By Zoltan Zigedy

http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

What the voters wanted was unquestionably significant change. What they were promised was change. Whether change will come from the Obama administration is – at best – questionable….

And every indication is that the Obama administration will continue down the path of advancing imperial interests and privileging corporate America.” ZZ’s Blog, 11-06-08

“Has Obama betrayed his progressive promise? Obama never made a progressive promise. The idea of Obama as a water-bearer for liberal or progressive reform came not from Obama’s mouth, but from the sheer wishes and dreams of the left…”

In fairness, Obama has betrayed no one. His vast centrist following and the Democratic Party old-guard have shown no fear of Obama’s perceived “progressive” agenda, an agenda that appears to be more and more in the minds of a self-deluding left. ZZ’s Blog, 12-09-08

Liberals and the celebrity left are in a catfight over their relationship to the Obama Administration and it’s not a pretty thing. Chris Hedges stirred the pot recently with an interview of Cornel West on Truthdig, augmented with his own angry voice, denouncing Obama: The Obama Deception: Why Cornel West Went Ballistic. The interview circulated widely on the internet, generating discussion and controversy like few other internet commentaries.

Hedges postures the Obama “deception” as a Shakespearean tragedy and West depicts it as a personal affront. While many of my left brothers and sisters have hailed this personal mea culpa and attack on Obama as welcome, joining those sending the interview far and wide, they have only added to the tiresome finger pointing that advances our struggles very little.

West earns no thanks for placing the character flaws of the current President, as he reveals them, at the center of the political universe. It is especially embarrassing that he cites the personal slights – the absence of inaugural tickets, missing handshakes, unreturned phone calls, official jabs – as the fulcrum of his argument.

It really is not about Cornel West.

At one point, Hedges senses that the interview has gotten too personal. He writes: “But there was also the betrayal on the political and ideological level.” Yet a few lines later, he returns to the personal: “Obama and West’s last personal contact took place a year ago at a gathering of the Urban League when, he says, Obama ‘cussed me out.’”

In its essence, the interview is an indulgence in Cornel West’s personal pique — a People magazine-style profile breathlessly hanging on the words of one of our “stars.” If Obama had proved to be everything that the “hopey-changey” left had forecast, West’s complaints would now be viewed as they are: an irrelevant exercise in self-indulgence. This interview is unbecoming of Chris Hedges, who has shown a deep understanding of the issues and has put his own body on the line to stop the war and fight corporate power.

Predictably, The Nation magazine – the most prominent periodical on the left and an early champion of the Obama-as-savior perspective – unleashed its star TV-commentator upon the Hedges/West interview (Cornel West v. Barack Obama, The Nation blog). Melissa Harris-Perry grasped the opportunity afforded by West’s “ballistic” personal tirade and lunched on West’s celebration of self-worth. She wrote: “I can tell the difference between a substantive criticism and a personal attack. It is clear to me that West’s ego, not the health of American democracy, is the wounded creature in this story.”

While establishing her own modest, tepid criticisms of the Obama administration, she further charges West with an unholy alliance with TV personality Tavis Smiley, a counter-charge of the same irrelevance as West’s outburst.

What do we ask of those who promoted the mistaken view that Barack Obama was the second-coming of FDR? Do we want a public tirade denouncing Obama? Do we expect a period of self-flagellation or contrition? Should those who eagerly signed onto “Progressives for Obama” be taken to the woodshed?

None of these options shows even a measure of political maturity. The battle then, and the battle now, is a battle of ideas and not personalities. Revealingly, the exchange between Hedges/West and Harris-Perry says little about the way forward. Absorbed in a clash of celebrity egos, they are more intent on settling scores than mapping a way to mount a counter-offensive to the relentless advances of monopoly capital.

A left constructed on wishful thinking and opportunistic campaign promises is little better than a right based upon fantasy and eighteenth-century dogma. But it is not helpful to promote the cult of personality that has become so prevalent in our culture.

In today’s climate, charges of “betrayal” or “deception” are hollow. They reflect a misreading of the history and social role of monopoly capital and its bankrupt two-party system; they obscure the deep mechanisms that sustain the capitalist system. We desperately need acts of resistance and not web battles between our luminaries.

For those who want to go beyond the trivial, beyond the wars on the web, the road is clear: look at what our brothers and sisters are at this moment doing in Greece, Portugal and Spain. Faced with the austerity that will soon visit the US, they are in the streets, anchored by militant labor movements that understand the stakes and confront the enemy: capital. It’s time for our own labor movement to go beyond electoral maneuvers and bring the fight to the streets in the US. We should help them figure out how to get there.

Zoltan Zigedy
zoltanzigedy@gmail.com

From: Communist Party of Brazil
Secretaria de Relações Internacionais email to:
Date: 2011/3/31

Obama represents the old US’s imperialist policy

President Barack Obama started in Brazil a visit to three Latin American countries and announced a “new stage” in the relations between the United States of America and our continent. To PCdoB, US’s imperialism will not change the essence of its policy with the Obama administration. The concrete initiatives of US’s government contradict its rhetoric and discourses.

Many interests of the USA motivate the visit of Barack Obama, but it is mainly aimed at: trying to neutralize Brazil and the recent role of its independent and progressive foreign policy; increasing the already great asymmetry in bilateral relations in the economic, commercial and defense fields and stimulating contradictions between Brazil and other countries such as China in the economic and commercial fields; ensuring the supply of energy, especially oil from pre-salt layer; and taking actions to “clean the image” of imperialism using Obama’s charisma and the “soft power” diplomacy to launch a supposedly “new policy” for Brazil and Latin America with demagogic speeches in Brazil, Chile and El Salvador.

It is understandable that governments such as that of President Dilma Rousseff, counting with the support and participation of PCdoB, maintain diplomatic relations with sovereign countries, among which the USA. President Lula hosted President Bush twice in Brazil. However, Brazilian communists have no illusions regarding what President Obama represents. He is the chief of state of the main imperialist power, the main enemy of the peoples of the world.

Since the election of Barack Obama, the USA announced a “new policy” that in fact does not exist. Actually, it is a new formulation of the goal of recovering and broadening the world hegemony of the USA. There is now a different rhetoric, symbolic gestures amplified by efficient propaganda and a different tactics as compared to the George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush administrations, aimed at neutralizing opponents and beguiling allies, especially NATO, in order to maintain the US’s leadership even in face of its own difficulty in dealing with several conflicts simultaneously.

That does not match Obama’s speeches in defense of peace, democracy and human rights. Also there are no “common values” uniting the Brazilian people and the government of President Dilma Rousseff, in one side, and the policy of Yankee imperialism, in the other side. Why torture is still going on in Guantanamo? How many wars of occupation aggression to the people the USA promoted in the last decades and are promoting at this very moment? How many dictatorships and coups d’état were – and still are – financed and supported by the USA, such as the current monarchic and despotic regimes of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, protected by Washington?

The new military and homeland security strategies of President Obama rhetorically promise cooperation and multilateralism. In practice, however, they follow the beaten path of imposing their interests by means of force and war.

Facts contradict rhetoric. After more than two years of the Obama administration, it is increasingly clear that the interests of that imperialist power outweigh campaign speeches. Even after recently announced cuts, the USA will spend on its armed forces in 2011 the largest budget since the end of World War II – more than the military spending of all the other countries of the world.

The USA insists in maintaining hundreds of military bases all over the globe. Together with their European allies, they change NATO’s character, which now covers all continents and seas.

There is a strong military presence of the USA in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. The USA and their NATO allies are still in Afghanistan and Pakistan, prolonging a war that is now longer than the aggression against Vietnam, and extending the military occupation in Iraq. Notwithstanding, they have not been able to curb the national and popular resistance in those countries.

At this moment the USA and NATO members are doing a military intervention in Libya after imposing on the UN Security Council a resolution that makes the aggression against the sovereignty of Libya “multilateral.” Revolutionary and progressive forces of all continents must condemn any kind of intervention or foreign military action in Libya, which will not bring a solution to the conflict and will only aggravate it. In case of the civil war unfolding in Libya, a politic and peaceful solution is necessary, one that respects the independence and territorial integrity of that country.

Obama’s policy is against the interests of Brazil and Latin America

As a general democratic and progressive trend thrives in Latin America, the decline of the influence of the US’s hegemony in the region becomes more pronounced. Although the USA still possesses great influence, it is facing a decline in face of the new political reality in Latin America.

In every country, the USA supports right-wing forces that maintain pro-imperialist stances and opposes projects of southern and Latin American integration and democratic, progressive and left-wing governments.

In Latin America, the USA reinforced media campaigns and pressures against the Cuban Revolution and threats to Venezuela, viewed by Washington’s intelligence organizations as the “main threat” against the USA in the Americas. In the meanwhile, the Colombian government follows the line drawn by the USA to become the Israel of Latin America and the Caribbean, sponsoring the murdering of popular leaders and maintaining thousands of political prisoners. Diplomatic cables from the American embassy in Brazil revealed by WikiLeaks made clear what everybody already knew – the USA did not want President Dilma Rousseff to win the election and right-wing candidate José Serra promised to realign the Brazilian foreign policy to US’s interests.

However, in the elections held in last October, the Brazilian people decided that Brazil must move forward and maintain its independent and sovereign, pro Latin America foreign policy, defending peace and the peoples’ right to development.

Imperialism is not willing to cede power without resistance. The USA, surprised by the success of the Brazil-Iran-Turkey agreement regarding the Iranian nuclear program and frustrated by the foreign policy of President Lula in several issues, such as in the resistance to the coup d’état in Honduras, resorted to all measures to isolate Brazil. Hillary Clinton, Obama’s Chief of Staff, led a tough diplomatic reaction against Brazil.

The foreign policy actions of the Obama administration is aimed at maintaining the current system of world power that is characterized by the hegemony of the USA and suffocating multipolar trends and new international roles that countries such as Brazil could play. One cannot judge political leaders such as Barack Obama by his personality or style but by what they objectively represent. Obama is the current representative of the old and well-known imperialist policy of the USA, which has always been and always will be fought by communists and democrats, patriots and internationalists in Brazil.

Renato Rabelo – National President of PCdoB

Ricardo Alemão Abreu – Secretary of International Relations of PCdoB

By Leopoldo Ponce, Jr.

Mixed Blessing

The much expected rebirth of Conservative America really wasn’t that much of a rebirth. It actually seems like one final gasp of air before a slow and painful death. Sure the Republicans now have a majority in the House of Representatives, but the Democrats held the Senate. In what seemed to be the best chance Republicans had at becoming the ruling party again was wasted. Let’s not feel that the Democrats were major losers on November 2nd, the truth is this can bode well for the Presidential Election in 2012. Every single president that has faced the loss of one or both chambers of congress has eventually won re-election. If anything this has been a win for the Democratic Party, because Blue Dog Democrats have been voted out. Now we are only left with true progressive Democrats in congress.

Now the Republicans are faced with a major problem. Their victory was in large part due to the Tea Party. The Tea Party is an extreme faction of the Right that believe Sharia Law is at risk of being passed across the nation, and that Communists secretly want to destroy it. The Tea Party is a group of xenophobes that are cautious of any person that speaks with an accent or in a foreign language. If the Republicans side with them, since they did provide them with the support needed to win the House, they will alienate moderate America, and thus costing them major loses in 2012. However, if they do not side with the Tea Party they will lose their grassroots support that ended up rallying together to help push them to the finish line this time around. Who will the Republicans side with? Will they side with an extreme faction that has now become the backbone of the Republican Party or will they side with the general population of the United States? Either choice will cost them, but only one will ensure their demise.

The Democratic Party should not start celebrating just yet, however. If the Democrats do not take this opportunity to sway themselves away from the Right, and instead decide to run and govern as Pseudo-Conservatives, they will also start alienating their base. What will happen if both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party alienate their bases? The Republican Party has already created the Tea Party, but what if the Democrats accidentally create the “Java Party”? This may cause us to have a four party election in 2012. The Extreme Right versus The Extreme Left versus The Republican Party versus The Democratic Party, and this will mean that any one party can actually elect a President with less than forty percent of the electorate supporting it! If this occurs there will be a major divide in the United States, and it will no longer be Red versus Blue divide, but a Red, Blue, Violet, and Green divide. This scenario may seem unlikely at the moment, but so did the Tea Party actually getting some of their candidates elected. Is this really the United States of America that we need? Do we really need a more divided nation?

Is This The Rebirth of Conservative America?

On November 7, 2006 Democrats won enough seats to take control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Even though they would not actually take control until January, the damage had been done. Republicans were emasculated and were turned into lame ducks. President George W. Bush was even forced to get away from his extremist corporate background and decided to not pursue the privatization of social security.

Now, however, the Democrats are the ones that are on the receiving end of major loses. Republican and Conservative Pundits are on a tirade suggesting that this only proves that the American Public is Center-Right. I do not believe that for a second. The reason why Democrats lost is because they refused to run on their accomplishments, and instead decided to run a defensive campaign. As anybody that watches sports knows, one can never win a game if no offense is played! The Democrats ran on the, “Let’s minimize loses” motto! I, honestly, do not believe Americans would willingly vote Republican if they were informed of what they actually stand for and of their past crimes. The Republicans have committed crimes and nobody should believe that they have not for a second. For example, yesterday, November 1st, Tom Delay declared himself innocent for Campaign Contribution Fraud. There is enough evidence to convict him, and do not think for a second that he will not be convicted because he is. There was enough proof that he had to leave the House of Representatives. What was he guilty of? He illegally accepted contributions from major corporations and used a political action committee he created to fund Republican campaigns. The people he helped get elected through illegal means, eventually redistricted the State of Texas in such a way that Democratic districts were now turned into Republican districts! He drew lines in such a way that districts that were once a single community were now divided into three different districts that stretched hundreds of miles! This redistricting led to the Democrats losing five seats in the House of Representatives which created a ten vote deficit by itself. All of this was done for the benefit of not only the Republican Party but also for corporations.

This is nothing compared to the war-crimes that were conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan by allowing mercenaries to hold immunity from meaningless murders of civilians. Of course I am speaking of Blackwater. Not to mention that multi-billion dollar contracts were given to Halliburton to rebuild Iraq. Who is Halliburton you ask? Well former Vice-President Dick Cheney was once the CEO of Halliburton. I am of course only repeating what many others have already stated, but if so many people know about this type of corruption why do people still vote Republican? If people actually knew what the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act is made-up of, then why vote for a political party that wants to give the government the power to search your house without a warrant and keep track of the websites you visit and books you read?

Why will Rick Perry win tonight if he’s using ten thousand dollars a month of our taxes to rent out a mansion? Rick Perry has led our education system on a downward spiral! Texas has one of the highest drop-out rates in the nation, and the only thing that he has done recently is cut the Texan education budget by ten percent. Not to mention that if the Federal Government had not risen funding for the Children Health Insurance Provider program, many children would be without adequate health-care here in Texas, because Rick Perry made drastic cuts to the program in order to make budget deficit appear smaller. All of these budget cuts were irresponsible and have only set Texas back a decade when compared to other cities in education, health-care, and overall well-being.

Later on tonight I will probably post an entry that will send a chill down your spine. If the Republicans win, I will post my apocalyptic view of the near future. Hopefully, I do not have to post that and the Democrats can at least hold on to the Senate and Bill White wins the governorship. I will not be holding my breath, though, and sadly that is going to be a somber post.

Election Day!

After two years of a very productive Democratic-rule it looks like Democrats will lose the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. Now, many people may not know what the Democrats accomplished but here are some things since Democrats aren’t willing to share their accomplishments…I WILL!
• Democrats passed Credit Card reform which has set a cap on how much interest can be raised.
• A Deficit neutral Health Care Bill was passed that will disallow Health Insurance companies to deny coverage to individuals if they have a pre-existing medical condition.
• The Health Care Bill will also allow the offspring of insured adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance until the age of 26.
• Over 30 billion dollars were approved for the Children Health Insurance Provider (CHIP), that will insure over 7 million children nationwide!
• Unemployment was kept under 10% even though analysts predicted up to a 13% rate!
• The Obama Presidency forced British Petroleum (BP) to pay 20 billion dollars for the Gulf-Oil Spill.
• An exit date was set for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Had the Republicans accomplished HALF of that in 18 months we would be hearing about it! Sadly, though, Democrats seem to have thrown-in the towel, and thus possibly ending one of the most productive eras of the past 40 years.

By CPUSA Houston

It is our understanding that on September 24, 2010 at 8am, the FBI carried out coordinated raids on seven homes of anti-war and solidarity activists and two offices in Chicago and Minneapolis and served grand jury subpoenas in Illinois, Michigan, and Minnestota. Other activists in California and North Carolina were contacted in an effort to intimidate. Initial reports indicate that their homes were ransacked with all but household essentials taken by the FBI.
Such authoritarian actions are reminiscent of the McCarthy era as well as the Palmer raids. Do we need to remind the Obama administration that you were elected on a platform of peace and a promised end to the wars in the Middle East? Many CPUSA members worked hard for your election and support you completely even to this day. We will be working hard for the election of Democrats in these mid-term elections.
Harassment of the left is not what we expected from this administration. We did not expect you to throw Van Jones and Shirley Sherrod under the bus when they were attacked by the right wing. We did not expect you to step up the oppression and deportation of immigrant laborers and bring it to a level that would shame the Bush administration. We did not expect you to issue right wing slurs of liberals and disrespect organized labor which has been nothing but loyal to you. Such statements as “F… the UAW” and “drug test the liberals” should not be tolerated and anyone making such statements should be unceremoniously removed from government office.
The peace activists you are attacking were merely working for the originally stated goals of your administration during your campaign in the 2008 election cycle.
No one is fooled by the so-called withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq. People know that there are still 50,000 troops in Iraq that are costing U.S. taxpayers $1,000,000 a year for each soldier deployed. People know these soldiers will kill many civilians and continue to destroy a country that never attacked or threatened our great nation.
These recent attacks on peaceful, law abiding activists is totally incomprehensible. However, what is even more astounding is the lack of action from the FBI and other Federal law enforcement agencies in curtailing the activities of the ultra right wing. While beating up on peace activists, the countless bloggers as well as TV and radio personalities who spew out racist hatred and advocate a violent takeover of the federal government and even assassination of many government officials walk free. When will the FBI do their job and vigorously prosecute these shameless criminals who display their venom for all to see?
Call the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at (202)353-1555 and/or write an email to: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov. to register your concerns about these authoritarian measures applied to peace activists and failure to police the right wing hate squads.

Check out this article by Sam Webb on racism at http://peoplesworld.org/ginning-up-racism-its-winners-and-losers/