An Evening with a Socialist Defector: Victor Grossman aka Stephen Wechsler

Oct 5, 2019 | An American journalist, writer and popular speaker, who defected to the USSR in 1952, Victor Grossman has since lived in East Germany, then the reunified Germany, chronicling life, politics and humanity.

Victor's latest book is published by Monthly Review Press and titled "A Socialist Defector: From Harvard to Karl-Marx-Allee": [Click here.]

Recorded at Der Rote Laden, Friedrichshain, Berlin on 3 October 2019.


Please note that I am posting this video for educational purposes only. I have no liking for that economic system. Not at all. However, I am interested to know what day-to-day life was like behind the ‘Iron Curtain’. Furthermore, Victor Grossman is a rather fascinating character. – © Mark Alexander

Related video here.

A Socialist Defector: From Harvard to Karl-Marx-Allee

Jul 16, 2019 | Victor Grossman defected to East Germany while serving in the US military in the 1950's. His latest book recounts his assessment of life in the US, in East Germany, and in the united Germany. We discuss the book with the author

North Korea Deports US Soldier Who Had Crossed into the Country from the South | DW News

Sep 27, 2023 | North Korean authorities expelled Travis King, the US soldier who had crossed into the country from the South in July, Pyongyang's state media reported on Wednesday. According to the KCNA news agency, authorities finished questioning King, who had confessed to entering the country illegally because of his "ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination" in the US Army. Later on Wednesday, Washington said King was in US custody.

EN FRANÇAIS :

Corée du Nord : le soldat américain qui avait passé la frontière a été remis « aux mains » des Etats-Unis : Travis King, 23 ans, avait franchi la ligne de démarcation entre la Corée du Sud et la Corée du Nord le 18 juillet, probablement pour échapper à des sanctions disciplinaires dans son pays. La Maison Blanche a remercié la Suède et la Chine pour avoir facilité son « transfert » via la frontière chinoise avec la Corée du Nord. »

Tory Whips Allegedly Tried to Smear Christian Wakeford after Defection

THE GUARDIAN: Exclusive: Allegations emerge of attempts to spread rumours about Bury South MP minutes after he crossed floor

Bury South MP Christian Wakeford. A government source said of the allegations that ‘it would be unacceptable’. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty
Conservative ministers and whips began spreading rumours about Christian Wakeford’s personal life minutes after the MP defected to Labour, it has been alleged amid growing concerns over dirty tactics in politics.

The Guardian has been told that senior members of the government spread the rumours in parliament after the MP for Bury South crossed the floor on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the senior Tory MP William Wragg urged MPs to report government ministers, whips and advisers to the Speaker – and even the Metropolitan police – for what he claimed was attempted blackmail of some colleagues suspected of opposing Boris Johnson. Johnson said he had “seen no evidence” of such threats.

A Labour source said the party had prepared Wakeford before his defection for the possibility of the Tories or hostile media trying to dig around in his private life. » | Rowena Mason, Aubrey Allegretti and Heather Stewart | Friday, January 21, 2022

Tory MP Christian Wakeford Defects to Labour, Blaming PM’s ‘Disgraceful’ Conduct

THE GUARDIAN: Bury South MP says Tory policies ‘doing nothing’ to help constituents, piling further pressure on Boris Johnson

The Bury South MP, Christian Wakeford, sitting on the opposition benches during PMQs on Wednesday. Photograph: House of Commons/PA
The Tory MP Christian Wakeford has defected to Labour, piling more pressure on Boris Johnson as growing numbers within his own party call on the prime minister to resign.

Just minutes before prime minister’s questions, Wakeford – elected as the MP for Bury South in 2019 – crossed the floor to sit with Keir Starmer’s party, declaring in a letter to Johnson resigning the Conservative whip that he was “incapable of offering the leadership and government this country deserves”.

The move will prove a huge embarrassment for Johnson, who is fighting to avoid enough of his own backbenchers submitting letters calling for a no-confidence vote. Fifty-four are needed to trigger a ballot. Many of those who have written a letter are members of the 2019 intake, like Wakeford. He submitted a letter last week.

In a letter to Johnson released on Wednesday afternoon, Wakeford said he believed “the policies of the Conservative government that you lead are doing nothing to help the people of my constituency and indeed are only making the struggles they face on a daily basis worse”.

Raising concerns about the “cost of living crisis” and how the country should emerge from the Covid pandemic, Wakeford said the UK needed “a government that upholds the highest standards of integrity and probity in public life”.

He added: “Sadly, both you and the Conservative party as a whole have shown themselves incapable of offering the leadership and government this country deserves.” » | Aubrey Allegretti, Political correspondent | Wednesday, January 19, 2022

David Davis tells Boris Johnson ‘in the name of God, go’ after Tory MP for Bury South defects to Labour »

Who is Christian Wakeford and who are the red wall MPs plotting against PM? »

'In the name of God, go!' Boris is told to QUIT over Partygate by ex-minister David Davis in bear-pit PMQs just minutes after Red Wall Tory MP DEFECTS to Labour - as 'Pork Pie plotters' vow no confidence vote and Keir Starmer says more rebels are 'welcome': Boris Johnson is struggling to quell a so-called 'Pork Pie Plot' with dozens of Red Wall MPs threatening coup / Around 20 MPs are thought to have held a secret lunchtime meeting on plans to force Tory leadership contest / Bishop Auckland MP Dehenna Davison and fellow Tory Alicia Kearns were identified as ringleaders by sources »

«Partygate»-Affäre: Parteiinterne Rebellion gegen britischen Premier weitet sich aus – Johnson bläst zum Gegenangriff: Hinter den Kulissen brodelt es, immer mehr Tories scheinen am Stuhl von Boris Johnson zu sägen. Doch der Regierungschef gibt sich noch nicht geschlagen. »

Turbulente Debatte in London: Johnson wartet auf «Partygate»-Bericht und schliesst sofortige Konsequenzen aus »

North Korean Defector Tells How He Secretly Made Millions for Kim Régime

For three decades, North Korean Ri Jong Ho was one of many men responsible for secretly sending millions of dollars back to Pyongyang. He worked for the shadowy "Office 39" before escaping with his family in 2014. He sat down with The Washington Post’s Anna Fifield to tell his story.

North Korea: Former Diplomat Warns More Officials Will Defect

North Korea’s former deputy ambassador to the UK Thae Yong Ho has spoken to international reporters for the first time since he defected to South Korea last August.

Exclusive Interview: Why I Defected from Bashar al-Assad's Regime, By Former Diplomat Nawaf Fares
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The most senior Syrian official to defect from Bashar al-Assad's regime has told how the "tragic and unbelievable" destruction of his country moved him to join the growing opposition movement.

Nawaf Fares, a former regime hardliner and security chief who was Syria's ambassador to Iraq, spoke out in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph yesterday - his first since announcing his dramatic decision to quit last week. As the first senior diplomat to abandon the government, it is thought his departure may pave the way for others to follow, leaving President Assad's regime even more exposed.

Yesterday, in a wide-ranging interview conducted by telephone from Qatar, where he has now sought refuge, Mr Fares made a series of devastating claims against the Assad regime, which he said was determined to be "victorious" whatever the cost.

• Jihadi units that Mr Fares himself had helped Damascus send to fight US troops in neighbouring Iraq were involved in the string of deadly suicide bomb attacks in Syria

• The attacks were carried on the direct orders of the Assad regime, in the hope that it could blame them on the rebel movement

• President Assad, who had a "violent streak" inherited from his father, was now living "in a world of his own"

Mr Fares spoke out as the violence in Syria continued unabated, with at least 28 people killed across the country yesterday. The town of Khirbet Ghazaleh in southern Syria was attacked by hundreds of troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Meanwhile, United Nations observers visited the village of Treimsa, in central Hama province, in which up to 200 people are feared to have died on Thursday.

It was precisely such atrocities as these that forced Mr Fares to gradually question his own allegiance to the regime, ending 35 years of loyal service in which he worked as a policeman, regional governor and political security chief, becoming entrusted with some of its most sensitive tasks.

"At the beginning of the revolution, the state tried to convince people that reforms would be enacted very soon," he said. "We lived on that hope for a while. We gave them the benefit of the doubt, but after many months it became clear to me that the promises of reform were lies. That was when I made my decision. I was seeing the massacres perpetrated – no man would be able to live with himself, seeing what I saw and knowing what I know, to stay in the position." » | Ruth Sherlock, Beirut | Saturday, July 14, 2012

Related »

Syria Ambassador to Iraq Defects
Syria's ambassador to Iraq has defected in protest at the military crackdown by Assad's forces against a 16-month uprising. In exclusive statement to Al Jazeera, Nawaf al-Fares said that his decision came in the wake of what he described as horrible massacre committed against the Syrian people by the regime. Nicole Johnston reports.

Related »

Syria's Ambassador to Iraq Defects in Major Blow to Regime

THE GUARDIAN: Nawaf al-Fares joins opposition, who say others are poised to follow suit

Syria's ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf al-Fares said he had defected and joined the revolution against Bashar al-Assad, becoming the first senior diplomat to quit the embattled government.

According to the Reuters news agency, Fares called on Syrian soldiers to follow his lead and turn their guns on the Damascus leadership.

"I declare that I have joined, from this moment, the ranks of the revolution of the Syrian people," he said in a video statement posted on Facebook. "I ask … the members of the military to join the revolution and to defend the country and the citizens … Turn your guns towards the criminals from this regime," he added. » | Martin Chulov in Beirut | Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Leading Syrians Prepare to Defect
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Members of Bashar al-Assad's inner circle 'making secret plans to defect' as Syria air force colonel abandons attack mission and flies MiG to Jordan.

Members of Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle are secretly making plans to defect to the opposition should the Syrian regime become critically threatened by the rebellion, US officials have told The Daily Telegraph.

Senior military figures are understood to be laying down “exit strategies” and establishing lines of communication with the rebels to discuss how they would be received if they deserted.

On Thursday a Syrian air force colonel became the first senior officer to defect in an aircraft after he abandoned a mission to attack the city of Dera’a and landed his MiG 21 fighter jet in Jordan.

The Daily Telegraph understands that the pilots of three other MiGs on the mission also considered defecting, but were worried about being turned away. » | Ruth Sherlock, Beirut, Suha Maayeh in Amman and Peter Foster in Washington | Thursday, June 21, 2012