IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) • JIMMY STEWART as George Bailey andLIONEL BARRYMORE as Mr. Potter
wait WHAT i mean that feels accurate but still…. WHAT.
here’s the official fbi memo about it! you can view the whole document here
the fbi presented these “findings” to mccarthy’s house unamerican activities committee (huac) in an attempt to get it’s a wonderful life pulled from theaters but huac decided not to take any action
We now bring an extract from the newly published book: History of Revolutionary Activities of Chairman Kim Jong Il(2015)
Chapter 6. Organizing and Leading the Struggle to Defend People-Centred Socialism of The Korean Style (January 1990 - July 1994)
1. Ideological and Theoretical Activities To Defend And Advance The Socialist Cause
Kim Jong Il conducted energetic ideological and theoretical activities to defend and advance the socialist cause in the first half of the 1990s. He said:
“In order to defend and develop socialism in its fierce struggle against enemies of all hues, we must further develop the revolutionary ideology and theory of the working class and make them perfect as required by the times and the developing revolution.”
In the period between the late 1980s and the early 1990s the people’s cause of independence, the socialist cause, encountered vicious challenges by the imperialists and reactionaries. The wind of reform blew hard in some socialist countries, rapidly degenerating socialism and reviving capitalism. Consequently, socialism collapsed and capitalism revived in the Soviet Union and some East European countries. Taking advantage of this, the imperialists and reactionaries made a fuss about the end of socialism and slandered the ideal of socialism. As rapid progress was made in socialist construction, the limitations of the preceding revolutionary ideas and theories of the working class, those on socialist construction in particular, became more apparent.
With a keen insight into the prevailing situation Kim Jong Il elucidated the essential characteristics and advantages of the Korean-style socialism and the source of its invincible might in several works including the speeches titled, On Some Problems of the Ideological Foundation of SocialismandSocialism of Our Country Is a Socialism of Our Style as the Embodiment of the Juche Idea delivered to senior officials of the WPK Central Committee on May 30 and December 27, 1990, respectively and in a talk titled, Our Socialism Centred on the Masses Shall Not Perish given to senior officials of the WPK Central Committee on May 5, 1991.
First of all, he proved that Korean-style socialism is a unique one, the ideological foundation of which is the great Juche idea. Socialism is a society based on the revolutionary ideas of the working class and its development is guaranteed by the scientific accuracy, revolutionary character and a practicability of the ideas and theories on which it is based. Korean-style socialism is a unique one based on the Juche idea, the most scientific and revolutionary idea of the working class. As it is based on the Juche idea it is marching along the road of victory without vacillation in the face of all manner of pressure and slander by the imperialists and reactionaries.
Next, he clarified the advantage of Korean-style socialism. He said:
“The basic advantage of our form of socialism is that it is a man-centred society, a society which considers everything with man at the centre and makes everything serve him. This advantage is defined by the Juche idea, a man-centred idea.”
He noted that Korean-style socialism is advantageous in that it embodies the intrinsic requirements of man on the highest level. Independence, creativity and consciousness are the essential attributes of a social being and collectivism is an intrinsic requirement of man who can carve out his own destiny only in the social collective. Korean-style socialism is the advantageous socialism which splendidly embodies this intrinsic requirement of a social being as clarified by the Juche idea.
Kim Jong Il elucidated that Korean-style socialism is the most advantageous social system which provides the masses of the people with a genuine independent and creative life. Political life, economic life and ideological and cultural life are major fields of social life. How the working people enjoy their independent rights and creative abilities in every field of social life is the key factor in determining the progressive nature and advantage of society.
The advantage of the Korean-style socialism which is based on the Juche idea lies not merely in that the master of the state power and means of production is the masses of the people but in that it substantially provides them with an independent and creative life in all fields of political life, economic life and ideological and cultural life. Herein lies the advantage of the socialist life over the capitalist life and the greatest advantage of the Korean-style socialism over the one in other countries which was established on the basis of the materialistic world outlook.
Next,Kim Jong Il elucidated the invincibility of the Korean-style socialism and its eternal viability. The driving force of socialist society is the masses of the people. However, only when they are united behind the party and the leader as one can they perform the role of the independent motive force of the revolution and carry out socialist construction successfully. Even after the establishment of socialist system the single-hearted unity of the whole society can not be achieved of its own accord. The work of advancing a correct guiding ideology and scientific strategy and tactics for the masses’ struggle and of awakening and organizing them is carried out only by the outstanding leader and the party of the working class. As they are guided by the outstanding leader and the seasoned leadership of the party the single-hearted unity of the masses around the party and the leader can be achieved, and this unity serves as the source of invincibility of socialism and its eternal viability.
In a talk titled, The Historical Lesson in Building Socialism and the General Line of Our Party delivered to senior officials of the WPK Central Committee on January 3, 1992, Kim Jong Il elucidated the reasons for the frustration of socialism in some countries and the lessons drawn from it and the general line to which the WPK was adhering in socialist construction. Above all else, he specified the reasons for the collapse of socialism in some countries and the lessons drawn from it. He said:
“In short, the basic reason for the frustration of socialism in some countries is that they did not put the main emphasis on strengthening the motive force for building socialism and on enhancing its role; they failed to understand the essence of socialism, of centring on the masses of the people, the makers of history.”
Socialist society is one in which the masses are the masters and that is developed by dint of the creativity of the masses who are united as one. The essence of socialist society which makes it different from all exploitative societies and the driving force which promotes the progress of the socialist society lie in the fact that the masses work in comradely unity and with a high degree of consciousness of being masters and displaying their ability as such. Therefore, the basic way to promote the building of socialism successfully is to strengthen the motive force of the revolution by giving priority to the remoulding of the people, as well as to enhance the role of the driving force by giving the fullest play to the revolutionary enthusiasm and creativity of the masses. Because they did not understand this, the parties in some countries which were building socialism failed to strengthen the motive force of the revolution and enhance its role. Herein lies the basic reason for the collapse of socialism.
Kim Jong Il clarified that another reason is that they failed to recognize the qualitative difference between socialism and capitalism and adhere consistently to the fundamental principles of socialism. Defending the masses’ desire for independence and their interests and embodying them is the fundamental principle that should be consistently adhered to in socialist construction. In order to build socialism to meet the masses’ desire for independence and their fundamental interests it is imperative to strengthen the working-class party organizationally and ideologically, ensure its leadership of the revolution and construction, steadily enhance the functions and role of the socialist government, safeguard and develop socialist ownership and resolutely combat imperialism. In the past the people of some countries that were building socialism wavered in the face of transient difficulties that arose in the course of building socialism and went so far as to yield to the pressure of the imperialists, gradually conceding and abandoning their revolutionary principles. This resulted in the frustration of socialism and revival of capitalism.
Kim Jong Il pointed out that the frustration of socialism in some countries is also due to the fact that the parties of those countries had not strengthened international solidarity based on independence in their relations. To unite and cooperate with one another on the basis of independence and maintain their independence while strengthening international solidarity is a basic principle that the parties of socialist countries must hold up in their relations.
On the basis of the comprehensive analysis of the reasons for the frustration of socialism in some countries Kim Jong Il concluded that historical experience shows that when people steadily strengthen the motive force of the revolution, with a strong conviction in socialism and a correct guideline, hold fast to socialist principles in all circumstances and strengthen comradely unity and cooperation on the basis of independence, the socialist cause will advance along the road of victory; otherwise it will suffer setback and frustration. He added that this is a serious lesson mankind has learned on its path to socialism.
Next,Kim Jong Il elucidated the general line the WPK pursues in socialist construction and its validity. He formulated that to carry out the ideological, technological and cultural revolutions thoroughly while strengthening the people’s government and steadily enhancing its functions and role is the general line for building socialism put forward by Kim Il Sung. He clarified that the general line is a scientific and revolutionary line indicating the road for accomplishing the socialist cause and fully realizing the independence of the masses of the people by embodying the Juche idea. He stressed that this line is applied in the building of the Korean-style socialism and its validity and viability have been substantiated through practice. He advanced principles to be maintained in laying bare the absurd nature of the sophistry by the enemies who are slandering socialism and in shattering it to accomplish the cause of socialism.
Kim Jong Il published a discourse titled, Abuses of Socialism Are Intolerable on March 1, 1993 in Kulloja, the official magazine of the WPK Central Committee. He said:
“It is sophistry to call socialism ‘totalitarian,’ ‘barracks-like’ and ‘administrative and commanding.’ ”
He laid bare the impropriety of the sophistry of the enemies who call socialism“totalitarian.”
Totalitarianism served as the political idea of fascist dictators. The fascist dictators like Hitler and Mussolini stamped out even the most elementary democratic freedom and rights of the masses of the working people and enforced unprecedentedly tyrannical policies, behind the misleading name of “national socialism,” claiming that for the sake of the whole nation and the whole state no working-class movement and no class struggle could be permitted. The reactionary nature of totalitarianism is that the interests of the working people are sacrificed for the sake of the rapacious interests of the reactionary ruling class under the pretence that the individual should be subordinated to the whole.
The two fascist dictators Hitler and Mussolini who tyrannized Europe in the first half of the 20th century.
What is meant by the whole in totalitarianism is not the whole of the masses of the people but a tiny handful of the privileged circles. Calling socialism, under which the masses of the people are the masters of everything, “totalitarianism”is, ultimately, a preposterous lie which identifies the most progressive idea that reflects the demands of the masses of the people with the reactionary idea of fascist rulers. Kim Jong Il laid bare the impropriety of the preposterous lie of the enemies who are calling socialism barracks-like. Socialism is the most progressive of ideas that reflects the intrinsic demands of people, and the socialist system is the most advanced of systems under which the masses of the people enjoy an independent and creative life to the full. The restraint of their independence and creativity occurs not under the socialist system but under the capitalist system in which the working class are the slaves of capital. Claiming that socialism is“barracks-like” is pernicious propaganda that attempts to turn black into white.
Kim Jong Il also clarified the impropriety of the sophistry of the enemies who claim that socialism is barracks-like. In general, the administrative and commanding method of management is an old method of rule that serves the demands of the privileged classes by invoking legal authority in an exploiter society. In socialist society the masses of the people, who have become the masters of the state and society, hold the position of masters and play the role of masters in the administration. The administrative and commanding method of management which was manifested in socialist practices in the past did not emanate from the essential nature of socialist society but was a legacy of the exploiter society. Therefore, accusing socialism of being “administrative and commanding” is also unreasonable.
Kim Jong Il also presented important principles to be maintained in defending and accomplishing the socialist cause. He said that if the socialist cause is to be defended and completed, the socialist idea should be developed and perfected constantly and the masses of the people should be equipped with it, so that they accept socialism as their unshakeable conviction. He clarified that in order to defend socialism and add eternal brilliance to it, people should regard it as their moral duty to defend it. He noted that the party and the state of the working class should concentrate their efforts on giving full play to the advantage of socialism by carrying on the construction of socialism properly in order to defend the socialist cause and bring it to completion. He put forth concrete ways of giving full play to the essential advantage of the socialist society. He underlined that the principle of collectivism should be thoroughly applied in every field of social life to safeguard and defend socialism.
The pernicious propaganda of dubbing socialism “totalitarian,”“barracks-like”and“administrative and commanding” is aimed at undermining socialist collectivism and eulogizing bourgeois individualism. So opposing individualism and applying the principle of collectivism to the letter in all fields of social life is crucial to defending and accomplishing the socialist cause. Kim Jong Il’s ideological and theoretical activities in the several years of the first half of the 1990s rendered a great contribution to revitalizing on a new ideological basis the socialist movement that was undergoing temporary setback.
History of Revolutionary Activities of Chairman Kim Jong Il, Foreign Languages Publishing House Pyongyang, Korea Juche 104 (2015)
This shit is so funny and it just keeps getting funnier. First a three million dollar mansion and now this. He’s living a lavish millionaire lifestyle off the donations of socialists. This is why socialism always fails. None of these people actually live their principles. It doesn’t matter if it’s a talking head, an activist or a politician. The moment they get the money or the power to actually do something human nature takes over and they run with the bag.
I’m literally begging his simps to defend this shit. Please.
wish i was a commie. maybe i could also live off of donations then
BLM leaders and “trained Marxists” getting their collection of million dollar mansions now a commie twitch streamer getting a Porsche on top of everything else.
Perfect example of communism and socialism at work, the people at the top bilking the people at the bottom and living like kings.
Except instead of taxes people willingly hand them the money
Hey I saw a video of this guy the other day where he was getting pressed about his right to use other people’s content without permission when he wants a break on stream
I remember when I was taking my first tax class in college, my professor had a section specifically on why it sucks extra to be single. Memories, memories, haha
With 8 pages of analysis on the results of the US election, and the prospects for workers and the oppressed, both in the US and internationally, under Democratic Party rule. One thing we know: without resistance, nothing is going to change for the better.
Red Flag aims to play its role in fostering and giving voice to that resistance. Become a subscriber at subscribe.redflag.org.au, and help support a socialist voice in Australia’s right-wing media terrain.
Almost a year after being overthrown in a right-wing coup, the Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS) emerged victorious in Bolivia’s presidential elections, held across the country last month. Despite hundreds of troops and police patrolling the streets on election day—and a campaign of intimidation and persecution that attempted to jail MAS presidential candidate, Luis “Lucho” Acre, along with dozens of other leading party officials—MAS won 55 percent of the vote, securing a two-thirds majority in the Chamber of Deputies of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly (ALP). The centre-right candidate, Carlos Mesa, and his Comunidad Ciudadana (Civic Community, or CC) received 29 percent of the vote. The fascist candidate, Luis Fernando Camacho, and his newly formed Creemos (“We Believe”) coalition, won 14 percent.
The result is a humiliating defeat for the pro-coup coalition: sections of the urban middle classes, large-scale agribusiness, cattle-ranchers, loggers and extractive capitalists of Bolivia’s eastern lowland departments, the police, armed forces, judiciary, fascist paramilitary gangs and their political representatives in Jeanine Áñez’s “interim” regime installed last November. And the result is a clear rejection of the coup-bloc’s pro-business and racist agenda by the country’s working-class and Indigenous majority.
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We were on the ground last year as protesters disrupted the International Mining and Resources Conference: a gathering of the top mining executives from around the world, backed by the Daniel Andrews Labor Government. We’re reporting now as people face court for daring to stand up to these climate vandals.
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When the Hungarian revolution was only four days old, Peter Fryer arrived in Hegyeshalom, a small town on Hungary’s border with Austria. Fryer had been a writer for the British Communist Party’s Daily Worker for eight years; he had reported approvingly on the Hungarian regime’s show trials in the late 1940s. Now, in 1956, he was being sent to report on what his Communist Party described as a counterrevolutionary putsch aiming to overthrow a socialist government. Fryer wrote that on his arrival in Hungary, he thought he was setting foot in “a country where ‘we’ were in power. A country where a new life was being built, where the workers were in command”. He expected to see ordinary workers enthusiastically defending the government against a fascist insurrection. What he witnessed was the opposite.
A working class revolution was attempting to free the country from the shackles of national oppression which the Russian regime was imposing upon it. The revolutionary process was developing through the construction of workers’ councils, modelled on the soviets of the Russian revolution of 1917. “I saw for myself that the uprising was neither organised nor controlled by fascists or reactionaries”, he wrote in Hungarian Tragedy, the book he published while the revolution was being crushed by Russian tanks, and which became a classic account of a modern workers’ revolution. In Hungary, Fryer witnessed “a people’s revolution–a mass uprising against tyranny and poverty”.
We have been constantly told during the COVID-19 pandemic that we must follow the advice of the experts. As health experts are guided by what we believe to be objective data and science, many feel no need, or don’t feel confident to be critical of expert opinion. For the most part, this is a good thing. But what happens when different groups of experts have wildly divergent views?
Such is the case with expert advice on the best ways to deal with COVID-19 pandemic. In the early months of the pandemic, some health advisors—such as Sweden’s chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell—championed herd immunity, while those in Australia and New Zealand advocated for widespread restrictions to suppress transmission. Individual health experts have, in addition, been inconsistent in their advice. Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, for example, has shifted his opinion around masks, the safety of schools and who should be tested on what sometimes feels like a weekly basis. Clearly, there is more to expert opinion than the objective truth, and we must consider the influence that capitalist ideology has in shaping the advice health experts are providing about COVID-19.
The Great Barrington Declaration is one of the most recent cases that has provoked major controversy among health experts. Authored by three professors in infectious disease and epidemiology from Harvard, Stanford and Oxford universities, the Declaration claims that lockdowns are devastating for public health and proposes an alternative “focused protection” strategy.
For most of the twentieth century, left-wing politics in Australia was dominated by the Stalinist politics of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and its various offshoots. While never in a position to challenge the ALP as the leading force in the working-class movement, the CPA – which per head of population became the largest Communist party in the English-speaking world—built a powerful presence in the trade unions.
For decades, committed Communist activists played leading roles in innumerable workplace struggles and community campaigns. Consequently, the party built an influence that went well beyond the ranks of its formal membership.
It had enormous influence on the outlook of the Labor Party left. That influence was reflected in the fact that, when pro-Moscow loyalists split from the CPA in the early 1970s, the NSW Labor left split along similar lines. The party also had a powerful impact on intellectual, artistic and small-l liberal circles.
Though worker Communists played a positive role in many struggles, the overall impact of the CPA’s Stalinist politics on the workers’ movement was disastrous. The CPA’s championing of the murderous regimes in Russia, Eastern European and China as workers’ paradises discredited the very idea of socialism.
