I believe Trotsky was a highly controversial figure, but killing him brutally was not an appropriate response. What do you think?

I hate seeing what left-wing Christianity has become...

It is bad enough that Christian socialists are hard to find (or rather, that religious socialists are already hard to find). And when you think you’ve found one, they belong to an ultra-liberal left and an anti-violence faction that doesn't criticize the system and hopes for impossible reforms.

In 1979, Brazilian factory workers staged one of the country's most significant labor strikes. The movement took place near São Paulo, where Lula led the metalworkers' union. These strikes became an important chapter in Brazil's return to democracy.

On 12 October 1960, Inejirō Asanuma, chairman of the Japan Socialist Party, was assassinated by 17-year-old ultranationalist Otoya Yamaguchi during a televised political debate in Tokyo.

Asanuma was a prominent figure in postwar Japanese socialism, advocating socialism, opposing the US military presence in Japan, and supporting closer relations with the People's Republic of China. In 1959, he visited China and delivered a speech criticizing American imperialism, which he described as the common enemy of the Japanese and Chinese peoples. Despite the growing hostility from right-wing groups following his visit, Asanuma refused offers of a bodyguard, saying, "I am a socialist. It is not necessary," and expressing confidence in the support of the masses.

The potato blight a disease which would make potatoes that contracted it inedible would quickly spread through Europe particularly effecting Irish which was under British occupation with the northern part still under occupation. The blight destroyed potato crops which was the main food source for many in Ireland especially those in rural communities however despite this British capitalism continued to exploit and export crops out of Ireland to Great Britain despite the fact that Ireland was straving. Even though the British government knew about the famine they did not take action seeing it as divine punishment or that the Irish lacked moral character and refused to give aid despite the fact that hundreds and thousands were dying. However the genocide did not only consist of genocide though starvation the British would also use policies such as outlawing the Irish language and cultural practices, forced evictions, and the use of plantations. The genocide would last 7 years leaving 1 million dead this would destroy the Irish population however despite this the British government and other capitalist governments are yet to recongize this as genocide not only this but the British still occupy 6 counties of Ireland. *Tiocfaidh ár lá\*

I am Mexican and it hurts to be a socialist and see people have no remembrance or care for the 6 to 12 (primarily 6) years Mexico was a socialist nation, it’s insane especially because Mexico did a lot to deter us imperialism and support socialism, even in the future supporting Fidel, but many forget, there was a time when Mexico was socialist

DPRK

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is grossly misrepresented in Western media. To understand anything about the DPRK today, you have to first understand its history.

Japanese Occupation

Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, and the Korean people experienced harsh colonial rule. During World War II, many Koreans were conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army and forced to work in labour camps. The peninsula was under Japanese control until the end of World War II in 1945.

After Japan’s defeat in 1945, the Korean Peninsula was divided by Western powers along the 38th parallel. With the support of the USSR, the North formed the Provisional People’s Committee for North Korea, which was headed by Kim Il-sung, a popular, Communist, guerrilla leader who had fought against the Japanese in occupied China during the war. This committee acted as an interim government and a few years later was proclaimed as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In the South, it was a different story: Seeing the popularity of Communism, the U.S. formed the U.S. Military Occupation and Establishment of the U.S. Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK). They installed Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese as officials and advisors. Syngman Rhee was later installed as a fascist dictator to lend the state an air of legitimacy as a sovereign state.

As attempts to reunify the country failed, largely due to U.S. refusal to risk the whole peninsula becoming Communist, the DPRK invaded the South to liberate their fellow countrymen from the US occupation and reunify their nation.

The Legacy of the Korean War

It’s hard to overstate the sheer destruction wrought upon the Korean peninsula by the U.S. Air Force (USAF). During the war, the US dropped more bombs on North Korea than it had dropped in the entire Pacific theater during World War II. This carpet bombing, which included 32,000 tons of napalm, often deliberately targeted civilian as well as military targets, devastating the country far beyond what was necessary to fight the war. Whole cities were destroyed, with many thousands of innocent civilians killed and many more left homeless and hungry.

USAF General Curtis LeMay in an 1988 interview with USAF Historians:

We went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway, some way or another, and some in South Korea, too…Over a period of three years or so we killed off, what, 20 percent of the population of Korea, as direct casualties of war or from starvation and exposure? Over a period of three years, this seemed to be acceptable to everybody, but to kill a few people at the start right away [with nukes], no, we can’t seem to stomach that.”

The USAF targeted dams and agricultural infrastructure. The destruction and ensuing floods threatened several million North Koreans with starvation; according to Historian Charles K. Armstrong, “only emergency assistance from China, the USSR, and other socialist countries prevented widespread famine.”

The number of Korean dead, injured or missing by war’s end approached three million, ten percent of the overall population. The majority of those killed were in the North, which had half of the population of the South; although the DPRK does not have official figures, possibly twelve to fifteen percent of the population was killed in the war, a figure close to or surpassing the proportion of Soviet citizens killed in World War II…

Russian accusations of indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets did not register with the Americans at all. But for the North Koreans, living in fear of B-29 attacks for nearly three years, including the possibility of atomic bombs, the American air war left a deep and lasting impression. The DPRK government never forgot the lesson of North Korea’s vulnerability to American air attack, and for half a century after the Armistice continued to strengthen anti-aircraft defenses, build underground installations, and eventually develop nuclear weapons to ensure that North Korea would not find itself in such a position again… The war against the United States, more than any other single factor, gave North Koreans a collective sense of anxiety and fear of outside threats that would continue long after the war’s end.

— Charles Armstrong. (2010). The Destruction and Reconstruction of North Korea, 1950-1960

In the eyes of North Koreans as well as some observers, the U.S.’ deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure which resulted in the destruction of cities and high civilian death count, was a war crime and historian Bruce Cumings has likened the American bombing to genocide.

Out of the competing barrages of propaganda that have shrouded the 1950-53 Korean War, we are finally getting conclusive admissions that some of the worst atrocities, blamed at the time on the enemy, were in fact committed by our side - and we knew it…

The massacres of civilians during the Korean War are the most shocking to read about. The commission is working through no less than 1200 cases, including about 215 incidents in which US and allied air forces strafed groups of refugees and other civilians. The victims total 100,000, which the commission says is a conservative estimate.

One of the worst incidents preceded the Korean War, in 1948, when the new Syngman Rhee government installed in Seoul by the United States ordered its army to suppress a leftist revolt on Cheju Island. About 30,000 local people were gunned down.

By early 1950 Rhee had about 30,000 alleged communists in his jails, and had about 300,000 suspected sympathisers enrolled in an official “re-education” movement known as the Bodo League. When Kim Il-sung’s communist army attacked from the North in June that year, retreating South Korean forces executed the prisoners, along with many Bodo League members…

The American commander-in-chief, Douglas MacArthur, got a report about the killings, but there is no evidence that he tried to halt them, or investigate, according to a search of US archives by an Associated Press team under the veteran correspondent Charles Hanley. The massacre was blamed on the communists.

— Hamish McDonald. (2008). South Korea owns up to brutal past

Defector Testimony

Defectors present biased or exaggerated testimonies to gain sympathy or support from foreign governments or organizations. The prospect of fame and fortune encourages some defectors to exaggerate their experiences or provide sensationalized accounts.

One of the most well-known defectors, [[r.TheDeprogram Yeonmi Park|Yeonmi Park]] regularly presents some of the most extreme and absurd testimonies; she has been able to build a cult following and a very lucrative career as the posterchild for anti-Communism.

The more bombastic the claims are, the better ammunition they are for Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) (e.g., Radio Free Asia) to use in their propaganda campaigns against Communism.

Of course, there are also defectors with less exciting claims, as well as those who even come to regret their decision to leave the DPRK, but Western media never amplifies their message to nearly the same degree.

• Why Do North Korean Defector Testimonies So Often Fall Apart? | Jiyoung Song (2015)

Additional Resources

Video Essays:

• Dispelling Myths about North Korea | Colorado NCTA (2016)
• We Went To North Korea To Get A Haircut | Boy Boy (2017)
• Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul | Liberation News (2018)
• Daily life in North Korea - “My Brothers and Sisters in the North” (Full awarded documentary) | wocomoHUMANITY (2020)
• KJ Noh debunks myths about north and south Korea | International Manifesto Group (2021)
• North Koreans: Are They Brainwashed - Or Are We? Featuring Prof. Felix Kim (DPRK Series Ep.1) | TheRevolutionReport (2021)
• North Korea: Why Is It A Nuclear Armed Fortress State? (DPRK Series Ep.2) | TheRevolutionReport (2021)
• The Truth About North Korea - A Peoples History of the DPRK | Fellow Traveler (2023)
• What’s the deal with defectors? | Hakim (reuploaded, 2023)
• Why is North Korea so “weird”? | Hakim (reuploaded, 2023)

Books, Articles, or Essays:

• Korea stands strong: Kim Jong-Il in context | FightBack! News (2011)
• Korea Resilient! Socialism in Democratic Korea | Return to the Source (2012)
• The Democratic Structure of the DPRK | Lalkar (2017)
• Socialism and Democracy in the DPRK | Write To Rebel (2017)
• Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom | Stephen Gowans (2018)
• Juche Idea Study Guide | Korean Friendship Association

Podcasts:

• Episode 40 - Oppa War Crimes Style - The Korean War (Ft. Blowback) | The Deprogram (2022)
• Season 3 - The Story of the Korean War | Blowback (2022)