The Red Star #2, May 1st 2017--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
The Red Star is the regional newspaper of North Korea that began in fall 2014 with one issue. The paper was less about "news" and more about Marxist history and perspective, essentially the theoretical journal of North Korea. The project took a back seat to the development of the Korean Peoples Army during late 2014 and was dropped as a regional project.
In 2017 we resurrect the paper for at least one more issue and the format is much closer to that of a newspaper this time, content is mostly regional news with some theory and real life news event references.
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Regional News;
Reporting: Marxist-feminists
North Korea builds embassies with The Federation of Anarchist Communes
April 20th, 2017
[North Korea] In a fantastic show of left solidarity and combined militancy against the political right two regions separated by vast swaths of ideological ground came together, building embassies and working towards a new relationship of comraderie.
North Korea and The Federation of Anarchist Communes initiated the building of embassies on April 20th 2017.
The founder of North Korea stated about the development:
"In this spirit of leftist unity and leftist defense we find the true political ambitions of this region realized, united we cannot be defeated against the forces of reaction, in real life or on NS." - VMing
And in The Federation of Anarchist Communes North American Communists
there posted;
"However, now I think both our regions have been involved in the NSleft community and military gameplay as comrades long enough to open up a little and hopefully both learn from eachother. I think that both our regions actually share some important similarites. Both our regions have been small to medium sized but enduring and committed, and I think we both actually have uniquely mature and thoughtful communities who respectfully debate and post on interesting and important topics, with the main aim to cultivate our revolutionary conscioussness and share our experiences, albeit from pretty different points of departure in the spectrum of revolutionary socialist camps."
Hopefully this development between the regions can usher in a new era of understanding between anti-capitalists of different ideologies.
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Update on the political purge
April 23rd 2017
[North Korea] Our region's sixth political purge has been underway for several weeks with more than 25 nations ejected and banned. KPA intelligence suggests the influx of nations from banned nation catagories is "due to the rise in populist reactionary politics in the United States and the conflict with the DPRK being hyped in the bourgeois press weekly" one KPA intellegence officer was quoted saying.
The purge is the sixth in NK's history and regarding its purpose the founder is quoted saying;
Class enemies hide at the political controls of "Father knows Best State"'s and "Iron Fist Consumerist"'s. Nations under banned categories will be ejected without appeal.
In recent months we have let things slide but we know what happens to regions who lose their way, they wind up captured under counter-revolution, polluted with liberalism and broken without militant political spirit!
The purge will continue without a defined end until the danger of inter-regional meddling passes
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Five Years, less 100 days
April 20th 2017
4 years 245 days ago: Embassy closed with The Greater German Reich.
4 years 245 days ago: Embassy opened with Pyongyang.
[North Korea] This August marks 5 years of regional liberation for North Korea. 5 years ago last January the region was captured in a failed refound attempt and it would be 8 long months of occupation here by right wing forces before we could return.
This August there will be a great regional celebration planned, with guest speakers/(posters?) and sharing of music, poetry and anything anyone else would like to contribute
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Opinion
Editorial writers: Marxist-feminists, Comradeland, Zulanka
The DPRK and the world socialist movement
April 21st 2017
By its modern political nature the DPRK has constantly announced its efforts to preserve Korean culture and in most ways this is "left nationalism" or emboldening a national people's oppressed culture against the backdrop of hostility towards that culture, we see this all over the world from Palestine to First Nations Canada and aboriginal people's everywhere.
One should not confuse this left nationalism with the right nationalist strain of thought, the latter is a form which is not oppressed but an oppressor. This is not something I need to dwell on as Comradeland has written an excellent paper on the subject if the reader is interested.
Also, I don't think we need to discuss Korea's colonial history which is discussed in great detail here often - but what I do want to touch on are the foreign relations of the DPRK, how it relates to other nations and specifically the world communist movement.
The IMCWP (international meeting of communist and workers parties) annual conference is attended by communist parties from all over the world. It originated in 1998 when the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) invited communist and workers' parties to participate in an annual conference where parties could gather to share their experiences and issue a joint statement.
The WPK has sent a delegation to observe several of the meetings and presented a statement to the IMCWP on at least 2 occasions. Today (as in the last 20 years) the DPRK has played less of a role in the international communist movement than it did in Moscow's Soviet times, this is possibly due to the change in leadership over time or simply the DPRK hasmt been able to participate fully.
Don't let these modern "Luke warm" attempts at internationalism fool you, as the DPRK has a long and solid history of internationalism. From sending fighter Pilots to Vietnam during their struggle for national liberation and Egypt during the Arab Israeli war, to lending at least vocal support to Assad in Syria and the Houthi Rebels fighting Saudi and American backed state terrorists in Yemen.
From supporting the American Black Panther Party in the 60's to the Occupy movement in 2011, the DPRK has shown it's betting horses in the class war, from helping Iran build missiles and nuclear reactors to denouncing American imperialism in the Middle East the DPRK has historically and materially supported national sovereignty in all nations, stood against all imperialist wars and held high the banner of socialism for all to emulate.
Don't be fooled by the political right's lies that the DPRK is "racist nationalist". History has shown ever since it's founding, the international character and support for sovereign nations against empire, support for national minorities, support for those oppressed under capitalism and those struggling for socialism in the worst places of oppressive bourgeois society.
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On Principled Unity
April 29, 2017
As communists we are often called upon to unite with other leftist groups in the spirit of "Left Unity". But what is this, and what should it be to communists?
We adopt a policy of principled unity with anarchists and some other left tendencies. We will work with them insofar as it will accomplish things (such as teaming up with not just anarchists, but antifascists of all stripes to run nazis off the streets), but anarchism and communism differ fundamentally in many ways.
Revolutionary organizations need to be disciplined and principled, and that means conducting line struggle to see which method provides the most advantageous terrain for making revolution. Certain tendencies among anarchists (idealism, support for imperialism under the guise of "working class internationalism", anti-organization attitudes, lack of discipline, lifestyleism) are harmful. We must struggle against these tendencies. You can't just ignore them and hope that we can gather enough people to overthrow capitalism.
For example we defend things like the DPRK, rather than fall into the trap of ideological purity. Often times anarchists uncritically accept the narrative about these countries or refuse to see the way in which they are serving the interests of the US State Department by demonizing or even really giving unprincipled criticism of these countries or refusing to defend them against imperialism.
This completely ignores the reality that when it comes to areas of the world that are being actively menaced by imperialism (the peripheries), where capitalists are violently seeking to bring certain countries into the neoliberal fold, the primary contradiction is between imperialist countries and imperialized. By choosing "neutrality" in this struggle they are de facto serving the needs of the imperialists.
We're not trying to gather the disparate elements of "the left" into some big vague ideological soup until we get big enough to overthrow capitalism. We are trying to engage in mass work guided by clear policy and a materialist analysis of the conditions we find ourselves in. By doing so we form bases of power among the masses, and the party becomes embedded in the masses by serving them. In this way, we grow. Our goal is to serve the masses, not to bend over backwards to try to accommodate as many people as possible in "the left", be they anarchists, demsocs, or whatever.
We pick the most concrete and historically successful framework to develop from (which is Marxist-Leninism), and seek to expand from there as the situation and conditions demand. We should not be opposed to unity where it is fundamental to defeating the enemies of the working class, but we must not fall out of discipline and must always engage in line struggle and advancement of our understanding of the materialist contradictions of a situation. We are not here to gather round the campfire and hold hands, we are here to wage revolution.
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Why the PDD?
April 22th 2017
It's an intimidating name "The Peoples Democratic Dictatorship" but what does it mean? How does it work?
For the PDD to be considered truly democratic all active nations need to express their opinions, and by discussion we dialectically find the correct way forward. It is not a messy "chaos" of all nations governing at once as a direct democracy, it is not the old elitist "central committee" either but instead it is a representation of democratic centralism (DC) on Nationstates, DC is a concept found in all Marxist-Leninist organizations. It is "diversity in discussion, unity in action".
The Communist Party of Canada's constitution explains DC below;
"It includes full discussion by the entire membership of the policies necessary to advance the aims of the Party’s program. Decisions as to what these policies must be are made by majority vote which are then binding on all members. This enables the Party to act as a united whole in all conditions of the struggle. Unity derives from agreement on the socialist program of the Party and the recognition that while differences may arise as to how best to advance the aims of the program under changing circumstances, there must be unity of action in executing decisions once they are made by majority vote. Thus the Party is a united, militant organization in which factional or splitting activities are impermissible."
And so we see that the political importance of DC is found in its ability to both serve the interests of dissent, (evaluating such propositions and weighing them against the group democratically at which point they are either upheld or silenced by the democratic majority) as well as democratic rule.
This form of governing is, in my opinion, far more politically advanced than former political systems here in North Korea. The ability for the founder to act with expediency, at the will of the masses, and both be held accountable and in check by their democracy, creates a system of quick, effective, politically reliable and democratic decision making (and with an ambitious founder, powerful, motivated, engine for regional growth and development) and correct regional political direction.
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Inter-regional Support
April 26th 2017
Since the November 2016 election of Donald Trump to the position of President in the United States, American foreign policy has shifted from its stances slightly under the Obama administration, particularly in regards to the DPRK. Secretary of State in the US Rex Tillerson has loudly proclaimed that the "era of strategic patience is over" and "all options are on the table, including military".
These reckless actions of the USA while stationing 30,000 American troops in the ROK are nothing less than sabre rattling and just short of a call to war.
The DPRK is a small nation surrounded by hostile powers and such threats are reckless diplomacy, destabilizing North East Asia. As China calls for calm and the US refuses talks one can only wonder where this situation will go in the next 4 years of a Trump regime at the controls in the US.
Feeling robbed of its right to sovereignty, national self determination and self defense the DPRK has turned to nuclear weapons to protect itself and make sure the Americans don't bring another genocide to Korea as they did in the 1950's.
With the increased tensions and brinkmanship in real life we've had many comrades and friends on Nationstates profess their solidarity with our region and the DPRK in these difficult times. From "The Internationale" to "The Federation of Anarchist Communes" and even the ever neutral "Forest", players across the NS world see the situation for what it is, another small anti-capitalist nation targeted by American empire.
They see the hypocrisy of the US meddling in other nations affairs, demanding nuclear disarmament but holding the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and all nations who dare stand against empire are threatened by this terrible monster. This monster, the only nation on planet Earth to use these horrific weapons not just on enemy soldiers, but whole populated cities, women and children.
As the United left we shall all rise like the sun, and tear down the American empire!
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Political Indifferentism
April 30th, 2017
With Marx even his more obscure works and letters often have powerful insights, some making an impact on how I view Marxism as a whole. Among these is Political Indifferentism, a polemic against anarchists that complements Engels' better known On Authority.
Looking at contemporary groups we can see that anarchists in general have progressed since Marx's time and parts of this work are not really applicable to them now. In this sense the work remains relevant not as a critique of anarchism, but rather in its sharp dismissal of dogmatism and what we would now call ultraleftism.
Clearly Marx would have strong words for accelerationists and impossibilist tendencies who denigrate workers struggling for reforms. Marx's derision towards those who place "eternal principles" over the reality of class struggle should be a reminder for us against treating theory as dogma, to keep in mind that Marxism is intrinsically opposed to static interpretations.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1873/01/indifferentism.htm
*Note that Marx is caricaturing Proudhon and other anarchists' positions in the first seven paragraphs
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"Reactionary" what does it mean?
April 25th 2017
It is a word one often hears in North Korea, usually as a pejorative - but what does it really mean?
Well, Wikipedia states that:
"A reactionary is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the status quo ante, the previous political state of society, which they believe possessed characteristics (discipline, respect for authority, etc.) that are negatively absent from the contemporary status quo of a society."
From Merriam Webster Dictionary we see:
"b : resistance or opposition to a force, influence, or movement; especially : tendency toward a former and usually outmoded political or social order or policy"
So "reactionary" is essentially the antithesis of "revolutionary", it denotes a person, usually militant wishing to reverse progressive trends and return to "the good old days". This strain of political thought goes hand in hand with right nationalism and fascism as both of those ideological trends are essentially reactionary.
But one doesn't have to be a believer/supporter in reactionary politics have have reactionary slips and make mistakes. In my youth it was common to use "gay" as a pejorative, I'm rather ashamed to say that I engaged in this trend, as it was very common during some of the hardest struggles for gay rights in the 90's, but this was the world I grew up in. Knowing now that oppressive language like that is hurtful, degrading and disrespectful to fellow human beings I no longer use that phrase and it has for the most part fallen out of vogue.
It is our duty as revolutionaries to challenge political reaction wherever we encounter it, and offer progressive and revolutionary alternatives.
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Entertainment
Political Compass
https://www.politicalcompass.org/test
Communist quizzes, games
https://www.sporcle.com/games/tags/communist
Chinese Revolution word search
https://www.studenthandouts.com/09handouts/9chinesecommunistrevolution.pdf
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Classified Section
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Cuban pins (4) - Communist era, $5
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Soviet USSR Large Metal Bust of LENIN V. I. Communist Vintage $50
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3x5 North Korea Flag Korean Banner Communist Pennant Indoor Outdoor New $5
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