I felt like fucking tacoma after that. thank god that the vaguely anarcho-punks that i also know up here don't watch shit political youtubers so I can just talk music, general socialist ideas, or just random shit with them randomly.

Not all anarchists are internet-poisoned but my fucking god it hurts when I encounter one in the wild.

speaking of which I met an anarchist up here in Alaska recently who picked up on me being vaguely leftist and asked me if I knew who Chomsky was and if I knew that he was an anarchist. Get talking a little bit, get asked if I know any other theoreticians like chomsky and i drop Proudhon, Bakunin, and kropotkin. the nice person goes all amazing that its their first time meeting someone who actually knew socialist shit in Alaska and the first thing I get asked after all that is

"Hey do you watch Va*sh"

a lot of words to say "CPUSA endorse the palestinian genocide"

I'm gonna delete my account to prove you wrong now

The U.S. doesn’t have a multiparty system, a proportional representation electoral arrangement, or a historical memory of what direct fascist rule looks like. That means the tactics and messaging will be different here and the alliances less formal, but it’s worth remembering that the popular front strategy has strong roots in our country, too.

BACK WHEN THE COMMUNISTS WERE IN THE UNIONS AND HAD THE THIRD LARGEST PARTY IN THE FUCKING COUNTRY AND HAD DUAL POWER STRUCTURES IN EXISTENCE AND HAD THE COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE OF THE COMINTERN TO DRAW FROM IN ORGANIZING A COMMUNIST PARTY What the fuck do you have now, CJ? A party ran by geriatric liberals who's only experience is phonebanking for democrats, eating brunch with mimosas, and lie. Your entire constitutional convention, pile of shit that it is, was literally about starting from scratch all of the party organs the party leadership liquidated for 24 fucking years. My party's fucking ahead of you and has everything you've destroyed, and I'm sure all the other comrades here in other parties can attest that they have equivalent levels of development, if not better in some fields more than others. I've read the main report of the 32nd National Convention of the Communist Party USA as presented by Joe Sims and read every single thing that he said he wants to build in CPUSA and said variations of "Yeah, you liquidated that, yeah we already do that, holy shit how aren't you doing that already" absolute fucking embarrassment of a party. a veritable corpse marionetted on strings to dance for the Democratic party.

In the 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression and with World War II looming, communists, labor activists, liberals, Democrats, and other progressives came together to block the road to fascism in America. (Along the way, they also organized unions in the major industries and won Social Security and unemployment insurance.)

look at the last paragraph and read the first line that was written in all caps

In the U.S., the strategy was called “the People’s Front.” Drawing on the experiences witnessed in places like France, the U.S., Germany, Britain, and others, Dimitrov pulled together the lessons learned from both victories and losses in the struggle against fascism to craft the popular front strategy, which he presented at the 7th World Congress of the Communist International in 1935. U.S. Communists helped craft the global left’s turn that Dimitrov put into writing.

and all the communists of that time would roll in their graves if they knew how their theories were being bastardized by faux communists

At the core of the popular front strategy is the idea of broad-based coalition politics, and it’s formulated around a couple of key strategic questions. First, it asks what goal, if won, can change the relationship of forces and open up the possibility for advance. Second, it sets out who are the main opponents and possible allies in the struggle to achieve that goal. This means determining who has the self-interest to fight for the goal and assessing their organization, consciousness, and capacity to join in the fight.

For the People’s Front of the 1930s, the goal was the containment of fascism and the defeat of the anti-New Deal section of capital and the Republican Party. As delegates to a convention of the Communist Party heard in June 1936, “There are two chief and opposite directions of possible development in political life…. All parties and groups must be judged by their relation to these two fundamental political tendencies.”

To win a people’s recovery program in the Great Depression, this meant lining up all the forces of progress on one side to take on the forces of reaction on the other.

A December 1936 document followed up: “Our country, in common with the rest of the capitalist world, is threatened with reaction, fascism, and war…. Everything that organizes and activates the working class and its allies is progress toward socialism; likewise, everything that weakens and discourages the forces of reaction goes in the same direction.”

Nothing you are doing is activating the working class or its allies nor progresses towards socialism. What does that leave?

There were two main camps, and those who cared about stopping the worst assaults of the reactionary right and opening a way forward had to pick sides. The CPUSA has followed some variation of the People’s Front strategy ever since, making adjustments as circumstances demanded – right up to the present day.

And to varying degrees it was necessary in the past when the party was under communist leadership

Today, in 2024, we face a challenge similar to that of the 1930s. Whatever may happen within the Democratic Party when it comes to the question of Biden’s candidacy, the task for the labor, left, and people’s movements is still to stop Trump and MAGA fascism. If the latter win, all bets are off when it comes to the question of whether any democratic space will remain for us to organize, mobilize, and resist going forward.

I bet you were crying into your midnight margarita treats for the 4 years under biden thinking america suddenly nazi germany.

A major part of building the unity that’s needed, of course, is also fighting for the Biden administration to dump its own reactionary policies, like backing Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its Trump-like immigration policies. The White House’s approach on these issues puts unity in peril.

YOU ARE YEARS TO THE PARTY TOO FUCKING LATE CJ. Much like the american political system awakens and falls dormant in a cycle like a bear living through years of its life, your entire political strategy revolves around becoming active during presidential elections when it's too late affect the results and talk about how its needed to build coalitions, then completely fucking disappear the moment the new president is sworn in and wait until it's time to stomp for the democrats again to bring out the same empty platitudes and the same revolutionary in form reactionary in essence organizational plans.

Black voters and their organizations, by and large, understand the threat facing the country and serve as an example to follow. Surveying the recent string of reactionary Supreme Court rulings, the NAACP, for instance, blasted out the warning: “Elections have consequences. This is what Trump was able to do in the last term, what would the next look like?”

badgering black americans to vote for your bluemaga candidate who's done nothing for them except spit in their face and tell 'em to be thankful he's not the other guy is surely a winning strategy. Especially when its the guy that's spent his entire career tearing apart their lives. what a winning strategy, CJ.

What is to be done next?

Knowing it's CJ writing the article, it's gonna be "VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO OR YOU'RE A FASCIST!"

For the left and democratic forces in France, they now move on to the next step: figuring out how to govern and implement a pro-working class policy agenda, starting with picking a prime minister. They’ll have to cooperate with Macron and his center forces while also contending with a larger far-right bloc in parliament.

Man, the last thing the popular front in France should do is cooperate with the fucking hindenbergs. Either Macron bends the knee to the Left, or he reveals to the French working class that he's a fascist collaborator. Simple as.

But because they followed a popular front approach, they have preserved and expanded the space for progressive advance and democratic struggle. The fascists were beaten back for now, and there are real opportunities to make new gains for workers, women, people of color, immigrants, and youth in France.

The Lesson CJ learned from France is that when you beat fascism back, you have to back the status quo that allowed fascism to rise and do absolutely nothing else except make sure nothing fundamentally changes.

Here in the U.S., we’ve still got to a lot of work to do in the months ahead. We have to fight to preserve and further build unity among the anti-MAGA majority. We have to resist the media’s temptations to sink into a contest of personalities that the Biden “replacement debate” has sparked. Instead of getting too caught up in the speculation of who might replace the president at the top of the ticket, what we need to fight for right now are replacement policies on issues like Gaza and the border.

A lot of work that hasn't been done with little time left. and you'll spend every second of it saying Genocide Joe's still electable even though currently he's crumbling into dust signing blank checks to fund international fascism. Also your cute line about fighting for "replacement policies on issues like Gaza and the border." is fucking cute. Who's doing the fighting? You and what army, jackass?

And above all, we need to keep highlighting the threat posed by MAGA fascism; the dictatorial desires of Trump and his enablers in the courts, Congress, and right-wing-controlled state legislatures; and the Project 2025 schemes being drafted on behalf of the capitalist class by outfits like the Heritage Foundation.

BUZZWORD BUZZWORD BUZZWORD

French workers showed us what can be done: The popular front strategy is still our best hope to block fascism and open the road to new victories.

Best of luck to parliamentary systems that can actually utilize it in countries that actually have communist and socialist parties. We have none of those here, and by the looks of it that'll continue to be the case.

As with all op-ed and news analytical articles published by People’s World, this article reflects the opinions of its author.

What a load of shit

CPUSA leadership is using the recent victory of the French Communist, Socialist, and Social democratic alliance against Le Penn's fascist and conservative bloc in their wonk-ass parliamentary system as grounds to double down on beating the Revolutionary Left over the head over not wanting to vote for President Oskar Dirlewanger over Cheeto mussolini.

France proved the popular front strategy is the way to beat fascism

Georgi Dimitrov would be smiling this morning in Marxist heaven, if such a thing existed. The Bulgarian Communist is credited with introducing the “people’s front” (or popular front) strategy of uniting labor, left, progressive, and centrist forces to block fascism back in 1935, and France – the first country to elect a popular front government almost 90 years ago, has just done it again, maybe.

My money on what the kind and benevolent uncle Georgi would say about your article is something along the lines of

The left-wing “New Popular Front” coalition defied the polls and knocked the neo-fascist National Rally (Rassemblement National) party of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella out of first place in the final round of parliamentary elections.

yeah yeah, I'll take back maybe like 5% of the shit I say about the French over this.

The left bloc’s victory is a win not just for democracy and the working class in France; it is also proof for those of us fighting similar battles against the extreme right that broad unity, organization, and mass mobilization are the way ahead. With less than four months to go before the U.S. elections and the “Biden question” diverting attention away from the effort needed to block Trump, the popular front strategy is more relevant than ever.

SHUT THE FUCK UP THERE IS NO COMMUNIST PARTY, SOCIALIST PARTY, OR ANY SHITSUCCDEM PARTY TO FORM A POPULAR FRONT. THERE ARE ONLY DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS. MEANING IT IS STRUCTURALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO UTILIZE A POPULAR FRONT WHEN THERE IS NOTHING FUCKING THERE TO PUT UP FRONT

France’s example

That is inapplicable to the U.S's material conditions, but such marxist concepts are beyond your liberal scope.

The New Popular Front is an alliance of the French Communist Party (PCF), France Insoumise (France Unbowed, the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon), the center-left Socialist Party (PS), and Les Écologistes (a green environmentalist party).

CPUSA HAS LITERALLY CONDEMNED THE U.S GREEN PARTY OPENLY ON THE ILLOGICAL GROUNDS THAT LIBERALS USE OF 'A VOTE FOR ANYONE BUT BIDEN IS A VOTE FOR TRUMP' WHY SHOULD THE GREEN PARTY DO ANYTHING BUT SPIT IN YOUR FACE? in fact I encourage that, any members of the green party here I encourage you to embrace a strategic stance of hostility against CPUSA. Persuade any members willing to listen to abandon ship for redder communist pastures and stonewall any zealot bluMAGATS in denial.

The coalition won 182 seats in France’s 577-member National Assembly, the most seats but not an outright majority. In second place was President Emmanuel Macron’s center-right Ensemble group, with 163. National Rally captured only 143 seats, despite media predictions it was going to win.

Coming in first should give the New Popular Front the right to form a government and propose a new prime minister. But Macron, with the support of big business, continues to stoke fears of the left, just as he did in the elections. He’s looking for a way to keep New Popular Front out of power and has asked his current prime minister, Gabriel Attal, to stay on “temporarily,” even though the latter offered his resignation.

Much to nobody's surprise liberals prefer to stomp for fascism over taking their medicine and working with the Left. WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN TO YOU SHITLIBS WHEN YOU STOMP FOR BIDEN

The president’s maneuvering to block the left and working class-backed parties is no surprise, however. Macron is a former investment banker who worked for Rothschild & Cie Banque before being plucked by former President François Hollande to become finance minister ten years ago.

And Biden doesn't need any of that fancy finance capitalist background because he'll fucking do it for free like he's done his entire career

In that role and later as president, he pursued policies that privatized or deregulated major sections of the French economy, made lay-offs easier, raised the retirement age for workers, and pursued other capitalist class priorities.

Sounds like the shit both u.s parties want to do

He faced brutal criticism from all sides throughout the election campaign; most people think he essentially helped the fascists nearly take over the country by calling for the vote in the first place. Even Attal criticized his boss.

yeah yeah fuck macaroni salad

Macron plunged the country into the snap election following the National Rally’s runaway win in EU parliamentary elections in early June. He gambled that fear of the right would help him steal voters away from the left and strengthen his control of parliament.

did he actually say that? if so he's a fucking clown

National Rally—formerly known as the National Front—was founded in 1972 by anti-Semite and Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen to unite the extreme nationalist right. Among its founders were veterans of the French division of Hitler’s Waffen-SS and supporters of the collaborationist Vichy regime of World War II, which helped the Nazis rule France after they invaded the country.

sounds like fine friends to the biden adminstration. better check if they're getting any of that sweet CIA funding.

Now led by Jean-Marie Le Pen’s daughter, Marine Le Pen, the party has tried to paper over its fascist roots, but it maintains the same toxic anti-immigrant positions, and members are frequently outed as racists in the press. But like many neo-fascist parties, National Rally has also taken steps to make itself amenable to the neoliberal ideology of the capitalist ruling class, accepting the euro currency and promising to follow the budget demands of the big banks.

damn they sound pretty fucking american politically

The Communist Party (PCF) warned that “the noose is tightening” on democracy in France following the National Rally’s string of advances. To block the descent into far-right rule, it took the lead in initiating the New Popular Front.

Now I'll normally criticize the PCF for being eurocom parliamentarian dorks but they've done more in just a few weeks than CPUSA has done in 24 years.

Rather than competing and splitting the votes of the left, the parties of the New Popular Front ran a block of common candidates in France’s 577 constituencies, dividing the seats among themselves. After the first round on June 30, in any constituency where it looked like National Rally might win, the coalition stuck to its united front tactics and backed whomever had the best chance of beating the right, whether they were a New Popular Front candidate or not.

I can see what you're trying to angle at CJ, and you're a fucking clown if you're gonna say what I think you're gonna say a few lines later.

Macron’s forces cooperated in several districts, but in others, they clung on, even if it meant fracturing the anti-fascist vote and handing the seat to National Rally. If he had ordered his party to cooperate more closely with the left and pro-republican forces, the scale of the National Rally’s defeat might have been even greater.

Trade unions, mass organizations, environmental advocates, and other citizen groups, however, did rally to the New Popular Front’s message of unity. The Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT, France’s largest union federation) gave the bloc its “full support.” The situation was reminiscent of the original Popular Front victory in the 1936 elections, which saw the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, and the CGT all unite to stop fascism.

Good for the French. Totally fucking inapplicable here.

People’s Front USA

JUMP UP YOUR OWN ASS AND DIE

Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen are expressions of the same far-right, racist, corporate-backed trend. In France’s 2017 presidential election, Trump gave her a strong endorsement, calling her the “strongest candidate,” while his now-imprisoned adviser Steve Bannon offered his services to her party.

It took broad unity to block Le Pen and the National Rally this weekend in France. Though the political institutions and voting systems in the U.S. are very different, a similar strategic approach is required to block Trump and the MAGA Republicans here.

If everything is fucking different from what we saw in France, that means its very unlikely towards impossible to utilize a similar approach in the U.S. Also remember when I said "I can see what you're trying to angle at CJ," a few lines up? FUCKING CALLED IT

Now, here we are – with a compromised presidential candidate and a campaign that has allowed too many Americans to forget the millions of jobs created over the last few years, the global health pandemic that was (mostly) defeated, the successful unionization drives that have revived the labor movement, the fightback of women against the anti-abortion onslaught, the (still-too-few) reforms that have been won to control racist police, the investments that have been made in infrastructure, and the other real achievements that the people’s movements have scored since defeating Trump and MAGA in 2020.

point 1, you sound like a fucking liberal and not a communist but that's not new news. point 2 pandemic still going fuckface. point 3 that's not biden's achievement nor your party's achievement, the situation in America is just that bad the people's class conciousness is organically stirring. point 4, that's a non-point, nothing any normal person can do can overturn what the supreme court's done unless the FUCKING PRESIDENT THREATENS TO BLACK BAG THEIR ASSES UNLESS THEY DO AS HE SAYS. point 5, fucking lol no. point 6, look to point 5. point 7, wet shart noises.

After watching Thursday night’s debate and seeing two men bicker about their golfing skills, it’s easy to fall into despair. As the NAACP tweeted last night, “How about you both swing into protecting democracy, lowering inflation, and providing affordable healthcare! We don’t care about your handicap! We’ve got work tomorrow!”

That shit was funny you fucking lib

Coming right after the stinging defeat of Rep. Jamaal Bowman in the New York primary earlier in the week, the debate makes the November vote feel even more foreboding.

Jamaal fucking sucked and was a traitor to the DSA. Which i don't really give a shit about because they're not communists nor are they revolutionary, but that's a whole separate article.

But it’s important to look beyond just the Biden vs. Trump fight. We’re not just electing a single man as president. We’re electing an entire presidential administration, with all the departments, agencies, and boards that that includes. We’re electing a Congress, several governors, dozens of state legislatures, and thousands of county and local officials. We’re also indirectly electing a Supreme Court and federal judges at every level.

Its important to look beyond the fact you're voting for RedMAGA or BlueMAGA. We have to remember that as our beloved president has said, nothing will fundamentally change.

There is too much at stake to drop out or retreat into cynicism and conclude they’re both equally bad. The democratic space that we have to organize, struggle, resist, and win is directly linked to the outcome of these elections – ALL of them, from top to bottom.

Your entire party's idea of operating is acting as agents of the DNC electoral committee. You aren't fighting fascism to save democracy, you're fighting to enable fascism to strangle democracy.

The polls and the bookies’ predictions are all in agreement: The odds of Trump winning just went up. But we can’t abandon this fight, because if we do, then the odds of our movements and bourgeois democracy surviving will go way down on Inauguration Day 2025.

Shut the fuck up. Nothing fucking changed under trump the first time, I'm at the point that there's precident that nothing's really gonna be different if there's a second serving of Cheeto dust in your brunch mimosas.

As with all op-eds published by People’s World, this article reflects the opinions of its author.

Bull shit.

CPUSA leadership yet again endorses Democratic presidential candidate and plans to commit the Party to do everything they can in their power to ensure the genocidal bourgeoise monsters win over the bourgeoise genocidal monsters, with added bonus of this time capping for a senile, genocidal, geriatric corpse that's surrounded by yesmen

After Biden-Trump debate, the task remains: Block fascism in November

If you're still in CPUSA at this point you're either in it for the retirement community home vibes, a DNC operative/operative-in-training, in denial to the truth, or an outright traitor to the communist movement. Even the CPSU under Gorbachev fought tooth an nail against being dragged behind the barn by Yeltsin's bourgeoise with their failed "coup" before the overthrow of the Soviet Union, and the CPUSA can't even manage to vote down their leadership's "Vote blue no matter who" motion

Two things are clearer than ever after the first presidential debate. First, Trump is a fascist and a liar who can’t be allowed near the White House ever again. Second, despite Biden’s faltering performance as messenger, the task ahead of the people’s and labor movements is still the same: Block fascism in November.

Blow it out your ass CJ

Just minutes into the June 27 debate, as Biden struggled to string together coherent responses to questions and failed to push back on Trump’s falsehoods, social media was alight with speculation that the Democratic Party may now be forced to find a new candidate just 130 days before the election.

Who promised to be a one-term president CJ.

The mainstream corporate press, led by the likes of CNN and the Wall Street Journal, gave scant attention to the substantive issues at stake in this vote and concentrated almost exclusively on Biden’s “unsteady performance.” That’s no surprise, though. To be honest, “unsteady” might be an understatement. But more importantly, Trump’s lies and the threat he poses became almost a footnote in the news coverage and commentary.

Yeah who are you going to believe in regards to why we must vote for biden, the lying Communist News Network and Red Square Street Journal, or CPUSA's sterling leadership?

Thanks to the media circus and Biden’s communication failures, policy differences are not what people will be talking about when it comes to this debate.

What policy differences, CJ?

They won’t be talking about the convicted felon’s plan to pardon himself and his Jan. 6 invaders for the crimes they’ve committed, thus placing his fascist movement out of reach of the criminal justice system – which as flawed as it is, remains an essential check on power.

They won't be talking about the current war criminal-in-chief being given the legal stamp by Trump's supreme court to aid and abet genocide without even a slap on the wrist

They won’t be talking about the white supremacist who will deploy more racist and heavily armed police to the streets of Black and Latino neighborhoods, return to building a wall at the border, and revive the Muslim ban.

They won't talk about the white supremacists who've been dancing in the streets in support of the Biden Administration as they've poured billions of american tax dollars into fascist Ukraine and fascist Israel

They won’t be talking about the wannabe dictator’s intention to ditch democracy by carrying out further assaults on voting rights via racist gerrymandering, abolition of early and mail-in voting, and the appointment of MAGA-dominated election boards in counties across this land.

They won't talk about the literal reincarnation of Andrew Fucking Jackson ruling the USA with his own fucking kitchen cabinet of yesmen who've continued the so-called wannabe dictator's policies from day one of his administration

They won’t be talking about the bleach peddler who chose to let hundreds of thousands of his people die from coronavirus rather than listen to the advice of health professionals in the crucial early months of the pandemic.

CJ guess whats fucking going on right now again under your beloved democrat president

They won’t be talking about how the chosen candidate of the most reactionary sector of the capitalist class plans to further slash taxes on corporations and billionaires, intentionally putting Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block.

Hey CJ did you hear about all of the most reactionary sector of the capitalist class have been supporting biden all the way up until the debate? Are you gonna call them progressive because they vote blue like you? Sounds like you're also calling for class collaboration with both international and finance capitalists, CJ.

They won’t be talking about the corporate chieftain’s plan to go to war on workers by obliterating the National Labor Relations Board, putting bosses in charge of labor law enforcement, and stripping 40 million people of their health insurance.

Cj if you love feasting on the dust particles that comes off of the crumbs that the democrats let fall off the table to the point you'll clap like a seal and bob your head like a parrot for them, you fucking deserve crumbs you line of shit out of a worm's ass.

They won’t be talking about the serial rapist’s intention to permanently finish off abortion rights and women’s access to health services. His right-wing-dominated Supreme Court already crippled Roe v. Wade, and his state-level acolytes have rushed to abolish reproductive freedom wherever they have power. He’s made clear he wants to go even further.

CJ, the name Tara Reed sound familiar? Also Roe happened under Biden and he's said he will roll over and beg like a dog at whatever they rule. The anti-democratic supreme court will continue to roll back every concession we've gained until in the souls of the People the grapes of wrath are filled once more.

They won’t be talking about how the best friend of the big banks will go even further than he did before to roll back laws aimed at preventing the Wall Street gambling and speculation that incinerated jobs, pensions, and workers’ homes during the financial crisis and the Great Recession it triggered.

They aren't talking about how nothings been done under biden to prevent this, nor his roll under obungler in ensuring that wallstreet was rewarded with golden parachutes for their crimes against the american working class, who themselves were left out to dry after their livelihoods were destroyed.

They won’t be talking about how the nation’s No. 1 liar will team up with media moguls like Elon Musk to further put the squeeze on freedom of the press and elevate the power of fascist platforms like Truth Social and reactionary outlets like Fox News.

As fucking if any of the lying press is worth a wet shart

They won’t be talking about how Netanyahu’s favored nominee believes the only thing wrong with Biden’s Gaza policy is that it hasn’t helped kill enough Palestinians. “Let Israel finish the job,” he says.

YOU FUCKING GENOCIDAL FREAK

So, it falls to independent working-class outlets like People’s World to turn the spotlight back on these existential threats.

Neither independent, nor working class. My posting on hexbear's more independent and I just got off the clock from my job to ragepost about your shit genocide-supporting articles, CJ

As for Biden, well, the panic is on. Democratic Party big-shots and their big money apparatus are scrambling, convinced that finding a new nominee is imperative. From inside a meeting of donors in Atlanta, one observer summed up the feeling of the room during the debate to a Politico reporter: “Our only hope is that he bows out, we have a brokered convention, or he dies. Otherwise, we are fucking dead.”

Good.

All the talk is about Biden’s poor performance and how it might have sunk the campaign. But even if Biden performs “well”, what does that mean? A more well-executed genocide in Gaza? A more well-defined deportation policy to seal the border and shut out refugees? A more well-crafted NATO policy to provoke military conflict in eastern Europe? A more well-designed Cold War against China?

the answer is yes to all the raised questions.

Whether there is a replacement candidate or not – and honestly, such an outcome is still highly unlikely – there must be replacement policies. If everything is left to the ruling-class-aligned elements at the top of the Democratic Party, we’ll still be in trouble. For months, the democratic, peace, and labor movements have been warning that several of the administration’s policies – like Gaza and immigration – could split the coalition needed to defeat Trump.

THIS IS LITERALLY HOW THE COOKIE CRUMBLES EVERY FUCKING TIME YOU FUCKING TURKEY STARING AT THE HURRICANE

Just to let you kids get the reading done before I go off here's the links

https://peoplesworld.org/article/after-biden-trump-debate-the-task-remains-block-fascism-in-november/

https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/france-proved-the-popular-front-strategy-is-the-way-to-beat-fascism/

Gonna post another DNCPUSA tirade in like the next few hours, I've been stewing all day to go ragepost about CJ Atkins rightist-capitulationist articles he's been posting in defense of the Biden administration again

Repost time

__

Some light Korean history I'll make occasionally posts of

Joseon Era (1392 - 1897)

Korea's first encounter with America, but they didn't know it at the time.

1867, Summer period, the Sherman Incident

Aug 9 to 16

An armed U.S. merchant ship, a centerboard schooner named The General Sherman, sets sail to attempt to force Joseon (Korea) to open up to foreign trade with its holds filled to the brim with cotton cloth, glass, tin plates, and other items bought from China. The captain and crew also had a secret objective of using the opportunity to trade to loot the royal tombs that lie north-east of Pyongyang.

Even though the ship flew the U.S flag, there were only three to five 'westerners' onboard. The Americans owner of the ship Preston, captain Paige, first mate wilson, a welsh missionary Thomas, and some nameless brit. The crew primarily consisted of around a dozen Chinese and a handful of Malay sailors.

At this time Korea, ruled by prince Yi Ha Eung acting as regent to the young king Gojong, was known as the “Hermit Kingdom” due to its isolationist policies. Policies stemming from Korea being invaded many times over the past years by Chinese and Japanese bandits, soldiers, looters, etc.

Shortly prior to the American incident, the Korean kingdom had rebuffed an invasion attempt by the French who had mounted a punitive expedition on Korea for their persecution of Korean converts to catholicism and the death of seven French missionaries. That last bit is important so keep it in your head for a short while.

Aug 16 to 31

The General Sherman stopped at the mouth of the Taedong River at a government checkpoint, but instead of waiting for the local officials to message the kingdom officials, the captain ordered the ship to continue upriver towards Pyongyang, making occasionally stops for the welsh missionary to step off the boat and proselytizing villagers and passing out bibles.

The governor of Pyongyang dispatched his adjutant general with a small crew to meet and provide food to the crew in order to try to slow them down and hopefully persuade them to leave instead while the governor went to meet with the Regent.

The Adjutant General's journey would take a few days but the meeting with the regent was more faster and his decision more severe. The foreign ship must leave or the crew was to be slaughtered to the last man. The reason for this decision was because the regent thought they were another French warship sent on a punitive expedition and decisive action must be taken to protect the capital from being bombarded by their guns.

Aug 31 to Sept 2

The General Sherman continues upriver until it runs aground in shallow water and becomes stuck. Unknown to them, it was due to rainwater swelling the river larger than its normal size that caused the crew mistake the amount of maneuvering room they had and leading to their current predicament of taking a break in a sandbar

While trying to unstick the ship, some of the crew were dispatched for forage for supplies on one of the ship's smaller boats while another was sent to recon further upriver. Coincidentally the smaller boat that was dispatched for foraging would encounter Pyongyang's adjutant general and his men and decided it was a good idea to take him hostage.

All the while this was going on, the scout boat sent north got shot at and returned back to the General Sherman while the crew and Pyongyang militia would skirmish with each other for days culminating in the ship opening fire on a protesting crowd of Korean villagers with their 12 pound cannons murdering 7 or so.

This would lead to the Korean militia trying to improvise a cannon-armed turtle ship (a precursor to the then-modern western iron clads designed by Korea that saw great use in repelling Japanese invading ships in prior centuries) unfortunately the Korean cannon did not have enough power to penetrate the hull of the general sherman and was repelled shortly after. The decision was then made to launch fire ships at the American ship until it caught fire and sunk.

The first two fire ships failed but the third one succeeded in setting the general sherman alight with all its cargo. The last of the crew that hadn't been burned to death abandoned ship. Many drowned before reaching the shore and the few who did would shortly join the rest of their dead crew after being beaten to death by a mob of angry Koreans.

This incident would be covered by the kingdom of Korea as another skirmish between the kingdom and France. The U.S government would inquire about the missing ship and its crew to which the diplomatic department of the kingdom would reply saying they had no idea what happened to the ship and that there were no Americans in Korea.

The loss of the merchant ship general sherman would give the U.S government enough reason to launch an "investigation" expedition into Korea that would lead to u.s forces temporarily capturing several fortresses over the 'disappeared' General Sherman. But that's enough for now.

Forcing me to remember my login credentials every time we take the site down as a joke is not okay either.

I take my one-account Ironman run seriously