Bulletins and News Discussion from April 1st to April 7th, 2024 - The Heydey of Juche - COTW: Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Bulletins and News Discussion from April 1st to April 7th, 2024 - The Heydey of Juche - COTW: Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Image is from this CNN article.
The DPRK's history has been a rollercoaster, with admirable highs and heartbreaking lows, most notably the Korean War and the fall of the USSR. Its steadfast commitment to Juche, a variant of Marxism-Leninism that focuses on self-sufficiency, has both made the DPRK a target for imperialist genocidal powers, and allowed them to survive these attacks.
Lately, we seem to be seeing a transition from surviving to thriving. China and the DPRK have always had a much more complicated history than Western education and media allows its population to know, with periods of quite strong disagreement - it's not the case that China is somehow the DPRK's master. Russia is the DPRK's other neighour that isn't US-occupied, and while they obviously differ substantially in ideology since the USSR fell, the tsunami of sanctions on Russia has changed things. The stick has been removed from the equation, with Russia facing no possible punishment from the West because they were unable to enact sanctions effectively and used all their ammunition in the first few barrages rather than turning the screws over time (I don't care if we're on the 14th sanctions package, it's all been meaningless for Russia since the end of 2022).
The carrot is also more visible, with an alliance making a lot of sense for both. Once again, Western education and media would have you believe a Parenti-esque reality in which Korea is a massive and unpredictable danger to the world, but is simultaneously so poor and destitute that their artillery pieces are made of wood and their missiles out of paper-mache. The truth is that Korea has innovated greatly in missile technology, with some of their weapons matching or even exceeding those of the Russians, hence the Russians' use of them in Ukraine. Russia also finds it advantageous to invest in Korea to strengthen the anti-hegemonic alliance's presence in the Pacific, countering the US-occupied lower half of the peninsula who has naturally sided with Ukraine. Additionally, Russia is investing deeply in the Arctic sea route. This will open up as climate change continues; is naturally quite defensible for Russia so long as Korea is there to provide further defense at its eastern edge; and is both a faster and safer route for Russia to access China - especially in a world where straits can be blockaded by even impoverished yet determined countries like Yemen. The situation in the Red Sea benefits Russia and China now, but in the coming years, the US may apply the same lesson for their own benefit elsewhere.
It is perhaps this new sense of self-confidence that has let Korea give up on reunification with its lower half via peaceful measures. A new Korean War would be devastating for both sides even if it remained non-nuclear, but with a rising DPRK and with the South falling yet further into hypercapitalist exploitation and misery, and a US that remains non-committal to its "allies" when times get difficult (as in Ukraine and Europe), a reality where Korea may finally hold the upper hand and have the ability to liberate its south may be approaching in the years and decades to come.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is *the DPRK! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
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Japanese fascists are mad about Oppenheimer (twitter link https://x.com/ajplus/status/1774869779641422289)
Obviously intentionally killing civilians is bad but it's pretty fucking rich for the Japanese to be mad about war crimes. Fascists seethe.
Who exactly is the fascist here? The tweet account? The historian? Seems like a pretty damn good content to me.
The historian seems pretty sus for waxing on about war crimes while the Japanese fascists did worse to Chinese, Korean, and other civilians. Japan was not the victim of WW2.
This is a straight up horrible take. Yes Japanese nationalists refuse to admit their WW2 crimes. So what?
Leftist position is not atrocity Olympics.
No there is nothing "sus" about a seemingly random Japanese civilian in the year 2024 pointing out the nuclear bombing was a war crime.
As far as I can tell the video is on point.
Would it have been more appropriate if the historian had a family member that died there? Maybe even more appropriate if she was a survivor herself? Do you need a radiation poisoning membership club in order to say nukes bad?
Whatever the the Japanese Nazis did 80 years ago will never change this fact, the nuclear bombing was a war crime, it was unnecessary, and the US should pay for it no matter what. and yes the Japanese should apologize for their WW2 crimes too. You can hold both positions.
Indiscriminately forgetting civilians is not fighting fascism unless you also believe killing any number of innocents is worthy it in order to kill the bad guys. Do you not realize this is exactly the fascist allied and later on US imperialist rhetoric? This is literaly the narrative about terrorism too. Its always "they're not victims so long as there are bad guys among them they all deserve it".
Anyway, if anything ignore everything I wrote and just watch really Shaun's video, one specific part is the strategic bombing narrative. You should understand how bombing civilians was seen at the time, it is a direct 100% counter to this narrative. That part is short.
The Japanese government is just a bunch of cowards anyway. That movie doesn't mean or say anything useful, nothing of value would be lost if they banned it.
Yes Japanese nationalists refuse to admit their WW2 crimes
That's the problem.
That is definitely not the problem with this video or with anyone ever pointing out US war crimes. Think carefully before dying on the same hill as all the blue checkmarks trying to get a cheap gotcha out of leftists there.
Nobody in that thread pointing out Japanese war crimes in WW2 give a single flying fuck about what the Japanese actualy did in China. Those replies are mostly all about putting the Japanese in their place, to revoke their honorary white status while going "fuck yeah go America" and "lol you lost WW2 stfu".
It's not dying on any hill to point out that Japanese fascists are malding over Oppenheimer. Who said I like the blue checkmarks? You're jumping to a lot of conclusions.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I mean Hexbear darling Shaun has a 2 hour video on why the bombings were bad. The us firebombing campaign killed more civilians and destroyed more homes than the two nukes did. None of this absolves Japan of their crimes, but the US absolutely weren’t the good guys as evidenced by the post war occupation where leftists were crushed by American interest and the Korean Peninsula was split leading to a US backed genocide of Korea along with the US reinstating Japanese rule.
The fact that it’s a rarity for it to even be discussed let some acknowledged that Japan were the bad guys by Japanese people overall reflects the conditions where no true punishment and learning occurred. The bombs did nothing but kill civilians to force an end of a war so the US could ramp up the next one.
Similarly the us hasn’t learned or been punished for it’s own war crimes so it should still be discussed.
The US saw the end of the war in Europe, saw the Soviets make quick work of Japan's occupation in Japan, and realized that getting bogged down in an island-hopping campaign for another few years would give the Soviets enough time to consolidate, rebuild, and challenge the US globally.
I have zero faith in the idea that the US nuked Japan to "save American lives." The entirety of WW2 can be summarized as "Western powers fear communism, fucked around and found out." That's the single prevailing theme throughout.
Why did the British and French not acknowledge the fascist threat? Because they were more afraid of the communists. Why did the US prop up Japan's war economy for years? Because they were more afraid of the communists.
I have zero faith in the idea that the US nuked Japan to "save American lives." The entirety of WW2 can be summarized as "Western powers fear communism, fucked around and found out." That's the single prevailing theme throughout.
The US could also "save American lives" by doing absolutely nothing and letting the Red Army march to Tokyo just like they did with Berlin. But that wouldn't be in the US's geopolitical interests.
Yep everything leading up to D-Day was just a race against time for the U.S. to land grab as much as possible to prevent communists from getting it. The war was over in both theaters already. Maybe one full year was actually a war against fascism. The lead up was entirely anti-communist as well.
Very much not true. The U.S under FDR supported the USSR as allies and desired very much to initiate a second European front as early as possible (I've read earliest being '42, but realistically they could sufficiently conduct operations in '43) but were forced to delay and even divert invasion resources to help the imperialist dog Churchill secure the empire's holdings in Africa.
Through out the war the greatest enemy in allied clothing was the British Empire. Not the United States, under FDR that is.
i go back and forth on my feelings about FDR sometimes. you are correct i'm sure
too much family history with him involving hero worship in that era (dont want to dox even though my familys involvement is totally scrubbed from most historical record except things we possess)
he definitely despised fascism to his core and thought socialism (not communism but some 'middle ground') was the future of humanity
just seems like deep state actors outside the New Dealers still allowed freedom under his regime may have seen this as merely a means to an end.
There’s not even much reason to think the A-bomb even played a particularly pivotal role in driving Japanese surrender, other than allowing the emperor to save some face.
They had seen cities wiped out before and they fairly accurately assessed the US couldn’t have many A-bombs so it didn’t really affect their calculus dramatically.
All the Japanese really wanted at this stage was to save the emperor and limit the degree to which the ruling elite would face war crimes tribunals. And the US cut them that check.
The trigger for the Japanese surrender was less the A-bombs and more the US signaling that the unconditional surrender they demanded in fact did contain some tacit concessions. Once that understanding was reached they surrendered and without it they wouldn’t have surrendered.
The bombs were motivated by a desire to give the world and particularly the USSR a reason to fear the USA, and heck they spent so much building the damn things they wanted to use them.
Imperial Japan's crimes were horrific but that doesn't mean Japanese people aren't allowed to be upset that crimes against them were horrific.
I think I agree if and only if they acknowledge their own country's crimes, too. What I don't tolerate is Japanese facists malding over Oppenheimer and simultaneously saying Japan did nothing wrong. Not saying every Japanese person does that, but there's a lot of denialism.
The government doesn't admit to what japan did in ww2. They don't teach it in schools. The people of Japan are lied to about it from birth so if they don't know or don't believe in Japanese war crimes there's a good reason. Its not the fault of individuals for being uniformed. It is a deliberate misinformation campaign and the people running it are also covering up that the A bombs were war crimes.
You cant throw the most hideous and ugly truth at people and expect them to eat it up like candy. First you need to alienate them from the supplier of the counter-narrative. This is a good step.