Full Text of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Address to the 2023 BRICS Summit

We have been warning our readers about the start of World War III between US/NATO  – and their Nazi-dominated puppet government in Ukraine – and Russia and Socialist China since it escalated into open warfare in February 2022.

Today, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, in an address to the 2023 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, made it absolutely clear that the savage economic, political and military warfare the US has been waging against Russia via it’s puppets in Kiev is about to be responded to in kind, in a manner designed to eventually – permanently – dislodge the US dollar as the world’s primary reserve currency.  This is economic warfare at its most dangerous, and portends a major escalation of WWIII from a mere border clash to, ultimately, nuclear war between Russia and the US.  We republish his speech here so that workers around the world can read it in its entirety; we expect the bourgeois press to do all it can to misquote, exaggerate, falsify and censor it; this is why we are publishing the complete text as it was published in English on the official website of the President of the Russian Federation.

We do not in any way support the capitalist Russian government politically or militarily in any way; in fact, in the current war between Russia and US/NATO-backed Ukraine, we call for workers socialist revolutions to overthrow ALL of the governments involved, from Washington to Moscow. But this address, in my opinion, is world-historic in that it raises the economic stakes so high as to preclude any kind of de-escalation of WWIII that was initiated solely by the US capitalist class and their government;  there is no way that the madmen and madwomen running the US are going to allow their insane drive for complete domination of the world’s economy be derailed by ANYONE, and especially not Vladimir Putin.  This massive, purely defensive escalation of economic warfare between Russia and the US places them in a position which, historically, has ALWAYS been resolved through savage wars between the principal adversaries and their allies.

Whether or not the rest of the BRICS nations are willing to follow Russia’s lead in attempting to dislodge the US dollar permanently as the world’s #1 reserve currency – declaring open economic warfare against the US in the process is not in their best political or economic interest in the short run – Putin today announced that as precisely what Russia intends to do as one of the two leading nuclear-armed superpowers in the BRICS coalition. In this speech, President Putin points out the tremendous economic progress the BRICS countries have already achieved against the leading industrialized nations of the Group of 7 (G7):

  “The figures speak for themselves. Over the last decade, mutual investments among the BRICS countries have increased six-fold. Their overall investments in global economy have doubled, and their total exports have reached 20 percent of the world exports […] I would also like to point out that the share of the BRICS countries, with their population totalling more than three billion people, now accounts for nearly 26 percent of the global GDP; our five countries are ahead of the G7 in terms of purchasing power parity (the forecast for 2023 is 31.5 percent against 30 percent) […]  The objective and irreversible process of the de-dollarization of our economic ties is gaining pace. We are working to fine-tune effective mechanisms for mutual settlements and monetary and financial control. As a result, the share of US dollar in export and import operations within BRICS is declining: last year it stood at only 28.7 percent […]  during this summit we will discuss in detail the entire range of issues related to the transition to national currencies in all areas of economic cooperation between our five nations. The BRICS New Development Bank, which has already become a credible alternative to existing Western development institutions, has a great role to play in these efforts.”

Pres. Putin also outlines two major new trade routes Russia intends to establish to facilitate trade between Russia and its BRICS partners around the world – both of which the US will do all it can do to disrupt.  For those of you who pretend that Climate Change is a fraud, one of these trade routes will be “the Northern Sea Route […]  Russia has already adopted and launched a large-scale, multi-year plan to develop its infrastructure. We intend to build fuel terminals, hub ports to ensure connections with road and rail transport. The icebreaking fleet is being expanded, first of all by commissioning nuclear-powered vessels that have no analogues in the world. 

“As for the North‑South Transport Corridor, it will connect Russian ports on the Arctic seas and the Baltic Sea with offshore terminals in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, thereby providing opportunities to increase cargo transportation between Eurasian and African countries. Besides, this will certainly give impetus to developing new industrial, trade and logistics facilities along the route.”  [SOURCE: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/72085]

Revolutionary socialists have always declared that “there is literally no future for the working class under the capitalist system”.  Right now the workers of the major industrialized nations in the northern hemisphere are being driven down the road to a nuclear WWIII at a pace that is absolutely stunning – and, equally stunning:  there has been practically NO WORKING CLASS OPPOSITION to the drive to World War Three as there was in the US and Europe in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s every time that the US threatened to launch it against, in turn, the bureaucratized socialist workers states of the USSR, China, the DPRK (North Korea), Cuba and Vietnam.  Unless the working class stands up and starts fighting to oppose this insane drive towards WWIII, IT WILL HAPPEN!  The capitalist greed-heads running the governments of the world care NOTHING about human beings; not even their own families!  All they care about is MONEY, period!  They apparently believe that they will survive a nuclear holocaust in their underground bunkers, and after slaughtering hundreds of millions of their citizens, they will emerge victorious from their rat-holes and be welcomed by the survivors of the nuclear bloodbath – and resume their duties as government leaders as if nothing happened!  They are completely insane – and unless the working class takes these weapons of mass destruction out of their hands permanently, it is only a matter of time before they stagger their way into blowing up the entire northern hemisphere, killing all of us!  Join us to put an end to this madness NOW!

Dump ALL pro-capitalist parties and build revolutionary Trotskyist parties!  For workers socialist revolution throughout the capitalist world!

—- IWPCHI

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SOURCE: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/72085

[N.B.:  This address of Vladimir Putin to the BRICS summit meeting in South Africa had to be given via video from Moscow, because the US – which refuses to allow its own government or military to be subject to rulings of the International Criminal Court – has conspired to get that court to issue an indictment and an International Arrest Warrant against Putin for alleged “crimes against humanity” in Ukraine, making it impossible for him to travel to South Africa personally, in spite of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s assurances that his government would not honor the arrest warrant if Putin attended the summit.  The US has proven again and again that it will wantonly violate international laws and norms of conduct in order to attack its enemies; this US-concocted threat against the Russian head of state is just another manifestation of the US’ intention to provoke open war – WWIII – between the US, its puppet NATO allies, and Russia.  —- IWPCHI]

Video Address to the Participants in the BRICS Business Forum

Vladimir Putin made a video address to guests and participants in the BRICS Business Forum, which is traditionally held ahead of the BRICS summit.

August 22, 2023

19:10

The 15^th BRICS summit is taking place on August 22–24 in Johannesburg (South Africa). The theme of the session is “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism.” The leaders of the Group of Five will discuss current international and regional challenges, as well as achievements and goals of the BRICS strategic partnership in the political, economic, cultural and humanitarian areas. Special attention will be paid to issues of BRICS institutional development, including expansion of the association and creation of payment infrastructure resistant to external risks.

* * *

Video Address to the Participants in the BRICS Business Forum

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Esteemed President Ramaphosa, ladies and gentlemen, friends,

I am pleased to greet representatives of government institutions and business, specialists and industry experts who have gathered for this meeting of the BRICS Business Forum.

I would like to note that holding such business forums on a regular basis, along with the systemic work of the BRICS Business Council, which brings together top businessmen and heads of major companies of the five countries, plays an immense practical role in promoting mutual trade and investments, enhancing cooperation ties and expanding direct dialogue among the business communities – and thus effectively contributes to accelerated socio-economic growth of our states and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

It is important that this Forum focuses on such pressing issues as the post-pandemic economic recovery of the BRICS states, improvement of citizens’ well-being, industrial modernization, development of effective transport and logistics chains, and stimulation of equitable technology transfers.

These challenging and complex tasks need to be tackled against the backdrop of the increasing volatility in stock, currency, energy and food markets, coupled with substantial inflationary pressure stemming from, inter alia, the irresponsible large-scale money creation by a number of countries seeking to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, which has led to the accumulation of private and public debt.

The global economic situation is also seriously affected by the illegitimate sanctions practice and illegal freezing of assets of sovereign states, which essentially amounts to the trampling upon all the basic norms and rules of free trade and economic life – norms and rules that not so long ago seemed immutable.

Shortage of resources, growing inequality, rising unemployment, and aggravation of other chronic problems in the global economy are the direct consequences of this. Prices for food, basic agricultural products and crops are forced up, making the most vulnerable, poor countries suffer the most.

Importantly, under these circumstances, the BRICS states have stepped up their interaction, and our joint work to ensure economic growth and sustainable development brings concrete, tangible results. More and more new infrastructure and investment projects are being launched, mutual trade is growing, industry contacts are expanding.

The main thing is that our cooperation is based on the principles of equality, partner support, and respect for each other’s interests. And that is what lies at the core of our Association’s forward-looking strategic course – the course that reflects the aspirations of most of the world’s community, the so-called global majority.

The figures speak for themselves. Over the last decade, mutual investments among the BRICS countries have increased six-fold. Their overall investments in global economy have doubled, and their total exports have reached 20 percent of the world exports.

As for Russia, the trade volume with our BRICS partners has increased by 40.5 percent, reaching a record of over 230 billion US dollars. In the first half of this year it grew by 35.6 percent compared with the same period in 2022 and constituted 134.7 billion US dollars.

I would also like to point out that the share of the BRICS countries, with their population totalling more than three billion people, now accounts for nearly 26 percent of the global GDP; our five countries are ahead of the G7 in terms of purchasing power parity (the forecast for 2023 is 31.5 percent against 30 percent).

The objective and irreversible process of the de-dollarization of our economic ties is gaining pace. We are working to fine-tune effective mechanisms for mutual settlements and monetary and financial control. As a result, the share of US dollar in export and import operations within BRICS is declining: last year it stood at only 28.7 percent.

Incidentally, during this summit we will discuss in detail the entire range of issues related to the transition to national currencies in all areas of economic cooperation between our five nations. The BRICS New Development Bank, which has already become a credible alternative to existing Western development institutions, has a great role to play in these efforts.

It is only natural that enhancing connectivity and creating new sustainable traffic arteries have become a shared priority in cooperation between our five countries. In this context, the BRICS Business Council’s initiative to work out modern intermodal logistics solutions and develop railway transport corridors is of particular importance.

For its part, Russia actively works to redirect its traffic and logistics flows to reliable foreign partners, including in the BRICS states. Our flagship projects include the Northern Sea Route and the new International North‑South Transport Corridor. These two major transport arteries aim to provide the shortest and most cost-effective trade routes to link major industrial, agricultural and energy hubs with consumer markets.

With regard to the Northern Sea Route, I would like to emphasize that Russia has already adopted and launched a large-scale, multi-year plan to develop its infrastructure. We intend to build fuel terminals, hub ports to ensure connections with road and rail transport. The icebreaking fleet is being expanded, first of all by commissioning nuclear-powered vessels that have no analogues in the world.

As for the North‑South Transport Corridor, it will connect Russian ports on the Arctic seas and the Baltic Sea with offshore terminals in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, thereby providing opportunities to increase cargo transportation between Eurasian and African countries. Besides, this will certainly give impetus to developing new industrial, trade and logistics facilities along the route.

Russia stands for greater cooperation within BRICS as regards reliable and uninterrupted supplies of energy and food resources to the world markets. We are consistently increasing supplies of fuel, agricultural products and fertilizers to countries in the Global South, making a significant contribution to strengthening global food and energy security, addressing acute humanitarian issues and fighting hunger and poverty in countries in need.

All these issues, in particular, were discussed in depth at the recent Russia–Africa Summit. For example, last year trade in agricultural products between Russia and African states grew by 10 percent and amounted to 6.7 billion US dollars. And in January-June this year, it increased by another record 60 percent. Our country is and will remain a responsible supplier of food to the African continent.

Russian grain exports to Africa amounted to 11.5 million tonnes in 2022 and almost 10 million tonnes in the first six months of 2023. This is despite the unlawful sanctions imposed on us that seriously hinder the export of Russian food products and complicate transport logistics, insurance and bank payments.

Russia is being deliberately obstructed in the supply of grain and fertilizers abroad and at the same time we are hypocritically blamed for the current crisis situation on the world market. This has been clearly seen in the implementation of the so-called ”grain deal“ concluded with the participation of the UN Secretariat and initially aimed at ensuring global food security, reducing the threat of hunger and providing aid to the poorest countries.

We have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that in a year under the deal, a total of 32.8 million tonnes of cargo has been exported from Ukraine, of which over 70 percent have reached high- and upper-middle-income countries, including the European Union. And only about three percent have gone to the least developed countries – that is, less than one million tonnes.

None of the terms of the so-called deal concerning the lifting of sanctions imposed on Russian exports of grain and fertilizers to world markets have been fulfilled. Obligations to Russia in this regard have been simply ignored. Even our free transfer of mineral fertilizers blocked in European ports has been obstructed. In fact, this is a purely humanitarian campaign that should not in principle be subject to any sanctions.

With these facts in mind, since July 18, we have refused to further extend the so-called deal. And we will be ready to get back to it, but only if all obligations to the Russian side are actually fulfilled.

I have repeatedly said that our country has the capacity to replace Ukrainian grain, both commercially and as free aid to needy countries, especially since our harvest is again expected to be perfect this year. As a first step, we have decided to gratuitously provide six African countries with 25‑50 thousand tonnes of grain each with free delivery of these cargoes. Negotiations with partners are being completed.

Among the priority areas of interaction we also see further coordination of approaches of the BRICS members on the subject of supporting small and medium-sized enterprises. This is an important part of the overall economic agenda of the Group of Five, which implies assistance to the widest circles of citizens engaged in business activity as regards administrative and tax regulation, digitalization, e-commerce, and participation in the value chains.

I would note that thanks to the state support programmes, the entrepreneurs from the BRICS countries successfully adapt to the constantly changing situation in the global markets. They find new partners and new sales channels, attract additional funding and use more actively modern technologies.

It is equally important to continue developing cooperation within BRICS in terms of decarbonizing the economy, reducing human impact on nature and adapting to the changing climate. Russia is ready to work jointly to promote more balanced approaches to the climate change in the international arena.

Our country is consistently implementing the National Low-Carbon Development Strategy. We plan to reach carbon neutrality of the Russian economy not later than 2060, including through the introduction of technological innovations, modernization of infrastructure for access to affordable and clean energy, conservation of ecosystems on land and sea. We understand that the implementation of the climate goals can be facilitated by a variety of technologies, including those that have been in use for a long time already, such as nuclear generation, hydropower and gas motor fuel.

To sum it up, I would like to reiterate that the multifaceted partnership and cooperation within the BRICS not only makes a significant contribution to ensuring the sustainable growth of our states but also generally promotes global economic recovery and successful achievement of global development goals and targets set by the United Nations – to fight poverty, expand people’s access to quality healthcare, eradicate hunger and improve food security.

Therefore, I am confident that the BRICS Business Forum and Business Council will continue their creative work aimed at expanding contacts between the business circles of the Group of Five countries and jointly implementing new mutually beneficial projects.

In conclusion, I would like to invite representatives of your countries’ business circles to attend the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia that will take place on September 10–13 in the city of Vladivostok, where, by tradition, the discussions will focus on issues that are also of interest to the business communities of the BRICS countries.

Thank you for your attention.

Publication date: August 22, 2023, 19:10

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DEFEND NORTH KOREA! DPRK Defends its Right to Nuclear Self-Defense vs. “Nuclear Blackmail” of US Govt.

Voice of Korea website homepage, 17 April 2017

[N.B.: The United States and its massive propaganda machine – encompassing much of the world’s bourgeois press – has long been selling the outrageous and obvious lie that tiny North Korea, with its handful of nuclear weapons mounted (so far) only on CONTINENTAL ballistic missiles poses a deadly existential threat to the US and the entire world.  Only the willfully blind would believe this fraudulent claim, especially coming as it does from the US government, which possesses THOUSANDS of nuclear warheads capable of hitting North Korea from land, air and sea-based launch platforms.  The United States murdered an estimated 3 million Koreans in the Korean War, fought by the US capitalist class to prevent the Korean workers from taking power into their own hands and establishing a revolutionary socialist workers government at the end of WWII.  It was only due to the existence of the nuclear arsenal of the USSR that the US was prevented from using nuclear weapons against North Korea and China just as they had against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  It was the nuclear arsenal of the USSR and, later, China, that prevented the US from deploying nuclear weapons against the Vietnamese workers during the brutal, barbaric Vietnam War.  Today, despite the massive historical record proving that it has been the USA that poses the greatest threat North Korea – and  to the human race – due to its proven willingness to use nuclear weapons – the world is supposed to believe that the quite reasonable desire of the tiny Stalinist workers state of North Korea to possess a few nukes as self-defense against the massive nuclear-armed US imperialist war machine poses a deadly threat to – the US!  Of course, this is a monstrous lie, as the following declaration of the DPRK’s “Voice of Korea” website makes clear.  Since it is impossible to get the DPRK’s side of the story from any US bourgeois press outlet, we are making an attempt to “break the US propaganda blockade” against the North Korean Stalinized workers state by publishing a few of their statements here on our website.  We say: US HANDS OFF NORTH KOREA! and US GET THE HELL OUT OF ASIA, NOW!

The following unattributed statement was transcribed from an English-language audio recording presented on the “Voice of Korea” website at http://www.vok.rep.kp/CBC/index.php?CHANNEL=6&lang= on 17 April 2017 by IWPCHI. All bracketed phrases were added by us. — IWPCHI]

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“Shamelessness of the United States, Kingpin of Nuclear Proliferation”

Some time ago, the US representative to the United Nations said: “Negotiations on [the] ‘Convention on Banning Nuclear Weapons’ are unrealistic because of the nuclear threat of North Korea”. Taking the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea as the reason why the United States does not take part in the UN conference for negotiations on the Convention on banning nuclear weapons, he said: “Is there anyone who believes that North Korea would agree on banning nuclear weapons? It is impossible to say that the people can be protected in the way of disallowing such countries as the United States – trying to defend peace and security – to have nuclear weapons; and then allowing their opponents to have them.”

It is really a shameless and brigandish sophistry; it is a manifestation of the shameless attempt of the United States to cover up its heinous crimes – the country that is the only user of nukes in the world; a country that has invited worldwide nuclear arms race with nuclear threat and blackmail.

Looking back upon the history of nuclear arms development, the United States and other big powers played the leading role in making international conventions on nuclear weapons and signed them (or not, in their interests), for the purpose of keeping non-nuclear states from possessing nukes. The Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea has risen up as a nuclear power in the East to cope with the vicious use of threat of nuclear war, which has lasted tens of years; so it is quite natural for the DPRK not to take part in the UN conference for negotiations on the convention on banning nuclear weapons, which presupposes nuclear renunciation.

The United States is the kingpin of nuclear proliferation, that did not hesitate to impose nuclear calamity upon humanity to realize its ambition for world domination, but trifled international treaties for nuclear disarmament and is conniving at, encouraging and shielding the nuclear arms development of its stooges.

Recently, in the United States (which talked about a ‘nuclear-free world’ more loudly than others) remarks are openly made that the nuclear force of the United States ‘lags behind’ other countries, and nuclear force will be strengthened to keep it in military power. Still advocating ‘peace by strength’, the United States is invariably promoting the modernization of nuclear weapons costing one trillion US dollars (which was accelerated by the former administration) and does not hesitate to maintain that the treaties on nuclear disarmament with other nuclear powers must be abolished.

It is illogical and the acme of shamelessness that such an outrageous nuclear devil slanders the nuclear force of the DPRK – a direct product of [the US’] nuclear blackmail. The United States must clearly know it is an invariable stand of the DPRK that peace and security of the Korean peninsula can be defended only by reliable nuclear deterrence, as long as there exists a nuclear state in hostile relations with the DPRK.

As the nuclear threat and blackmail of the United States and its followers continue, the DPRK will [afford?], expand and strengthen its nuclear force [equal?] to the self-reliant defense capability and pre-emptive striking capacity.

— [Voice of Korea]

9 August 2016: 71st Anniversary of US War Crime in Nagasaki

The images of the US war crimes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki usually focus on everything except the most important thing: the horrific effects of the nuclear bomb on human beings.  We see pictures of the bomb being built, the smiling fools proudly handling nuclear material that is so radioactive it is killing them while they pose for photos; the planes used, the happy crews of the planes… everything but the actual victims of the bombs.  These photos are graphic depictions of the horror of nuclear war in human terms.  This is what the human race will suffer through if we do not overthrow the capitalist system worldwide before the capitalist classes of the world go at it once again in their unending mad quest for profits.  World War Three does not have to happen: it is up to the workers of the world to prevent it from happening.  We have a choice between building an egalitarian socialist world or of sticking with a capitalist system that has already plunged the planet into two world wars.  The fate of the entire human race depends on what this generation of the 21st century decides to do.

14-year old girl at Ohmura Navy Hospital, Nagasaki, Japan, 11 August 1945.  Horribly burned by Nagasaki A-bomb, her skin hangs off her body in strips.  [Source: Getty Images]

Man receives treatment at Kozen Elementary School in Nagasaki_Getty Images_171480363

August, 1945, Nagasaki_small boy receives treatment for burns_Getty Images_171480368

Bones and ashes of victims_Nagasaki_Getty Images_171480389

— IWPCHI

6 August 2016: 71st Anniversary of U.S. War Crime – the A-Bombing of Hiroshima, Japan

To commemorate the 71st anniversary of the US war crime of the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan, we present excerpts from the book “Hiroshima Diary” by Dr. Michihiko Hachiya.  On August 6, 1945 Dr. Hachiya was the Director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital, one of the few facilities that was not completely leveled by the nuclear blast.  At home at the time of the explosion, not far from ground zero, Dr. Hachiya was severely injured.  Unable to work in the days after the attack, he began to keep a diary of the events taking place around him.  These excerpts are personal accounts of witnesses in Hiroshima on August 6th and 7th – eyewitnesses to the immense human toll of the bombing , which we do not see in many photographs.  Photographs of the thousands of dead taken immediately after the blast are kept hidden from the public, though they do exist.  Immediately after the end of WWII, the US Government began a massive propaganda campaign in an attempt to get US citizens comfortable with the idea of surviving as victors in a nuclear war with the USSR and China.  Graphic images of what happens to human beings in a nuclear war were not allowed to be shown; instead, children were taught to “duck and cover” under their flimsy school desks when they saw the flash from a nuclear bomb.  At home, people were encouraged to build air raid shelters and bomb-proof bunkers under their homes, and to keep them stocked with canned goods and water so they could survive the immediate effects of the A-bomb.  But the oral and written histories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki tell a different story: one of unimaginable horror and human suffering that was inescapable for almost everyone within 5 miles of the center of the explosion.  Today’s nuclear weapons are many times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan; so these eyewitness accounts give us only a hint of what would happen in a modern nuclear war.  As the capitalist world hurtles toward World War III we offer this brief look at what lies in store for all of us unless we the workers put an end to the capitalist system of exploitation, poverty and war and establish a global coalition of egalitarian socialist workers republics in its place.

The US Government, which launched wars in Korea that killed 3 million, Vietnam (another 3 million); backed dictatorships throughout South and Central America and the Caribbean that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of workers and trade union leaders; organized the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of workers in the Philippines and Indonesia; and has killed over 1 million in Iraq and hundreds of thousands in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and Syria tries to sell the big lie that ISIL/ISIS are ruthless killers!  The most ruthless mass-murderers on this planet – the US capitalist class and their blood-soaked government – slaughtered more workers in two days in August 1945 than ISIL/ISIS – vicious as they certainly are – has killed in the past two years!  And more often than not, the US political party in power that ends up happily leading workers into a slaughterhouse at the behest of their corporate owners is… the “lesser evil” Democratic Party!

U.S. capitalism must die so the working classes of the U.S. and the world may live!  Workers of the world, unite!

— IWPCHI

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[Excerpts from “Hiroshima Diary – The Journal of a Japanese Physician – August 6-September 30, 1945” by Michihiko Hachiya, M.D., Director, Hiroshima Communications Hospital; Translated and edited by Warner Wells, M.D., University of North Carolina School of Medicine.  University of North Carolina Press, 1955.]

Mushroom cloud rises over Hiroshima, Japan, August 6 1945. Photo taken by Enola Gay tail gunner S/Sgt. George R. (Bob) Caron. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

“Don’t go,” I said. “Please tell us more of what occurred yesterday.”

“It was a horrible sight,” said Dr. Tabuchi. “Hundreds of injured people who were trying to escape the hills passed our house. The sight of them was almost unbearable. Their faces and hands were burnt and swollen; and great sheets of skin had peeled away from their tissues to hang down like rags on a scarecrow. They moved like a line of ants. All through the night, they went past our house, but this morning they had stopped. I found them lying on both sides of the road so thick that it was impossible to pass without stepping on them.”

View of Hiroshima A-bomb from Honkawa Elementary School, taken 30 seconds after bombing.

“I lay with my eyes shut while Dr. Tabuchi was talking, picturing in my mind the horror he was describing. I neither saw nor heard Mr. Katsutani when he came in. It was not until I heard someone sobbing that my attention was attracted, and I recognized my old friend. I had known Mr. Katsutani for many years and knew him to be an emotional person, but even so, to see him break down made tears come to my eyes. He had come all the way from Jigozen to look for me, and now that he had found me, emotion overcame him.

He turned to Dr. Sasada and said brokenly: “Yesterday, it was impossible to enter Hiroshima, else I would have come. Even today fires are still burning in some places. You should see how the city has changed. When I reached the Misasa Bridge this morning, everything before me was gone, even the castle. These buildings here are the only ones left anywhere around.

Effects of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. View from the top of the Red Cross Hospital looking northwest. Frame buildings recently erected. 1945, US Department of Defense

[…]

“Mr. Katsutani paused for a moment to catch his breath and went on: “I really walked along the railroad tracks to get here, but even they were littered with electric wires and broken railway cars, and the dead and wounded lay everywhere. When I reached the bridge, I saw a dreadful thing. It was unbelievable. There was a man, stone dead, sitting on his bicycle as it leaned against the bridge railing. It is hard to believe that such a thing could happen!”

He repeated himself two or three times as if to convince himself that what he said was true and then continued: “It seems that most of the dead people were either on the bridge or beneath it. You could tell that many had gone down to the river to get a drink of water and had died where they lay. I saw a few live people still in the water, knocking against the dead as they floated down the river. There must have been hundreds and thousands who fled to the river to escape the fire and then drowned.

“The sight of the soldiers, though, was more dreadful than the dead people floating down the river. I came onto I don’t know how many, burned from the hips up; and where the skin had peeled, their flesh was wet and mushy. They must have been wearing their military caps because the black hair on top of their heads was not burned. It made them look like they were wearing black lacquer bowls.

“And they had no faces! Their eyes, noses and mouths had been burned away, and it looked like their ears had melted off. It was hard to tell front from back. One soldier, whose features had been destroyed and was left with his white teeth sticking out, asked me for some water, but I didn’t have any. I clasped my hands and prayed for him. He didn’t say anything more. His plea for water must have been his last words. The way they were burned, I wonder if they didn’t have their coats off when the bomb exploded.”

[…]

Somebody asked him what he was doing when the explosion occurred. […]

“I was the ranking officer in the local branch of the Ex-officer’s Association, but even I didn’t know what to do because that day the villagers under my command had been sent off to Miyajima [the next village towards Hiroshima from where he was in Jigozen, approximately 10 miles southwest of ground zero – IWPCHI] for labor service. I looked all around to find someone to help me make a rescue squad, but I couldn’t find anybody. While I was still looking for help, wounded people began to stream into the village. I asked them what had happened, but all they could tell me was that Hiroshima had been destroyed and everybody was leaving the city. With that I got on my bicycle and rode as fast as I could towards Itsukaichi. By the time I got there, the road was jammed with people, and so was every path and byway.

Again I tried to find out what had happened, but nobody could give me a clear answer. When I asked people where they had come from, they would point towards Hiroshima and say. ‘This way.’ And when I asked where they were going, they would point toward Miyajima and say, ‘That way.’ Everybody said the same thing.

Hiroshima Street Scene with injured Civilians. Credit: Australian War Memorial, CANBERRA ACT 2601

“I saw no badly wounded or burned people around Itsukaichi, but when I reached Kusatsu, nearly everybody was badly hurt. The nearer I got to Hiroshima the more I saw until by the time I had reached Koi [a railroad station on the very western limits of the city] they were all so badly injured, I could not bear to look into their faces. They smelled like burning hair.

“The patient’s skin is burned in a pattern corresponding to the
dark portions of a kimono.”  Credit: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration 519686

[…]

“The area around Koi station was not burned, but the station and the houses nearby were badly damaged. Every square inch of the station platform was packed with wounded people. Some were standing; others lying down. They were all pleading for water. Now and then you could hear a child calling for its mother. It was a living hell, I tell you! It was a living hell!

“Today it was the same way. […] I left Koi station and went over to the Koi primary school. By then, the school had been turned into an emergency hospital and was already crowded with desperately injured people. Even the playground was packed with the dead and dying. They looked like so many cod fish spread out for drying. What a pitiful sight it was to see them lying there in the hot sun. Even I could tell they were all going to die.”

[…]

Dr. Hanaoka made an appearance. “Let me tell you, if I can, what happened,” he said. “I stopped by the Red Cross Hospital on my way here. It is swamped with patients, and outside the dead and dying are lined up on either side of the street as far east as the Miyuki Bridge.

“Between the Red Cross Hospital and the center of the city I saw nothing that wasn’t burned to a crisp. Streetcars were standing at Kawaya-cho and inside were dozens of bodies, blackened beyond recognition. I saw fire reservoirs filled to the brim with dead people who looked as though they had been boiled alive. In one reservoir I saw a man, horribly burned, crouching beside another man who was dead. He was drinking blood-stained water out of the reservoir. Even if I had tried to stop him, it wouldn’t have done any good; he was completely out of his head. In one reservoir there were so many dead people there wasn’t enough room for them to fall over. They must have died sitting in the water.

“Even the swimming pool at the Prefectural First Middle School is filled with dead people. They must have suffocated while they sat in the water trying to escape the fire because they didn’t appear to be burned.

Dr. Hanaoka cleared his throat, and after a moment continued: “Dr. Hachiya, that pool wasn’t big enough to accommodate everybody who tried to get in it. You could tell that by looking around the sides. I don’t know how many were caught by death with their heads hanging over the edge. In one pool I saw some people who were still alive, sitting in the water with dead all around them. They were too weak to get out. People were trying to help them, but I am sure they must have died. I apologize for telling you these things, but they are true. I don’t see how anyone got out alive…”

Hiroshima victim photographed 1951

 

 

Defend North Korea! IWPCHI Congratulates N. Korea on 1st Successful H-Bomb Test

We republish below today’s historic announcement by North Korea of its first successful H-bomb test.

We congratulate the North Korean government on this awesome scientific and military achievement and wholeheartedly agree with the North Korean government that maintaining an effective nuclear deterrent force in North Korea is absolutely necessary in order to effectively defend the North Korean workers state from annihilation by the #1 terrorist state in the world: the government of the United States of America (and its sock-puppet ally, the government of South Korea).

The boundless hypocrisy of the US government in its expressions of horror at the idea that tiny North Korea – thanks to its planned socialist economy – is able, even in the face of crushing US and world economic and technology sanctions, to field a growing and effective nuclear deterrent force, would be laughable if it did not barely cover the US Government’s blood-lust to avenge its defeat at the hands of the North Korean and Chinese communists in the Korean War.  The United States is of course armed to the teeth with thousands of nuclear weapons of all description, capable of destroying every capital city on Earth.  The US is also the only nation ever to actually use nuclear weapons in the history of the world, which in did in the twin, monstrous war-crimes against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.  The United States and South Korean governments have remained in a state of war against North Korea since the 1950s and continually threaten North Korea with nuclear annihilation in annual “war games” that include flying nuclear-armed B52-bombers to within a few miles of the border of the North Korean workers state!  Imagine how the US government and public would react to the Russians or Chinese holding such war games at sea 5 miles off the coast of Virginia!  The North Koreans are not hallucinating when they compare the enormously unequal threat that faces them to an unarmed person being attacked by a pack of ravenous wolves.

As revolutionary Trotskyists, we will always defend socialist workers states from all attacks launched against them by the capitalist and imperialist states of the world.  Every Trotskyist worthy of the name must stand up in defense of those nations like North Korea where the workers and peasants have overthrown their capitalist masters and established workers governments – no matter how repressive those governments may be.  Those who cannot defend the historic victories of the international revolutionary socialist workers movement will never achieve victories of their own!  This is a fundamental principle of military strategy in general and of revolutionary socialism in particular.

The programme of North Korea’s revolutionary socialist party (the Workers’ Party of Korea, or WPK) is based on what we consider to be a major abandonment of Marxist/Leninist/Trotskyist principles: “the Juche Idea”.  Basically it is a variant of the counterrevolutionary Stalinist concept that claims – quite erroneously and dangerously – that it is possible to build “Socialism in One Country”.  As the collapse of the Soviet Union proved conclusively, and as the increasingly pro-capitalist Chinese Maoist government proves today, once a revolutionary party abandons the principles of revolutionary internationalism, the restoration of capitalism will follow in due time.  In order for socialism to be successful, it, like capitalism before it, must overthrow – all over the world – the reactionary class that is holding back the march of human progress.  In the case of the American and French revolutions of the 1700s that class was the feudal aristocracy; in the case of today’s revolutionary socialist movements that reactionary class is the worker-robbing and war-mongering capitalist class.  The only reason North Korea has not been brought to its knees so far in spite of the West’s brutal and inhumane economic blockade has been the fact that China has, in solidarity with its fellow workers state, sent billions in aid to North Korea (as the USSR did before it was betrayed into the hands of the capitalists by the Stalinist traitors).  Back in the 1970s, when both China and the USSR were subsidizing the North Korean economy, the standard of living in North Korea was actually far higher than in South Korea.

North Korean and South Korean annual GDP compared. Source: Trading Economics http://www.tradingeconomics.com/north-korea/gdp

The collapse of the USSR (which took place in 1989 – see chart above), as well as the ongoing repulsive and counterrevolutionary restoration of capitalism in China (which has resulted in the Chinese “communist party” leadership’s increasing hostility to N Korea) have led to a steep decline in the standard of living in North Korea. Only thanks to North Korea’s planned socialist economy can the country continue to guarantee the basic necessities of life to its citizens – which they are doing.   There is no way that North Korea will be able to continue to exist unless workers throughout Asia overthrow the capitalist (in the case of China, proto-capitalist) ruling classes and create revolutionary socialist workers states that can provide the economic aid crucial to North Korea’s continued existence.  That is why revolutionary Trotskyists call for a pro-socialist political revolution in China, North Korea, Vietnam and Cuba to defend socialism, repudiate capitalist exploitation and to re-instill the revolutionary INTERNATIONALIST socialist ideals of the COMINTERN under leadership of Lenin and Trotsky. We defend the very real and substantial economic, social and political gains of the North Korean and Chinese revolutions while opposing the reactionary and repressive political parties that lead those states.  Only a revolutionary socialist political revolution of the workers of China and North Korea that ousts these reactionary bureaucracies can lead to a true defense of socialism and most importantly to the expansion of socialist revolutionary ideas and parties dedicated to the overthrow of the capitalist system throughout Asia and the world.

We also condemn the hostile statements and actions of the traitorous fake-communist and capitalist-restorationist Chinese “Communist Party” leadership in regard to North Korea’s steadfast attempts to buttress its ability to defend itself in the face of unbridled and continuous US imperialist aggression.

Workers of the World, Unite!

—IWPCHI

http://www.kcna.kp (Korean Central News Agency – official news agency of North Korean government – the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)

DPRK Proves Successful in H-bomb Test

Korean / English / Chinese / Spanish / Japanese

Pyongyang, January 6 (KCNA) — The DPRK government issued the following statement Wednesday:
There took place a world startling event to be specially recorded in the national history spanning 5 000 years in the exciting period when all service personnel and people of the DPRK are making a giant stride, performing eye-catching miracles and exploits day by day after turning out as one in the all-out charge to bring earlier the final victory of the revolutionary cause of Juche, true to the militant appeal of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).
The first H-bomb test was successfully conducted in Juche Korea at 10:00 on Wednesday, Juche 105 (2016), pursuant to the strategic determination of the WPK.
Through the test conducted with indigenous wisdom, technology and efforts the DPRK fully proved that the technological specifications of the newly developed H-bomb for the purpose of test were accurate and scientifically verified the power of smaller H-bomb.
It was confirmed that the H-bomb test conducted in a safe and perfect manner had no adverse impact on the ecological environment.
The test means a higher stage of the DPRK’s development of nuclear force.
By succeeding in the H-bomb test in the most perfect manner to be specially recorded in history the DPRK proudly joined the advanced ranks of nuclear weapons states possessed of even H-bomb and the Korean people came to demonstrate the spirit of the dignified nation equipped with the most powerful nuclear deterrent.
This test is a measure for self-defence the DPRK has taken to firmly protect the sovereignty of the country and the vital right of the nation from the ever-growing nuclear threat and blackmail by the U.S.-led hostile forces and to reliably safeguard the peace on the Korean Peninsula and regional security.
Since the appearance of the word hostility in the world there has been no precedent of such deep-rooted, harsh and persistent policy as the hostile policy the U.S. has pursued towards the DPRK.
The U.S. is a gang of cruel robbers which has worked hard to bring even a nuclear disaster to the DPRK, not content with having imposed the thrice-cursed and unheard-of political isolation, economic blockade and military pressure on it for the mere reason that it has differing ideology and social system and refuses to yield to the former’s ambition for aggression.
The Korean Peninsula and its vicinity are turning into the world’s biggest hotspot where a nuclear war may break out since they have been constantly stormed with all nuclear strike means of the U.S. imperialist aggressor troops, including nuclear carrier strike group and nuclear strategic flying corps.
While kicking up all forms of economic sanctions and conspiratorial “human rights” racket against the DPRK with mobilization of the hostile forces, the U.S. has made desperate efforts to block its building of a thriving nation and improvement of the people’s living standard and “bring down its social system”.
The DPRK’s access to H-bomb of justice, standing against the U.S., the chieftain of aggression watching for a chance for attack on it with huge nukes of various types, is the legitimate right of a sovereign state for self-defense and a very just step no one can slander.
Genuine peace and security cannot be achieved through humiliating solicitation or compromise at the negotiating table.
The present-day grim reality clearly proves once again the immutable truth that one’s destiny should be defended by one’s own efforts.
Nothing is more foolish than dropping a hunting gun before herds of ferocious wolves.
The spectacular success made by the DPRK in the H-bomb test this time is a great deed of history, a historic event of the national significance as it surely guarantees the eternal future of the nation.
The DPRK is a genuine peace-loving state which has made all efforts to protect peace on the Korean Peninsula and security in the region from the U.S. vicious nuclear war scenario.
The DPRK, a responsible nuclear weapons state, will neither be the first to use nuclear weapons nor transfer relevant means and technology under any circumstances as already declared as long as the hostile forces for aggression do not encroach upon its sovereignty.
There can neither be suspended nuclear development nor nuclear dismantlement on the part of the DPRK unless the U.S. has rolled back its vicious hostile policy toward the former.
The army and people of the DPRK will steadily escalate its nuclear deterrence of justice both in quality and quantity to reliably guarantee the future of the revolutionary cause of Juche for all ages.
Juche Korea will be prosperous forever as it holds fast to the great WPK’s line of simultaneously pushing forward the two fronts. -0-

 

 

DEFEND NORTH KOREA! North Korean Military Statements Describe Unprovoked Artillery Attack Launched from South Korea

We publish below a selection of recent news dispatches from the Korean Central News Agency, the official news agency of North Korea regarding the attack on North Korea launched by the US military and their South Korean puppets yesterday (20 August 2015).

The US capitalist class still seeks revenge for their humiliation at the hands of the North Korean working class in the Korean War.  The Independent Workers Party of Chicago – nucleus of a future revolutionary Trotskyist workers party in the US – calls for workers all over the world to defend the North Korean workers state whenever it is attacked by the forces of world capitalism, especially the United States Government.

The US capitalist class has continually provoked the North Koreans since the signing of the Armistice which established the partitioning of the Korean peninsula into North and South Korea.  Several times a year the US and their puppet regime in Seoul launch provocative and dangerous “war games” aimed at forcing the North Koreans into launching a military attack that would then provide the US with the pretext for a massive invasion of the North.  This month the US and South Korea are engaged in a series of provocations named “Ulchi (or Ulji) Freedom Guardian”.  The US Pacific Command described the annual war games in the following press release:

Combined Forces Command to Begin Ulchi Freedom Guardian 2015

By Staff Report | August 17, 2015

YONGSAN GARRISON, SEOUL, South Korea — The Republic of Korea – United States Combined Forces Command will conduct the annual exercise Ulchi Freedom Guardian 2015 Aug. 17 to Aug. 28.

UFG is a routine and defense-oriented exercise designed to enhance CFC readiness, protect the region and maintain stability on the Korean peninsula. UFG is planned months in advance and it is not connected to any current world events. U.S. forces will join ROK military forces representing all services, and ROK government participants.

There are seven United Nations Command Sending States scheduled to participate in UFG 2015, including Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In addition, the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission will monitor the exercise to ensure it is in compliance with the Armistice Agreement.

Through its Panmunjom mission, the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission has informed the North Korean People’s Army of the exercise dates and the non-provocative nature of this routine training.
Routine training exercises are carried out in the spirit of the Oct. 1, 1953, ROK-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty and in accordance with the Armistice. These exercises also highlight the longstanding partnership, commitment and enduring friendship between the U.S. and ROK, and help to ensure stability and security on the peninsula.

[SOURCE: http://www.pacom.mil/Media/News/tabid/5693/Article/613802/combined-forces-command-to-begin-ulchi-freedom-guardian-2015.aspx%5D

That sounds quite harmless, doesn’t it?  Really, what other country besides the “crazy” North Korea would be upset by the combined air, sea and ground forces of the USA and seven other NATO countries staging a “war game” RIGHT ON ITS BORDERS?  If the Russians and Chinese were to do that in international waters 200 miles off the coast of California, the US would be fine with that, right?

Here is the North Korean version of the cross-border shelling that took place during these “harmless” war games on 20 August:

[SOURCE: http://kcna.kp/kcna.user.article.retrieveNewsViewInfoList.kcmsf  Note: the KCNA website does not provide links for each article.  You have to click on the link on the main home page of KCNA to get to the articles. – IWPCHI]

KPA Supreme Command Warns S. Korean Military to Act with Discretion

Pyongyang, August 20 (KCNA) — The Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army issued the following urgent report on Thursday:
War maniacs of the south Korean puppet military made another grave provocation to the DPRK in the central western sector of the front on Thursday afternoon.
They perpetrated such reckless action as firing 36 shells at KPA civil police posts under the absurd pretext that the KPA fired one shell at the south side. Six shells of them hit the area near KPA civil police posts 542 and 543 and other 15 shells fell near KPA civil police posts 250 and 251.
There was no victim of the shelling provocation.
However, this reckless shelling on the DPRK’s military posts, its inviolable territory is a serious military provocation that can never be pardoned.
Gravity of the situation is that the south Korean puppet military didn’t hesitate to make such provocation though it has not yet confirmed where a shell allegedly fired by the KPA came from and where it fell in its side, unaware of whether it was an AA gun shell or a bullet or a rocket or not.
Shortly ago, the puppet war maniacs resumed the broadcasting for psychological warfare in all sectors of the front under the pretext of a doubtful mine explosion case. Today they fired shells en masse toward the territory of the DPRK without scientific grounds. All of them are prompted by insanity of the south Korean military war maniacs for provocation.
In view of the prevailing crucial situation, an emergency enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea will be convened at Thursday night.
We are now sharply following the south Korean puppet Defense Ministry’s attitude toward the ultimatum of the KPA General Staff which declared that a strong military action would be launched unless they stop the broadcasting for anti-DPRK psychological warfare and dismantle all means of psychological warfare within 48 hours.
Foolhardy provocation deserves harsh punishment.
The south Korean military war maniacs should behave with discretion, well aware of the retaliatory spirit running high among the angry servicepersons of the KPA frontline combined units.

[End of statement]

The North Koreans quite responsibly and wisely take such provocations very seriously.  They have no intention of losing another 3 million Koreans to another “police action” launched by the US capitalist class.  In the current war games, the US/South Korean forces have dropped propaganda leaflets on North Korean territory, and have begun propaganda broadcasts to the north.  This, too is an act of war, not a mere “defense-oriented exercise” as the Pentagon would have us believe.

http://kcna.kp/kcna.user.special.getArticlePage.kcmsf

Kim Jong Un Guides Emergency Enlarged Meeting of WPK Central Military Commission

Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) — The situation of the country is now inching close to the brink of a war due to the continued anti-DPRK political and military provocations by the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet forces.

The broadcasting for anti-DPRK psychological warfare, resumed by the south Korean puppet military gangsters in all sectors of the front under the pretext of doubtful “mine explosion” case which occurred in the demilitarized zone of the western sector of the front on August 4, is still going on day and night. And the leaflet-scattering operation against the DPRK, kicked off with mobilization of die-hard reactionary organizations, has gone beyond a tolerance limit.

Psychological warfare against the DPRK is, in essence, an open act of war against it.

In this regard, the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army on August 20 sent an ultimatum to the south Korean puppet Ministry of Defense that a strong military action would be launched at once unless it stops the anti-DPRK broadcasting for psychological warfare and removes all psywar means within 48 hours.

Nevertheless, the south Korean puppet military gangsters getting frantic in provoking the DPRK again invented a case of “shell fired by the north” in the afternoon of August 20, Juche 104 (2015) and, under that pretext, fired dozens of shells on the DPRK’s inviolable territory, a reckless military action.

Such reckless political and military provocations on the part of the south Korean puppet military gangsters are driving the country to a war crisis.

Under the prevailing grave situation, an emergency enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) was convened at night of August 20.

The meeting was presided by Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the WPK, chairman of the WPK Central Military Commission, first chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the KPA.

Present there were members of the WPK Central Military Commission, operations commanding officers of the KPA General Staff, commanders of the KPA frontline large combined units, senior officials of the state security and people’s security organs, leading officials of the WPK Central Committee and officials in charge of external affairs.

The meeting heard a report of the General Reconnaissance Bureau of the General Staff of the KPA on how the enemies committed the military provocation in the central western sectors of the front in the afternoon of Thursday, its truth and their general movements. It examined the preparations for launching operations of the frontline large combined units of the KPA as of 23:00 on Thursday and discussed a plan for the political and military counteractions to foil the enemies’ moves for war. The meeting also examined and ratified the offensive operation plan of the KPA Front Command to launch retaliatory strike and counterattack on the whole length of front all at once under an unavoidable situation.

And the Central Military Commission of the WPK approved the decision of the KPA General Staff in which it sent to the south Korean puppet Ministry of Defense an ultimatum on 17:00 on Thursday that the KPA would launch a strong military action unless it stops psychological broadcasting towards the north and dismantle all means for psychological warfare within 48 hours.

At the emergency enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the WPK, Kim Jong Un issued an order of the supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army that the frontline large combined units of the KPA should enter a wartime state to be fully battle ready to launch surprise operations and the area along the front be put in a semi-war state from 17:00 on Friday.

Commanders were appointed and dispatched to the relevant sectors of the front to command military actions in the areas to destroy means for psychological warfare unless the enemies stop the psychological broadcasting within 48 hours and put down their possible counter-actions.

The meeting discussed the measures to convert the party and power bodies, working people’s organizations, state security, people’s security and judicial and prosecution organs, factories, enterprises, cooperative farms and other units in the relevant areas into the semi-war system as the semi-war state has been declared in the area along the front.

It also set forth the duties and tasks of officials in charge of external affairs to fully lay bare the truth about the prevailing situation caused by the enemies’ undisguised and surprise aggression. -0- (2015.08.21)

[End of press release]

Workers of the World, Unite!  Defend North Korea! US/UN/NATO Keep your Blood-stained Hands off the World!  For workers socialist revolution to overthrow the war-profiteering, greed-based capitalist system and take the weapons out of the hands of the US capitalist class for ever!

Independent Workers Party of Chicago

 

 

US Government War Crimes: 70th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Mass-Murders

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the monstrous war crimes committed by the US capitalist class government against the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we reprint a first-hand account of the bombing of Hiroshima from a victim who lived approximately 1.5 miles from ground zero.

Our eyewitness is a man who was, on August 6 1945, the  Director of the Communications Hospital in Hiroshima.  He and his wife were at home when the Enola Gay dropped its savage payload on the unsuspecting citizens of Hiroshima.  Both he and his wife were badly injured in the explosion.  They immediately headed for the Communications Hospital for treatment and to take care of the thousands of injured people streaming towards that place of mercy.

The book, entitled “Hiroshima Diary” by Michihiko Hachiya, M.D., is possibly the best description of the horrors of the Hiroshima bombing available in print.  The author’s expertise as a physician informs his descriptions of the horrifically injured people he sees day after day as his hospital – one of the few in Hiroshima  to survive the nuclear blast –  becomes the scene of human suffering on a scale and degree never before seen by anyone in the medical profession.  Our first excerpt gives just a glimpse of the horrors that presented themselves in the immediate aftermath of the bombing.  We hope that this introduction to this amazing document will encourage our readers to read the entire book and to dedicate themselves to the overthrow of the capitalist system which created World Wars I and II and which drove the human race into the nuclear slaughterhouse of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We should also point out that these monstrous war crimes were committed – against the advice of many US military leaders – by the alleged “lesser evil” party then led by Democrat Harry Truman.

IWPCHI

From “Hiroshima Diary” by Michihiko Hachiya, M.D.; Director of Hiroshima Communications Hospital

Copyright 1955 by The University of North Carolina Press

6 August 1945

The hour was early; the morning still, warm, and beautiful.
Shimmering leaves, reflecting sunlight from a cloudless sky, made
a pleasant contrast with shadows in my garden as I gazed absently
through wide-flung doors opening to the south.

Clad in drawers and an undershirt, I was sprawled on the living
room floor exhausted because I had just spent a sleepless night on
duty as an air warden in my hospital.

Suddenly, a strong flash of light startled me — and then another.
So well does one recall little things that I remember vividly how
a stone lantern in the garden became brilliantly lit and I debated
whether this light was caused by a magnesium flare or sparks from
a passing trolley.

Garden shadows disappeared. The view where a moment before
all had been so bright and sunny was now dark and hazy. Through
swirling dust I could barely discern a wooden column that had
supported one corner of my house. It was leaning crazily and the
roof sagged dangerously.

Moving instinctively, I tried to escape, but rubble and fallen
timbers barred the way. By picking my way cautiously I managed
to reach the roka and stepped down into my garden. A profound
weakness overcame me, so I stopped to regain my strength. To my
surprise I discovered that I was completely naked. How odd!
Where were my drawers and undershirt?

What had happened?

All over the right side of my body I was cut and bleeding. A
large splinter was protruding from a mangled wound in my thigh,
and something warm trickled into my mouth. My cheek was torn,
I discovered as I felt it gingerly, with the lower lip laid wide open.
Embedded in my neck was a sizable fragment of glass which I
matter-of-factly dislodged, and with the detachment of one stunned
and shocked I studied it and my blood-stained hand.

Where was my wife?

Suddenly thoroughly alarmed I began to yell for her: “Yaeko-
san! Yaeko-san! Where are you?”
Blood began to spurt. Had my carotid artery been cut? Would
I bleed to death? Frightened and irrational I called out again:
“It’s a five-hundred-ton bomb! Yaeko-san, where are you? A five-
hundred-ton bomb has fallen!”

Yaeko-san, pale and frightened, her clothes torn and blood-
stained, emerged from the ruins of our house holding her elbow.
Seeing her, I was reassured. My own panic assuaged, I tried to
reassure her.

“We’ll be all right,” I exclaimed. “Only let’s get out of here as
fast as we can.”

She nodded and I motioned for her to follow me.

The shortest path to the street lay through the house next door
so through the house we went – running, stumbling, falling and
then running again until in headlong flight we tripped over some-
thing and fell sprawling into the street. Getting to my feet, I
discovered that I had tripped over a man’s head.

“Excuse me! Excuse me, please!” I cried hysterically.

There was no answer. The man was dead. The head had be-
longed to a young officer whose body was crushed beneath a
massive gate.

We stood in the street, uncertain and afraid, until a house across
from us began to sway and then with a rending motion fell
almost at our feet. Our own house began to sway, and in a minute
it, too, collapsed in a cloud of dust. Other buildings caved in or
toppled. Fires sprang up and whipped by a vicious wind began
to spread.

It finally dawned on us that we could not stay there in the street,
so we turned our steps towards the hospital.* Our home was gone;
we were wounded and needed treatment; and after all, it was my
duty to be with my staff. This latter was an irrational thought —
what good could I be to anyone, hurt as I was.

We started out, but after twenty or thirty steps I had to stop.
My breath became short, my heart pounded, and my legs gave way
under me. An overpowering thirst seized me and I begged Yaeko-
san to find me some water. But there was no water to be found.
After a little my strength somewhat returned and we were able
to go on.

* Dr. Hachiya’s home was only a few hundred meters from the hospital.

I was still naked, and although I did not feel the least bit of
shame, I was disturbed to realize that modesty had deserted me.
On rounding a corner we came upon a soldier standing idly in the
street. He had a towel draped across his shoulder, and I asked if he
would give it to me to cover my nakedness. The soldier surren-
dered the towel quite willingly but said not a word. A little later I
lost the towel, and Yaeko-san took off her apron and tied it
around my loins.

[…]

Yaeko-san looked into my face for a moment, and then, without
saying a word, turned away and began running towards the hos-
pital.

[…]

I must have gone out of my head lying there in the road because
the next thing I recall was discovering that the clot on my thigh
had been dislodged and blood was again spurting from the wound.
I pressed my hand to the bleeding area and after a while the bleed-
ing stopped and I felt better.

[…]

I paused to rest. Gradually things around me came into focus.
There were the shadowy forms of people, some of whom looked
like walking ghosts. Others moved as though in pain, like scare-
crows, their arms held out from their bodies with forearms and
hands dangling. These people puzzled me until I suddenly realized
that they had been burned and were holding their arms out to
prevent the painful friction of raw surfaces rubbing together. A
naked woman carrying a naked baby came into view. I averted my
gaze. Perhaps they had been in the bath. But then I saw a naked
man, and it occurred to me that, like myself, some strange thing
had deprived them of their clothes. An old woman lay near me
with an expression of suffering on her face; but she made no sound.
Indeed, one thing was common to everyone I saw — complete
silence.

All who could were moving in the direction of the hospital. I
joined in the dismal pararde when my strength was somewhat
recovered, and at last reached the gates of the Communications
Bureau.

Familiar surroundings, familiar faces. There was Mr. Iguchi
and Mr. Yoshihiro and my old friend, Mr. Sera, the head of the
business office. They hastened to give me a hand, their expressions
of pleasure changing to alarm when they saw that I was hurt. I
was too happy to see them to share their concern.

No time was lost over greetings. They eased me onto a stretcher
and carried me into the Communications Building, ignoring my
protests that I could walk.

[…]

The hospital lay directly opposite with part of the roof and the
third floor sunroom in plain view, and as I looked up, I witnessed
a sight which made me forget my smarting wounds. Smoke was
pouring out of the sunroom windows. The hospital was afire!

[Source: “Hiroshima Diary” by Michihiko Hachiya, M.D., Director of the Communications Hospital in Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945.  Published by University of North Carolina Press, 1955.]

DEFEND NORTH KOREA! In Racist Provocation by U.S., Navy Frigate “Chancellorsville” Sent to Japan to Threaten N. Korea, China

Once again, the United States, through its endless military provocations against the embattled workers state of North Korea, has raised the threat of war in the Pacific – and has been called out on it by North Korea.

And once again, the bourgeois press of the USA dutifully snaps to attention and spreads pro-US propaganda in the service of its owners, the numerically tiny US capitalist class, distorting the protests of the North Koreans into irrational-sounding declamations coming out of left field somewhere.

Completely lost in the propaganda of the US-capitalist-class-owned news media is the obvious racist message being sent to the Korean, Japanese and Chinese people: the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser being sent there is named… the U.S.S. Chancellorsville!

Does that name ring a bell? It should; the name of the vessel is a”tribute” to the US Civil War battle fought in 1863 – and WON by the slavery-defending Confederate military forces! It is, in fact, quite appropriate that the US Navy would send a death-dealing warship so named to Asia – a continent where the US military has long played out its racist strategy to reconquer the workers states of China, North Korea and Vietnam, in an attempt to return these heroic workers states to the status of brutally exploited colonial possessions they were – before the workers successfully overthrew capitalism in their respective countries, after decades of bloody struggle.

Originally ordered in 1984 under the administration of racist, anticommunist pig Ronald Reagan, the naming of the “Chancellorsville” was no accident – and neither is the fact that it retains this repulsive name in the face of widespread opposition being organized by decent human beings of  all races, creeds and colors to monuments “in honor of” the Confederacy that exist all over the United States (principally in the states that made up the Confederate States of America).  It is long past the time that the workers of the United States rose up against the racist US capitalist class and their KKK friends and removed every last monument to the Confederate slaveocracy that stands in this country!  But that glorious day will not come until the workers overthrow the US capitalist class in a workers socialist revolution – only then can we finally FINISH THE CIVIL WAR!

So, why would those wacky North Koreans get all upset about one little ship being sent out to patrol in their home waters?  Take a peek at the armament the “Chancellorsville” carries and try to imagine how the US Government would react if the Chinese or North Koreans  sent ships like this to patrol inside the US’ self-declared 200-mile limit of its territorial waters:

Armament:

2 × 61 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems containing 122 × mix of: RIM-66M-5 Standard SM-2MR Block IIIB RIM-156A SM-2ER Block IV RIM-161 SM-3 RIM-162A ESSM RIM-174A Standard ERAM BGM-109 Tomahawk RUM-139A VL-ASROC 8 × RGM-84 Harpoon missiles 2 × Mk 45 Mod 2 5-in/54-cal lightweight gun 2 × 25 mm Mk 38 gun 2–4 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) gun 2 × Phalanx CIWS Block 1B 2 × Mk 32 12.75-in (324 mm) triple torpedo tubes for lightweight torpedoes

Aircraft carried:

2 × Sikorsky SH-60B or MH-60R Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters.

[Source: Wikipedia, “USS Chancellorsville (CG-62)”]

Moreove, as the North Korean Central News Agency points out in their article: “Military experts are unanimous in commenting that it is the first time for the U.S. to deploy overseas the warship with such striking-capability… If the [total currently-anticipated number] of US warships are deployed [to Japan], the number of the warships in the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka will reach 14 including

the [nuclear-powered supercarrier U.S.S.] Ronald Reagan to be deployed at the end of this year, the appearance of the largest-ever warship fleet in Japan since World War II, foreign press reports said.” [phrases in brackets added by IWPCHI]

The North Koreans go on to state that their concerns about the growth of the US Naval flotilla are not the product of their own imaginations but that in fact “the U.S. Navy base command in Yokosuka claimed it is part of the U.S. ‘strategy for making a switchover to Asia-Pacific’ in a bid to ‘contain’ the DPRK and China”.

The insatiable greed of the US capitalist class leads it – like the capitalist classes of all major industrialized states – to seek endlessly to expand its access to raw materials and markets of every foreign nation-state on Earth.  They seek to drive hard bargains with “Third World” countries like North Korea, ruthlessly exploiting their national resources and squeezing profits from their workers.  The reason the US is so maniacally intent on attacking North Korea is that N. Korea is the ONLY country left in the world that absolutely refuses to allow the capitalists to operate inside their borders!  The world’s capitalist classes are not allowed to extract ANY profits from North Korea – which is intolerable to the greed-addled imperialists!  And so the US capitalist class spends billions of US dollars annually to isolate, threaten and – they hope – ultimately to conquer North Korea and crush its heroic working class!  The workers of the United States must defend North Korea’s right to exist and demand that the United States military be withdrawn from Asia immediately.  These US capitalist greedheads will launch WWIII out of sheer lust for profits if they can ever delude themselves into believing that it can be done “profitably” – i.e. with “acceptable” numbers of US citizens annihilated in a Chinese/N. Korean counterattack.  We must not let this happen!

The North Korean workers state is NOT our idea of an “ideal” workers state – far from it.  There is much to admire about the heroic internationalist history of the Korean working class.  It could well be argued that there would never have been a Chinese Revolution if not for the major contributions of exiled Korean communist workers – who provided vitally important revolutionary communist leadership in China while Korea and China were under brutal Japanese occupation. Having helped lead the Chinese working class to power in 1949, the Koreans launched their own revolution, this time against the savage military assaults of the US imperialist war machine.  In spite of the butchery of 3 million Koreans and the near-complete destruction of North Korea (it is said that no building above two stories was left standing between Seoul and the Chinese border after the US bombing campaigns) the North Koreans, with the assistance of the USSR and China emerged victorious.  The victory won at such a tremendous cost by our North Korean working class sisters and brothers and their heroic leaders (there is nothing phony about the achievements of the great revolutionary leader Kim Il Sung) stands to this day as a victory for every worker on Earth! We must defend North Korea against any attempt by the capitalists to overthrow socialism in North Korea and to return it to the status of a vassal state of US or EU imperialism!

The North Korean workers state, is, like the USSR (formerly) and China, led by a bureaucratic caste that has usurped political power from the N. Korean workers and rules over the nation with an iron fist.  The North Korean government is fundamentally nationalist – which in itself is a complete abandonment of the principles of revolutionary Marxism, which is thoroughly internationalist.  In pursuit of something called “the Juche Idea” –  a quasi-religious and mystical philosophy that claims, among other things, that mountains possess magical powers and that genuine revolutionary hero Kim Il Sung was some kind of god – the North Koreans seek to achieve the impossible: complete economic self-sufficiency in a nation-state the size of West Virginia!  Thanks to their planned socialist economy (and the massive assistance from China and, previously, the USSR) until recently the North Koreans have been able to do quite well.  A series of severe droughts that hit that tiny country hard caused the collapse of North Korean food production and reportedly caused famine in the country – not at all surprisingly – which was undoubtedly exacerbated by the mismanagement of available resources by North Korea’s  autocratic Kim Il Sung-ist bureaucracy.  Back in the ’70s compared to capitalist South Korea  (which has of course  been massively subsidized by the West), the standard of living in North Korea was actually HIGHER than in the South.  Even today, the planned economy of North Korea holds up well against that of South Korea:

GDPs of North Korea and South Korea, 1960-2015. Source: Trading Economics

But with the collapse of the USSR and the continuing degeneration of the Chinese Communist Party into an emerging capitalist class sucking up to US imperialism – both of which threaten the subsidies necessary to keep this tiny nation-state afloat – the North Korean workers state is doomed economically.  If China was to cut off all subsidies to North Korea (a situation which the United States is trying desperately to bring about, and which the continued degeneration of the Chinese Communist Party into a gang of capitalist swindlers threatens with every passing day), then the economic pressure on North Korea could become so great that they would have to make major concessions to the imperialists just in order to survive as an independent state.   The situation can ONLY be resolved in North Korea’s favor if capitalism is overthrown throughout Asia and eventually around the world.  This alone will provide North Korea with the socialist trading partners it needs to prosper.  Unless the North Korean working class can organize itself to depose the ruling Kim Il Sung hereditary “communist monarchy” in a pro-socialist political revolution and return to the road of revolutionary Marxist internationalism, the days of North Korea will be numbered.  This, if it were to occur – just as with the collapse of the USSR – would represent a major defeat for the working class of the world.  This is why we say: DEFEND NORTH KOREA!  US IMPERIALISM: KEEP YOUR BLOOD-STAINED HANDS OFF THE WORLD!  US workers must fight to force the US Government to withdraw its military forces from Japan and from all territories outside the US mainland.  The US capitalist class does not have the right to intervene in the affairs of other countries.  The workers of the US must overthrow the US capitalist class before these greed-infected capitalists launch World War Three, killing perhaps hundreds of millions of workers all over the globe and maybe even wiping out the human race – to say nothing of what such a war would do to the ecosystem of this planet which any “lucky” survivors would be left with!

We republish below the complete text of the North Korean statement on the deployment of the “Chancellorsville” and the larger, ominous threat of a regional war posed by the US’ war moves in their racist “pivot to Asia”.

The statement is in the inimitable butchered English translation sadly common in all official Korean-English translations produced by the North Korean government.  The bourgeois press can snicker all they want at the bad translations; the message is very serious, and the threat so keenly felt by the North Koreans is not a joke at all.  After all, in the US thoroughly racist Korean War, launched just after the equally racist nuclear war crimes at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 3 million Korean workers were butchered by the US military.  The North Koreans have every right to protest vigorously every time the US imperialist war machine appears on the horizon.

– IWPCHI

http://www.kcna.kp/kcna.user.article.retrieveNewsViewInfoList.kcmsf

KCNA Commentary Accuses U.S. of Its Moves to Launch Nuclear War

Korean / English / Chinese / Spanish / Japanese

Pyongyang, June 29 (KCNA) — The U.S. military moves to launch a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula at any cost have reached an ever more undisguised and full-fledged phase.
Recently, latest missile cruiser Chancellorsville of the U.S. Navy equipped with Aegis system anchored at the U.S. military base in Yokosuka, Japan.
Belonging to carrier flotilla, it has the mission to strike naval and underwater targets while performing missile defense and anti-air defense duties. Military experts are unanimous in commenting that it is the first time for the U.S. to deploy overseas the warship with such striking-capability.
Two cruisers equipped with similar missile defense system will be deployed in Yokosuka late in 2017.
If the above-said warships are deployed, the number of the warships in the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka will reach 14 including the U.S. nuclear carrier Ronald Reagan to be deployed at the end of this year, the appearance of the largest-ever warship fleet in Japan since World War II, foreign press reports said.
As regards the deployment of three warships equipped with Aegis system, the U.S. Navy base command in Yokosuka claimed it is part of the U.S. “strategy for making a switchover to Asia-Pacific” in a bid to “contain” the DPRK and China.
It was also reported that the U.S. is mulling temporarily deploying four Global Hawks at the Misawa airfield of Japan from July.
All these military moves under the pretext of “containing the DPRK and China” are aimed to kick up an overall nuclear war racket against the DPRK in the ground, air and seas.
This fully revealed once again the aggressive nature of the U.S. imperialists who are making no scruple of periodically disturbing peace and stability in the region to attain their strategic and avaricious purposes.
Through a statement of the National Defence Commission the DPRK declared before the whole world that its army and people would launch a nationwide action of a new high level against the robber-like U.S. imperialists.
As clarified in the statement, the frantic moves the U.S. has stepped up for a nuclear war by introducing Chancellorsville, Global Hawk and the like would face stronger counter-actions of the DPRK.
The U.S. would be well advised to bear in mind that the DPRK has already put in place powerful strike group equipped with strategic and tactical rockets to cope with its missile threat.
The U.S. is required to pay heed to the DPRK’s warning that it is ready for conventional or nuclear or cyber wars.
The world people still remember and will never forget such crime committed by the U.S. against humanity 70 years ago as dropping atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to achieve its strategic aim.
It is a serious miscalculation and daydream for the U.S. to think it can employ the same method on the Korean peninsula as what it did to attain its purpose.
It is as clear as a pikestaff that if the U.S. nuclear maniacs ignite a nuclear war on the peninsula at any cost, they will perish in the flames kindled by themselves.
After all, the U.S. styling itself “the world’s only superpower” will precipitate its final ruin. -0-