Barak Obama is now moving to build an administration which will be acceptable to big business. At the same time he is setting out his priorities in line with those of big business. Deal with the financial crisis, end the Iraq war, step up war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, deal with the Iran nuclear issue, seek to deal with the developing world economic depression.
When we consider these priorities and the individuals he is picking to carry them out, such as the right wing Zionist as Chief of Staff, we should step back a bit and consider a few other things. In particular the issues he has not mentioned as priorities for his administration. The same issues in the main he never mentioned in his campaign.
For example:
The US unemployment rate for whites this October was 5.3%. For Latinos, it was 8.8%. For African Americans it was 11.1%. That is twice the rate for whites. The median white household income in 2007 was $54,920. For African Americans $33,916. For Latinos $38,679. The African American poverty rate is three times higher than the rate for whites. Poverty rates: Whites, 8.2%, African Americans 24.5%, Latinos 21.5%. The African American infant mortality rate is 2.4 times the rate for whites. The African American child poverty rate is actually higher today than it was in 1968. The incarceration rate for African Americans is 4.8 times higher than for Whites. For Latinos it is 1.6 times than than for whites.
These figures show extreme discrimination against African Americans. However they are not the full picture. And not only that they make it look better than it is. Racist discrimination affects all African Americans but it does not affect them all equally. In terms of unemployment, less educated African American men, African American men in major cities, and African American youth are all significantly worse off.
So what about priorities now? None of these issues are priorities in Obama's agenda. None of them were raised in his campaign as he made sure he would not frighten off his big business backers or scare of white voters.
So now what we will see is that the Obama administration or administrations will not step up to solve these problems.
Working people need to organize our own organizations. We need to follow Martin Luther King's example when towards the end of his life he organized the Poor Peoples' March on Washington and when he said maybe America needs some kind of socialism. We need to follow Malcolm X's example when he also to the end of his life began to talk about working class unity and to talk of capitalism and socialism. We need to follow the example of many of the Black Panther party who come out for socialism.
Obama is committed to try and solve the problems within capitalism and it will not work. He will end up implementing the capitalist solution of making working people pay. We need out own organizations, we need to defend ourselves with direct mass action, we need to reject the capitalist alternative at every turn about, we need to organize for socialism. Sean
The break up of so many African American families is directly related to high unemployment.
1 comment:
Not only has Obama not made an issue out of the statistics in the previous post, he has not included anyone in his administration so far as I can see who will make an issue out of them.
Washington DC, home to so many representatives of "the people" has always suffered from poverty and the crime associated with it, (a much lesser version of the dominant criminal activity that takes place in the halls of Congress)
DC has one of the highest percentage rates of children living in poverty in the entire country, over 30%. This is the town where, as one mouthpiece of US capitalism put it, "There's a lobbyist for every entity and every organ in your body...."
These very lobbyists put on lavish parties at the Democratic National Convention and not one word about these “thieves occupying our house" was raised from the podium; they are not too concerned about the rhetoric thrown out for the purpose of vote getting.
As we have raised on this blog previously, it is quite possible the Obama administration will introduce some FDR type reforms depending on the depth of the crisis which is yet unknown (all the experts are adrift) and the pressure from below. Obama had some 4 million volunteers working for his election and 3 million in his database; these people cannot simply be ignored. There is now talk of a $500 billion stimulus that will include infrastructure spending to create jobs. But some capitalist economists like Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs (Now the United States of Goldman Sachs) says that at 4% of GDP even that might not be enough.
It is incredible really to see the rugged individualists, the “pulled myself up by my bootstraps” crowd line up for a taxpayer hand out. Where is the market god now?
The capitalist economy is being confronted on all sides by its own contradictions; there are dangers everywhere. Now the cities and municipalities are demanding bail out cash. Further defaults by cities will increase the demand for money and place further strain on the taxpayer. Social services will be cut during a period of increasing unemployment. I was talking to a plumber today who said that in two of the locals here in the bay area there are 90 out of work in one and 200 in another. The by-product of this statistic is increased fear and strain on workers and their families as the fear of losing their jobs, homes and health care are all threatened. Yesterday, a laid off Silicon Valley worker shot co-workers.
It is impossible to comment on this without mentioning the criminal role of the Labor leaders who refuse to offer a way out other; instead, they prop up the system and applaud those who perpetuate it.
Today, representatives of 20 nations met to coordinate a global response to the crisis; they are terrified of another 1929 and protectionist debacle. US treasury Secretary Hank Paulson conceded that the US has “in many ways humiliated ourselves as a nation with some of the problems that have taken place here.” He said though that the US is not solely responsible. He’s right enough in that the capitalist system itself is responsible.
It is the system that we have to change not simply the faces at the head of it.
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