Red Youth protest U.S. war threats against north Korea

New York — A new revolutionary organization of young people, Red Youth, held a protest and street meeting at Manhattan’s busy Union Square Park to protest U.S. imperialism’s aggressive moves threatening war against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The April 6 action came as the corporate media’s propaganda machine was trying to demonize north Korea’s leaders and paint them as “belligerent.” The Red Youth and older speakers, who included some Korean-Americans, refused to give one inch on this important issue. They explained how the U.S.-south Korean war games represented a direct threat to the DPRK, a threat that had to be taken seriously. In this they were inspired by the determination of the DPRK leadership.

A few people passing by showed hostility to the demonstration, mostly calling the Red Youth “communists,” which the young people were proud to acknowledge in this period of capitalist collapse. But the prevailing attitude among those who stayed and listened to the speakers was curiosity about what was really going on in Korea. Others clearly opposed all the U.S. moves toward war and cheered on the DPRK.

Speakers from Students for a Democratic Society, the International Action Center and Workers World Party also took part. WWP activists at the street rally distributed hundreds of copies of the April 11 issue of WW newspaper with the headline, “Not another war! Pentagon out of Korea,” to people at the street meeting and in the park.

To end the protest, the Red Youth held a “mic check” in a nearby multiplex theater that was showing a particularly outrageous propaganda film, “Olympus Has Fallen,” whose plot is about “north Korean terrorists” capturing the White House. This ended their bold political statement with a bold action.

A video of the mic-check is at youtube.com/watch?v=oaRJJy9jJRc.