Marxist economist retires, leaving a legacy and a gap

Kim Soo-haeng. By Kim Hyung-soo

In 1989, with the Korean struggle for democracy enjoying popular support, government authorities kept a vigilant eye out for popular movements it considered unpatriotic, such as endorsing communist ideas.
That year, Kim Soo-haeng, a young Marxist economist who had just landed a teaching job at the elite Seoul National University, finished translating the entire set of Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” into Korean, the first person in the country to translate the proscribed book for publication.
“I dared the police and the prosecutors to arrest me if they can,” said the professor, now 65. “I guess I set them off by being too bold then and they could not stop me.”
Last Thursday, Kim retired from Seoul National’s School of Economics. Since entering the university in 1961 as a student, he said his only interest had been to study capitalism, just as Marx did. Kim’s remaining silver years will not be much different from his past, he said. But these days his new concern is that with his departure, there is no Marxist economist left at Seoul National University.
“I hope that a young Marxist economist will replace me, but I am not sure if that will work out well,” he said. The university has yet to decide who will take Kim’s place. Kim was the only instructor to specialize in Marxism among 33 economics professors at Seoul National. The nine students he taught have yet to receive their doctorates in Marxist economics.
Last week, Kim and his students celebrated publication of his recent book by the Seoul National University Press, “The New Post-Capitalist Society.” The title suggests what his interests will be when he is out of academia.
North Korea and the Soviet Union do not represent the new post-capitalist society that he envisions in the book, contrary to some claims. Calling himself a devoted Marxist, Kim said there was a problem with adopting Marxist theory in Korea in the first place.
“Most Marxist theories were imported from outdated Soviet text books, when other countries had long ago realized that the theories were arbitrary and had many problems,” he said. “Soviet society was no different from a capitalist society. The communist party and factory bosses dominated the country. The ideas were far from liberating people. The North Korean model, which is about idolizing a certain person, has no relevance to the model of a new society, either.
“No one knows what the new society will look like,” he added. “But by solving problems by step by step, I am hoping our society will become a better welfare society.”
Shin Jeong-wan, co-author of “The New Post-Capitalist Society,” said Kim was a lucky man to have studied Marxism in a country that’s been divided by ideology. Kim was invited to join the faculty of the country’s premier university because of pressure from students who wanted to study under a Marxist economist. Seoul National hired him away from Hanshin University, where he taught after earning his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of London. Before Kim’s arrival, studeFollowing the Asian financial crisis, rising unemployment and the wide gap between haves and have-nots, Marx’s theory is again becoming popular. nts learned Marxist theory only as part of other classes taught by economics professors. When Kim’s class opened, more than 1,000 students came to his lecture.
“When the Soviets failed, people walked away from Marxism and thought capitalism was the only idea that can save them,” Kim said. “But following the Asian financial crisis, the rise of the unemployment rate and the wide gap between the haves and have-nots, Marx’s theory is again becoming popular.
“I believe more people will have an interest in this field because Marxist theory is actually about analyzing and finding out why we have such high unemployment, and how we can solve that.”

By Bae Young-dae JoongAng Ilbo [mina@joongang.co.kr]