communism news stories on Newser

Cuba's 500K Layoffs a Sharp Capitalist Turn

Polly Davis Doig — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 07:07:57 CDT

Cuba's announcement that it's looking to whack a half-million workers off the state payroll by March is a significant move toward capitalism, reports the Wall Street Journal. Bearing some 85% of the nation's 5.5 million workers on the government payroll, as well as a ravaged economy, the island nation...

Islamophobia Is the New McCarthyism

Drew Nelles — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:21:00 CDT

With anti-Muslim sentiment and racist fears about President Obama at an all-time high, America is experiencing “the worst spasm of paranoia and bigotry of the post-Cold War age,” Peter Beinart writes in the Daily Beast . And we can look to the “red scares” of the last century for answers. During...

Fidel: 'Cuban Model Doesn't Even Work For Us'

John Johnson — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:25:18 CDT

Fidel Castro doesn't seem thrilled with the way his revolution is working out. Asked by Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic whether the Cuban model should be exported, he came back with this remarkable reply: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." Whaa? Goldberg gets help interpreting from a...

N. Korea Allows Private Food Markets

John Johnson — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 12:10:00 CDT

North Korea has effectively admitted that it can't feed its citizens by allowing people to buy food and other necessities at private markets, the Washington Post reports. Such markets have existed under the radar for years, but the government order sanctioning what amounts to capitalism "abandons all pretense of a...

Germany Celebrates Fall of the Wall

M. Morris — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:51:54 CST

Fireworks illuminated the rainy skies above Berlin as Germans and high-profile visitors came together today to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall exactly 20 years ago. President Obama unexpectedly joined the festivities—in a video greeting introduced by Hillary Clinton. "There could be no clearer rebuke of tyranny," he...

Miami Cubans Feud Over Havana Peace Concert

Wesley Oliver — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:32:32 CDT

Juan Esteban Aristizábal, the Colombian pop star better known as Juanes, has sparked a generational spat among Cuban-Americans by agreeing to sing at a “peace concert” in Havana, the Economist reports. Many elders view the event as the Cuban regime’s latest attempt to manipulate public opinion, but 26-year-old Felice Gorordo,...

Toilet Paper Shortage Gives Cuba a Pain in the . . .

Harry Kimball — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:36:02 CDT

Cuba is battling a toilet paper shortage, the Miami Herald reports. The country says the global financial crisis and recent hurricanes have forced it to shutter factories and cut down on electricity usage. The result: The cost of a four-pack of TP in Havana is the equivalent of 2 days'...

Hungary Fetes 1989 'Picnic' That Led to Fall of Berlin Wall

Matt Cantor — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:14:00 CDT

Hungary is celebrating the 20th anniversary today of its “Pan-European Picnic”: the day it opened its border with Austria, providing a pathway for hundreds of East Germans to exit Europe’s communist east. “The Soviet bloc was like an air balloon with over-pressure so it needed only a prick of the...

Communists Rise in Japan

Rob Quinn — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:57:41 CDT

The recession has reversed a long slide in the fortunes of the Japanese Communist Party, the BBC reports. The party had been shrinking for decades, but membership is now growing at the rate of a thousand people a month. Young people—introduced to Communist ideology through efforts like a manga...