fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Comrade Liu Hulan (1932-1947) was an activist in her native village of Yunzhouxi, Shanxi Province. She became a member of the Communist Party of China in 1946.

As an organizer, she had set up a chapter of the Women’s Federation, and in her capacity as secretary of that chapter, she had been actively involved in moblizing her fellow villagers to support the CCP in the civil war. When Nationalist troops surrounded the village in 1947 and attempted to cart off the confiscated grain reserves from the public granary, she led the villagers in resistance. She was executed.

47 years late, NY Times reports on anti-communist massacre in Indonesia

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

From Stephen Millies:

In 1965, Indonesia—which has the largest Muslim population in the world—also had the largest communist party in the world outside the socialist bloc. Three million people belonged to the PKI (the initials of the communist party), which was the oldest CP in Asia, with roots dating back before World War I. Twenty million people belonged to trade unions, women’s groups, peasant leagues and other organizations that were affiliated to the PKI.

The biggest political massacre since Hitler began in the fall of 1965. One million Indonesians were murdered, including 1 out of 10 people on the island of Bali. The U.S. embassy prepared lists of communists to be executed. The political genocide in Indonesia became the template for fascists around the world. The code name used by the coup plotters in Chile on Sept. 11, 1973 was “Jakarta.”

After many years of silence, the Jan. 19 New York Times has a large article on what happened in Indonesia. Using the search feature on the Times web site, I found that this is the first time in at least 31 years that this so-called paper of record has even mentioned the PKI.

New York Times: Veil of Silence Lifted in Indonesia

A Cuban in Ireland: Dalai Lama, Limerick and yours truly

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

By Reinaldo Taladrid Herrero

The University was hosting a discussion on the “50th Anniversary of the Bay of Pigs Victory”, but a totally unexpected complication arose: a large audience had gathered at the University’s sports arena that same day for a speech to be delivered by none other than the Dalai Lama.

As I waited for my turn and the Dalai Lama spoke, the main local radio station called to ask whether I would be willing to grant a live interview about Cuba. I said yes, and a few minutes later I was on the air.

My interviewer began with the usual boilerplate topics, namely the “embargo” (that’s right, the well-known 50-year-old blockade), but no sooner had I started to answer than he interrupted me: “Sir, we’re sorry, but we must go to cover the speech the Dalai Lama is giving right here in our University as we speak. But if you don’t mind, please stay on the line. We’ll be back.”

By then the Dalai Lama was preaching “forgiveness, acceptance and serenity”. Suddenly I heard the voice of my presenter saying: “We’re back with Mr. Taladrid, the Cuban journalist, and my question is: Sir, what is Cuba like today, a brutal dictatorship or the picture-perfect paradise we see in your tourist ads?”

My answer: “Cuba is not a paradise; no country on Earth is. We have as many and diverse problems as any other country, although I’m glad to see that you’re familiar with our tourist industry. I suggest to your listeners that they should visit the Island, where they will find a very beautiful, safe, cultured and honorable nation. Whatever made you think that Cuba is a brutal dictatorship? What happens sometimes to honest, albeit misinformed, people is that they overlook the fact that Cuba is constantly examined in minute detail through the Hubble telescope, but those who describe it usually do it after a simple look through a pair of low-strength glasses that give you blurry, mistaken images.” But all of a sudden, as I was about to mention specific examples…

“Sir, I’m sorry, we’re going live again with the Dalai Lama’s speech, but please hold the line, because it seems our listeners are calling to ask questions about Cuba.”

In China, a Place Where Maoism Still Reigns

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Wang Hongbin, a 60-year-old man with deep creases lining his face, took a break from his duties as village chief this month to show me around Nanjiecun, in the wheat-heavy center of the country. It was unlike any place I’d seen in my years in China. No commercial advertisements cluttered the streets, just billboards screaming proletariat platitudes and memorializing Communist icons. “Long Live the Invincible Mao Zedong Thought,” read the inscription on an archway near the main government building. In the town’s three convenience stores, female clerks wore olive uniforms meant to evoke the People’s Liberation Army. And in the village square, surrounding the gigantic statue of Mao, stood four 30-foot portraits — one of Marx, one of Lenin, one of Engels and one of Stalin.

classe: fuck yeah. Anzi leggendolo fuck no. E’ un articolo del New York Times, per cui prendetelo con le pinze. Anyway interesting.

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Entrance to Nanjiecun, a Maoist collective that survives in present-day China.

classe: strano che gli permettano di esistere

Tiananmen Square ‘massacre’ was a myth

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

By Deirdre Griswold, Workers World

Not one U.S. newspaper, television or radio outlet has reported or commented on these cables released by WikiLeaks, nor on the Telegraph story about them. It is as though they fell into a bottomless chasm.

Is it because the media here don’t believe the report is credible? Hardly.

The New York Times knows it’s credible. Their own Beijing bureau chief at the time, Nicholas Kristof, confirmed it in an extensive article entitled “China Update: How the Hardliners Won,” published in the Sunday Times magazine on Nov. 12, 1989, five months after the supposed massacre in the square.

At the very end of this long article, which purported to give an inside view of a debate within the Chinese Communist Party leadership, Kristof stated categorically: “Based on my observations in the streets, neither the official account nor many of the foreign versions are quite correct. There is no massacre in Tiananmen Square, for example, although there is plenty of killing elsewhere.”

Had there been fighting in Beijing? Absolutely. But there was no massacre of unarmed students in the square. That was an invention by the West, intended to demonize the Chinese government and win public sympathy for a counter-revolution.

 The turn toward a market economy under Deng Xiaoping had alienated many workers. There was also a counter-revolutionary element trying to take advantage of popular grievances to completely restore capitalism.

The imperialists were hoping the struggles in Beijing would bring down the Chinese Communist Party and destroy the planned economy — similar to what was to happen two years later in the Soviet Union. They wanted to “open up” China, not to truth, but to the looting of the people’s property by imperialist banks and corporations.

After much wavering at the top, the army was called out and the uprising crushed. China was not broken up like the Soviet Union; its economy has not imploded nor has the standard of living declined. Quite the opposite. Wages and social conditions have been improving at a time when workers elsewhere are being forced backward by a severe capitalist economic crisis.

Despite deep concessions to capitalism, foreign and domestic, China continues to have a planned economy based on a strong state-owned infrastructure.