Roland Boer's Blog, page 34

Religion and Capitalism: Second ebooklet published by CPB’s Culture Matters

The second ebooklet has been published by ‘Culture Matters‘, under the auspices of the Communist Party of Britain. This one is called ‘Religion and Capitalism’, with a focus on Marx. You can read it as a webpage or as an ebooklet.

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China and the Munich Security Conference

Much happened at the recently concluded Munich Security conference, but I am particularly interested in the speech by the outgoing foreign minister of Germany, Sigmar Gabriel. Some interpreted the speech as an attack on China and its Belt and Road Initiative, seeing the speech an accusation that China is trying to take over the world. However, if you actually look at the text of the speech, you will see that he has relatively little to say about China or Russia, or indeed the Korean peninsula...

Petition for Verso to publish English translation of Losurdo’s Stalin book

Verso Books has initially refused to publish an English translation of Domenico Losurdo’s book on Stalin, even though they have published other works by him. Those who know the press will not be surprised by this. However, a petition is underway to get Verso to change its opinion. You can find the petition here.

Please sign the petition!

 

Some powerful images out of Pyeongchang (updated)

As CP pointed out to me today, international sport has taken the place of religion when it comes to dealing with international political issues. How so? In the middle of the nineteenth century in Prussia, the only language in which one could engage in political issues was religion, or more specifically theology. This was due to the heavy censorship over political debate in Prussia, so all of the issues were expressed in and through religion. The youthful Marx and Engels were no exception.

In...

Some powerful images out of Pyeongchang

As CP pointed out to me today, international sport has taken the place of religion when it comes to dealing with international political issues. How so? In the middle of the nineteenth century in Prussia, the only language in which one could engage in political issues was religion, or more specifically theology. This was due to the heavy censorship over political debate in Prussia, so all of the issues were expressed in and through religion. The youthful Marx and Engels were no exception.

In...

China best realises the social doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church: Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo

This one is causing no small brouhaha among reactionary Roman Catholics and others. Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, who is chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, made the following observations in an interview:

“Right now, those who are best implementing the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese,” a senior Vatican official has said.

Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, praised the Communist state as “extraordinary”,...

The amazing architecture of the DPRK

One of the top items in our next visit to the DPRK is the architecture. Since the USA destroyed nearly all the standing buildings (along with 20 percent of the population) in the Korean War, the country had to be rebuilt. The initial phase was heavily inspired by Stalin baroque from the 1950s, with significant assistance from architects from the DDR (East Germany). As Calvin Chua – a Singapore architecture who has been engaged in the latest phase – puts it: ‘Then we have the modernist era in...

DPRK white paper on human rights violations in the USA

China regularly publishes a own white paper on human rights problems in the United States, in light of the Chinese Marxist approach to human rights rather than the European derived approach, which is so often universalised in a colonialist fashion.

However, the DPRK also publishes annual human rights reports on the USA. Of course, some would dismiss this as either hypocrisy or tit-for-tat, but it seems to me that what the report says is actually quite spot on. I have copied a summary from Rod...

Local DPRK friendship societies

If you look beneath the media and political hype, there has been quite an upturn in the work and energy of DPRK friendship societies in my local area. One is the NZ-DPRK Society. Established in 1973, the long-standing chair was the Reverend Don Borrie. After he retired, Tim Beal took over. Incidentally, by far the best book on the DPRK is Tim Beal’s North Korea: The Struggle Against American Power (Pluto 2005). It carefully pulls apart much of the sheer fake news about the DPRK.

In Australia...

Germany and China surpass the USA in global leadership approval

An interesting survey from Gallup, based on interviews and telephone conversations with 1,000 people in each country.

The result: the global approval of US leadership in 2017 dropped to 30%, behind Germany on 41% and China on 31%. Both Germany and China remained at the same level from the previous year, indicating stability.

Some graphs tell the story:

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Notably, Russia and the USA are quite close to one another. Now for the disapproval rating, which for the USA sits at 43%:

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In the Americas i...