“I cant cast a vote but I will feel the consequences” therefore I need to speak my piece.
I read the other day that Toni Morrison will be voting for Obama. A couple of weeks ago it was Alice Walker writing what I described as “driveling bullshit.” and one more example of the mainstreaming of the progressives – Rosa Clemente has a more definitive list here. Obama talks about bringing “fundamental change” but the only fundamental change is his colour and when one looks more closely even his colour is not that fundamental afterall. Obama is intrinsically tied to the mainstream, pro-Zionist war mongering American superstructure. Though disappointing it is not so surprising that so many millions all over the world have been drawn in by Obama who panders to black and white notions of a “post racial” America and world. An imaginary world of convenience particularly for the millions of white people who will vote him into the White House.
These are not truths. Nor do I think it is an accident that the first Black president of the USA will be a Black man who is not historically tied to slavery and the Black American experience. Facts like these are what makes the Obama’s presidency so dangerous because the establishment will use his Blackness to press the notion of a post racial society, of a fairer society, a more just society – all of which are big white lies. He will be held up as a pure example of the lie that is called the American dream along with Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell at the expense of the people in most need. This is already happening as we watch the so called progressives launch a double edged sword of complicity by jumping on the cultist bandwagon of unquestioning worship along with the likes of Powell and Hitchins. Whilst on the other hand silencing the voices of two women of colour who represent the real fundamental change.
A couple of days ago I wrote about the need to put people, all people before profit – Obama will not even come near to meeting that need. What will Obama do for the DRC – will he be calling for the prosecution of corporations buying the “blood soaked” minerals? Obama supported the bail out of the Wall Street gamblers and thieves. He like all the other candidates and Western politicians conveniently avoid making any connection between the financial crisis, increasing global hunger and the trillions of dollars being spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We in the UK have already experienced new young “guns” in Tony Blair and look how that ended – 10 years of lies. Obama no more speaks the truth than the fraudulent New Labour of Tony Blair or Gordon Brown.
Real change comes from a much deeper set of transformational ideas about how we live and share this world with other people, with animals, wildlife and everything that makes up the ecology system which we are fast destroying. Amee Chew explains
The Green Party Presidential ticket of Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente brings something special and unprecedented to U.S. politics. Not only are they the first all women-of-color ticket for President and Vice President with ballot access in most states. These women take racial justice seriously, and have made strides to put gender at the center of a progressive agenda. For these two, it’s more than skin deep.
They’re the Presidential ticket that talks about amnesty for undocumented workers, that opposes guest worker programs as riddled with abuses, because they believe a just immigration reform means addressing the trade and economic policies fueling poverty and migration. They’re the ticket that demands reparations in the form of federal investment in low-income families and communities of color, to end racial disparities in health, housing, education, and incarceration. They call for the right of return for Katrina survivors; an end to prisons for profit, to the War on Drugs. And they speak of reproductive justice – not just the right to abortion, but actual healthcare access; of freedom from coerced or uninformed medication and sterilization.
McKinney and Clemente do not expect to win on Tuesday. Building a movement takes time but it can and will be built along with movements in other parts of the world. Nonetheless I dont support Amee Chew’s suggestion to “support Obama vote McKinney. The time is always right – you cannot delay a struggle which has to begin sometime so why not now. To quote Che “To triumph one must fire the opening shot. And the moment for that has arrived” (My Campaign with Che – Inti Peredo)
In the words of McKinney herself: “We are in this to build a movement. We are willing to struggle for as long as it takes to have our values prevail in public policy.” She reminds us, “Voters in this country are scared into not voting their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations. But in Bolivia and Ecuador and Argentina and Chile and Nicaragua and Spain, and India and Cote d’Ivoire and Haiti, voters were not afraid to vote their hopes and dreams, and guess what. Their dreams came true. Ours can, too.”
The way this campaign has been played out and the failure of the mainstream and progressive media in the US to give any space to McKinney & Clemente is disgraceful. Yet their omission of two women of colour at the expense of the cult like adulation of a man of colour is telling and here lies the truth. This is not about democracy and allowing people to make a choice based on all the candidates not just the chosen two (or four if you want to include their comically stupid side kicks).
The defining moment in American politics is yet to come – a vote for a new political movement as envisaged by McKinney & Clemente will ensure the foundations of this moment begin in the next few days.
Links:
Marians Blog
Freedom Rider
Kameelah Writes
La Alma de Fuego…
Global Women’s Strike
Abahlali – We are the third force
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Norm Chomsky
Technorati: Cynthia McKinney Rosa Clemente US ElectionsBarack Obama
