North Korea* is in the news again today after the UN, an organized gang of global capitalists, passed the “toughest ever sanctions” against the nation for its continued development of nuclear weapons and testing. China also agreed to the deal.
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| Pyonyang almost entirely destroyed by US bombs. Might they still remember this? |
I would not deny that the N Korean regime is unstable, paranoid, and therefore dangerous much like the regime in Washington but much weaker which could lead it to react defensively that would worsen the situation. But it is not the problem here, US capitalism is; and more accurately, the crisis of capitalism globally. Another serious flaw in the situation is that the working class in the US has no voice and globally the working class does not speak with one voice.
Representatives of US capitalism and its mass media don’t
reveal the truth in labor disputes in our own country so they certainly don’t
tell us the truth about the historical forces that led to the US intervening in
the civil war on the Korean Peninsula and why the North Korean regime is what
it is.
Do we honestly believe this small impoverished nation is developing nuclear weapons in order to fire missiles at Chicago and LA and is actually telling the US about it beforehand, before they have even developed the capacity to do so?
The object of the sanctions is to “isolate North Korea” says the Wall Street Journal. No, the real object of the sanctions is to starve the people of North Korea to the point where they will rise up and overthrow the present regime. While the Chinese Stalinist bureaucracy is on board with this latest round, it is guaranteed they will not act in the same way as they have a completely different perspective on the situation as it is in their part of the world.
What do we do when we are faced with a cornered animal or an unstable person whose behavior might be unpredictable for whatever reason? We try to calm the situation, make the animal feel it has an escape route, make the potentially unpredictable person feel safe, don’t provoke them. When I walk my trails the sign tells me if I meet a mountain lion I should not run away, maybe walk backwards slowly and allow the animal to retreat. US capitalism’s foreign policy is just the opposite but they are overconfident and will make major mistakes like Iraq, but it is working people that suffer from them
The US knows that the Kim regime and further isolation will make things worse, will strengthen their resolve and increase their distrust of the outside world. The UN talks of the regime needing to join the “international community”. What international community is that? The one in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America where the US capitalism is trying to reassert its influence in Venezuela and the Brazilian regime is sending the military in to the slums?
Myself and others have written on this blog about the role of capitalist diplomacy and how it is the diplomacy of thieves. They are all liars, they cheat each other, they rob, steal, and their policies cause death and destruction throughout the world. They keep dancing until the music stops as one US bourgeois once said with regard to financial speculation; then they send the working class in to battle to hopefully start up the music again for another round of lies and deception.
This is why Wikileaks is so hated and Julian Assange under house arrest. This is why Chelsea Manning was tortured and imprisoned and why Snowden is in Russia. They pulled the mask off the killer. It’s not about a concern for national security, it’s about maintaining class rule and convincing workers that there is no alternative to the system they govern. That while capitalism has its faults it is the fairest system of production. As that arch enemy of working people Margaret Thatcher once pointed out TINA, there is no alternative. This is the biggest lie of all.
On a capitalist basis there is one thing certain, there is nothing but doom ahead.
US capitalism cannot tolerate a united Korea that is not a satellite of the US. The Chinese bureaucracy cannot tolerate a united Korea that is united on that basis. This is not resolvable.
The US invaded Grenada for one reason only, it's political system. It will invade any country that elects or has a governance that undermines the argument that the so-called free market is the answer to all things and seeks any independence from the clutches of global capital and its institutions. The US body politic wants to privatize all public agencies and institutions for the same reasons except those that are not lucrative profit making ventures.
If we have any clue at all about the history of the region, particularly this peninsula going back a couple of centuries for example, we would see the present situation in a different light. Why on earth would the North Koreans give up their nuclear program? It's the only deterrent they have.
North Korea was one of the imbecile George W Bush’s famous “Axis of Evil”, one of the “evildoers”. US imperialism didn’t invade North Korea. It destroyed Iraq as a nation, has killed and displaced millions of people and I see that Iraq just floated its first bond in years (about $7 billion) backed up by the US taxpayer-----the money lenders are back. The Iraqi currency is pegged to the dollar.
The North Koreans are aware of this. They are also far more aware of US imperialism’s global activities than most US citizens. They know about the illegal blockading of Nicaragua’s main port. They know about the assassinations of South American officials, of African leaders like Lumumba, any regime that is not willing to sacrifice its independence at the altar of Wall Street. When they are not doing this they are killing people through the IMF, and Structural Adjustment programs. The US at the behest of weakened British colonialism overthrew the democratic government of Iran in 1953 because it wanted control over its main resource, oil. It overthrew the democratic government of Guatemala the same year on behalf of the giant fruit corporations.
They saw what the US did to its old ally Hussein. They are aware of the murder of Gaddafi that Hilary Clinton boasted about on television, “We saw, we came he died” as her and the interviewer chuckled away.
Do we honestly believe this small impoverished nation is developing nuclear weapons in order to fire missiles at Chicago and LA and is actually telling the US about it beforehand, before they have even developed the capacity to do so?
The object of the sanctions is to “isolate North Korea” says the Wall Street Journal. No, the real object of the sanctions is to starve the people of North Korea to the point where they will rise up and overthrow the present regime. While the Chinese Stalinist bureaucracy is on board with this latest round, it is guaranteed they will not act in the same way as they have a completely different perspective on the situation as it is in their part of the world.
What do we do when we are faced with a cornered animal or an unstable person whose behavior might be unpredictable for whatever reason? We try to calm the situation, make the animal feel it has an escape route, make the potentially unpredictable person feel safe, don’t provoke them. When I walk my trails the sign tells me if I meet a mountain lion I should not run away, maybe walk backwards slowly and allow the animal to retreat. US capitalism’s foreign policy is just the opposite but they are overconfident and will make major mistakes like Iraq, but it is working people that suffer from them
The US knows that the Kim regime and further isolation will make things worse, will strengthen their resolve and increase their distrust of the outside world. The UN talks of the regime needing to join the “international community”. What international community is that? The one in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America where the US capitalism is trying to reassert its influence in Venezuela and the Brazilian regime is sending the military in to the slums?
Myself and others have written on this blog about the role of capitalist diplomacy and how it is the diplomacy of thieves. They are all liars, they cheat each other, they rob, steal, and their policies cause death and destruction throughout the world. They keep dancing until the music stops as one US bourgeois once said with regard to financial speculation; then they send the working class in to battle to hopefully start up the music again for another round of lies and deception.
This is why Wikileaks is so hated and Julian Assange under house arrest. This is why Chelsea Manning was tortured and imprisoned and why Snowden is in Russia. They pulled the mask off the killer. It’s not about a concern for national security, it’s about maintaining class rule and convincing workers that there is no alternative to the system they govern. That while capitalism has its faults it is the fairest system of production. As that arch enemy of working people Margaret Thatcher once pointed out TINA, there is no alternative. This is the biggest lie of all.
On a capitalist basis there is one thing certain, there is nothing but doom ahead.
US capitalism cannot tolerate a united Korea that is not a satellite of the US. The Chinese bureaucracy cannot tolerate a united Korea that is united on that basis. This is not resolvable.
The US invaded Grenada for one reason only, it's political system. It will invade any country that elects or has a governance that undermines the argument that the so-called free market is the answer to all things and seeks any independence from the clutches of global capital and its institutions. The US body politic wants to privatize all public agencies and institutions for the same reasons except those that are not lucrative profit making ventures.
If we have any clue at all about the history of the region, particularly this peninsula going back a couple of centuries for example, we would see the present situation in a different light. Why on earth would the North Koreans give up their nuclear program? It's the only deterrent they have.
North Korea was one of the imbecile George W Bush’s famous “Axis of Evil”, one of the “evildoers”. US imperialism didn’t invade North Korea. It destroyed Iraq as a nation, has killed and displaced millions of people and I see that Iraq just floated its first bond in years (about $7 billion) backed up by the US taxpayer-----the money lenders are back. The Iraqi currency is pegged to the dollar.
The North Koreans are aware of this. They are also far more aware of US imperialism’s global activities than most US citizens. They know about the illegal blockading of Nicaragua’s main port. They know about the assassinations of South American officials, of African leaders like Lumumba, any regime that is not willing to sacrifice its independence at the altar of Wall Street. When they are not doing this they are killing people through the IMF, and Structural Adjustment programs. The US at the behest of weakened British colonialism overthrew the democratic government of Iran in 1953 because it wanted control over its main resource, oil. It overthrew the democratic government of Guatemala the same year on behalf of the giant fruit corporations.
They saw what the US did to its old ally Hussein. They are aware of the murder of Gaddafi that Hilary Clinton boasted about on television, “We saw, we came he died” as her and the interviewer chuckled away.
The North Korean regime is not a rogue one in that sense, neither are they mad. It is a despotic dictatorial regime but like all regimes it wants to survive. In all honesty, the US regime is more infected with madness, it poisons the water supply of its own citizens for Christ’s sake. It is US imperialism that is causing the tension in the region and consciously. Why would the North not be paranoid, suspicious, fearful? They are dangerous as all threatened with oblivion are. They have not forgotten the destruction of the area when US imperialism intervened in that civil war and ensured that a pro-capitalist, pro-US regime had a foothold. That war never ended, it is on hold with an armistice. The South Korean military is completely under the control of the Pentagon and US military personnel and the Northern regime knows that any loosening of society will be used by capital. They are not socialists they have no strategy for appealing to the world’s working class.
There will be no secure peace, stability or resolving of this situation within the framework of capitalism. A reader said to me not so long ago that I say that about all these crises and I do because it’s true. As much as I despise Stalinism for the harm and betrayals it has forced on the working class internationally the regime in North Korea is not the aggressor, its behavior is part of a defensive, or more accurately a survival strategy.
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| A good introduction for working people |
The survival for the Korean masses and for the working class throughout the world can only be guaranteed by a global federation of democratic social states based on mutual cooperation and a democratic plan in the production of social needs and management of the world’s resources.
If you think that’s impossible, try surviving a regional or global nuclear war.
* I am no expert on the Korean Peninsula by any means, but we do learn some things through work and struggle. I have read many articles on Korea and just finishing up a book I have recommended before and am doing so again. I do not believe one book says all, but it is an excellent, short book that gives an historical account of the events that have led to the present day scenario in my view. I strongly urge working class people to read it. Some of my mates: pretend it’s the story of the New England Patriots rise to the top or something like that.
1 comment:
China and North Korea on two occasions offered a compromise to the US; that any development of Nuclear weapons in N Korea would cease providing all US reconnaissance over the northern state would also cease. This was rejected by Obama and Bush Jn.
Trump continues with this dangerous aggressive approach.
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