I live in the UK and nearly every older Communist you meet is a Trot and all the protests that I've been to that have had communists at them were mostly Trot orgs but online everyone just seems to shit on them for no clear reason. Am I missing something? Or is it just regular leftist infighting

  • PhaseFour [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    there is certainly a not-insignificant population who cross the border into China.

    Let's be specific, 300,000 people have emigrated from the DPRK since 1953 [1]. For context, 300,000 Germans left Germany last year [2]

    Emigration from the DPRK is not some mass political project.

    they feel poorly represented, and, indeed, that they feel the Chinese government better represents them than that of the DPRK

    Again, let's be specific. The largest incident of emigration from the DPRK happened in 1998, during the Arduous March. Northern Korea is mountainous, has little irrigable land, and is prone to drought. This produces the conditions for crop-failure. When this happened before the fall of the USSR, the DPRK bought their excess grain. After the fall of the USSR, the DPRK was sanctioned by the UN and no country would trade with them.

    The Arduous March was the first crop-failure under these circumstances. It led to mass famine and death. The two options for the DPRK were:

    1. Agree to US regime change and allow the US army to march north - the same army which wiped out a generation of Koreans in living memory.
    2. Endure the famine.

    Neither option was particularly good. Saying that Koreans felt "poorly represented" in response to this is insane. The Korean people were under military siege, and a few fled.

    Also, neoclassical economics is completely divorced from reality. The fact that "people respond to bad things by criticizing or leaving" is taken as a serious innovation is an embarrassment for bourgeois social sciences.

      • PhaseFour [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        The fact you responded in one minute makes me think you did not put much effort into thinking here.

        Dude, the border between the DPRK and China is porous as fuck

        Do you have a better source for emigration numbers from the DPRK? I cited a very anti-DPRK source. If you don't know how many people are leaving the DPRK, then your "voice and exit" theory isn't useful.

        the idea that there has been no emigration since 1998 is batshit insane.

        I did not say that. I said the largest incident of emigrations was in 1998. You don't need to lie to me about what I'm saying.