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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: Communism

Communism stories: 37 news summaries

1 - 20 of 37 Stories | 1 2 Next >>

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INTERVIEW

 East Germany's 
 First Lady 
 Unrepentant 

Margot Honecker dismisses criticism over forced adoptions, GDR policies

Nov 10, 09 8:43 PM CST
(Newser) - The wife of former East German dictator Erich Honecker loses no sleep over the policies she and her husband championed, including one that forcibly placed children of dissidents into other families or foster homes. “We lived good lives in our GDR,” Margot Honecker tells the Independent ... More »

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adoption • Germany • Chile • exile • GDR • Communism • Erich Honecker • Margot Honecker • German Democratic Republic

SLIDESHOW


 Germany Celebrates 
 Fall of the Wall  

Twenty years later, unified country celebrates togetherness

Nov 9, 09 5:51 PM CST
(Newser) - 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,... More »

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Hillary Clinton • communism • Angela Merkel • Berlin • East Germany • Berlin Wall • Communism • West Germany • Iron Curtain • President Obama

opinion

 Post-1989 Germany 
 an Unexpected Success 

Successes in Europe would boggle a 1989 mind: Applebaum

Nov 9, 09 12:42 PM CST
(Newser) - As “the exhaustive and perfectly blameless celebrations” of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall unfold, Anne Applebaum has a bone to pick. The festivities are “focusing on what didn’t happen rather than what did,” she writes, treating “the past two decades... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Angela Merkel • Eastern Europe • democracy • Soviet Union • East Germany • Berlin Wall • Communism • Central Europe

party like it's 1989

 Germany Hails 
 Anniversary of  
 Berlin Wall's Fall  

Dominoes, fireworks, music help mark 20 years

Nov 9, 09 8:54 AM CST
(Newser) - Hundreds of foam dominoes will fall today in Berlin, symbolizing the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has called Nov. 9, 1989, "the happiest day in recent German history," will lead the festivities.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Hillary Clinton • Angela Merkel • Germany • Eastern Europe • Berlin • Nicolas Sarkozy • Gordon Brown • East Germany • Berlin Wall • Communism • West Germany • Lech Walesa • Brandenburg Gate

 Domino Wall 
 to Fall on Berlin 
 Anniversary 

'Domino-Aktion' to mark 20 years since Berlin Wall toppled

Oct 15, 09 3:31 AM CDT
(Newser) - Twenty years after a domino effect of resistance toppled Communist regimes across Europe and brought down the Berlin Wall, the Germans are trying it again with actual dominoes. Volunteers have crafted almost 1,000 8-foot-tall Styrofoam dominoes and plan to assemble them along the path of the old Wall through... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Germany • Berlin • East Germany • Berlin Wall • Communism

ANALYSIS

 Glenn Beck's Mormonism 
 Is the Apocalyptic Kind 

Ties to radical mid-century LDS thought could sully Romney 2012

Oct 8, 09 2:29 PM CDT
(Newser) - Most of the media has been understandably wary of tying Glenn Beck’s Mormonism to his jeremiad against President Obama and the enemies of freedom, Adam Reilly writes. And yet, Beck is a clear inheritor of a particular strain of mid-century Mormon political ideology that espoused virulent anti-communism and the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Mitt Romney • Mormonism • Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • Communism • Glenn Beck • US Constitution • Obama administration • Joseph Smith

 Early Castro 
 Compatriot 
 Almeida 
 Dead at 82 

Rebel leader coined revolutionary slogan 'Here, nobody surrenders!'

Sep 12, 09 12:32 PM CDT
(Newser) - One of the original leaders of the Cuban Revolution and a general in Fidel Castro’s military has died, the BBC reports. Juan Almeida Bosque, 82, was the third most senior member in Raul Castro’s Council of State and the only black member of the Cuban leadership. Almeida met... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Fidel Castro • Cuba • obituary • Raul Castro • Communism • Cuban Revolution • Juan Almeida Bosque • insurrection

 Thatcher Urged 
 Gorbachev to Block 
 German Reunification 

British leader warned Soviets that the change would endanger security

Sep 11, 09 2:06 AM CDT
(Newser) - Margaret Thatcher called on Mikhail Gorbachev to halt German reunification months before the Berlin Wall came down, newly unearthed Kremlin documents reveal. Thatcher—telling the Soviet leader he should disregard NATO pronouncements on the issue—said the breakdown of the Warsaw Pact wasn't in the interests of the West, the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Soviet Union • Mikhail Gorbachev • Margaret Thatcher • East Germany • Berlin Wall • Communism • West Germany • reunification

ANALYSIS

 Right Revives Red Scare, 
 Despite Lack of Reds 

Fears of secret socialism prove a fertile ground for right-wing outrage

Sep 9, 09 6:30 AM CDT
(Newser) - The right has been energized by a good old-fashioned Red hunt—never mind the fact that there are precious few old-style leftists around in America today, Thomas Frank writes in the Wall Street Journal. The centrist Democratic administration has been in power for well under a year, Frank writes, but... More »

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socialism • Communism • right wingers • Obama administration • tea parties

(Newser) - Fidel Castro usually likes to express his political views in rambling essays and hours-long speeches, but a new book now breaks down El Comandante's philosophy into a handy-dandy A-to-Z format. The Castro dictionary, containing entries such as "Unemployment" and "History," is targeted at Cuban academics, reports AP.... More »

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Fidel Castro • Cuba • Communism • book • dictionary

Poll: Half of East Germans Positive on Communism

Nostalgic Germans believe life was better before the Berlin Wall came down

Jul 4, 09 7:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - They may not be pining for the Stasi or the Trabant, but half of people recently polled in the former East Germany are thinking, in hindsight, that Communism wasn't so bad after all, Der Speigel reports. Nearly 20 years after the Berlin Wall came down, the poll finds  that 49% ... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Germany • capitalism • East Germany • Communism • reunification

German Tempers Heat Up Over Cold War Tourist Traps

'Snackpoint Charlie,' actors in military uniforms labeled disrespectful to dead

May 20, 09 9:51 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Disneyfication of Cold War landmarks in Berlin has irked people with bad memories of East Germany, the Independent reports. Critics, including former Allied officers and those who suffered under oppressive rule, argue that the atmosphere around places like Checkpoint Charlie—where actors in military uniforms hustle tourists for coins... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Germany • Berlin • East Germany • Berlin Wall • Communism • West Germany • checkpoints

(Newser) - The woes of international capitalism are fueling renewed interest in the ur-texts of Chinese Communism, MSNBC reports. Sales of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital and Mao’s “little red book” are skyrocketing in China, where the publisher of Kapital has seen a fivefold increase in sales since... More »

MORE ABOUT:
China • capitalism • global economy • Communism • Karl Marx • Mao Zedong • economic crisis • Das Kapital • little red book

 Vandals Rip Lenin a New One 


Apr 1, 09 1:04 PM CDT
(Newser) - A bomb exploded this morning at a St. Petersburg tribute to Vladimir Lenin, opening a gaping hole in the statue's backside, the BBC reports. “As a result of the explosion a crater of 31-39 inches appeared on the monument,” a Russian official said. The motive for the attack... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Russia • vandalism • bomb • explosion • statue • monument • St. Petersburg • Communism • Vladimir Lenin

OPINION

 Hey Sean, 
 Put Down 
 Your Pen 



Adoration of Cuban dictator is misguided, dangerous

Jan 5, 09 10:36 AM CST
(Newser) - Sean Penn may be “the finest character actor around,” but he's “no journalist,” writes Roger Cohen in the New York Times. Penn’s recent “fawning tributes” to Cuban president Raúl Castro show the actor has “delusional, dangerous” beliefs about the dictator—a fact... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Fidel Castro • Cuba • lefties • dictatorship • Raul Castro • Communism • Sean Penn • Roger Cohen

(Newser) - The Cuban embargo has failed to encourage democracy there, and the president-elect should do something about it, writes Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post. It's time to “bring five decades of counterproductive American policy toward Cuba to a definitive end.” While engagement with other Communist regimes has... More »

MORE ABOUT:
democracy • US foreign policy • Fidel Castro • Cuba • Raul Castro • Communism • Cuban embargo • President Obama

Cuban Players Ditch US Hotel, May Plan to Defect

Cuba's soccer prez denies the 2 men ever left for United States

Oct 11, 08 2:52 PM CDT
(Newser) - Two Cuban soccer players fled a US hotel in Virginia yesterday and may plan to defect, the Washington Post reports. Pedro Faife, 24, and Reynier Alcantara, 26, are slated to play in a World Cup qualifier tonight and have not turned themselves in to Customs—but Cuba's coach doesn't... More »

MORE ABOUT:
World Cup • Cuba • United States • soccer • Communism • defection

Korean 'Mata Hari' Was More Likely a Patsy

1950 execution of 'spy,'  seductress was result of witchhunt: inquiry

Aug 17, 08 9:46 AM CDT
(Newser) - In the thick of Cold War suspicion in 1950, South Korean socialite Kim Soo-im was executed as a wily seductress who passed secrets from her US army lover to another in North Korea. But the hasty trial and execution of the 'Korean Mata Hari' was based on charges trumped up... More »

MORE ABOUT:
South Korea • spy • Communism • Korean War • Kim Soo-im

 Posh
 Related
 to Marx
 Comrade

Revolutionary who fled to England is Victoria Beckham's great-great-great-grandfather

Aug 6, 08 11:49 AM CDT
(Newser) - Victoria Beckham’s girl-power roots go a lot further back than her Spice Girls days: The pop icon is the great-great-great-granddaughter of a 19th-century communist who worked with Karl Marx, Reuters reports. A German historian discovered the link between Posh and revolutionary Carl Heinrich Pfaender who was chummy with Marx... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Victoria Beckham • celebrity • Communism • genealogy • Karl Marx

Cuban Youth Prefer Facebook to Revolution

They're resigned to small freedoms, not sweeping change

Jul 26, 08 9:51 AM CDT
(Newser) - Cuba's youth are restless, but many are more concerned about access to Facebook, flat-screen TVs, and trips abroad than political change, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Young people say that they pressured Raul Castro to allow cell phone and computer ownership, but they remain disillusioned about the prospects for greater... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Latin America • Fidel Castro • Cuba • Raul Castro • Communism • Cuban dissidents

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