Roland Boer's Blog, page 66

Engels and the cotton bale

I was reminded of this great little story by an email request, since I mention it in an article in Philosophers for Change. Engels used it in his speaking tour of Germany in 1845. It had a great effect in showing how ridiculous a capitalist system is:

Let us, however, discuss present-day trade in a little more detail. Consider through how many hands every product must go before it reaches the actual consumer. Consider, gentlemen, how many speculating, swindling superfluous middlemen have now...

Call for Papers: Radicalism, Violence and Biblical Texts

Cross posted from Bible and Class Struggle:

This academic colloquiumon Radicalism, Violence and Religious Texts will take place at the University of Auckland from 10-11th September 2015.

José Clemente Orozco – Christ Destroying His Cross

What is the relationship between religion, violence, and the interpretation of texts? On the one hand, sacred texts are populated by depictions of divinely-sanctioned violence. On the other hand, both insiders and outsiders repeatedly emphasize the non-viol...

Communist Mystery: The Secret Appeal of the DPRK

Many are the reasons as to why one would want to visit the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. For some it is way off the ‘beaten track’. The fact that many people think you cannot travel to the place at all reinforces this sense. For some it provides a window into what the communist countries of Eastern Europe might have been like before 1989. Indeed, the tourist companies trade on this desire, offering Soviet architecture tours or plane tours in which you fly with Air Koryo’s fleet of Tu...

Closed Borders? Visiting and Leaving the DPRK

If you believe the steady stream of items propagated by the corporate media and government agencies, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) is a ‘totalitarian dictatorship’ with closed borders. People are not allowed to enter and its citizens are not permitted leave. If someone does happen to try and leave the ‘hermit kingdom’, he or she is dubbed a ‘defector’. Conversely, anyone who wishes to enter the DPRK is also a ‘defector’ – a recent example being the Chondoist leader,...

Reflections on the Danish Election result: Danish People’s Party the child of the welfare state

I have been discussing the Danish election results with Christina this afternoon. For a small country, the results may not seem important, but they may be read as harbingers of the situation in Scandinavia more generally. Initially, the results may seem depressing for anyone with sympathies vaguely on the Left. The ‘blue block’ seems to to have won the election with the slimmest of margins, 90 seats to the ‘red block’s’ 89 seats. Why depressing? The Danish People’s Party (DF) has won more tha...

Useful websites on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

While I write my next story on the carefully guarded, if not manufactured, ‘secrecy’ of the DPRK in order to entice foreigners (such as the mythical fifth floor of the Yanggakdo Hotel), here are a few useful websites for anyone who may be interested.

The DPRK webpage: the website of theKorea Friendship Association, a group of politically sympathetic people.

The Korean Central News Agency: for a truly DPRK view of the world.

North Korea Books: where you can get all you want on the DPRK (I boug...

Religion in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea?

Most would hold that the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (North Korea) bans religion of all sorts, indeed that it has become a truly atheistic state. However, the various constitutions (1948, 1972, 1992) guarantee freedom of religion and non-religion. It may seem that such statements are not worth the paper on which they are written, but let us look at some facts.

To begin with, the local Chondoism – or ‘Religion of the Heavenly Way’ – is recognised and in fact favoured by the gov...

Public lecture at Renmin University: Why Love Hurts: Love in Marxism

The lecture takes place tomorrow (Tuesday) at 19:40, as part of the series, ‘Perspectives: Lectures in Humanities’. And here is a lovely poster, produced by a very talented student:

Brazen American Imperialist Aggressors: Seeing the World from the DPRK

‘Brazen American imperialist aggressors’ – this is perhaps my favourite phrase from my first visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. It appeared in a video shown at the museum of the Korean War. The video set out an alternative narrative, producing select pieces of evidence to show that the occupying US forces in the south had instigated the Korean War. Of course, each side in a conflict has its own narrative. The catch is that the US version has dominated accounts for the last 6...

A must-read series: Understanding the CPC

The Communist Party of China has launched a series of books, in English, explaining its functions and roles.

More in thePeople’s Daily. Actually, I’ve been commissioned to write one or two articles for the People’s Daily, one on the sinification of Marxism and the other on the decline of bourgeois democracy in the United States.