 2012, France held a presidential election in which the winner François Hollande had opposed austerity measures, promising to eliminate France's budget deficit by 2017. The new government stated that it aimed to cancel recently enacted tax cuts and exemptions for the wealthy, raising the top tax bracket rate to 75% on incomes over a million euros, restoring the retirement age to 60 with a full pension for those who have worked 42 years, restoring 60,000 jobs recently cut from public education, regulating rent increases; and building additional public housing for the poor.


title: Economy of France

text: In June 2012, Hollande's Socialist Party won an overall majority in the legislative elections, giving it the capability to amend the French Constitution and allowing immediate enactment of the promised reforms. French government bond interest rates fell 30% to record lows, less than 50 basis points above German government bond rates.


title: Economy of France

text: In July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the French government issued 10-years bonds which had negative interest rates, for the first time in its history (which means that investors buying French bonds will pay, rather than receive, interest for owning French sovereign debt).


title: Economy of France

text: The Government of France has run a budget deficit each year since the early 1970s. As of 2021, French government debt reached an equivalent of 118.6% of French GDP.


title: Economy of France

text: Under European Union rules, member states are supposed to limit their debt to 60% of output or be reducing the ratio structurally towards this ceiling, and run public deficits of no more than 3.0% of GDP.


title: Economy of France

text: In late 2012, credit-rating agencies warned that growing French government debt levels risked France's AAA credit rating, raising the possibility of a future credit downgrade and subsequent higher borrowing costs for the French government. In 2012 France was downgraded by ratings agencies Moody's, Standard&Poor's, and Fitch to the AA+ credit rating.


title: Economy of France

text: In December 2014 France's credit rating was further downgraded by Fitch (and S&P) to the AA credit rating.


title: Economy of France

text: The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2021 (with IMF staff estimates in 2022–2027). Inflation below 5% is in green.


title: Economy of France

text: France was in 2019 the world's 8th largest manufacturer in terms of value added, according to the World Bank.


title: Economy of France

text: The leading industrial sectors in France are telecommunications (including communication satellites), aerospace and defense, ship building (naval and specialist ships), pharmaceuticals, construction and civil engineering, chemicals, textiles, and automobile production. The chemical industry is a key sector for France, helping to develop other manufacturing activities and contributing to economic growth.


title: Economy of France

text: Research and development spending is also high in France at 2.26% of GDP, the fourth-highest in the OECD.


title: Economy of France

text: Industry contributes to French exports: as of 2018, the Observatory of Economic Complexity estimates that France's largest exports "are led by Planes, Helicopters, and/or Spacecraft ($43.8B), Cars ($26B), Packaged Medicaments ($25.7B), Vehicle Parts ($16.5B), and Gas Turbines ($14.4B)."


title: Economy of France

text: France is the world-leading country in nuclear energy, home of global energy giants Areva, EDF and GDF Suez: nuclear power now accounts for about 78% of the country's electricity production, up from only 8% in 1973, 24% in 1980, and 75% in 1990. Nuclear waste is stored on site at reprocessing facilities.


title: Economy of France

text: Due to its heavy investment in nuclear power, France is the smallest emitter of carbon dioxide among the seven most industrialized countries in the world.


title: Economy of France

text: In November 2004, EDF (which stands for Electricité de France), the world's largest utility company and France's largest electricity provider, was floated with huge success on the French stock market. Notwithstanding, the French state still retains 70% of the capital.


title: Economy of France

text: France is the world's sixth largest agricultural producer and EU's leading agricultural power, accounting for about one-third of all agricultural land within the EU. In the early 1980s, France was the leading producer of the three principal grains of wheat, barley, and maize. Back in 1983, France produced around 24.8 million tonnes, which was a long way ahead of the United Kingdom and West Germany, the next two largest wheat producers.


title: Economy of France

text: Northern France is characterized by large wheat farms. Dairy products, pork, poultry, and apple production are concentrated in the western region. Beef production is located in central France, while the production of fruits, vegetables, and wine ranges from central to southern France. France is a large producer of many agricultural products and is currently expanding its forestry and fishery industries. The implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) have resulted in reforms in the agricultural sector of the economy.


title: Economy of France

text: As the world's second-largest agricultural exporter, France ranks just after the United States. The destination of 49% of its exports is other EU members states. France also provides agricultural exports to many poor African countries (including its former colonies) which face serious food shortages. Wheat, beef, pork, poultry, and dairy products are the principal exports.


title: Economy of France

text: Exports from the United States face stiff competition from domestic production, other EU member states, and third-world countries in France. US agricultural exports to France, totaling some $600 million annually, consist primarily of soybeans and soybean products, feeds and fodders, seafood, and consumer products, especially snack foods and nuts. French exports to the United States are much more high-value products such as its cheese, processed products and its wine.


title: Economy of France

text: The French agricultural sector receives almost €11 billion in EU subsidies. France's competitive advantage is mostly linked to the high quality and global renown of its produce, such as cheese and wine.


title: Economy of France

text: France produced, in 2018, 39.5 million tons of sugar beet (2nd largest producer in the world, just behind Russia), which serves to produce sugar and ethanol; 35.8 million tons of wheat (5th largest producer in the world); 12.6 million tons of maize (11th largest producer in the world); 11.2 million tons of barley (2nd largest producer in the world, only behind Russia); 7.8 million tons of potato (8th largest producer in the world); 6.2 million tons of grape (5th largest producer in the world); 4.9 million tons of rapeseed (4th largest producer in the world, behind Canada, China and India); 2.2 million tons of sugarcane; 1.7 million tons of apple (9th largest producer in the world); 1.3 million tons of triticale (4th largest producer in the world, only behind Poland, Germany and Belarus); 1.2 million tons of sunflower seed (9th largest producer in the world); 712 thousand tons of tomatoes; 660 thousand tons of linen; 615 thousand tons of dry pea; 535 thousand tons of carrot; 427 thousand tons of oats; 400 thousand tons of soy; in addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products.


title: Economy of France

text: France is the world's most popular tourist destination with more than 83.7 million foreign tourists in 2014, ahead of Spain (58.5 million in 2006) and the United States (51.1 million in 2006). This figure excludes people staying less than 24 hours in France, such as northern Europeans crossing France on their way to Spain or Italy during the summer.


title: Economy of France

text: France is home to cities of much cultural interest (Paris being the foremost), beaches and seaside resorts, ski resorts, and rural regions that many enjoy for their beauty and tranquillity. France also attracts many religious pilgrims to Lourdes, a town in the Hautes-Pyrénées département, which hosts several million visitors a year.


title: Economy of France

text: According to figures from 2003, some popular tourist sites include (in visitors per year): Eiffel Tower (6.2 million), Louvre Museum (5.7 million), Palace of Versailles (2.8 million), Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (2.6 million), Musée d'Orsay (2.1 million), Arc de Triomphe (1.2 million), Centre Pompidou (1.2 million), Mont-Saint-Michel (1 million), Château de Chambord (711,000), Sainte-Chapelle (683,000), Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg (549,000), Puy de Dôme (500,000), Musée Picasso (441,000), Carcassonne (362,000). However, the most popular site in France is Disneyland Paris, with 9.7 million visitors in 2017


title: Economy of France

text: French government is French arms industry's main customer, mainly buying warships, guns, nuclear weapons and equipment


title: Economy of France

text: French manufacturers export great quantities of weaponry to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Greece, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Singapore and many others.


title: Economy of France

text: It was reported that in 2015, French arms sales internationally amounted to 17.4 billion U.S. dollars, more than double the figure of 2014. Vice News explained that "While the United Kingdom has lapsed somewhat in this regard, France has maintained a high-level of production of military equipment for land, air, and sea defense – an expensive approach that relies on the export of arms and technology."


title: Economy of France

text: According to 2017 data compiled by Deloitte, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (LVMH), a French brand, is the largest luxury company in the world by sales, selling more than twice the amount of its nearest competitor. Moreover, France also possesses 3 of the top 10 luxury goods companies by sales (LVMH, Kering SA, L'Oréal), more than any other country in the world.


title: Economy of France

text: Paris is considered one of the world's foremost fashion capitals, or even "the world's fashion capital".


title: Economy of France

text: The French tradition for haute couture has been estimated to start as early as the era of Louis XIV, the Sun King.


title: Economy of France

text: Education in France is organized in a highly centralized manner, with many subdivisions. It is divided into the three stages of primary education ("enseignement primaire"), secondary education ("enseignement secondaire"), and higher education ("enseignement supérieur"). In French higher education, the following degrees are recognized by the Bologna Process (EU recognition): "Licence" and "Licence Professionnelle" (bachelor's degrees), and the comparably named "Master" and "Doctorat" degrees.


title: Economy of France

text: The Programme for International Student Assessment coordinated by the OECD currently ranks the overall knowledge and skills of French 15-year-olds as 26th in the world in reading literacy, mathematics, and science, below the OECD average of 493. France's performance in mathematics and science at the middle school level was ranked 23 in the 1995 Trends in International Math and Science Study.


title: Economy of France

text: Pupils can take apprenticeships to enter the labour market with the Baccalauréat Technologique. It allows pupils pursue short and technical studies (laboratory, design and applied arts, hotel and restaurant, management etc.).


title: Economy of France

text: Higher education in France was reshaped by the student revolts of May 1968. During the 1960s, French public universities responded to a massive explosion in the number of students (280,000 in 1962–63 to 500,000 in 1967–68) by stuffing approximately one-third of their students into hastily developed campus annexes (roughly equivalent to American satellite campuses) which lacked decent amenities, resident professors, academic traditions, or the dignity of university status. This is why the French higher education economy performs poorly compared with other high-performing countries such as England or Australia. France also hosts various catholic universities recognized by the state, the largest one being Lille Catholic University, as well branch colleges of foreign universities. They include Baruch College, the University of London Institute in Paris, Parsons Paris School of Art and Design and the American University of Paris. Eighteen million pupils and students are in the education system, over 2.4 million of whom are in higher education.


title: Economy of France

text: Transportation in France relies on one of the densest networks in the world with 146 km of road and 6.2 km of rail lines per 100 km. It is built as a web with Paris at its center. The highly subsidised rail transport network makes up a relatively small portion of travel, most of which is done by car. However the high-speed TGV trains make up a large proportion of long-distance travel, partially because intercity buses were prevented from operating until 2015.


title: Economy of France

text: With 3,220 kilometers of high-speed train lines, France boast the 2nd most expansive network in the world, only after China.


title: Economy of France

text: Charles de Gaulle Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world by passenger traffic. Charles de Gaulle airport is third globally in the number of destinations served, and first in the number of countries served with non-stop flights.


title: Economy of France

text: France also boasts a number of seaports and harbours, including Bayonne, Bordeaux, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Brest, Calais, Cherbourg-Octeville, Dunkerque, Fos-sur-Mer, La Pallice, Le Havre, Lorient, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, Paris, Port-la-Nouvelle, Port-Vendres, Roscoff, Rouen, Saint-Nazaire, Saint-Malo, Sète, Strasbourg and Toulon. There are approximately 470 airports in France and by a 2005 estimate, there are three heliports. 288 of the airports have paved runways, with the remaining 199 being unpaved. The national carrier of France is Air France, a full service global airline which flies to 20 domestic destinations and 150 international destinations in 83 countries (including Overseas France) across all 6 major continents.


title: Economy of France

text: According to a study conducted by Ernst & Young, France was in 2020 the largest Foreign Direct Investment recipient in Europe, ahead of the UK and Germany.


title: Economy of France

text: EY attributed this as a "direct result of President Macron’s reforms of labor laws and corporate taxation, which were well received by domestic and international investors alike."


title: Economy of France

text: According to a 2011 report by the American Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), France's GDP per capita at purchasing power parity is similar to that of the UK, with just over US$35,000 per head. To explain why French per capita GDP is lower than that of the United States, the economist Paul Krugman stated that "French workers are roughly as productive as US workers", but that the French have a "lower workforce participation rate" and "when they work, they work fewer hours". According to Krugman, the difference is due to the French making "different choices about retirement and leisure".


title: Economy of France

text: France has long suffered a relatively high unemployment rate, even during the years when its macroeconomic performances compared favorably with other advanced economies.


title: Economy of France

text: French employment rates for the working age population is one of the lowest of the OECD countries: in 2020, only 64.4% of the French working age population were in employment, compared to 77% in Japan, 76.1% in Germany, 75.4% in the UK, but the French employment rate was higher than that of the US, which stood at 62.5%. This gap is due to the low employment rate for 15–24 years old: 38% in 2012, compared to 47% in the OECD.


title: Economy of France

text: Since his election in 2017, Emmanuel Macron has introduced several labour market reforms which proved successful in decreasing the unemployment rate before the global COVID-19 recession struck. In late 2019, the French unemployment rate, though still high compared to other developed economies, was the lowest in a decade.


title: Economy of France

text: During the 2000s and 2010s, classical liberal and Keynesian economists sought out different solutions to the unemployment issue in France. Keynesian economists's theories led to the introduction of the 35-hour workweek law in 1999. Between 2004 and 2008, the government attempted to combat unemployment with supply-side reforms, but was met with fierce resistance; the "contrat nouvelle embauche" and the "contrat première embauche" (which allowed more flexible contracts) were of particular concern, and both were eventually repealed. The Sarkozy government used the "revenu de solidarité active" (in-work benefits) to redress the "negative effect" of the "revenu minimum d'insertion" (unemployment benefits which do not depend on previous contributions, unlike normal unemployment benefits in France) on the incentive to accept even jobs which are insufficient to earn a living. Neoliberal economists attribute the low employment rate, particularly evident among young people, to high minimum wages that would prevent low productivity workers from easily entering the labour market.


title: Economy of France

text: A December 2012 "New York Times" article reported on a "floating generation" in France that formed part of the 14 million unemployed young Europeans documented by the Eurofound research agency. This "floating generation" was attributed to a dysfunctional system: "an elitist educational tradition that does not integrate graduates into the work force, a rigid labour market that is hard to enter for newcomers, and a tax system that makes it expensive for companies to hire full-time employees and both difficult and expensive to lay them off". In July 2013, the unemployment rate for France was 11%.


title: Economy of France

text: In early April 2014, employers' federations and unions negotiated an agreement with technology and consultancy employers, as employees had been experiencing an extension of their work time through smartphone communication outside of official working hours. Under a new, legally binding labour agreement, around 250,000 employees will avoid handling work-related matters during their leisure time and their employers will, in turn, refrain from engaging with staff during this time.


title: Economy of France

text: Every day, about 80,000 French citizens are commuting to work in neighbouring Luxembourg, making it the biggest cross-border workforce group in the whole of the European Union. They are attracted by much higher wages for the different job groups than in their own country and the lack of skilled labour in the booming Luxembourgish economy.


title: Economy of France

text: In 2018, France was the 5th largest trading nation in the world, as well as the second-largest trading nation in Europe (after Germany). Its foreign trade balance for goods had been in surplus from 1992 until 2001, reaching $25.4 billion (25.4 G$) in 1998; however, the French balance of trade was hit by the economic downturn, and went into the red in 2000, reaching a US$15bn deficit in 2003. Total trade for 1998 amounted to $730 billion, or 50% of GDP—imports plus exports of goods and services. Trade with European Union countries accounts for 60% of French trade.


title: Economy of France

text: In 1998, US–France trade stood at about $47 billion – goods only. According to French trade data, US exports accounted for 8.7% – about $25 billion – of France's total imports. US industrial chemicals, aircraft and engines, electronic components, telecommunications, computer software, computers and peripherals, analytical and scientific instrumentation, medical instruments and supplies, broadcasting equipment, and programming and franchising are particularly attractive to French importers.


title: Economy of France

text: The principal French exports to the US are aircraft and engines, beverages, electrical equipment, chemicals, cosmetics, luxury products and perfume. France is the ninth-largest trading partner of the US.


title: Economy of France

text: The economic disparity between French regions is not as high as that in other European countries such as the UK, Italy or Germany, and higher than in countries like Sweden or Denmark, or even Spain. However, Europe's wealthiest and second largest regional economy, Ile-de-France (the region surrounding Paris), has long profited from the capital city's economic hegemony.


title: Economy of France

text: The most important "régions" are Île-de-France (world's 4th and Europe 1st wealthiest and largest regional economy), Rhône-Alpes (Europe's 5th largest regional economy thanks to its services, high-technologies, chemical industries, wines, tourism), Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (services, industry, tourism and wines), Nord-Pas-de-Calais (European transport hub, services, industries) and Pays de la Loire (green technologies, tourism). Regions like Alsace, which has a rich past in industry (machine tool) and currently stands as a high income service-specialized region, are very wealthy without ranking very high in absolute terms.


title: Economy of France

text: The rural areas are mainly in Auvergne, Limousin, and Centre-Val de Loire, and wine production accounts for a significant proportion of the economy in Aquitaine (Bordeaux (or claret)), Burgundy, and champagne produced in Champagne-Ardennes.


title: Economy of France

text: According to the 2008 statistics of the INSEE, the Yvelines is the highest income department of the country with an average income of €4,750 per month. Hauts-de-Seine comes second, Essonne third, Paris fourth, Seine-et Marne fifth. Île-de-France is the wealthiest region in the country with an average income of €4,228 per month (and is also the wealthiest region in Europe) compared to €3,081 at the national level. Alsace comes second, Rhône-Alpes third, Picardy fourth, and Upper Normandy fifth.


title: Economy of France

text: The poorest parts of France are the French overseas departments, French Guiana being the poorest department with an average household income of €1,826. In Metropolitan France it is Creuse in the Limousin region which comes bottom of the list with an average household income of €1,849 per month.


title: Economy of France

text: In the Paris metropolitan area, significant differences exist between the higher standard of living of "Paris Ouest" and lower standard of living in areas in the northern "banlieues" of Paris such as Seine-Saint-Denis.


title: Economy of France

text: For cities of over 50,000 inhabitants, Neuilly-sur-Seine, a western suburb of Paris, is the wealthiest city in France with an average household income of €5,939, and 35% earning more than €8,000 per month.


title: Economy of France

text: But within Paris, four "arrondissements" surpass wealthy Neuilly-sur-Seine in household income: the 6th, the 7th, the 8th and the 16th; the 8th "arrondissement" being the wealthiest district in France (the other three following it closely as 2nd, 3rd and 4th wealthiest ones).


title: Economy of France

text: OECD data from 2021 estimate that 8.4% of the French population lived in poverty, compared with 18% in the United States, 11.6% in Canada, 12.4% in the United Kingdom, and 9.8% in Germany.


title: Economy of France

text: In comparison with the average French workers, foreign workers tended to be employed in the hardest and lowest-paid jobs. They also live in poor conditions. A 1972 study found that foreign workers earned 17% less than their French counterparts, although this national average concealed the extent of inequality. Foreign workers were more likely to be men in their prime working years in the industrial areas, which generally had higher rates of pay than elsewhere.


title: Economy of France

text: France has the third-highest number of millionaires in Europe as of 2017. There were 1.617 million millionaire households (measured in terms of US dollars) living in France in 2017, behind the UK (2.225M) and Germany (1.637).


title: Economy of France

text: The wealthiest man in France is the LVMH CEO and owner Bernard Arnault, who according to Forbes briefly held the position of the richest man in the world at the end of May 2021.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: Five Points (or The Five Points) was a 19th-century neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The neighborhood, partly built on low lying land that had filled in the freshwater lake known as the Collect Pond, was generally defined as being bound by Centre Street to the west, the Bowery to the east, Canal Street to the north, and Park Row to the south. The Five Points gained international notoriety as a densely populated, disease-ridden, crime-infested slum that existed for over 70 years.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: Through the twentieth century, the former Five Points area was gradually redeveloped, with streets changed or closed. The area is now occupied by the Civic Center to the west and south, which includes major federal, state, and city facilities. To the east and north, the former Five Points neighborhood is now part of Manhattan's Chinatown.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: Two crossing streets and a third that ends at their intersection form five corners, or "points". About 1809, Anthony Street was extended east to the junction of Cross and Orange Streets. As a result the surrounding neighborhood came to be called Five Points. In 1854 the three streets were renamed Worth Street, Park Street, and Baxter Street. In 1868, Worth Street was again extended eastward, from the five-pointed intersection to Chatham Square, adding a sixth point. Since then, Baxter has been eliminated south of the intersection and Cross has been eliminated on both sides of it; thus, the junction of Baxter and Worth that remains today has only two corners.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: For the first two centuries of European settlement in Manhattan, the main source of drinking water for the growing city was Collect Pond, or Fresh Water Pond, which also supplied abundant fish.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: The pond occupied approximately and was as deep as . Fed by an underground spring, it was located in a valley, with Bayard's Mount (at , the tallest hill in lower Manhattan) to the northeast. A stream flowed north out of the pond and then west through a salt marsh (which, after being drained, became a meadow by the name of "Lispenard Meadows") to the Hudson River, while another stream issued from the southeastern part of the pond in an easterly direction to the East River. In the 18th century, the pond was used as a picnic area during summer and a skating rink during the winter.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: Beginning in the early 18th century, various commercial enterprises were built along the shores of the pond in order to use the water. These businesses included Coulthards Brewery, Nicholas Bayard's slaughterhouse on Mulberry Street (which was nicknamed "Slaughterhouse Street"), numerous tanneries on the southeastern shore, and the pottery works of German immigrants Johan Willem Crolius and Johan Remmey on Pot Bakers Hill on the south-southwestern shore. The contaminated wastewater of the businesses surrounding the pond flowed back into the pond, creating a severe pollution problem and environmental health hazard.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: Pierre Charles L'Enfant proposed cleaning the pond and making it a centerpiece of a recreational park, around which the residential areas of the city could grow. His proposal was rejected, and it was decided to fill in the pond. The landfill was completed in 1811, and middle class homes were soon built on the reclaimed land.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: The landfill was poorly engineered. The buried vegetation began to release methane gas (a byproduct of decomposition) and the area, in a natural depression, lacked adequate storm sewers. As a result, the ground gradually subsided. Houses shifted on their foundations, the unpaved streets were often buried in a foot of mud mixed with human and animal excrement, and mosquitoes bred in the stagnant pools created by the poor drainage.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: Most middle and upper class inhabitants fled the area, leaving the neighborhood open to poor immigrants who began arriving in the early 1820s. This influx reached a height in the 1840s, with large numbers of Irish Catholics fleeing the Great Famine.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: At the height of occupation of Five Points, only certain areas of London's East End vied with it in the western world for population density, disease, infant and child mortality, unemployment, prostitution, violent crime, and other classic ills of the urban destitute. It is sometimes considered the original American melting pot, at first consisting primarily of newly emancipated blacks (gradual emancipation led to the end of slavery in New York on July 4, 1827) and ethnic Irish, who had a small minority presence in the area since the 1600s. The local politics of "the Old Sixth ward" (The Points' primary municipal voting district), while not free of corruption, set important precedents for the election of Catholics to key political offices. Before that time, New York, and the United States at large, had been governed by the Anglo-Protestant founders. Although there were many tensions between the Africans and the Irish, their cohabitation in Five Points was the first large-scale instance of volitional racial integration in American history. Gradually, this African-American community moved to Manhattan's West Side and to undeveloped lands on the north end of the island in the famous Harlem by the early 20th century and across the Harlem River into the South Bronx, as the city developed northward.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: Five Points is alleged to have had the highest murder rate of any slum at that time in the world. According to an old New York urban legend, the Old Brewery, formerly Coulthard's Brewery from the 1790s, then an overcrowded tenement on Cross Street housing 1,000 poor, is said to have had a murder a night for 15 years, until its demolition in 1852.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: Italians first settled in the Five Points in the 1850s. The parish of the Church of the Transfiguration at 25 Mott Street was largely Italian by the 1880s. Mulberry Bend, named for the curve in Mulberry Street in the Chatham District, became the heart of Little Italy, which at its most populated was bordered on the south by Worth Street, on the east by the Bowery, and on the west by West Broadway.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: "Almack's" (also known as "Pete Williams's Place"), an African American-owned dance hall located at 67 Orange Street in Mulberry Bend (today Baxter Street), just south of its intersection with Bayard Street, was home to a fusion of Irish reels and jigs with the African shuffle. Though different ethnic groups interacted in other parts of the United States as well, creating new dance and music forms, in New York this music and dance had spontaneously resulted on the street from competition between African-American and Irish musicians and dancers. It spilled into Almack's, where it gave rise in the short term to tap dance (see Master Juba) and in the long term to a music hall genre that was a major precursor to jazz and rock and roll. This ground is now Columbus Park.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: Infectious diseases, such as cholera, tuberculosis, typhus, and malaria and yellow fever, had plagued New York City since the Dutch colonial era. The lack of scientific knowledge, sanitation systems, the numerous overcrowded dwellings, and absence of even rudimentary health care made impoverished areas such as Five Points ideal for the development and spread of these diseases. Several epidemics swept the City of New York in the 18th and 19th centuries, some of which originated in Five Points. Others were introduced by passengers disembarking from ships from overseas, including immigrants. In June 1832, an outbreak of cholera in Five Points spread rapidly throughout the crowded, unsanitary dwellings of the neighborhood before spreading to the rest of New York City. With no understanding of disease vectors or transmission, some observers believed that these epidemics were due to the immorality of residents of the slum:


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: Every day's experience gives us assurance of the safety of the temperate and prudent, who are in circumstances of comfort …. The disease is now, more than before rioting in the haunts of infamy and pollution. A prostitute at 62 Mott Street, who was decking herself before the glass at 1 o'clock yesterday, was carried away in a hearse at half past three o'clock. The broken down constitutions of these miserable creatures, perish almost instantly on the attack …. But the business part of our population, in general, appear to be in perfect health and security.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: The Anti-abolitionist riots of 1834, also known as the Farren Riots, occurred in New York City over a series of four nights, beginning July 7, 1834. Their deeper origins lay in the combination of nativism and abolitionism among Protestants, who had controlled the city since the American Revolution, and the fear and resentment of blacks among the growing numbers of Irish immigrants, who competed with them for jobs and housing.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: In 1827, Great Britain repealed legislation controlling and restricting emigration from Ireland, and 20,000 Irish emigrated. By 1835, more than 30,000 Irish had arrived in New York annually. Among the casualties of the riots was St. Philip's Episcopal Church, the first black Episcopal church in the city, then located at 122 Centre Street. It was sacked and looted by the mostly ethnic Irish mob.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: The Dead Rabbits Riot began when one faction destroyed the headquarters of the Bowery Boys at 26 Bowery, on July 4, 1857. The Bowery Boys retaliated, which led to a large-scale riot which waged back and forth on Bayard Street, between Bowery and Mulberry Street. Rioting resumed on July 5. The Bowery Boys and the Dead Rabbits fought again in front of 40 and 42 Bowery Street (original buildings still extant in May 2017), erecting barricades in the street. On July 6 the Bowery Boys fought the Kerryonians (Irishmen from County Kerry) at Anthony and Centre Street. Historian Tyler Anbinder says the "dead rabbits" name "so captured the imagination of New Yorkers that the press continued to use it despite the abundant evidence that no such club or gang existed". Anbinder notes that, "for more than a decade, 'Dead Rabbit' became the standard phrase by which city residents described any scandalously riotous individual or group."


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: As residents took advantage of the disorganized state of the city's police force, brought about by the conflict between the Municipal and Metropolitan police, gangsters and other criminals from all parts of the city began to engage in widespread looting and the destruction of property. The "Daily National Intelligencer" of July 8, 1857, estimated that between 800 and 1,000 gang members took part in the riots, along with several hundred others who used the disturbance to loot the Bowery area. It was the largest disturbance since the Astor Place Riot in 1849. Order was restored by the New York State Militia (under Major-General Charles W. Sandford), supported by detachments of city police. Eight people were reported killed, and more than 100 people received serious injuries.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: Various efforts by different charitable organizations and individuals, most of them Christian-themed, attempted to ameliorate the suffering of the poor in Five Points. Padre Felix Varela, a Cuban-born priest, established a Roman Catholic parish at the former Episcopalian Christ Church on Ann Street in 1827, to minister to the poor Irish Catholics. In 1836, Father Varela's parish was divided into two parishes, with one on James Street dedicated to St. James, and second one housed in a former Presbyterian church on Chambers Street, which was renamed the Church of the Transfiguration (Roman Catholic). In 1853, the parish relocated to the corner of Mott and Cross streets, when they purchased the building of the Zion Protestant Episcopal Church (c.1801) from its congregation, which moved uptown.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: The first call for clearing the slums of Five Points through wholesale demolition came in 1829 from merchants who maintained businesses in close proximity to the neighborhood. Slum clearance efforts (promoted in particular by Jacob Riis, author of "How the Other Half Lives", published 1890), succeeded in razing part of Mulberry Bend off Mulberry Street, one of the worst sections of the Five Points neighborhood. It was redeveloped as a park designed by noted landscape architect Calvert Vaux and named Mulberry Bend Park at its opening in 1897; it is now known as Columbus Park.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: A major effort was made to clear the Old Brewery on Cross Street, described as "a vast dark cave, a black hole into which every urban nightmare and unspeakable fear could be projected." The Old Brewery had formerly been Coulthard's Brewery, which was located on the outskirts of the town less than thirty years earlier in the 1790s. Later enveloped by the growing city, it was located on Cross Street just south of the Five Points intersection. The brewery became known as the "Old Brewery" after being converted to a tenement / boarding house in 1837. Its lower, high-ceilinged floor and the above two floors were converted into four floors of rundown apartments. The rent was cheap and attracted many low-income tenants, many of them immigrants. The only census record taken in 1850 reported 221 people living in 35 apartments, averaging 6.3 persons per apartment. Accounts conflict as to the total number of people living in the Brewery flats, but all agreed that it was filled to overcapacity.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: The poverty seen throughout the Five Points was also displayed at the Old Brewery, and the women of the Home Mission took action. This Methodist charity group was determined to clean up Five Points. The "Christian Advocate", also called "The Christian Advocate and Journal", a weekly New Your newspaper published by the Methodist Episcopal Church, reported on the ongoing project in October 1853:


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: In a meeting held in Metropolitan Hall, in December 1851, such convincing proof was given of the public interest in this project, that the resolution was passed by the Executive Committee to purchase the Old Brewery. Other appeals were made to the public, and nobly met. That celebrated haunt was purchased, in a few months utterly demolished, and already a noble missionary building occupies its site.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: The New Mission House replaced the Old Brewery, under the direction of the Five Points Mission. It provided housing, clothes, food, and education as part of the charitable endeavor. The new building had 58 rooms available for living space, twenty-three more than the Old Brewery.


title: Five Points, Manhattan

text: The area formerly occupied by Five Points was gradually redeveloped through the twentieth century. In the west and south, it is occupied by major federal, state, and city administration buildings and courthouses known collectively as Civic Center, Manhattan. In addition Columbus Park, Collect Pond Park, Foley Square, and various facilities of the New York City Department of Correction are clustered around lower Centre Street. The corrections facilities are the most direct link to the neighborhood's past: the infamous The Tombs jail/prison, in which many criminals from Five Points were incarcerated and quite a few executed, stood near the site of the current "City Prison Manhattan" at 125 White Street. The northeastern and eastern portion of Five Points is now within the sprawling Chinatown. Many tenement buildings dating from the late 19th century still line the streets in this area.


title: Collective Soul

text: Collective Soul is an American rock band originally from Stockbridge, Georgia. Now based in Atlanta, the group consists of lead vocalist Ed Roland, rhythm guitarist Dean Roland, bassist Will Turpin, drummer Johnny Rabb, and lead guitarist Jesse Triplett. Formed in 1992, the original lineup consisted of the Roland brothers, Turpin, guitarist Ross Childress, and drummer Shane Evans. Collective Soul released their "Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid" album on the independent label Rising Storm Records in 1993. The band went from obscurity to popularity that year after the album's lead single "Shine" received regional radio play. The album was then re-released in 1994 by the major label Atlantic Records; thus, "Shine" became a national hit as it peaked at No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock and No. 4 on the Mainstream Top 40 charts.


title: Collective Soul

text: Collective Soul released a self-titled album in March 1995. Considered by Ed Roland to be the band's true debut album, "Collective Soul" spent 76 weeks on the "Billboard" 200 charts and went triple-platinum, becoming the band's highest-selling album. The singles "December", "The World I Know", and "Where the River Flows" each reached No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock charts. About two years later, Collective Soul released "Disciplined Breakdown". Although not as successful in sales as their previous two albums, "Disciplined Breakdown" contained two No. 1 Mainstream Rock chart hits with "Precious Declaration" and "Listen". The band released a fourth studio album, "Dosage", in 1999. The album's first single, "Heavy", spent a then record-breaking 15 weeks on the top spot of the Mainstream Rock charts.


title: Collective Soul

text: The band released "Blender" in 2000, their fifth and final album with the original starting lineup, as lead guitarist Childress left the band in 2001. About two weeks after Childress' departure, Collective Soul released "Seven Year Itch", a compilation of their greatest hits between 1994 and 2001. Collective Soul established their own label, El Music Group, prior to releasing "Youth" in 2004. Original drummer Evans then departed from the band at the end of 2005. Collective Soul has since released five more albums: "Afterwords" (2007), a second self-titled album (2009), "See What You Started by Continuing" (2015), "Blood" (2019), and "Vibrating" (2022).


title: Collective Soul

text: Before forming Collective Soul, singer Ed Roland studied music composition and guitar at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Since the mid-1980s, Roland was involved in Atlanta's underground music scene making demos and performing. He also worked at Real 2 Reel Studios in Stockbridge, which was owned by Will Turpin's father, Bill Turpin. Roland's duties were producing, mixing, and engineering for local Atlanta artists.


title: Collective Soul

text: Roland recruited keyboard player and backing vocalist Christopher Dykes, drummer Tony Caporale, and bassist Skip Godwin to play live in clubs and showcase for A&R personnel from various record companies. At this time the group was simply known as "Ed-E". They played several local shows, played a part in a CBS "Movie of the Week", and were guests on the local Atlanta television program "Music Peachtree Style" (where local Atlanta-based artists were interviewed and profiled). That initial version of the "Ed-E" band dissolved in the mid-to-late 1980s due to incompatible musical tastes among other differences. Roland then formed the band "Marching Two-Step" which included vocalist Michele Rhea Caplinger, drummer Shane Evans, bassist Godwin (from Roland's previous band), and keyboardist Matt Serletic. Although the band didn't release any official material, they played in various clubs and also opened for The Psychedelic Furs at one point. They then disbanded after not finding success, and Roland subsequently released an independent solo album entitled "Ed-E Roland" in 1991. Overall, Roland's early attempts to be signed to a recording contract by a label faced rejections.


title: Collective Soul

text: Caplinger would become a music industry publicist and also worked with the major label Atlantic Records. She was later appointed executive director of the Atlanta Chapter of the Recording Academy in 2000. Serletic would go on to become a Grammy Award-winning producer for Matchbox Twenty, Blessid Union of Souls, Edwin McCain, and numerous other artists, and also landed executive positions with record companies. Roland continued to remain friends with both individuals, and even worked alongside them in the future.


title: Collective Soul

text: After the demise of Roland's previous music collaborations, he enlisted musicians to record an album in a basement. The group made for the demo took its name ("Collective Soul") from a phrase in "The Fountainhead", with Roland explaining that "we're not preaching Ayn Rand, objectivism, egoism, or anything...we just dug the name." Roland initially intended to sell the songs to a publishing company and had no immediate plans of forming a band out of it. The demo was then submitted to 88.5 WRAS. Amy Staehling, host of the "Georgia Music Show" at Georgia State University's 100,000 watt student radio station in Atlanta, added the song "Shine" to the local rotation. It was an instant listener favorite. The demo was also passed along to 101.1 WJRR in Orlando, Florida which began playing "Shine" too, soon to be its most requested song. Amidst the surprise popularity, Roland agreed to perform live shows. He enlisted his brother Dean Roland on rhythm guitar, Shane Evans (from Marching Two-Step) on drums, Will Turpin (long-time friend of Ed Roland) on bass, and Ross Childress on lead guitar, in what would be the first official lineup of Collective Soul. Atlantic Records took note of the popularity of "Shine" and subsequently signed them to a contract.


title: Collective Soul

text: Upon Collective Soul's signing, Atlantic wished to capitalize on the band's success and quickly re-released the 1993 demo "Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid" as their first studio album in 1994. Although reluctant to have the unpolished demo represent their new lineup, Collective Soul gained international recognition and double-platinum status with their debut, which peaked at No. 15 on the "Billboard" 200. "Shine" had topped the rock charts and also peaked at No. 11 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, while the second single "Breathe" peaked at No. 12 on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock chart. The band quickly began work on what they would consider their true debut record and were invited to perform at Woodstock 1994. They toured extensively across North America, and also served as an opener for Aerosmith in late 1994.


title: Collective Soul

text: The group's self-titled second album was issued the following year. It was certified RIAA triple platinum and logged a 76-week run on the "Billboard" 200. Notable singles from "Collective Soul" included Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock charts No. 1 hits "December", "Where the River Flows", and "The World I Know", along with the No. 2 hit "Gel" and the No. 8 hit "Smashing Young Man". During the album's release, the band was the opener for Van Halen for three months. Afterwards, they embarked on their own tour as headliners.


title: Collective Soul

text: Following a split with their manager, Collective Soul found their tour dates canceled and were called into the courtroom to face a legal battle that lasted into 1996, presumably with said ex-manager Bill Richardson. While the legal battles continued, the band went to a cabin, in the middle of of cow pasture in Stockbridge, and began recording. They recorded into a computer their impromptu efforts of songs Roland penned, and these became "Disciplined Breakdown". The legal case was eventually settled, and both parties were instructed not to discuss the outcome.


title: Collective Soul

text: "Disciplined Breakdown", released in 1997, did not sell as well as their previous records despite debuting higher on the charts. The album eventually achieved platinum certification, and produced two more No. 1 singles on the Mainstream Rock chart: "Precious Declaration" and "Listen", along with No. 11 hit "Blame". The album eventually peaked at No. 16 on the "Billboard" 200.


title: Collective Soul

text: Collective Soul took a break from touring and had only played a handful of dates throughout 1998. They had instead focused on recording. The band's fourth album was 1999's platinum certified "Dosage". The first single "Heavy" set a new high mark for 15 weeks at No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock chart. Singles such as "Run", "No More, No Less", and "Tremble for My Beloved" gained notable positions on the rock charts as well. The album was produced by Anthony J. Resta, known for his work with Duran Duran and others. The band also performed at the Woodstock 1999 festival.


title: Collective Soul

text: The group then released their fifth studio album, "Blender", in October 2000. It did not sell as well as previous albums, although the first single "Why, Pt. 2" reached No. 2 on the Mainstream Rock chart. They achieved additional hits with "Vent" and "Perfect Day", the latter being a duet between Roland and Elton John. The album became RIAA certified gold. The album was their second effort with Resta producing.


title: Collective Soul

text: In 2001, Collective Soul released their greatest hits compilation, "Seven Year Itch: Greatest Hits 1994–2001" (the title being stylized as "7even Year Itch"), which featured two new songs, the single "Next Homecoming" and "Energy". The record marked the end of the group's contract with Atlantic Records and the departure of lead guitarist Childress due to private personal differences. The band promoted their longtime guitar technician, Joel Kosche from Jovian Storm, to be the new lead guitarist.


title: Collective Soul

text: In 2004 Collective Soul created their independent label El Music Group, which allowed the band greater control over the production and distribution of their music. In November of that year, they released their sixth studio album, "Youth", which debuted at No. 66 on the "Billboard" 200. Due to personal issues, additional drum tracks on the album were by session musician Ryan Hoyle, who would play a more prominent place in the band increasingly. "Counting the Days" was the first and most successful single, as it peaked at No. 8 on the Mainstream Rock chart. The second single "Better Now" received significant airplay on the Adult Top 40 chart as it peaked at No. 9 and was used in commercials for the cereal Special K. The third single "How Do You Love" peaked at No. 16 on the Adult Top 40 chart. Overall, the resultant US and Canadian tours lasted over two years.


title: Collective Soul

text: In May 2005, they released an eight-song acoustic EP compilation titled "From the Ground Up", which had acoustic versions of past favorites, plus a new track "Youth". Collective Soul performed two shows with the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra on April 23 and 24, 2005. A DVD and double disc CD of the performances, entitled "" was released in February 2006. At the end of 2005, Evans was dismissed from the band due to extensive drug use. His place was filled by Hoyle, who was in the studio for the 2004 "Youth" album and had substituted on different occasions for Evans.


title: Collective Soul

text: Collective Soul's seventh studio album, "Afterwords", was released in August 2007. It was co-produced again by Resta who also contributed synthesizers, percussion, and lead guitar on the song "Bearing Witness". The band made a deal in the US with Target stores, making it the "exclusive physical retailer" of "Afterwords" for one year. The album was immediately available in digital form on iTunes. The record debuted at No. 25 on the Comprehensive Albums chart (as albums available only from a single retailer were ineligible for the "Billboard" 200 at the time). "Billboard" would later amend this rule due to similar successes of other artists via similar agreements.


title: Collective Soul

text: The Adult Top 40 pop-rock single "Hollywood" was released in May. It became the theme song for the hit T.V. show "American Idol". The band then made an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on August 31 to promote the album where they performed "Hollywood". They were also the musical guest on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson". The second single "All That I Know" was released in November and charted lower than the prior single. In 2008, drummer Hoyle had left the band and was replaced by Cheney Brannon.


title: Collective Soul

text: Collective Soul released their eighth studio album, another self-titled album, but designated on August 25, 2009 with Roadrunner Records, a subsidiary of their previous label Atlantic Records. The album debuted at No. 24 on the "Billboard" 200. The first single was "Staring Down" and the second single was "Welcome All Again". "Staring Down" charted at No. 18 on the Adult Top 40 chart. The third single, "You", also charted briefly on the Adult Top 40.


title: Collective Soul

text: Collective Soul were inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in September 2009. In their induction speech, Roland thanked a long list of former members and collaborators who had been involved over the past three decades, including Childress, Hoyle, and Brannon. He also invited Evans on the stage to celebrate with the band.


title: Collective Soul

text: Collective Soul returned to El Music Group in 2010, and in December that year, the band released a re-recorded version of "Tremble for My Beloved" (originally from "Dosage") as both a single and a video on iTunes. The video was also included on the DVD "Music Videos and Performances from The Twilight Saga Soundtracks, Vol. 1". In 2012, the band embarked on the Dosage Tour, with touring member Johnny Rabb replacing Brannon on drums.


title: Collective Soul

text: The band members were then involved with other projects. Kosche and Turpin began their own solo careers, releasing the albums "Fight Years" (2010) and "The Lighthouse" (2011) respectively. Dean Roland was a part of the rock band Magnets and Ghosts, alongside Ryan Potesta. The duo formed in 2010 and released their debut album "Mass" in November 2011. In 2011, Ed Roland began recording and touring with friends Christopher Alan Yates, Brian Biskey, Grant Reynolds, and Mike Rizzi. The group, Ed Roland and the Sweet Tea Project, released their debut album "Devils 'n Darlins" on September 3, 2013.


title: Collective Soul

text: The band kicked off their 2014 winter tour on January 15, 2014 at Belly Up in Aspen, Colorado, where lead guitarist Jesse Triplett made his live debut as a member of Collective Soul. Triplett replaced Kosche, who had been with the band since replacing original lead guitarist Childress in 2001. On February 6, Collective Soul publicly confirmed Kosche's departure from the band. On May 27, Kosche broke his silence regarding his departure from the band, saying it was not an amicable split and that it had nothing to do with him wanting to pursue a solo career or wanting to "move on in the world of music."


title: Collective Soul

text: The band's ninth studio album, "See What You Started by Continuing", was released on October 2, 2015 by Vanguard Records and peaked at No. 25 on the "Billboard" 200. The album's lead single, "This", made its premiere on July 15, 2015 at "USA Today". The band then made the single as a free download on their official website. The band's live album, "Collective Soul: Live", was released on December 8, 2017 by Suretone Records. The recordings were selected by the band as their best over the course of 160 shows they performed in two years.


title: Collective Soul

text: In 2018 the band joined 3 Doors Down to co-headline the Rock & Roll Express Tour, with support from Soul Asylum. In 2019 the band headlined the Now's the Time Tour to celebrate their 25th anniversary, with support from Gin Blossoms.


title: Collective Soul

text: The band's tenth studio album, "Blood", was released on June 21, 2019 and it peaked at No. 4 on the "Billboard" Top Independent Albums chart. "Blood" was originally meant to be a double album but the band's management had talked them out of releasing it as such. After a 14 year absence, the lead single "Right as Rain" marked the band's return to the Mainstream Rock chart, as it peaked at the No. 32 spot. In August 2020, the band released a Record Store Day exclusive vinyl called "Half & Half" featuring two cover songs ("Opera Star" and "One I Love") and two original songs ("Let Her Out" and "Back Again").


title: Collective Soul

text: In 2021 and 2022, Collective Soul released the singles "All Our Pieces" and "Cut the Cord", which were taken from the band's then-upcoming album. Both songs were accompanied by music videos and lyric videos. Collective Soul's eleventh studio album was then released on August 12, 2022, entitled "Vibrating". It peaked at No. 6 on the Top Independent Albums chart. Initially, songs on "Vibrating" were due to be released as part of the 2019 "Blood" album, but the band's management discouraged the double album concept.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) is the founding and sole ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea. Founded in 1949 from the merger of the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party of South Korea, the WPK is the oldest active party in Korea and also controls the Korean People's Army. It is the largest party represented in the Supreme People's Assembly and coexists with two other legal parties making up the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea. However, these minor parties are completely subservient to the WPK and must accept the WPK's "leading role" as a condition of their existence. The WPK is banned in South Korea under the National Security Act and is sanctioned by the United Nations, the European Union, Australia, and the United States.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Officially, the WPK is a communist party guided by Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism, a synthesis of the ideas of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. The party is committed to "Juche", an ideology attributed to Kim Il-sung which promotes national independence and development through the efforts of the popular masses. Although "Juche" was originally presented as the Korean interpretation of Marxism–Leninism, the party now presents it as a freestanding philosophy. The WPK recognizes the ruling Kim family as the ultimate source of its political thought. The fourth party conference, held in 2012, amended the party rules to state that Kimilsungism–Kimjongilism was "the only guiding idea of the party". Under Kim Jong-il, who governed as chairman of the National Defence Commission, communism was steadily removed from party and state documents in favor of "Songun", or military-first politics. The military, rather than the working class, was established as the base of political power. However, his successor Kim Jong-un reversed this position in 2021, replacing "Songun" with "people-first politics" as the party's political method and reasserting the party's commitment to communism.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: The WPK is organized according to the Monolithic Ideological System, conceived by Kim Yong-ju and Kim Jong-il. The highest body of the WPK is formally the party congress, but in practice, a congress rarely occurs. Between 1980 and 2016, there were no congresses held. Although the WPK is organizationally similar to other communist parties, in practice it is far less institutionalized and informal politics plays a larger role than usual. Institutions such as the Central Committee, the Secretariat, the Central Military Commission (CMC), the Politburo and the Politburo's Presidium have much less power than what is formally bestowed on them by the party rules, which is little more than a nominal document. Kim Jong-un is the current party leader, serving as General Secretary of the WPK and Chairman of the CMC.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: On 13 October 1945, the North Korean Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea (NKB–CPK) was established, with Kim Yong-bom as its first chairman. However, the NKB–CPK remained subordinate to the CPK Central Committee, which was headquartered in Seoul and headed by Pak Hon-yong. Two months later, at the 3rd Plenum of the NKB, Kim Yong-bom was replaced by Kim Il-sung, an event which was probably orchestrated by the Soviet Union. The North Korean Bureau became the Communist Party of North Korea in spring 1946, with Kim Il-sung being elected its chairman. On 22 July 1946, Soviet authorities in North Korea established the United Democratic National Front, a popular front led by the Communist Party of North Korea. The Communist Party of North Korea soon merged with the New People's Party of Korea, a party primarily composed of communists from China. A special commission of the two parties ratified the merger on 28 July 1946, and it became official the following day. One month later (28–30 August 1946), the party held its founding congress, establishing the Workers' Party of North Korea (WPNK). The congress elected the former leader of the New People's Party of Korea Kim Tu-bong as the first WPNK chairman, with Kim Il-sung its appointed deputy chairman. However, despite his formal downgrade in the party's hierarchy, Kim Il-sung remained its leader.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Party control increased throughout the country after the congress. From 27 to 30 March 1948, the WPNK convened its 2nd Congress. While Kim Tu-bong was still the party's formal head, Kim Il-sung presented the main report to the congress. In it he claimed that North Korea was "a base of democracy", in contrast to South Korea, which he believed to be dictatorial. On 28 April 1948 a special session of the Supreme People's Assembly approved the constitution proposed and written by WPNK cadres, which led to the official establishment of an independent North Korea. It did not call for the establishment of an independent North Korea, but for a unified Korea under a communist government; the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) would be Seoul, not Pyongyang. Kim Il-sung was the appointed head of government of the new state, with Kim Tu-bong heading the legislative branch. A year later on 24 June 1949, the Workers' Party of Korea was created with the merger of the WPNK and the Workers' Party of South Korea.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Kim Il-sung was not the most ardent supporter of a military reunification of Korea; that role was played by the South Korean communists, headed by Pak Hon-yong. After several meetings between Kim Il-sung and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, North Korea invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950, thus beginning the Korean War. With American intervention in the war the DPRK nearly collapsed, but it was saved by Chinese intervention in the conflict. The war had the effect of weakening Soviet influence over Kim Il-sung and the WPK. Around this time, the main fault lines in early WPK politics were created. Four factions formed: the domestic faction (WPK cadres who had remained in Korea during Japanese rule), the Soviet faction (Koreans from the Soviet Union), the Yan'an faction (Koreans from China) and the guerrilla faction (Kim Il-sung's personal faction). However, Kim Il-sung would be unable to further strengthen his position until the end of the war.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Relations worsened between the WPK and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) when Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, began pursuing a policy of de-Stalinization. During the Sino–Soviet conflict, an ideological conflict between the CPSU and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Kim Il-sung manoeuvred between the two socialist superpowers; by doing so, he weakened their influence on the WPK. By 1962 Kim Il-sung and the WPK favored the CCP over the CPSU in the ideological struggle, and "for a few years North Korea almost unconditionally supported the Chinese position on all important issues." The primary conflict between the WPK and the CPSU during this period was that Kim Il-sung did not support the denunciation of Stalinism, the creation of a collective leadership and the theory of peaceful coexistence between the capitalist and socialist worlds. Kim Il-sung believed peaceful coexistence synonymous with capitulation and knew that de-Stalinization in North Korea would effectively end his unlimited power over the WPK. The result of the souring of relations between the CPSU and the WPK was that the Soviet Union discontinued aid to North Korea. As a result, several industries were on the brink of disaster; China was unwilling to increase aid to North Korea. Mao Zedong began the Cultural Revolution shortly thereafter, an event criticized by the WPK as "left-wing opportunism" and a manifestation of the "Trotskyist theory of a permanent revolution." Relations between the CPSU and the CCP stabilized during the 1960s, with the WPK making it clear it would remain neutral in the Sino–Soviet conflict, thus resulting in the 1966 launch of the "Juche" program aimed at national self-determination at all levels. This, in turn, strengthened Kim Il-Sung's position in the WPK.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Beginning in the 1960s, Kim Il-sung's cult of personality reached new heights. It had been no greater than Stalin's or Mao's until 1972, when his birthday on 15 April became the country's main public holiday and statues of him began to be built nationwide. Kim became known as "Great Leader", the "Sun of the Nation", "The Iron All-Victorious General" and "Marshal of the All-Mighty Republic" in WPK and state publications; official propaganda stated that "burning loyalty to the leader" was one of the main characteristics of any Korean.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Kim Il-sung and his guerilla faction had purged the WPK of its opposing factions during the 1950s and the 1960s, to the dismay of both the CCP and the CPSU. The domestic faction was the first to go (in 1953–55), followed by the Yan'an faction in 1957–58 and the Soviet Koreans (along with anyone else deemed unfaithful to the WPK leadership) in the 1957–62 purge. According to historian Andrei Lankov, "Kim Il-sung had become not only supreme but also the omnipotent ruler of North Korea—no longer merely 'first amongst equals, as had been the case in the late 1940s". After purging his WPK opposition, Kim Il-sung consolidated his power base with nepotism and hereditary succession in the Kim family and the guerilla faction. Beginning in the late 1980s, "a high (and increasing) proportion of North Korean high officials have been sons of high officials." Since the 1960s, Kim Il-sung had appointed family members to positions of power. By the early 1990s, a number of leading national offices were held by people in his family: Kang Song-san (Premier of the Administrative Council and member of the WPK Secretariat), Pak Song-chol (Vice President), Hwang Jang-yop and Kim Chung-rin (members of the WPK Secretariat), Kim Yong-sun (Head of the WPK International Department and member of the WPK Secretariat), Kang Hui-won (Secretary of the WPK Pyongyang Municipal Committee and Deputy Premier of the Administrative Council), Kim Tal-hyon (Minister of Foreign Trade), Kim Chan-ju (Minister of Agriculture and Deputy Chairman of the Administrative Council) and Yang Hyong-sop (President of the Academy of Social Sciences and chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly). These individuals were appointed solely because of their ties to the Kim family, and presumably retain their positions as long as the Kim family controls the WPK and the country. The reason for Kim's support of nepotism (his own and that of the guerrilla faction) can be explained by the fact that he did not want the party bureaucracy to threaten his—and his son's—rule as it did in other socialist states.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: It was first generally believed by foreign observers that Kim Il-sung was planning for his brother, Kim Yong-ju, to succeed him. Kim Yong-ju's authority gradually increased, until he became co-chairman of the North-South Coordination Committee. From late 1972 to the 6th WPK Congress, Kim Yong-ju became an increasingly remote figure in the regime. At the 6th Congress, he lost his Politburo and Central Committee seats, and rumours that Kim Il-sung had begun grooming Kim Jong-il in 1966 were confirmed. From 1974 to the 6th Congress, Kim Jong-il (called the "Party centre" by North Korean media) was the second most powerful man in North Korea. His selection was criticized, with his father accused of creating a dynasty or turning North Korea into a feudal state.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: With Kim Jong-il's official appointment as heir apparent at the 6th Congress, power became more centralized in the Kim family. WPK officials began to speak openly about his succession, and beginning in 1981 he began to participate in (and lead) tours. In 1982, he was made a Hero of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and wrote "On the Juche Idea". While foreign observers believed that Kim Jong-il's appointment would increase participation by the younger generation, in "On the Juche Idea" he made it clear that his leadership would not mark the beginning of a new generation of leaders. The WPK could not address the crisis facing Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il's leadership at home and abroad, in part because of the gerontocracy at the highest level of the WPK and the state.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: With the death of O Jin-u on 25 February 1995, Kim Jong-il became the sole remaining living member of the Presidium (the highest body of the WPK when the Politburo and the Central Committee are not in session). While no member list of the WPK Central Military Commission (CMC, the highest party organ on military affairs) was published from 1993 to 2010, there were clear signs of movement in the military hierarchy during 1995. For the WPK's 50th anniversary, Kim Jong-il initiated a reshuffling of the CMC (and the military leadership in general) to appease the old guard and younger officials. He did not reshuffle the WPK Central Committee or the government, however, during the 1990s the changes to its membership were caused mostly by its members dying of natural causes.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Beginning in 1995, Kim Jong-il favoured the military over the WPK and the state. Problems began to mount as an economic crisis, coupled with a famine in which at least half a million people died, weakened his control of the country. Instead of recommending structural reforms, Kim began to criticize the WPK's lack of control over the economy, lambasting its local and provincial branches for their inability to implement central-level instructions. At a speech celebrating the 50th anniversary of Kim Il-sung University, he said: "The reason why people are loyal to the instructions of the Central Committee is not because of party organizations and workers, but because of my authority." Kim Jong-il said that his father had told him to avoid economics, claiming that it was better left to experts. After this speech, the WPK's responsibility to control the economy was given to the Administrative Council (the central government). By late 1996 Kim Jong-il concluded that neither the WPK nor the central government could run the country, and began shifting control to the military. A constitutional amendment in 1998 later redirected supreme state power in North Korea to the leadership of the military, rather than the WPK.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: On 8 July 1997, the three-year mourning period for Kim Il-sung ended. Later that year, on 8 October, Kim Jong-il was appointed to the newly established office of General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea. There was considerable discussion by foreign experts about why Kim Jong-il was appointed General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, instead of succeeding his father as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea. In a clear breach of the WPK rules, Kim Jong-il was appointed WPK General Secretary in a joint announcement by the 6th Central Committee and the CMC rather than elected by a plenum of the Central Committee. Although it was believed that Kim Jong-il would call a congress shortly after his appointment (to elect a new WPK leadership), he did not. The WPK would not be revitalized organizationally until the 3rd Conference in 2010. Until then, Kim Jong-il ruled as an autocrat; only in WPK institutions considered important were new members and leaders appointed to take the place of dying officials. The 10th Supreme People's Assembly convened on 5 September 1998, amended the North Korean constitution. The amended constitution made the National Defense Commission (NDC), previously responsible for supervising the military, the highest state organ. Although the new constitution gave the cabinet and the NDC more independence from WPK officials, it did not weaken the party. Kim Jong-il remained WPK General Secretary, controlling the Organization and Guidance Department (OGD) and other institutions. While the central WPK leadership composition was not renewed in a single stroke until 2010, the WPK retained its important role as a mass organization.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: On 26 June 2010, the Politburo announced that it was summoning delegates for the 3rd Conference, with its official explanation of the need to "reflect the demands of the revolutionary development of the Party, which is facing critical changes in bringing about the strong and prosperous state and Juche development." The conference met on 28 September, revising the party rules and electing (and dismissing) members of the Central Committee, the Secretariat, the Politburo, the Presidium and other bodies. The WPK removed a sentence from the preamble which expressed the party's commitment "to building a communist society", replacing it with a new adherence to "Songun", the "military-first" policies developed by Kim Jong-il. Kim Jong-un was confirmed as heir apparent; Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho and General Kim Kyong-hui (Kim Jong-il's sister) were appointed to leading positions in the Korean People's Army and the WPK to help him consolidate power. The following year, on 17 December 2011, Kim Jong-il died.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: After Kim Jong-il's death, the North Korean elite consolidated Kim Jong-un's position; he was declared in charge of the country when the official report of his father's death was published on 19 December. On 26 December 2011, the official newspaper "Rodong Sinmun" hailed him as supreme leader of the party and the state. On 30 December a meeting of the Politburo officially appointed him Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, after he was nominated for the position by Kim Jong-il in October 2011 (the anniversary of Kim Jong-il's becoming general secretary). Despite the fact that he was not a Politburo member, Kim Jong-un was named to the unofficial position of the supreme leader of the Workers' Party of Korea.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: After celebrations for Kim Jong-il's 70th birth anniversary, the Politburo announced on 18 February the 4th Party Conference (which was scheduled for mid-April 2012, near the 100th birth anniversary of Kim Il-sung) "to glorify the sacred revolutionary life and feats of Kim Jong-il for all ages and accomplish the "Juche" cause, the "Songun" revolutionary cause, rallied close around Kim Jong-un". Kim Jong-un was promoted to the rank of "Marshal of the Republic" in July 2012. At the 4th Party Conference on 11 April, Kim Jong-il was declared Eternal General Secretary and Kim Jong-un was elected to the newly created post of First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and the Presidium. The conference amended the party rules to say Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism "the only guiding idea of the party". In December 2013, the party experienced its first open inner struggle in decades with the purge of Jang Song-taek.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: The party has seen somewhat of a revival under Kim Jong-un, with more frequent meetings. There have been two conferences, after a gap of 44 years, and a congress between 2010 and 2016. After staging a huge military parade in celebration of the party's 70th anniversary on 10 October 2015, the Politburo announced that its 7th Congress will be held on 6 May 2016 after a 36-year hiatus. The congress announced the first Five-Year Plan since the 1980s and gave Kim Jong-un the new title of chairman, which replaced the previous office of First Secretary. In January 2021, Kim Jong-un was given the title of general secretary, replacing the title of chairman. It was reported in June 2021 that the party set up the post of 'First Secretary', with speculation that Jo Yong-won or Kim Tok-hun, the Premier of North Korea would fill the position. Starting from 2021, Kim Jong-un has started reviving communism and communist terminology within the WPK, with the ideology being again written to the party rules. He also increasingly replaced "Songun" with "people-first politics" in the party rules.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: The WPK maintains a leftist image, and normally sends a delegation to the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, where it has some support; its 2011 resolution, "Let us jointly commemorate the Birth Centenary of the Great Leader comrade President Kim Il Sung as a Grand Political Festival of the World's Humankind", was signed by 30 of the 79 attending parties. The WPK also sees itself as part of the worldwide leftist and socialist movements; during the Cold War, the WPK and North Korea had a policy of "exporting revolution", aiding leftist guerrillas worldwide. Additionally, its party rules say it upholds "the revolutionary principles of Marxism–Leninism". However, others argue the WPK ideology is xenophobic nationalist or far-right.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Although the term ""Juche"" was first used in Kim Il-sung's speech (given in 1955), "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing "Juche" in Ideological Work", "Juche" as a coherent ideology did not develop until the 1960s. Similar to Stalinism, it led to the development of an unofficial (later formalized) ideological system defending the central party leadership. Until about 1972, "Juche" was called a "creative application" of Marxism–Leninism and "the Marxism–Leninism of today", and Kim Il-sung was hailed as "the greatest Marxist–Leninist of our time". However, by 1976 "Juche" had become a separate ideology; Kim Jong-il called it "a unique ideology, the contents and structures which cannot simply be described as Marxist–Leninist."


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: At the 5th Congress, "Juche" was elevated to the same level as Marxism–Leninism. It gained in prominence during the 1970s, and at the 6th Congress in 1980 it was recognized as the WPK's only ideology. During the following decade, "Juche" transformed from practical to pure ideology. "On the Juche Idea", the primary text on "Juche", was published in Kim Jong-il's name in 1982. "Juche" is, according to this study, inexorably linked with Kim Il-sung and "represents the guiding idea of the Korean Revolution... we are confronted with the honourable task of modelling the whole society on the "Juche" idea". Kim Jong-il says in the work that "Juche" is not simply a creative application of Marxism–Leninism, but "a new era in the development of human history". The WPK's break with basic Marxist–Leninist premises is spelt out clearly in the article, "Let Us March Under the Banner of Marxism–Leninism and the "Juche" Idea".


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Despite "Juche" conception as a creative application of Marxism and Leninism, some scholars argue it has little direct connection to them. Policies may be explained without a Marxist or Leninist rationale, making the identification of specific influences from these ideologies difficult. Some analysts say it is easier to connect "Juche" with nationalism, but not a unique form of nationalism. Although the WPK claims to be socialist-patriotic, some analysts state its socialist patriotism would be more similar to bourgeois nationalism; the chief difference is that socialist patriotism is nationalism in a socialist state. "Juche" developed as a reaction to foreign occupation, involvement and influence (primarily by the Chinese and Soviets) in North Korean affairs, and may be described "as a normal and healthy reaction of the Korean people to the deprivation they suffered under foreign domination." However, there is nothing uniquely Marxist or Leninist in this reaction; the primary reason for its description as "communist" is that it occurred in a self-proclaimed socialist state. The WPK (and the North Korean leadership in general) have not explained in detail how their policies are Marxist, Leninist or communist; "Juche" is defined as "Korean", and the others as "foreign".


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: "Juche" primary objective for North Korea is political, economic and military independence. Kim Il-sung, in his "Let Us Defend the Revolutionary Spirit of Independence, Self-reliance, and Self-defense More Thoroughly in All Fields of State Activities" speech to the Supreme People's Assembly in 1967, summarized "Juche":


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: The principle of political independence known as "chaju" is one of "Juche" central tenets. "Juche" stresses equality and mutual respect among nations, asserting that every state has the right to self-determination. In practice, the beliefs in self-determination and equal sovereignty have turned North Korea into a perceived "hermit kingdom". As interpreted by the WPK, yielding to foreign pressure or intervention would violate "chaju" and threaten the country's ability to defend its sovereignty. This may explain why Kim Jong-il believed that the Korean revolution would fail if North Korea became dependent on a foreign entity. In relations with fellow socialist countries China and the Soviet Union Kim Il-sung urged cooperation, mutual support and dependence, acknowledging that it was important for North Korea to learn from other countries. Despite this, he abhorred the idea that North Korea could (or should) depend on the two nations and did not want to dogmatically follow their example. Kim Il-sung said that the WPK needed to "resolutely repudiate the tendency to swallow things of others undigested or imitate them mechanically", attributing the success of North Korea on the WPK's independence in implementing policies. To ensure North Korean independence, official pronouncements stressed the need for the people to unite under the WPK and the Great Leader.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Economic independence ("charip") is seen as the material basis of "chaju". One of Kim Il-sung's greatest fears involved North Korean dependence on foreign aid; he believed it would threaten the country's ability to develop socialism, which only a state with a strong, independent economy could do. "Charip" emphasizes an independent national economy based on heavy industry; this sector, in theory, would then drive the rest of the economy. Kim Jong-il said:


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Kim Il-sung considered military independence ("chawi") crucial. Acknowledging that North Korea might need military support in a war against imperialist enemies, he emphasized a domestic response and summed up the party's (and state's) attitude towards military confrontation: "We do not want war, nor are we afraid of it, nor do we beg peace from the imperialists."


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: According to "Juche", because of his consciousness man has ultimate control over himself and the ability to change the world. This differs from classical Marxism, which believes that humans depend on their relationship to the means of production more than on themselves. The "Juche" view of a revolution led by a Great Leader, rather than a group of knowledgeable revolutionaries, is a break from Lenin's concept of a vanguard party.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels did not clarify the difference between state and law, focusing on class divisions within nations. They argued that nation and law (as it existed then) would be overthrown and replaced by proletarian rule. This was the mainstream view of Soviet theoreticians during the 1920s; however, with Stalin at the helm in 1929, it was under attack. He criticized Nikolai Bukharin's position that the proletariat was hostile to the inclinations of the state, arguing that since the state (the Soviet Union) was in transition from capitalism to socialism the relationship between the state and the proletariat was harmonious. By 1936, Stalin argued that the state would still exist if the Soviet Union reached the communist mode of production if the socialist world was encircled by capitalist forces. Kim Il-sung took this position to its logical conclusion, arguing that the state would exist after North Korea reached the communist mode of production until a future world revolution. As long as capitalism survived, even if the socialist world predominated, North Korea could still be threatened by the restoration of capitalism.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: The revival of the term "state" in the Soviet Union under Stalin led to the revival of "nation" in North Korea under Kim Il-sung. Despite official assertions that the Soviet Union was based on "class" rather than "state", the latter was revived during the 1930s. In 1955 Kim Il-sung expressed a similar view in his speech, "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work":


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: From then on, he and the WPK stressed the roles of "revolutionary tradition" and Korea's cultural tradition in its revolution. At party meetings, members and cadres learned about North Korea's national prestige and its coming rejuvenation. Traditional customs were revived, to showcase Korean-ness. By 1965, Kim Il-sung stated that if communists continued opposing individuality and sovereignty, the movement would be threatened by dogmatism and revisionism. He criticized those communists who, he believed, subscribed to "national nihilism by praising all things foreign and vilifying all things national" and tried to impose foreign models on their own country. By the 1960s, "Juche" was a full-fledged ideology calling for a distinct path for North Korean socialist construction and non-interference in its affairs; however, a decade later it was defined as a system whose "fundamental principle was the realization of sovereignty".


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Although WPK theoreticians were initially hostile towards the terms "nation" and "nationalism" because of the influence of the Stalinist definition of "state", by the 1970s their definition was changed from "a stable, historically formed community of people based on common language, territory, economic life, and culture" to include "shared bloodline". During the 1980s a common economic life was removed from the definition, with shared bloodline receiving increased emphasis. With a democratic transition in South Korea and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the WPK revised the meaning of nationalism. Previously defined in Stalinist terms as a bourgeois weapon to exploit the workers, nationalism changed from a reactionary to a progressive idea. Kim Il-sung differentiated "nationalism" from what he called "genuine nationalism"; while genuine nationalism was a progressive idea, nationalism remained reactionary:


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: During the 1960s the WPK began forcing ethnic Koreans to divorce their European spouses (who were primarily from the Eastern Bloc), with a high-ranking WPK official calling the marriages "a crime against the Korean race" and Eastern Bloc embassies in the country beginning to accuse the regime of fascism. In May 1963, a Soviet diplomat described Kim Il-sung's political circle as a "political Gestapo". Similar remarks were made by other Eastern Bloc officials in North Korea, with the East German ambassador calling the policy "Goebbelsian" (a reference to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda). Although this was said during a nadir in relations between North Korea and the Eastern Bloc, it illustrated a perception of racism in Kim Il-sung's policies.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: In his book "The Cleanest Race" (2010), Brian Reynolds Myers dismisses the idea that "Juche" is North Korea's leading ideology. He views its public exaltation as designed to deceive foreigners; it exists to be praised rather than followed. Myers writes that "Juche" is a sham ideology, developed to extol Kim Il-sung as a political thinker comparable to Mao Zedong. According to Myers, North Korean military-first policy, racism and xenophobia (exemplified by race-based incidents such as the attempted lynching of black Cuban diplomats and forced abortions for North Korean women pregnant with ethnic Chinese children) indicate a base in far-right politics (inherited from Imperial Japan during its colonial occupation of Korea) rather than the far-left.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: North Korea considers humanity the driving force of history. "Popular masses are placed in the centre of everything, and the leader in the centre of the masses". Traditional Marxism considers class struggle the driving force of historical progress. However, Marxism also sees class struggle as eventually coming to an end, when class distinctions begin to disappear in a communist society. From this point on, humanity can begin to "more and more consciously, make his own history" as human society ceases to be driven by social forces such as class struggle, but instead becomes "the result of his own free actions."


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: "Juche" is an anthropocentric ideology in which "man is the master of everything and decides everything". Similar to Marxist–Leninist thought, "Juche" believes that history is law-governed but only man drives progress: "the popular masses are the drivers of history". From the perspective of "Juche", the struggle for humanity as a whole to make their own history is restrained by the ruling classes in class society. Additionally, only the working class can overcome these restraints and achieve a society where humanity can independently and creatively make their own history. "Juche" is in line with historical materialism, viewing mankind's ability to drive their own history as the culmination of a long-term historical process, whose foundations were laid by capitalism's ushering in of the working class, and thus "Juche" is unique to the socialist era. However, for the masses to succeed they need a Great Leader. Marxism–Leninism argues that the people will lead, on the basis of their relationship to production. In North Korea a singular Great Leader is considered essential, and this helped Kim Il-sung establish a one-person autocracy.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: This theory makes the Great Leader an absolute, supreme leader. The working class thinks not for itself, but through the Great Leader; he is the mastermind of the working class and its only legitimate representative. Class struggle can only be realized through the Great Leader; difficult tasks in general (and revolutionary changes in particular) can only be introduced through—and by—him. Thus, in historical development the Great Leader is the leading force of the working class; he is a flawless, incorruptible human being who never makes mistakes, is always benevolent and rules for the benefit of the masses (working class). For the Great Leader system to function, a unitary ideology must be in place; in North Korea, this is known as the Monolithic Ideological System.


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: The Kim dynasty began with Kim Il-sung, the first leader of the WPK and North Korea. The official ideology is that the North Korean system functions "well" because it was established by Kim Il-sung, whose successors follow his bloodline. Every child is educated in "the revolutionary history of the Great Leader" and "the revolutionary history of the Dear Leader" (Kim Jong-il). Kim Il-sung's first choice as successor was Kim Yong-ju, his brother, but he later decided to appoint his son Kim Jong-il instead; this decision was formalized at the 6th Congress. Kim Jong-il appointed his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, as his successor at the 3rd WPK Conference in 2010, and his son succeeded him in early 2011. Because of the familial succession and the appointment of family members to high office, the Kim family has been called a dynasty and a royal family. Suh Dae-sook, the author of "Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader", notes that "What he [Kim Il-sung] has built in the North, however, resembles more a political system to accommodate his personal rule than a communist or socialist state in Korea. It is not the political system he built that will survive him; it is his son [Kim Jong-il], whom he has designated heir, who will succeed his reign." The ruling Kim family has been described as the head of a "de facto" absolute monarchy or "hereditary dictatorship".


title: Workers' Party of Korea

text: Ten Principles for the Establishment of a Monolithic Ideological System are a set of ten principles and 65 clauses which establish standards for governance and guide the behaviours of the people of North Korea. The Ten Principles have come to supersede the national constitution or edicts by the Workers' Party, and in practice serve as the supreme law of the country.