user preferences

New Events

North America / Mexico

no event posted in the last week

The Obama factor

category north america / mexico | the left | other libertarian press author Tuesday February 19, 2008 19:00author by Jan Makandal Report this post to the editors

No one would ever have tought in their widest dream that a human with a black complexion would be a viable contender for the presidency of the United States of America

The Obama Factor


Indeed no one would ever have thought, in their wildest dream or nightmare, depending who is dreaming, that a human with a black complexion would be a viable contender for the presidency of the United States of America, although a couple of his contemporaries, like Shirley Chislhom and Jesse Jackson, preceded Barak Obama as Black presidential candidates. The Democratic primaries and the latest advance of Barak Obama have proven that we need to change our mode of thinking. Obama's fiery speech in the last Democratic convention was an adjuration of something big to come that is now taking shape. This has left many aghast or perplexed at his ability to achieve such goal. Now, he is a real challenger, a force to be reckoned with.


A big question remains to be answered: will his message of change give us a new America? Will the US be a better place where workers will have a voice and where workers will no longer need to work 2 or 3 jobs to provide for their family's needs? Will minimum salaries be increased to a “living wage” level? Will no child really be left behind? Will health care be universal and free for all working people? Will the big oil companies share in the profits they earned without conscience? Will the US stop imposing its policies on other countries and let all countries decide their own future? 
One can't think of change or declare something new when the new guard will run the same old system. Whether or not it pulls out of Iraq, why should the US be in that country or any country for that matter? So, where is the beef? Or does the US protect its own interests by destroying another nation, where millions have been displaced and the probability of that country being split in three is now far greater than any other alternative? To justify war, the president has to lie and thousands have to die.

With what arrogance can we call ourselves the mother of democracy when a human being, because of his complexion, was not allowed to use a public restroom, or sit anywhere in public transportation, paid for by his own taxes, mind you.

Although Obama has done his best, rightly so, to play down the color question throughout his campaign, the media, a sector of “black” power structures and some confused elements have tried their utmost to portray Obama as the “black” candidate. So far he has avoided falling into that trap. If he plunges into it, he is basically finished.


We are all humans and as such we live in a society that divides us as humans into classes. Nothing good could come out of the perception that we are of different or superior vs. inferior races. It is counter to any scientific outlook, reasoning and research. Nothing good will come out of a wrong analysis of reality. If we do not understand it, how could we transform that reality or even bring about some positive change?


To think of the race question in the US as a black and white issue is to fight within the framework defined for us by the powers that be. Also, it is a very limited one when we take a look at this issue globally. There is class struggle in countries that are dominantly “black”. Populists in these countries use the black question to maintain power and also to accumulate capital. The black issue in the US also tends to achieve the same objective. A lot of “black” capitalists have made their fortunes on the black question, while millions of blacks live in abject poverty. The elections have tremendously minimized this “black” and white” approach. We have blacks supporting Obama, the Clintons, Romney and Huckabee.


Race is a smokescreen, class struggle is everything. How could we fight capitalism if we function by its own definition of race? How could we destroy a box that produces a system of thought if we are still inside that box? Our task will be to bring ourselves outside that box and struggle autonomously as the oppressed and the dominated to organize ourselves by getting out of that box.
 Racism is strong in the US. Its main objective is to dehumanize us, bring down our self-esteem to its lowest and divide us, so capitalism can exploit us even more. It is a dominant ideology, produced by capitalism, and can only be addressed in our struggle against exploitation and domination.

Racism was used when the mode of production was based on slavery and the slaves came from Africa or Europe. And racism is also being applied to the capitalistic mode of production. The struggle against racism and the oppression of Black, Latino and Indigenous people must be part and parcel of the wider working class struggle for human emancipation.

In the US, history is advancing but the forces capable of bringing changes are predominantly tailgating bourgeois politics. Under the disguise of supporting the lesser evil, they will support any candidate that offers them a tiny hope of reforms. Now it is a “black” man, a candidate vowing to bring changes to a rotten system facing a phenomenal economic crisis and a volatile international situation. A great fraction of the US left has become a base of the Democratic Party, peddling the notion there is hope in this hellhole of capitalism. Through all kinds of front groups, they are organizing vote drives in order to legitimize the Democratic Party, one of the gatekeepers of the capitalist abattoir. Only the US popular masses will pay the consequences of these bankrupt policies.

What are the choices? The choices are the so-called conservatives of the Republican Party versus the so-called liberals of the Democratic Party, namely McCain vs. Clinton or Obama. 
No one for sure knows (except for adepts of conspiracy theory who think the choice has already been made), but if it is Obama what are the perspectives?
 Again, no one will be able to bring about change inside the box. But for sure, the contradictions within the capitalist imperialist class would become sharper.

We need to understand that we are in a period where the popular masses in the most advanced imperialist countries are very unorganized, especially our most advanced class, the working class. The probability for the imperialist structure to maintain its control is far greater than any other alternative, even with Obama as president.
 There is no autonomous popular platform to push for demands in the interest of the people or to even challenge Obama to live up to his promise of change. The task of the working class is to build its own independent, democratic, mass movement to represent and fight for its own class interests.

This page can be viewed in
English Italiano Deutsch
© 2005-2024 Anarkismo.net. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Anarkismo.net. [ Disclaimer | Privacy ]