I've just watched the Barack Obama 30-minute advert (you can watch it in four parts - search
www.youtube.com for "obama infomercial") and visited Obama's website (
http://www.barackobama.com) to find out more about where he stands on the issues that affect ordinary working and middle class people (even though he just says "middle class" - the US media try to con people into thinking there isn't a working class in the USA). Don't go along with the crass analysis of just about every far left organisation in Britain who refuse to support Obama's presidency bid, without first checking out where he really stands!
I can guarantee that you will find out that he is far to the left of New Labour. Even more importantly, the US Republican Party is the party that brought in the Patriot Act, that has got the Department of Homeland Security to read every email using software designed to filter out spam to also filter out political emails. Obama hasn't been as left-wing as he could have been (I think I heard he actually voted for the Patriot Act), but an Obama presidency wouldn't seek to enshrine capitalism in power forever - which is actually the agenda of New Labour, a party much of the left in Britain still urges voters to support, with policies like ID cards linked to a central database, using speed cameras to read car licence plates (even of cars not speeding) and putting that information on a central database, asking travellers visiting the UK for 20 pieces of information including credit card details and mobile phone numbers, etc. Yes, the Republicans and New
Labour are the parties who want to bring about a captialist dictatorship like the one forecast by George Orwell in "Nineteen Eighty-Four".
For those who assume I would therefore support the Tories in the UK general election - no, I'd want a democratic revolutionary socialist party or revolutionary anti-capitalist part, arising out of the Convention of the Left and a split in the Labour Party, to stand and try to win the election. Failing that, I'd particularly welcome a hung parliament - then hopefully the Liberal Democrats would insist on proportional representation as a condition for joining a coalition (or a mass movement could force a minority government to bring in PR preferably using single transferable vote to end the need for tactical voting) and we can finally have democracy in the UK!
McCain is desperate enough to accuse Obama of being a socialist. He is, in the reformist sense of the word. But so was Fidel Castro at the time of the Cuban revolution! Those who really want socialism should support Obama's presidency bid as a step on the way to achieving it. And Marxist organisations in the USA should join left-wing forces within the Democratic Party such as the Progressive Democrats of America, to influence Obama and try to engineer a split in the Democrats on socialist/captialist lines (rather than on class lines - a party that just supports the working class and wants just the working class in power would rightly get nowhere!) The many thousands of working and middle class people who supported Ralph Nader in 2000 didn't just disappear; many presumably drew the obvious conclusion that the best avenue for change is via the Democrats and got involved in that party. John Kerry in 2004 pledged to tax the rich and close all tax
loopholes, hence he had to be defrauded in the election as I revealed at the time with my US electoral fraud discussion forum (
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/us-electoral-fraud/). I don't think the forces of big business would be brazen enough to do likewise this year, but if McCain wins, it certainly won't be fairly!!!
I'm sending this message to the contact email addresses of Labor's Militant Voice (
http://www.laborsmilitantvoice.org), probably the best Marxist organisation in the USA (that arose out of a split in Labor Militant, the US section of the CWI); a quick check of their website shows they haven't come out in support of Obama but they haven't come out against him either!
Labor
Obama and Biden will strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions. He will fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Obama and Biden will ensure that his labor appointees support workers' rights and will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers. Obama and Biden will also increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation to ensure it rises every year.
- Ensure Freedom to Unionize: Obama and Biden believe that workers should have the freedom to choose whether to join a union without harassment or intimidation from their employers. Obama cosponsored and is strong advocate for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan effort to assure that workers can exercise their right to organize. He will continue to fight for EFCA's passage and sign it into law.
- Fight Attacks on Workers' Right to Organize: Obama has fought the Bush National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) efforts to strip workers of their right to organize. He is a cosponsor of legislation to overturn the NLRB's "Kentucky River" decisions classifying hundreds of thousands of nurses, construction, and professional workers as "supervisors" who are not protected by federal labor laws.
- Protect Striking Workers: Obama and Biden support the right of workers to bargain collectively and strike if necessary. They will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers, so workers can stand up for themselves without worrying about losing their livelihoods.
- Raise the Minimum Wage: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time workers earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs.
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Steve Wallis (Manchester, England)
Preferred email address: revolutionarysocialiststeve@...
Blogs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/steve-wallis-socialist-blog,
http://blog.myspace.com/galaxiasteve
My socialist website: http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk
My pages at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1038291480, MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/galaxiasteve and Bebo:
http://www.bebo.com/SteveW519
Founder, Ethical Capitalism Network: http://www.ethicalcapitalism.net
Founder, Foundation for PR-based Socialism: http://www.PRsocialism.org
Founder, Revolutionary Platform Network: http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net
My revolutionary socialist band, Galaxia: http://www.galaxiamusic.net, http://www.myspace.com/galaxiamusic, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Galaxia-a-revolutionary-socialist-band/84310120180, http://www.bebo.com/galaxiamusic.
My socialist band, Red Day: http://www.red-day.net, http://www.myspace.com/reddayband, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Day/27468311341
Author, "Revolution Destroyed? Have I ensured that a world socialist revolution will never happen?": http://www.revolutiondestroyed.net
For discussion of the credit crunch, go to
http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net/forum/index.php?board=156
For discussion of 9/11 conspiracy theories, go to http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net/forum/index.php?board=89
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