Monday, July 19, 2004

Human Rights or Sweatshops?

By Stephen Gowans

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Posted 07/19 | Add a Comment

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  1. I think this piece is wonderful and makes a great point except for one case of what I would call “double blackmail.” That is - if the US is screwing someone, they must be doing something right.  In the case of North Korea, the first is true (the US is screwing them,) the second is not true.  North Korea is not self sufficient.  Otherwise it would not have - whether well intentioned or not - advised its citizens to eat two meals a day.

    North Korea once tried to be self sufficient, and like Albania, simply lost the support econmically of the rest of the Warsaw Pact.  “Juche” was a failure, and what it really wants - re recent books on this subject by the likes of Selig Harrison and Bruce Cummings (no relation.) It is a tragic situation, but one - that like Mugabe’s banning of the color red in the face of US and British funded opposition, or Iran breaking into the dorm-rooms of secular and leftist activists in the face of similar perception...does not at ALL mean that we on the left should not recognize vicious Orwellian governments for what they are…

    Kim Jong Il may be a piker compared to George W. Bush when it comes to war crimes, but North Korea’s regime is not “heroic” as one person put it to me recently, it is sclerotic.  Korean unification should be the goal - what with a relatively progressive govenmnet in the south.  But the US is opposed to that happening on their terms.  Hence the current situation, meant as distraction from their maneuvering around Taiwan.

    Posted by j cummings from  on  07/19  at  03:39 PM

  2. Enjoyed it immensely.  Am making this post to sign in to being kept posted on the continuing dialogue.  Peace, mon, and ganja.

    Posted by Tracy McLellan from  on  07/21  at  11:16 PM
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