Chairman Kim greets Fidel

[Korchagin]

KCNA reports:


General Secretary Kim Jong Il on Wednesday sent a message of greetings to Fidel Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, on his 83rd birthday.

The message said:


I extend warm congratulations and greetings to you on your 83rd birthday.

I, availing myself of this opportunity, express belief that the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation between the parties and peoples of the two countries would grow stronger and heartily wish you good health and the Cuban party and people great success in their struggle for the victory of the socialist cause.

This message confirms the internationalist solidarity between the two socialist countries. The two fraternal countries have developed a deep friendship in the last 50 years as they have successfully consolidated revolutionary gains and worked together to struggle against imperialist conspiracies.

[TheCultofAbeLincoln]

P.S. Don't worry, I still like you more than Bill.

Anyone else feel like this is one anachronism greeting another? That's what it feels like to me a bit, to be honest.

[Ohnoatard]

Lil Kim will die first, dont worry about it.

[h0m0revolutionary]

"This message confirms the internationalist solidarity between the two socialist countries"

Do you not get bored of making these remarks that have absolutly no bearing on reality?

[Bankotsu]

I am still frustrated with Kim Jong Il for not escalating the 2002 nuclear crisis in order to distract USA from attacking Iraq.

17 October 2002

North Korea admits nuclear weapons plan

The admission was made two weeks ago at a meeting in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, between US assistant secretary of state for Asian affairs, James Kelly, and a senior North Korean government official, Kang Suk Ju. But it was only revealed by the Bush administration late on Wednesday...


http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2938-north-korea-admits-nuclear-weapons-plan.html




Our government seems to have ignored warning signs in recent years that North Korea was violating the Nuclear Nonprolif-eration Treaty and the Agreed Framework. Why do you think all this is coming to a head now?


I think 9/11 led to a major rethinking in terms of American national security. The administration is less satisfied now with containing adversaries and is adopting a more aggressive approach that focuses on eliminating them whenever possible, especially the "axis of evil." It doesn't seem to me that it's just mere coincidence that North Korea admitted to its secret nuclear weapons program and began moving graphite rods at the Yongbyon nuclear complex at the same time that the United States became so focused on Iraq.

I think the North Koreans are trying to use the situation in Iraq to their advantage, and again, it's a significant tactical move on their part. They know it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the U.S. to fight two wars at the same time, or even sequentially.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/030703/chen.shtml


Well, that is true, the nuclear crisis on 2002 and the "admission" was indeed instigated by Kim Jong Il to take advantage of Bush's focus on Iraq, the move to "admit" was prepared some time before and hinted at in the DPRK press:


September 2002


In the meantime, the Bush administration on September 27 decided to send Bush's special envoy to Pyongyang on October 3-5 for the resumption of talks.

Bush's decision came amid the recent positive developments on the Korean Peninsula including the start of the construction work on re-linking railways and roads across the Military Demarcation Line separating Korea and the alarming announcement by Pyongyang that it designated Sinuiju, a border city with China, as a Hong Kong-type special administrative region, not to mention the better-than-expected outcome of the summit between the top leaders of North Korea and Japan. Seoul, Tokyo and Moscow warmly welcomed Bush's decision to send to Pyongyang his envoy James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, to resume high-level bilateral talks.

Indications are that Pyongyang is ready to amaze Washington, and the world, too, in the near future as the DPRK's top leader did in June 2000 and September 2002, in order to put an ultimate end to the only remaining Cold War structure in Northeast Asia...

http://www1.korea-np.co.jp/pk/184th_issue/2002092801.htm


USA attacks Iraq, DPRK take advantage, instigates crisis just like the old days in Vietnam:

I was Chief, Intelligence Branch, Military Intelligence Division, AC of S, G-2, Hqs, 8th US Army when the USS PUEBLO was seized on 23Jan68. A few days before the BLUE HOUSE RAID had occurred. Thus there were 2 major incidents… acts of war… in one week. We had intel repts from NK POLLITBURO that NK was going to start second war front when US troop levels reached 500K in Vietnam. I and Bruce K Grant coauthored a memo 5 days before BLUE HOUSE RAID and at least one week before PUEBLO was seized that was used to put UNC on higher alert status. The memo subject matter was elements of RECON BUREAU (NK assassination teams) were coming into SK. Hindsight is 20/20.

http://rokdrop.com/2007/01/26/remembering-the-uss-pueblo/

[khad]

Well, I wouldn't make anything out of this. Fidel's already been marginalized and humiliated by the Raul faction; the major papers don't even publish his articles in print anymore. He just has the internet, which means fuck all for most of the Cuban people.

[Revy]

Um, Fidel is the head of the Communist Party of Cuba. I'd say that's a pretty high profile position he still has.

[khad]

Um, Fidel is the head of the Communist Party of Cuba. I'd say that's a pretty high profile position he still has.
A figurehead role. You must not have seen those exile scumbags cheering every indignity and humiliation that Raul inflicts on Fidel. It's a power grab, plain and simple.

http://havanajournal.com/politics/entry/cuban-newspaper-granma-not-publishing-all-of-fidel-castros-reflections/



Cuban newspaper Granma not publishing all of Fidel Castro’s Reflections

Published: Mon July 07, 2008
By: Publisher in Cuba Politics > Castro's Cuba
Tools: Tell-a-Friend | Email this author | Printer Friendly | Del.icio.us This

(EFE Ingles Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) By Antonio Martinez.

It seems that Fidel Castro currently writes only for foreigners and the relative handful of Cubans with Internet access, as the communist island’s official media - there are no independent outlets - have neither published nor reported on the erstwhile leader’s latest opinion columns, known as “Reflections.”

Those articles have appeared on the government-run Cubadebate Web site and Cuban officials have alerted foreign correspondents to their presence there, but they no longer appear in the Granma and Juventud Rebelde morning editions like they had over the previous two years.

Fidel’s latest musings are available on the Web pages of the two Communist Party publications.

According to diplomats and analysts consulted by Efe, Fidel Castro found - or someone found it for him - an outlet for expressing himself without disrupting the government, now led by younger brother Raul, by bringing up controversial topics.

“The latest (criticisms) of Europe were made by Fidel, not the government, and there was no need for the Cuban people to find out,” an analyst said

Cubans cannot access the Internet from their homes - the government says the U.S. economic embargo is to blame - and many Web sites are inaccessible for users on the island.

According to economist and former political prisoner Oscar Espinosa Chepe, the fact that Fidel’s articles have not been published in print versions of the main dailies could be “a sign of the differences that exist within the government.”

“Even Fidel Castro’s own point of view, that he doesn’t head any group, any faction within the (Communist) Party, indicates that that could be a problem,” said Espinosa, one of 20 among the “Group of 75” dissidents jailed in 2003 who has since been paroled on medical grounds.

“There are different opinions and apparently the group that is with Fidel is the more conservative (faction), which doesn’t want any type of change, which fears that any economic transformation could usher in changes in the political sphere.”

Since his elevation to the presidency in February, Raul Castro has liberalized the sale of consumer goods and ordered the state enterprises that dominate the Cuban economy to start paying employees based on their performance and scrap maximum limits on salaries.

In his latest column, Fidel Castro criticized U.S. presidential hopeful John McCain’s tour this week of Colombia and Mexico, Washington’s resurrection of the 4th Fleet to patrol Western Hemisphere waters and emigrants for abandoning Cuba.

Fidel, who made Raul provisional president in July 2006 after falling gravely ill and officially retired in February of this year, began writing his “Reflections” in the spring of 2007.

Initially, the dailies ran Fidel’s comments on the front page, then on the back pages and now not at all. The elder Castro, meanwhile, says it has been his decision to have the print media gradually give less and less attention to his articles.

Fidel Castro, set to turn 82 next month, has acknowledged that writing does not satisfy him and analysts say that is understandable for someone who for decades gave lengthy speeches to enthusiastic crowds.

The most frequent targets of his broadsides have been “the Empire” (the United States), President George W. Bush and McCain, but he also has railed against bio-fuels, the European Union and consumerism.

The first three columns of his that did not appear in the Cuban print media featured attacks on the European Union.

“I wish to register my scorn for the enormous hypocrisy behind this decision,” Castro wrote about the EU’s move, in which the bloc announced the lifting of mild sanctions imposed on Havana after the 2003 mass jailing of dissidents while also saying it would continue to review the island’s human rights record.

Analysts and diplomats have told Efe that Fidel’s remarks criticizing the EU angered Spanish officials, who were instrumental in the bloc’s move to lift the sanctions. EFE

[amandevsingh]

Fidel will live to 109. ;)

Kim Jung-il I am not so sure about...

[Revy]

I am not seeing how Fidel is any more radical than Raul.
Especially since Fidel endorsed Obama in 2008 as "the most progressive candidate running".

[amandevsingh]

The most progressive running, especially for the USA

[Revy]

The most progressive running, especially for the USA

Um, I don't think so.

[Ismail]

Neither Obama or McCain are progressive. Obama is less annoying, but to say that either are remotely progressive is just wrong.

[Revy]

Rather than being forced or shut out of dialogue, it seems to have been a conscious choice of Fidel's (from the Guardian's recent article, Castro versus Castro (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/aug/13/cuba-fidel-castro-birthday)):


In early January 2009, Fidel wrote that Cuba should not feel bound by his "occasional Reflections, state of health or [his] death". He noted that he had "the rare privilege of observing events over such a long time." "I expect I won't enjoy that privilege in four years, when Obama's first presidential term has ended," he wrote. "I have reduced the Reflections as I had planned this year, so I won't interfere or get in the way of the [communist] party or government comrades in the constant decisions they must make."---



When Fidel first came to power, he warned that if he were assassinated, those that came behind him carried even more hardline zeal. Far from being the soft touch that some predicted, Raúl Castro is allowing his brother to limp back from the limelight with dignity, but he is fundamentally unyielding to his brother's ideals. He may be willing to make some compromises to ensure that the Cuban suffering can be alleviated where possible, but the Cuban political system is not about to collapse.


The real danger to Fidel's ideology, and to his Cuban revolution, will be if Raúl, aged 78, becomes infirm or dies. No one has been groomed properly to take over the country. No credible internal opposition party exists. A power vacuum at that stage will almost guarantee interference from Washington, notwithstanding Obama's overtures. On his 83rd birthday, Fidel Castro will blow out his candles, wishing for his brother's good health.

[LeninKobaMao]

I think Castro will die first because:

http://www.tshirtgrg.com/610-KIM%20JONG%20IS%20ILLIN'.gif

[khad]

Rather than being forced or shut out of dialogue, it seems to have been a conscious choice of Fidel's (from the Guardian's recent article, Castro versus Castro (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/aug/13/cuba-fidel-castro-birthday)):

---
The article you cite claims 2 things, that Fidel "voluntarily" removed himself from publishing criticism and that he's increasingly at odds with his brother. In case you haven't noticed, these two things are contradictory.

There is clearly something going on. I would guess that "voluntary" has another meaning here.

[n0thing]

The article you cite claims 2 things, that Fidel "voluntarily" removed himself from publishing criticism and that he's increasingly at odds with his brother. In case you haven't noticed, these two things are contradictory.

There is clearly something going on. I would guess that "voluntary" has another meaning here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%BAl_Castro#President_of_Cuba
I only see good things here. Looks like he's even turning over some land to cooperatives.

As for Fidel being out of the spotlight; cry me a river. A serial torturer and murderer deserves much more than insignificance.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/images/one?id=408443&size=f

[mosfeld]

As for Fidel being out of the spotlight; cry me a river. A serial torturer and murderer deserves much more than insignificance.

What an embarrassing post. Could you give us evidence of one case of torture under Fidel's watch? You'll get 10+ liberal points if you link Human Rights Watch, since they most likely have anti-communist propaganda waiting for liberals, such as yourself, and Pogue, who linked it in a previous thread, to grab onto. Your accusation of Fidel being a 'murderer' is correct, and this accusation should be staunchly defended by anyone who believes in class struggle, which, from reading your previous posts, you don't in the slightest. For liberals, such as yourself, who, as i said earlier, don't believe in class struggle, being a murderer is the worst of all possible worlds. The murder of peasants and workers, to you, is no worse than the murder of counter-revolutionaries and reactionaries, who are the ones which Castro 'murdered'. What differs from the Revleft liberal-clique which you belong to and us Marxists is that Marxists will openly defend murder if it benefits the proletariat class and furthers the socialist cause, while liberals, like you, will denounce any 'murder' if it doesn't fit your moral criteria or something ridiculous.

[Pogue]

What an embarrassing post. Could you give us evidence of one case of torture under Fidel's watch? You'll get 10+ liberal points if you link Human Rights Watch, since they most likely have anti-communist propaganda waiting for liberals, such as yourself, and Pogue, who linked it in a previous thread, to grab onto. Your accusation of Fidel being a 'murderer' is correct, and this accusation should be staunchly defended by anyone who believes in class struggle, which, from reading your previous posts, you don't in the slightest. For liberals, such as yourself, who, as i said earlier, don't believe in class struggle, being a murderer is the worst of all possible worlds. The murder of peasants and workers, to you, is no worse than the murder of counter-revolutionaries and reactionaries, who are the ones which Castro 'murdered'. What differs from the Revleft liberal-clique which you belong to and us Marxists is that Marxists will openly defend murder if it benefits the proletariat class and furthers the socialist cause, while liberals, like you, will denounce any 'murder' if it doesn't fit your moral criteria or something ridiculous.

Isn't what your saying essentially 'Link a source that proves what you say, as long as it isn't a source I disagree with, because any source I disagree with is anti-communist propoganda'?

Also, I think there is a difference between opposing, say, the murder of a member of the boss class or a fascist and the murder of, lets say, an innocent civilian on the street. I don't think the user you quoted was saying outright 'I oppose Fidel Castro because, as a liberal, I don't agree with any form of murder'. I also beleive the fact you felt a need to contiunally re-assrt your beleif that this user is a liberal (a popular claim from Marxist-Leninists on this board against anyone who challenges them - for example practically everyone in the 'Combat Liberalism' user group is a Marxist-Leninist) shows how much you know this simply isn't true.

[Wakizashi the Bolshevik]

Well this is good, both the DPRK as Cuba are great Socialist nations.

[mosfeld]

Isn't what your saying essentially 'Link a source that proves what you say, as long as it isn't a source I disagree with, because any source I disagree with is anti-communist propoganda'?

No, I said that he should use a source which isn't from Human Rights Watch, or any Human Rights website for that matter, which is what I expected him to reply with if he had actually replied, considering his fierce anti-socialist and liberal stance. Human Rights Watch is known for exaggerating ''red barbary'' to the extremes and being a propaganda machine for the bourgeoisie, which could probably explain why you used it as a source before, considering that you're a liberal who's completely divorced from reality, just like the staff of Human Rights Watch. Then there's another issue I have with people linking Human Rights websites and using it as a source which is that Human Rights organizations completely ignore the fact that there exists a clique of reactionary human beings called the bourgeoisie. Human Rights put the proletariat on par with the bourgeoisie and claim these two classes deserve the same respect because they're both human and as such completely sidelines class struggle and defends bourgeois privilege. To Human Rights activists, a mass grave full of reactionary landowners is just as big of a violation as a mass grave full of workers, which is a position that, I think, no socialist should take.

If members of this forum, or at least the socialists, had actually read the doctrine which Human Rights activists and organization rally under, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and realized the bourgeois-centric nature of it they definitely wouldn't link any Human Rights websites and use it as a source. Did you know that Article 17 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights defends the right to individually own and acquire property? Isn't that what we're fighting against?