Surviving Capitalism (Not) : In defense of north Korea

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

In defense of north Korea

Click here to access article from Workers World.

Since the beginning of their revolution against Japanese colonialism, the Koreans have shown the greatest determination to follow their own path to development, not by following the dictates of a capitalist class dependent on foreign imperialism, as existed during the 35 years of Japanese colonial rule over Korea, but by applying socialist principles to the growth of the economy while guarding their sovereignty and independence.

It’s time for all who are sick and tired of predatory imperialism and capitalism to speak up in defense of the DPRK.

No nation has been so abused by the capitalist west than the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Because Korea's post-WWII history has been buried in the US by an avalanche of lies and distortions, the people of the US remain completely ignorant of the role that the directors of the nascent Empire pursued in the crushing of dissent of the Korean people who had fought for over 30 years against their Japanese colonial masters. US. Empire directors, true to their fascist nature, after WWII immediately allied themselves with the old Japanese colonialists and their Korean landlord collaborators to put down this rebellion. Then in 1950 came the Korean War in which most cities were bombed into obliteration by the US (many among the directorate wanted to use nuclear bombs). As Bruce Cumings describes the aftermath:

In 1953 the Korean peninsula was a smoldering ruin. From Pusan in the south to Sinuiju in the north, Koreans buried their dead, mourned their losses, and sought to draw together the shattered remains of their lives. In the capital at Seoul, hollow buildings stood like skeletons alongside streets pave with weird mixtures of concrete and shrapnel. At American military encampments on the outskirts of the capital, masses of beggars waited to pic through the garbage that foreign soldiers tossed out. In the north, modern edifices scarcely stood anymore; Pyongyang and other cities were heaps of bricks and ashes, factories stood empty, massive dams no longer held their water. People merged from a mole-like existence in caves and tunnels to find a nightmare in the bright of day.

To gain a much more accurate understanding of how this war developed and the early stage of the development of the US Empire, I strongly advise people to read at least volume 1 of The Origins of the Korean War by Bruce Cumings.