By Vijay Prashad and Carlos Ron

December 5, 1907: Birthday of Comrade Lin Biao, commander of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and co-leader of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

Sam Marcy: The Cultural Revolution and the Fall of Lin Piao

Part 1

By Juan Cole

Eric Schmitt, Maggie Haberman, David E. Sanger, Helene Cooper and Lara Jakes at the New York Times get the scoop. Their sources in the White House tell them that last Thursday, in a meeting with his senior advisers, Trump abruptly asked them if there were options for a US strike on Iran’s civilian nuclear enrichment facilities.

They say that vice president Mike Pence, secretary of state Mike Pompeo and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Gen. Mark Milley all sought to dissuade Trump from this course of action, on the grounds it could kick off a major war in the last weeks of his presidency. They are alleged to have come away from the meeting convinced that they had succeeded.

Some commentary on this story:

First, it should be noted that Iran is not engaged in illegal activity. Its right to enrich uranium for civilian electricity production was acknowledged by the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or nuclear deal signed with all the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany. Iran has only departed from that agreement in very minor ways, and mainly as a way of putting pressure on Europe to defy the US severe economic sanctions, which contravene the treaty. It is Trump’s Washington that has behaved illegally, not Iran.

So there is no casus belli and any US military action against Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities would be a massive war crime.

Further, the authors do not say anything about the likely consequences for Iranian civilians of such a strike.

By Scott Scheffer 

On Oct. 9, China announced that it has joined about 160 other countries in a pact to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines and treatments will be distributed equitably around the world. The aim of the agreement is to provide two billion doses of vaccine to vulnerable populations and health care workers, especially in poor countries.

By Greg Butterfield

People in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea celebrated the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Oct. 10, 1945. The WPK is the communist party that leads the building of socialism in the northern part of Korea.

In Pyongyang, the capital city, a mighty military parade was held to show the Trumps of the world that the DPRK is always prepared to defend its people and their socialist system from the aggression of capitalist powers.

I have had occasion to observe a certain [American socialist] who has reproached us—and has quoted the fact as evidence of the complete collapse of communism—for speaking of transactions with capitalist powers. He has written that he cannot imagine better proof of the complete collapse of communism and the break down of its programme. I think that anybody who has given thought to the matter will say the reverse. No better proof of the Russian Soviet Republic’s material and moral victory over the capitalists of the whole world can be found than the fact that the powers that took up arms against us because of our terror and our entire system have been compelled, against their will, to enter into trade relations with us in the knowledge that by so doing they are strengthening us. This might have been advanced as proof of the collapse of communism only if we had promised, with the forces of Russia alone, to transform the whole world, or had dreamed of doing so. However, we have never harboured such crazy ideas and have always said that our revolution will be victorious when it is supported by the workers of all lands.

Hours before polls opened in Bolivia, de facto Interior Minister Arturo Murillo launched a massive military show of force, praising security forces for removing "dictator" Evo Morales from power in 2019.