white people be like "why yes i am an expert about this country that i've never been to, nor speak the language of, why do you ask?" https://twitter.com/SocksxMC/status/1347645834884767744
People say China is a one party state, but there is almost surely a greater difference of opinion among the CPC then there is among both parties of congress.
And that one party actually listens to the people and tries to do things that people want and benefit society. Meanwhile, what good does it do if you have 2 parties and neither one actually represents the interests of the people that vote for them?
Actually I find it really helpful when talking to libs to talk of a hypothetical where the CPC splits into two nominally separate parties. Both vow to continue the same policies in Tibet, Xinjiang, South China Sea, etc and the only difference is that one party is pro guy marriage and abortion and the other is anti.
I ask if these two parties have elections, whether its real democracy. Almost always, they say no.
Then I ask them how the American system is any different.
guy marriage
When you just really love the homies
There are 8 parties outside of the CPC that all have a role appropriate to their miniscule size, the only reason its a "one party state" is that one party is so fucking popular and wins democracy.
Also as communists we believe democracy should extend to all facets of life, which is why america is not a democracy
Okay for real though will anyone tell me that Kim Jong-Un is a democratically elected ruler?
It’s a democracy, it’s just one where a single family has a massive cult of personality built around them where it’s almost always assured one of them will end up head of state.
FYI I think this is a very bad thing in spite of supporting the DPRK. No single family should have that kind of clout in a society.
He was not elected by direct democracy, but he was the product of a democratic process. This is true for China & Cuba too.
I don't know how to get people here to understand, his family is extraordinarily popular in the DPRK.
I agree on the DPRK but the rest of those are definitely democracies
And I'm not necessarily declaring that the DPRK is definitely not a democracy but I am skeptical and doubt anyone could pull enough information to convince me, largely because of the information barrier.
i wish the internet had more of these kinds of comments but it, would take effort so it's impossible
His family is exceedingly popular in the DPRK, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.
Also I'm not really well versed on this one but it's my understanding that in the DPRK executive leadership is split between three people: the chairman of the state, the premier, and the president of the people's assembly. I guess Kim Jong-Un gets a lot more attention because of his family name and that he's responsible for things like international diplomacy and running the military, but I don't think he has unilateral power.
Can anyone else speak on this with more expertise than I have?
I'd add that Kim Jong Un is the first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, which is the majority party and follows democratic centralism, so he does have a good deal of extra power than the other two people sharing what other countries call the head of government.
However the first thing Jong Un did when he became General Secretary of the Party was to abolish the position and replace it with a committee in which he no longer had veto power. Kim Jong Il became the "Eternal General Secretary" of the WPK mirroring what Kim Jong Il did when he abolished the role of the President, made Kim Il Sung "Eternal President" and split its functions among the three positions that you mentioned.
This webpage has pretty much all the information that's published in English about the DPRK from their point of view https://www.bannedthought.net/Korea-DPRK/
They’ve also created and continue to fund armed community organizations to maintain the Bolivarian Revolution, similar to Cuba’s CDR
The Jakarta Method pretty bluntly and effectively makes the point about the need for armed support.
Oh no it was just a chance to drop a reference to a very good book.
He talks to people whose lives were horribly changed by dictatorships/violence/genocide. The Indonesian communist part was one of the biggest in the world, entirely mainstream and committed to the Marxist path of working with capitalists to grow productive forces while also organizing tons of community programs and such. He tells the story of what happened with them, Chile, and a few other places. Towards the end he asks the people he's interviewing about their view on armed vs unarmed movements. Indonesia and Chile both had unarmed movements .
Actually it even mentions how Castro tried to warn Allende, tried to get him to arm the people.
He also told him the US was crazy.
I get the Wisner jokes on Chapo now. lol
technically there are brown Zionists living in Israel but there are a lot of white ones too iirc
The Cuba one is especially dumb cause even Michael Moore thinks Cuba is good. Known communist Joe Biden voter Michael Moore.
Cuba not a democracy my ass
The new constitution, which also omits the aim of building a communist society and instead works towards the construction of socialism, was presented to the National Assembly of People's Power by secretary of the Council of State Homero Acosta for approval on 21 July 2018 before being slated to a national referendum. The National Assembly then approved the new Constitution on 22 July 2018, a day ahead of schedule. It was announced that a popular consultation which allows citizen input for potential amendments to the text of the proposed Constitution would start on 13 August and conclude on 15 November.
It was announced that 135,000 meetings would be held during the popular consultation. Each of these would be run by 7,600 two-person teams who would receive specialized training. Cuban exiles were invited to take part in the meetings. Following consideration of amendments, a referendum was held to pass the Constitution on February 24, 2019, succeeding with 86.85% of the popular vote. The popular consultation began as scheduled on 13 August 2018, in tandem with the 92nd birthday of the late Cuban President Fidel Castro. The popular consultation concluded as scheduled on 15 November 2018. On 1 December 2018, Granma Newspaper reported that the Cuban Parliament would be summoned to vote on proposed amendments to the new Constitution on 21 December.
The new Constitution was debated at the 8th Plenum of the Communist Party of Cuba’s Central Committee which took place between 12 and 13 December 2018. At the meeting, the amended draft of the proposed constitution was drawn up by a group commissioned by the National Assembly of People's Power. However, details of what was amended would not be made public until it was approved by the National Assembly. On 18 December 2018, it was revealed that one of the changes to the new constitution which would have paved the way for same sex marriage was dropped. On 20 December 2018, another change to the new Cuban Constitution was dropped and its language once again reinserts direction to building a communist society. On 21 December 2018, the Cuba National Assembly approved the amended Constitution, thus completing the final step for a referendum. On 24 February 2019, the new constitution was approved by 90.15% of voters, with a turnout of 84%. On 7 March, it was announced that the National Assembly would meet 10 April 2019 to determine the timeframe of when the new constitution would go into effect. On 28 March, it was announced the Council of State had held a meeting on 25 March and decided that the Constitution would be proclaimed by the National Assembly on April 10. Upon being proclaimed, the Constitution would be adopted.
The Constitution was proclaimed as scheduled on 10 April 2019. After being proclaimed, the Constitution was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic, ensuring its entry into force. It was also announced that new laws enforcing the Constitutional reform of the judicial system must be enacted within 18 months. This includes, among other things, the enactment of presumption of innocence in criminal cases and introduction of habeas corpus. An electoral law which would enforce the change in the structure of government in Cuba also must be enacted within six months. Within the following three months, the National Assembly would elect a president of the country, who must then appoint provincial governors and a prime minister, a new post separating the role of head of state from the role of head of government.
Also China has the largest legislature of any government with nearly one third of seats held by parties other than the CPC. Hard to see how that isn't democratic.
it was revealed that one of the changes to the new constitution which would have paved the way for same sex marriage was dropped.
Damn :(
While it is a shame it wasn't explicitly included, the constitution does specifically state that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is illegal and shortly after the constitution was finalized the government announced that they were developing language for the family code that would make same sex marriage legal which should be official by the end of this year, so this particular line is somewhat misleading.
That's awesome, I kinda figured out wasn't removed for bigotry reasons. Seems like they just wanted some more time to work out the specifics of that or maybe not tie marriage to the constitution? Either way, good to know that they're still moving forward on solidifying that.
I kinda figured out wasn’t removed for bigotry reasons
Almost undoubtedly, some committee members objected to the language based on that "Traditional Family" Catholic crap. But, like a good and functional bureaucracy, they found a way to compromise in such a manner that egos were massaged without sacrificing civil liberties.
Democrats sometimes almost kinda-sorta flirt with doing this shit. I remember the Clintons making noise about Civil Unions in the 90s, which would have been a big step up for gay couples, especially in states that straight up criminalized their relationships - but then Bill ended up signing DOMA and DADT rather than a Civil Unions marriage bill because they all suck.
I only wish we had Cuban-style democracy.
The dictatorship in China has close to 2 million directly elected legislators, at the township and county level. "Townships" have tens of thousands of people, and "Counties" in China have hundreds of thousands of people, for reference.
All of them run in competitive elections where there's always more candidates than open seats, and candidates are selected through a collaoborative effort between the government and local citizens.
Absolutely. The Chinese government structure and elections are fascinating and to accuse them of being undemocratic is purely a demonstration of ignorance.
I knew a guy in college who was from china, asserted that it was not democratic,but insisted that was a good thing, since it helped keep people like Trump out of office. Is this a common position, or was he a weirdo?
Think about what sort of class background and incentives exist in the mind of the type of person who can go to an expensive school abroad. It's like judging all Americans based on spoiled libs overseas or frat bros who worship Roman statues.
It's "not democratic" in the sense that they don't have a massive circus every 4 years with a minor one every 2 so that the hooting hoards can "pick" a leader. It's far more democratic in the sense of "popular participation" in the government.
Authoritarianism is relative. America has always been a brutal, genocidal police state if you are black or Native, and it's never exactly been nice to immigrants from any race outside of the native white core, which has shifted over time. But hey, our Good Liberals have been fighting like hell to make sure that we all get to participate in the circus!
China and DPRK are gonna hold out for a very long time coming (obvs). I wonder how much longer Venezuela is going to stand before Biden and his administration get ideas. Like we're inevitably going to try something more substantial than that mess of mercenaries that was captured however long ago.
They already have ideas. It's probably more about where else the focus is.
If it was someone other than Biden I'd have guessed Syria would be high up the list, but given the Obama admins admitted failures there & Biden supposedly not being so hot on it the first time I doubt it. Plus, with Israel bombing the shit out of Damascus the other day they'll probably make their moves through proxies. Especially as even any diplomacy rather than force would mean playing nice with Russia.
My guess is that East Asia and maybe even support for Northern India will be the focus in order to ramp up forces and pressure against China. Throw in a good helping of traditional anti-Iranian moves heightened by trying to interrupt trade connections they might have with Russia and China. Then of course there's Africa but it seems they're amping up the drone war there mostly while also using allies like the UAE.
Biden's going to busy escalating the evils US imperialism regardless, but the question is probably how complex those theatres prove to be in terms of whether they make a serious push in South America (Venezuela and Bolivia specifically, but others too) or mostly keep it on the wish list. I definitely wouldn't bet against more destabilization attempts with mercs, sabotage, CIA shit etc though.
Lol really, I only looked at the bio and it looked pretty white to me
